Issues Related to Backcountry Day
Hiking
Will
Cows be Encountered on These Hikes?
Perhaps.
Nothing spoils a day hike quicker than finding a
concentration of cows in a remote stream canyon, where the
banks are trampled, the vegetation is denuded and cow pies
line the trail for miles. Though we’ve encountered this
scene at times, it hasn’t been very often. Cows are usually
present to some degree in every corner of federal lands
during the summer months. But if their numbers are not
overwhelming, and they are not concentrated in sensitive
habitats, their impacts for the day hiker are usually easy
to ignore.
How
about Archaeological Sites?
Especially in Southeast Oregon, it’s not uncommon to run
across Native American petroglyphs, pictographs, obsidian
chips or rock shelters. However, in our hike descriptions,
we avoid drawing attention to these sites. This seems the
best policy, due to the extensive vandalism and looting at
archaeological sites in the inland Northwest.
A series of
laws passed in the twentieth century forbids the taking of
Native American artifacts from federal land (including
National Forest and BLM lands). In short: Unless issued a
permit for scientific research,
it is illegal to collect any artifacts, ancient or
historical, on federal lands. This includes arrowheads,
obsidian chips, pot shards, old bottles or pieces of old
buildings.
Won’t
Publicizing These Hikes Lead to Their Overuse?
Based on the few backcountry trailhead registers we’ve
seen, even if the number of visitors doubled on many of
these day hikes, the total annual usage would still be less
than 30 trips per year. Over the 16-week hiking season from
June through September, this works out to less than 2 trips
per week — which is still far from overused.
It’s also a
fallacy, we believe, that the only way to conserve these
wild, remote public lands is to keep them a secret. In
fact, because they are already managed for multiple uses
(including grazing, logging and mining), we feel the best
way to preserve them is to build on the constituency of
recreational users who love them, who use them, and who
will advocate for their continued protection.
Recommended Reading
Backcountry
Travel
Wilderness
Navigation, Bob Burns and Mike Burns
Wilderness
911,
Eric Weiss, M.D.
Boondock RVing: Camping Off
the Beaten Path, Bill and Jan Moeller
Pacific
Northwest
Weather of the Pacific
Northwest, Cliff Mass.
The Restless Northwest: A
Geologic History, Hill Williams
Natural Vegetation of
Oregon and Washington, Jerry Franklin and C.T.
Dyrness
Atlas of the Pacific
Northwest, edited by Philip Jackson and
Jon Kimerling
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last updated: 12/17/11