Snowmobiles in the Mt. Baker Wilderness

pretty sure mr. wright is on your side gc.

Don't get me wrong, my motivation is more to keep existing areas open to snowmobiling than out of a sense of moral outrage. I've come to the conclusion that the only way to try and preserve our riding areas is to police ourselves. The USFS won't or can't do it. Conflict in the backcountry is only going to increase as sled-access skiing and boarding grows and we generally just try and cram more users into smaller areas (by conflict, I just mean motorized and non-motorized sharing the same slopes). Eventually we reach the point where USFS has to respond. The natural path of the USFS seems to be the path of least resistance; thus, more motorized closure/Wilderness, etc. Closure is easier than enforcement...

My pessimistic side just picked up my first set of A/T gear.... Been out of the skiing game for a while. I figure I'll be losing some of my favorite snowmobiling terrain in the upcoming Wenatchee NF Forest Plan. Time to expand my horizons!

I guess I should have added one of these :
Sledder are generally very friendly, just not aware of their impact on others, sometimes.

I'm sure it's an isolated occurrence and only a few bad apples in the sled community.

I'm sure this is NOT an isolated occurrence. Snowmobiles keep getting better and high marking keeps getting higher. Of course people have been summitting baker for decades on their snowmobiles. The easton is definitely a snowmobile paradise even when there is not enough snow in the meadow for it to be legal. Enforcement seems increasingly unlikely. Education, ha ha. "yeah dude stop having fun on your snow machine."

At least Mt Rainier National park is good for something, even if it is closed 2 days a week. However I'm guessing their will be high marks on goat island mountain soon enough...if it hasn't happened already. I wonder what the rangers would do if they saw snowmobiles high marking little T.

I'm sure this is NOT an isolated occurrence. Snowmobiles keep getting better and high marking keeps getting higher. Of course people have been summitting baker for decades on their snowmobiles. The easton is definitely a snowmobile paradise even when there is not enough snow in the meadow for it to be legal. Enforcement seems increasingly unlikely. Education, ha ha. "yeah dude stop having fun on your snow machine."

At least Mt Rainier National park is good for something, even if it is closed 2 days a week. However I'm guessing their will be high marks on goat island mountain soon enough...if it hasn't happened already. I wonder what the rangers would do if they saw snowmobiles high marking little T.

Maybe you should have read the whole thread, I was being facetious. Of course this is an ongoing and growing concern. The vocal members of the sled community always use that line.

Maybe you should have read the whole thread, I was being facetious.

Thanks for the clarification. I suppose your other post was facetious too. "Bilers are generally friendly just not aware of how unfriendly it is to ruin the wilderness experience for non-motorized users"...well that is a paraphrase. I wish there was a solution to this issue...like making everyone pay $22 per day to be on St Helens. Maybe I could bring a radio controlled snowmobile and I wouldn't need to have permit for skiing St Helens.