Mountain Bikers' Foray into Bear Ears Country

Bears Ears landscape by Kay Shumway

A week or so ago, a series of visits with Michael Behar began. He is a free lance writer from Boulder, Colorado who planned to write an article about visiting Bears Ears country.  Though his focus was mainly a travel piece, he also hoped to include some information about the national monument controversy. He and others visited San Juan County the first part of October, during the deer hunt, and had a great experience hiking, biking, and camping for the better part of a week. He was with a group of avid mountain bikers, who hoped to find good trails that could be mapped by GPS.

We had several conversations, and sent emails back and forth during the next two weeks as he wrote his article for  Take Part, a "digital news and lifestyle magazine featuring independent journalism on today’s most important, socially relevant topics, alongside a social action platform." (Just discovered this site has since shut down but articles are still available.) Behar's article primarily focused on the experiences of a dozen mountain bikers from a company called Adventure Projects "which produces GPS-based trail guides that users can access through sport-specific smartphone apps. So far, the four-year-old outfit, based in Boulder, Colorado, has mapped 24,546 rides in 30 countries, totaling 87,096 miles, for mountain biking."  The article was published Dec. 2. 

The photographs are stunning in this well-described foray into the wilderness of San Juan, and Behar weaves in some of the pros and cons of a national monument as he recounts their experiences. The majesty of the Abajos was addressed: "The terrain is nothing like I expected," says Behar. "Southeastern Utah is renowned canyon country—a contorted labyrinth of stratified slickrock, teetering hoodoos, dwarfed stands of gnarled juniper, and wind-scoured mesas. But the lofty Abajos are an anomaly, verdant and thickly forested like the pitched-alpine slopes in neighboring Colorado."

Gene Orr Hiking with Scouts on the Blue Mountains circa 1980

Though locals love Blue Mountain’s beauty, even more, they cherish its water, which is the life-line of survival for three communities.  There are often years of drought, when water restrictions are imposed.  Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often join together, in fasting and prayer during these times, and following that pattern, have survived for 136 years.  Drought will not likely fit lifestyles of picky or pampered tourist industry should a monument be designated, as water restrictions are often imposed.  Another reason San Juan residents are concerned is because neighbors to the west at Grand Staircase Escalante have more problems with looting/ vandalism since a National Monument was designated, than ever before. As numbers increase, do does damage.  Read article.

Behar describes the magnitude of 1.9 million acres: "On examining a map of the proposed area, the sheer breadth is stunning: Its footprint covers about 3.5 percent of Utah, the 13th-largest U.S. state."  And that is precisely why such a proposal would be government overreach and excessive use of the Antiquities Act. It is that staggering size that belies the original intent of the Antiquities Act, which reads, “shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”   A national monument presidential designation is also a unilateral move that does not get a vote in Congress. Such broad, sweeping power is unconstitutional and does not adhere to the ideology of checks and balances.

Behar's article also shows how technology might be used in wilderness areas.  "That our fancy GPS-enabled smartphones provide such limited guidance in our efforts to plumb Bears Ears underscores why the Anasazi settled here in the first place. Its inaccessibility was their greatest defense. They erected cliff houses on narrow ledges hundreds of feet above the canyon floors. We’re able to explore a few of them by scaling low-angle sandstone slopes. But other structures are impossible to reach without rock-climbing equipment."  Therein lies the dilemma that must continue to be discussed, as land managers seek to protect these sites. What do we allow, and where do we draw the line on what can be accessed? And will all local stakeholders be allowed to participate in these discussions? 

One of Behar’s statement I disagreeded with: "If Hatch and Lee succeed, it’s questionable whether future generations will see things like the stunning pictographs that adorn the Moon House’s cramped interior, or its carefully mortared walls that stand wholly intact." In 11^th grade English many moons ago, my students would have recognized this as a fallacy called Dicto Simpliciter.  Though Behar tempers the statement with “questionable” it is still a sweeping generalization, which gives our Senators power, they don't even aspire to, nor does it recognize the fact that county residents would not want to see such sites damaged.  That is why we fear uneducated tourists, like those from Fort Lewis College who practiced their penmanship on the rocks in Grand Staircase.  Read more.

A hyperbolic leap occurs in the title of the article as well, claiming that Bikers Can Save the World by Mapping It.  That might happen if only well-educated bikers came and stayed on the trail and had access to the coordinates, but GPS Id’s like Geo-cashing sites, often invite more problems-- especially when trails lead to something isolated, yet unique and beautiful. The perennial inclination of many humans is to take a “piece of it home.” So trails often lead to more destruction.  Such is the on-going dilemma of this vast area. 

Local "No Monument" supporters, believe these sites need to be protected; but decisions this important must be a joint effort of all parties affected.  There are many stakeholders and all must be represented in the decision making process if any protection at all is achieved, otherwise it becomes a very divisive, top-down, thorn in the side.

I love the honesty of this statement, “What is arguably the last truly wild place in the Lower 48 is simply too immense and primitive for a bunch of cocksure mountain bikers from Boulder to tackle in a five-day foray.” Even more so, I’d say this vast rugged expanse of wilderness will be even more daunting for “Cocksure Coalitionists” who have no clue about land management, no matter what visionary tales they have been promised by the Conservation Lands Foundation.

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