Snowmobilers and wilderness

Point taken. I sometimes forget how different it is from one coast to another. Like when folks online admonish East Coast back country newbies to take and avy course and travel with a beacon before even thinking about getting into our back country. Or the people from the Rockies freak about forest fires. I was amazed to see how vertical the cascades were vs the Whites or Dak's. Now, if someone will just buy my house.......

Well, you are probably right about that.

Remember, some peoples idea of "wilderness" would exclude people on foot. It just always amazes this easterner that with millions of acres of untouched forest that  the folks out west cry because they heard a plane fly overhead. 

I don't cry about plane noise -- but I do find it annoying that not only are many commercial flights from SEA-TAC routed over the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area -- but worse naval avaitors from Whidbey use parts of ALW for their training routes -- Snowmachine noise is irritating -- but it pales in comparision to having an A6 Intruder with afterburners running 400 feet over your head...  You don't hear that noise -- it shakes your whole body.     I recently did a hike in the Paysaten wilderness and one notable aspect of that trip was the almost complete absence of air traffic -- it was a joy to hear nothing but wind and water for a few days.

The legal definition of "Wilderness" made by congress in 1964 doesn't exclude foot travel -- Separately there are sometimes "wildlife santuraries" where human presence is excluded -- at least during certain times of the year (e.g. breeding and brooding seasons) -- those are sensible.

"If snowmobilers eliminated all wilderness trespass, no tracks seen, no sleds heard, no nothing, would it have a any impact on your viewpoint about snowmobilers and there activity?"

To answer the OP's original question, 100% barring of snowmobiles in the wilderness would not make a bit of difference to me. Most are courteous, some are jerks. Just like ANY group. If I let a jerk ruin my day, I lose. And he wasn't even aware there was a competition.

Hope my answer does not offend anyone. It's MY answer and I'd respect yours.

Funny how one persons dislike can be another one's joy.

Funny how one persons dislike can be another one's joy.

The same is said with junk and treasure....

Wooley One, depending on the hurricane's path, maybe Irene my buy yer house...

Wooley One, depending on the hurricane's path, maybe Irene my buy yer house...

I hope he made it through safe... or is getting ready to move out west!!

The sledder issue here is a big deal that needs to be dealt with so both skiers and sledders can stop sniping at each other and get back to having fun. 

Can you define more what the "sledder issue" is? Just trying to be clear.

Agreed though, it would be great if we got back to having fun..