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Hunting with E-bikes
- Thread starter John Murphy
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- ebike hunting long range
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Montana'eer
Well-Known Member
Perfect!
Wedgy
Well-Known Member
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It's Deer season...John Deer.You're doing it all wrong.
Try that on public lands and watch some heady-explody.
JakeC
Well-Known Member
That's what I've been trying to articulate in my head reading this thread. I'm originally from the northeast where the opposite issue exists: there is wilderness but almost no public land. The amount of that resource that is truly protected for future generations is miniscule and it means absolutely nothing without the passively wild areas around it. Generally the only thing protecting the wild is inconvenience and the fact that eastern forests are some of the most resilient on the planet. Even still, one day an area is a perfect habitat for record whitetails and rare predators as it recovers from another generation of logging but the next there could be an army of side by sides roaring and smashing up stream crossings like drunks leaving a stadium. And there is nothing truly original in the landscape. In any given area there have been at least four generations of logs sawn off, four generations of soil stirred up by horses or machines and washed into the rivers. It's important for settlement and for some species that this cycle exists but it's impossible to overstate to Westerners the value of the protections they have at varying levels. Its not being kept from us, its being kept for us.
The mindset out here is that the Feds are stealing tax dollars to maintain stolen land, that somehow they are just hoarding it and keeping us out of it for no other reason than to hurt people's feelings. People think that since they live the closest to it they should be able to determine their own use for a chunk of the wild, and they should be able to drive their noisemakers anyplace they can see regardless of any future benefit to the commons. With respect to people with limited mobility I have very little sympathy with the point of view that motorized users are being discriminated against by keeping a few pockets of the west free of wheeled access. I am literally staying home this weekend because there is no place to go that won't be overrun by those overpowered party machines. There may be roads you can't drive down, and that's okay. Where I come from it's much worse, most of those roads would be private forever, meaning one gang has access and you never will.
I have a hard time not seeing e-bikes as the head of a slide into motorized access. That is both a good and bad thing depending on the location. I think there should be more access in some places but to selective means only. I think there should be a speed or kilowatt-to-axle rating that allows slow and quiet low-impact access to sensitive areas. But to most people in my neck of the woods "access our lands" just means they want more places to smash their can-ams off of things to the exclusion of all other types of users in current or future generations.
Having been pushed off trail by regular bikes and had my horses spooked under me by ignorant, bossy cyclists I'm really okay with having places I know I'll see none of them. That being said I don't think guys who have the space or treasure to use horses should necessarily have more access than a guy or gal on an e-bike. I have pretty mixed feelings but I think that's a good thing.
Maybe I was looking at it all wrong...
Maybe it would better for all interests if there were just a few million acres land-locked so the public can't mess it up.
Um... wait... we already have Wyoming... with 4 million public acres behind someone else's fence where the public can't access it to jack it up.
And for the low low price of $15000 you can pay the dude at the gate that has exclusive access to the taxpayer owned sections of public-but-not-accessible-to-the-public land... that we all assume is pristine and quiet because it costs your kid a year at college to see. But it sure sounds like paradise. None of them ultra silent, super low impact, limited power and range pedal bikes with battery assist in there I bet.
Dangumit ! Lucky for all of us that there is Wyoming.
Maybe it would better for all interests if there were just a few million acres land-locked so the public can't mess it up.
Um... wait... we already have Wyoming... with 4 million public acres behind someone else's fence where the public can't access it to jack it up.
And for the low low price of $15000 you can pay the dude at the gate that has exclusive access to the taxpayer owned sections of public-but-not-accessible-to-the-public land... that we all assume is pristine and quiet because it costs your kid a year at college to see. But it sure sounds like paradise. None of them ultra silent, super low impact, limited power and range pedal bikes with battery assist in there I bet.
Dangumit ! Lucky for all of us that there is Wyoming.
shinbone
Well-Known Member
Land locked public parcels and destroying wilderness by flooding it with motorized vehicles are not the same.
