First, let me make this clear that I love to wheel, camp, hike outdoors. I live for the wilderness, and its the only thing I do.
On to the real issue of the Rubicon. This weekend (6/24/06), I ran the trail for the first time. I have never run it due to my taste in wheeling, I like to go wheeling and camping without seeing a ton of people. Yet, I knew I needed to run this trail at least once in my life. Not only to say I ran that legendary trail, but to see if all the fuss over the status of the trail was real and what my opinion will be.
Pirate4x4 is the largest online 4x4 board, the people who may read this may only be 10% of the people using our trails. After running the Con', I am SEVERLY disturbed. So disturbed that I NEARLY agree with the tree huggers. I am so disgusted with the abuse of the trail and the misconduct on the trail. It is really stomach wrenching.
Here is the "what do you think of" part. How in the world can we speak out to the people who abuse out trails? We cannot because we are hypocrites. The same people who are doing these disgusting acts of abuse are sporting Pirate4x4.com stickers.
How can we advertise to the regular wheelers if we associate ourselves with Pirate4x4? We can raise all the money in the world and convince people that these trails are worth keeping if "we" are the problem?
I would think those who sport the stickers and abuse the trail wont be reading this, so that leaves those who care. What can we do? I myself have vowed to not sign any petitions of send money in support of the con' any longer. We are our own worst enemies.
Am I wrong? I hope so.
On to the real issue of the Rubicon. This weekend (6/24/06), I ran the trail for the first time. I have never run it due to my taste in wheeling, I like to go wheeling and camping without seeing a ton of people. Yet, I knew I needed to run this trail at least once in my life. Not only to say I ran that legendary trail, but to see if all the fuss over the status of the trail was real and what my opinion will be.
Pirate4x4 is the largest online 4x4 board, the people who may read this may only be 10% of the people using our trails. After running the Con', I am SEVERLY disturbed. So disturbed that I NEARLY agree with the tree huggers. I am so disgusted with the abuse of the trail and the misconduct on the trail. It is really stomach wrenching.
Here is the "what do you think of" part. How in the world can we speak out to the people who abuse out trails? We cannot because we are hypocrites. The same people who are doing these disgusting acts of abuse are sporting Pirate4x4.com stickers.
How can we advertise to the regular wheelers if we associate ourselves with Pirate4x4? We can raise all the money in the world and convince people that these trails are worth keeping if "we" are the problem?
I would think those who sport the stickers and abuse the trail wont be reading this, so that leaves those who care. What can we do? I myself have vowed to not sign any petitions of send money in support of the con' any longer. We are our own worst enemies.
Am I wrong? I hope so.