There is still a debate over bicycles in the wilderness as established by the The Wilderness Act of 1964. I wrote an opinion piece on the subject for Friends of Nevada Wilderness which morphed into asking people to form their own wilderness (outdoor) ethic. That ethic is already there even if not put into words. Those values are expressed in how people conduct themselves. My outdoor ethics shape how I live, how I recreate, and express my relationship to the natural world.
Where does your Wilderness Ethic come from?
No one has ever asked me my wilderness ethic. But, I am always willing to share a discussion of where my beliefs on a topic come from.
Clearly that is an awkward question. Where do your beliefs come from? Why do you value what you do? Over COVID lockdown I took a virtual Leave No Trace course. The warm-up was to reflect on words that reflect positive and negative impacts or attributes found in the outdoors. There were photographs of pristine and impacted areas, we were asked to respond how they made us feel. Very quickly the group could come to a consensus as to our outdoor ethic. But we didn’t really get into, where did it come from?
There was a course in high school I missed out on, “Man in Wilderness” taught by the school’s outdoor program leader Rob Gustke. The course was a great classroom component to the mandatory one or more backpacking trips a year lead by Rob and other staff to some of California’s greatest wild destinations. In the classroom there were reading assignments, and discussions from the works of Edward Abby, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold to understand the modern US fascination with land and preserving wild spaces. Although I feel like I have filled in my outdoor education over the years, I wish I had this structured foundation. While there were many take-aways from the outdoor program, backcountry skills, planning, leadership, teamwork, resulting in experiences like no other; a small but big change in my “best practices” was “no camp fires.” Rob explained limited fuel, blight on surfaces, and other risks outweighed the comfort and entertainment of the campfire in the wild, and that has stuck with me ever since.
I was fortunate to not have to wait until my young adult years to get an appreciation for wildlands. I was fortunate to grow up in a camping family. As Oregonians we camped and fished in the coastal forests along streams, rivers, lakes and the Pacific. We car camped in mostly in State campgrounds, often in the rain and I learned a bit about forestry, fish conservation, and valuing the outdoor experience. But there were no principles to follow, I learned from experience, from examples set by my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. If you asked them what their wilderness ethic was they may not have a concise answer. But the days fishing at the end of the dock with my grandmother was such a reinforcing environment for the examples I followed.
Growing up overseas my outdoor education grew. In part I realized an outdoor ethic is a unique part of any culture. Although I was a baby in Japan I have an appreciation for the Shinto concept of harmony with nature. In Arabia, Bedouin culture did not translate well to sedentary life. An explanation I had for why trash was left behind was the desert nomads left their organic refuse behind because it was resource for other living things in the desert. I am sure this was an over simplification of Bedouin culture for my elementary education but it made sense to me. So if I place my wilderness ethic within my cultural context, it is trying to recover from a colonial, extractive, manifest destiny view of nature and replace it with the desire for sustainable recreation which relies on science based stewardship.
I had the opportunity in the mid-90’s to attend the American Alpine Club meetings in Oakland, CA. I participated in the break out session regarding “Environmental Expeditions” chaired by my hero, Bob McConnell (author, Gentle Expeditions). The purpose of this session was to look at the name “Environmental” tagged on to any expedition backed by the American Alpine Club. At this time the trash was accumulating at base camps in the Himalayas. Leaving trash behind under these extreme conditions was a tolerated practice by mountaineers who would never do such under moderate conditions. Now it was being proposed the “Environmental” title could be used by any expedition that planned on packing-it-out. As a group, we felt taking out your own trash was the least any expedition could do, to be worthy of “Environmental” you need to take out more than what you brought. I thought it was curious that “environmental” was synonymous with “no net trash.” In my mind there was more of a scientific side to studying the alpine environment that would fall under that category but I think those expeditions use “Scientific” in their title.
Best Practices
At some point we need to align our ethics with with our best practices. I heard it said that our actions align with our beliefs. Not necessarily with what we say, but within a complex series of justifications. As one who leads by example I think about how my actions reflect sustainable eco-cultural tourism.
Now any masters class on outdoor ethics is going to take you to Leave No Trace (non-motorized) and Tread Lightly (motorized). These organizations have a library of literature to guide sustainable recreational uses of public lands. If there is a category of recreation not represented, LNT and TL are looking for partners to collaborate on such. An example that is close to me is the collaboration between Bikepacking Roots and LNT for sustainable adventure touring. “Love Where You Ride” is a fantastic campaign that took the 7 Principles of LNT and made them explicitly relevant to bikepacking across a broad range of adventures. BIKEPACKING.com also brought LNT’s principles to the community as early as 2015, and have since updated them as any set of research based best practices should be.
Now we are realizing, or at least including in our discussions, outdoor ethics apply long before we step foot in wild places. Protect Our Winters realizes climate change solutions need to begin at national and state political levels. Without going into detail of the organization, though I do recommend checking them out, it could be said outdoor ethics begins with how we vote. In a capitalistic society, as consumers this includes how we “vote with our expendable income.” Align your choices with your beliefs in outdoor conservation and utilization.
Fellow bikepacker, Aaron Couch, creator of Destination Reroute shared his journal entry, A Plea for Our Future. His newsletter reminded me that our outdoor ethics are reflected in our daily actions and shaped by our “entitlement, rights, and freedoms.” Jeremy Jones of POW challenged the audience at a premier of Purple Mountains to be activists rather than advocates. The latest release from Sage and Sand, Patrick Donnelly’s newsletter here on Substack, asks if there is a middle ground between an all or nothing approach to an extractive economy applied to our public lands and wild spaces. The search for sustainable extractive practices is ultimately our goal. Donnelly was specifically reporting on lithium mining which has been a highly contested topic throughout western Nevada. Our ability to respond to these issues is a reflection of our wilderness ethics even without leaving our homes.
Select References not included in text
Leave No Trace; Deserts and Canyons
National Park Service - Wilderness Ethics
Bureau of Land Management - Outdoor Ethics
The Wilderness Society - Commentary on the Wilderness Act
May in Review:
Spring has sprung and while the popular meme about what the weather “may” do has run its course on social media, there have been some really nice opportunities to get out and ride. At the beginning of the month I went to Forestville, CA to participate in a handbuilt/vintage ride and shop party. Then I made some rides-from-home into the Pine Nut Mountains and eventually had an S24O campout. I tackled a few Sierra Passes; Kingsbury, Monitor, Luther, and Spooner just to see if I could and because I love long days on the bike. The route that has been on my mind for a long time, a loop around Smoke Creek Desert, was incorporated in my trip to the Black Rock Desert for Black Rock Rendezvous and Rides with Friends #2. This was the third time I have led the Cassidy Mine Loop during BRR. This year it was dominated by flowers.
Ride Calendar June-August
June 2-4 Bikepacking Northern Nevada X Wildwood Open Lands Foundation Dog Valley Campout
June 17-18 Rides with Friends #3 Bikefishing the Granite Range
July 15-16 Rides with Friends #4 Fox Peak Loop
August 12-13 Rides with Friends #5 Perseids Meteor Shower Campout
August 29- Sept 1 Burning Man Geology Bike Tours for Earth Guardians Camp
Please reach out if there is anything I can do to get you out there!
Thank you for supporting my storytelling. Next months newsletter will feature, One Square Inch of Silence, by Gordon Hempton.