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JakeC
Well-Known Member
We're in similar straits here in Utah but the rates they charge for celebrity hunts on these I'm pretty sure they'll let you toodle right up to the elk on a V10 rascal wearing caterpillar tracks.
I know I said I don't like the idea of allowing e-bikes to certain areas, but I do have to applaud Feenix in saying he has volunteered building and maintaining trails and does the, so if you erode a trail a bit, you have the sweat equity in it!
I still do my good deed daily too.
If people would take to the time to pitch in here and there and not just use the resource, things all around would be much better. Just a simple thing like: leave it better than you found it. Clean up a few pieces of litter at the campsite that aren't yours or on the trail.
I still do my good deed daily too.
If people would take to the time to pitch in here and there and not just use the resource, things all around would be much better. Just a simple thing like: leave it better than you found it. Clean up a few pieces of litter at the campsite that aren't yours or on the trail.
Thank you, Sir, for summing it nicely. It boils down to personal and custodial responsibility, and of course, personal character. I believe there are still plenty of good people out there who are caring and with integrity - doing the right thing, especially when no one is looking. Do a good turn daily, rocks!I know I said I don't like the idea of allowing e-bikes to certain areas, but I do have to applaud Feenix in saying he has volunteered building and maintaining trails and does the, so if you erode a trail a bit, you have the sweat equity in it!
I still do my good deed daily too.
If people would take to the time to pitch in here and there and not just use the resource, things all around would be much better. Just a simple thing like: leave it better than you found it. Clean up a few pieces of litter at the campsite that aren't yours or on the trail.
ADDED: My dog and I did a 5-miler this AM. The trail is shared by hikers (including dog owners) and runners and mountain bikers (including e-bikes)—lots of dog poops. My dog probably pooped 4 or 5 times. However, he does it 10-15Y off the trail. Yes, even dogs can be trained to be a responsible end-user.
At the 4-miler mark, I ran into an old-timer taking a break from his work on the trail around 0800. He is probably in his late 70s or early 80s. He does volunteer work and has been there since 0600. I have previously worked with him on another trail project and often run into him with his dog. Anyways, I helped him finish his repair/maintenance work on the trail, about 45 minutes of work, and help him carry down some of the tools where his grandkids just finished their portion of the work. It is not much, but as you pointed out, every bit counts. I guess that is my good turn daily for today. 
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Sorry about thAT Ed! Been traveling for the past week -- hence didn't have time to check the forum,
It's all good, Sir; hopefully, your travels were all fun.
Martin@Hin
Well-Known Member
Live in mountainous area.
Having breathing problems.
Have been looking for 40 years at Wilmore wilderness a huge area,big horn elk you name it.
Set aside for hikers and horses.
Tought a ebike would allow me to go there.
But maybe not.
As far as erosion i am told the horse trails ruts are 2 feet deep.
"Wherever a man goes men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions "
H D THOREAU
Having breathing problems.
Have been looking for 40 years at Wilmore wilderness a huge area,big horn elk you name it.
Set aside for hikers and horses.
Tought a ebike would allow me to go there.
But maybe not.
As far as erosion i am told the horse trails ruts are 2 feet deep.
"Wherever a man goes men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions "
H D THOREAU
Great article, and getting on in my 60's I still bike regularly. But this article convinced me to get an e-bike for hunting. The forest service and BLM will come around and implement the new directives.
For the "holier than thou" horse folks, I look forward to a day when I don't have to see piles of horse crap all around prime hunting camp sites.......OK, that was an intentional poke in the eye...for the rest of the horse folks, you don't bother me in the least.
The land is MULTIPLE USE...that means that people use it differently than you and you all need to be tolerant of the other user. Time moves on, changes happen. E-bikes are here to stay, as are horses, backpackers and wilderness (where you can't do crap but dance around the edges and watch it burn when fire season comes).
Moderation and tolerance...what a concept.
Here we go again my ebike is better than your horse. Hunter vrs Hunter exactly what we need more of.
