For anyone who has spent any amount of time exploring land in U.S. Forests, the most basic of rule is to stay on open roads. Seems pretty simple right? You’d be surprised. To help you follow this basic rule, the USFS provides a very useful tool, the Motor Vehicle Use Map. No need for fancy software, phone apps, etc. Just your basic, easy to understand map. Free of charge. You just have to put forth the effort to use it.
Protect the land
You minimize erosion by staying on designated trails and not creating your own path (bypasses). It takes a special kind of person to come upon an obstacle in the trail and decide creating a bypass is the solution. Protecting the forest should always take priority over your schedule or dare I say, laziness.
What do you do if you come upon a downed tree blocking the trail? Creating a bypass around the downed tree only creates avoidable damage to the forest. If faced with and obstacle blocking the trail, do one the following:
Assess the situation at hand
- What will it take to clear the trail of the downed tree? Is is possible to safely remove the tree with a winch or at a minimum, tow strap?
- If you are going to be exploring forest roads you should have recovery gear with you at all times. This includes a basic tow strap.
- Another important part of your kit should include some way of cutting away a downed tree. A folding bow saw or ax works great for limbs up to 6-8” in diameter and for larger trees a chainsaw makes easy work of clearing the trail.
- Be willing to put the work in. Damaging the forest should not be a matter of convenience.
- Never EVER cut down a live tree to make your path easier or more convenient.
Retreat
- If the task of removing the downed tree or other obstacle proves to be too difficult for your abilities or you don’t have the proper tools needed, turn around. Go back the way you came. It’s that simple.
Ride responsibly
Just like on any city street, state highway or interstate, share the road. Follow some of these basic rules:
- Be aware of hikers or people on horseback.
- Yield to other trail users.
- When coming upon oncoming traffic, signal how many people are in your group. This applies to the group leader and tail gunner (last rig in your group).
- Always control your speed and anticipate other rigs when approaching curves in the road and/or trail.
- Don’t take unnecessary risks
- Don’t ride alone. Let someone know where you are and stick to your plan.
In closing, we all have to take responsibility for our actions. Be familiar with the area you are going to visit/explore. Know the rules and follow them. Be careful not to follow what you see on social media. Social media “personalities”heavily edit what they want you to see. It’s a numbers game with these fine citizens. I have watched countless vlogs where “Tread Lightly” is preached only to cut to irresponsible behavior in the next video segment. I have seen a so called ”full time” YouTuber knock over stacked rocks in a stream and preach about how stacking rocks in a stream is ”leaving a trace” and then in another video, take a group down a trail that was essentially impassible until chainsaws were brought out for the ”sake of everyone’s rig” and ”we have invested too much time on this trail today to turn around”. Don’t be that guy!
Be your own guide. Educate yourself on proper trail behavior and etiquette. Learn the principles of ”Tread Lightly” and put them to use!
Lead by example, I plan to, how about you?
-Overland Curmudgeon