Posts Tagged ‘Hidden Gems Wilderness’
Are you a Loud Idiot?
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
I didn’t say it. I should have. I wanted to. I’ve thought it many times when out riding, but it was Jimmy Lewis that coined the phrase “don’t be a loud idiot” in the July 2010 issue of Dirt Rider. Good job Jimmy!
As I’ve said many times before and will say many times again…..we are our own worst enemy. Every year I get invited to ride with someone or some group that I’ve never ridden with before so I always ask about the sound level/types of mufflers that everyone is using. I absolutely refuse to ride with loud idiots and I don’t want to show up and have a problem at the trailhead. When I ask “how loud is your bike?” I often get the response “my bike is not too bad”. To that I say bullshit. Not too bad is the same as not too good and that is just NOT acceptable. Loud bikes, especially 4 strokes, offend all other trail users and me. It pisses me off when some Neanderthal thinks that installing a loud muffler or pulling the insert out of his quiet muffler will give him that added horsepower that he needs to get down the trail. Well, unless you’ve recently won a National off-road event you probably can’t handle what you have, so dream on cowboy. FYI: Well known racer Shane Watts recently won the sportsman class at a GNCC with a DB Snorkel (84dBA) on a small bore KTM 200. He did it just to prove that quiet bikes can win.
If we don’t police ourselves we will continue to loose land access issues. So, I have to ask…..are you a loud idiot, or do you ride with loud idiots, or when you meet one on the trail do you talk to them about their loud idiot ways? Please ride a quiet bike and ask and persuade your friends to do the same.
Jeff Slavens
Tags: Adventure rider, AMA, Blue Ribbon, CMTRA, COHVCO, Colorado motorcycle trails, Colorado TPA.org, Colorado Trails Preservation Alliance, Expensive KTM 300, Hidden Gems Wilderness, Jeff Slavens Racing, KTM, KTM Talk, Slavens Racing, Slavens Trailhead, Thumper Talk
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Ride with Slavens & Help Colorado Trails
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Come ride the Colorado 600 Trail Awareness Symposium with Jeff Slavens and other experienced Colorado trail guides. Don’t pass up this rare opportunity to show your true colors by helping keep open Colorado and Utah trails while experiencing excellent single-track and dual sport routes in this little used and absolutely gorgeous area of southwest Colorado.
The Texas Sidewinders Motorcycle Club is sponsoring and the AMA is sanctioning the Trails Awareness Symposium Workshop, a fund raiser and educational event to benefit the Colorado Trail Preservation Alliance. I will be supporting this with all my resources and will be one of the primary guides taking riders on some my favorite single track and dual track trails in Colorado.
This 5 day invitational only event will give participants the option of riding gnarly single-track or milder dual sport routes. You can alternate between guides and pick what type of riding you prefer each day. I recommend that you bring 2 bikes, DS and trail. All bikes must be quiet, will be sound tested (94dBA), and must be licensed and insured.
Each day will start with a free breakfast and rider’s meeting, then off to the trails or DS routes with the day ending back at the lodge for some beverages and BS. One free evening BBQ and a Friday banquet will be included.
Come join me and help support our sport.
Jeff Slavens
For more information, click HERE.
Tags: Adventure rider, AMA, Blue Ribbon, CMTRA, COHVCO, Colorado motorcycle trails, Colorado TPA.org, Hidden Gems Wilderness, Jeff Slavens Racing, KTM, KTM Talk, OHV motorcycle trail access, Slavens Racing, Slavens Trailhead, Texas Sidewinders, Thumper Talk
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The General’s Memorial Day Tribute 2010
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
On this special weekend, I want to express my gratitude to our fallen heroes who fought for our freedom. It is a precious gift that we must treasure, respect, defend, and pass on to future generations.
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PHOTO: Don Amador at 60th Anniversary of D-Day Wreath above Omaha Beach
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Some of you know, I grew up on the outskirts of Eureka, California in a small community called Cutten. The General was born in 1954 and was too young to have served in Vietnam even though I had registered for the draft, but had gotten high draft numbers in 1972 and later until the draft ended so I was not called. One of my older childhood friends, Gary Wilson, had been shot down and killed in a helicopter. Another older friend was Terry Foster who got shot through the neck while on patrol and thankfully he survived.
I sometimes feel guilty that I did not serve in the military. I have shared those regrets with some of my military friends in the ongoing fight to protect access to public lands.
One of those persons was Frank Price (he was a Korean War vet and access advocate in the Bakersfield area). He told me not to worry about not serving in the military because I was now working in another cause for freedom – protecting the public’s (and returning service men and women) right to use and enjoy the people’s land.
It was after my co-facilitation, including help from the SAMs Coalition, of the 2000 Protest of the Clinton National Monument in the Sequoia National Forest that Frank Price bestowed on me the title of The General.
Article on 2000 Rally/Protest of Clinton National Monument (with rally photos)
https://www.sharetrails.org/releases/?filter=media&story=140
I don’t wear the title of The General as some sort of military-oriented self-tribute because I did not serve in the military, but rather as a commitment to my Dad, Frank Price and all those (including readers of this blog) who have served and sacrificed for our country that I will never give up the fight and will seek to inspire and lead men and women onto the field of battle for access to public lands.
Again, my deepest appreciation to those who made the ultimate sacrifice and to the families left behind. My appreciation also goes out to those who have served and continue to serve.
God Bless.
Don Amador
Tags: Adventure rider, Blue Ribbon, CMTRA, COHVCO, Colorado motorcycle trails, Colorado TPA.org, Don Amador, Hidden Gems Wilderness, Jeff Slavens Racing, KTM, NOHVCC, Slavens Trailhead
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Leave Wilderness to the Experts
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
There has been a lot of talk recently about the Wilderness Workshop’s Hidden Gems proposal. The White River Forest Alliance, representing the motorized community as well as other backcountry user groups, is one of the local organizations in opposition of the proposal. I have been (more…)
Tags: Colorado motorcycle trails, Colorado Trails Preservation Alliance, Hidden Gems Wilderness, Jeff Slavens Racing, Slavens Trailhead
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Much Needed Support
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
A Letter to the Vail Daily
After reading Susie Kincade’s Valley Voices concerning the Hidden Gems, I took her up on her offer to learn more about the issue at the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign Web site. After reading the section called About alternative destinations, I realized I could not support Hidden Gems. This section basically made the point that alternative designations do not rest on enabling legislation and open the land-use decision door to all comers, to many types of stakeholders, while wilderness designation requires an act of Congress to undo.
And that is my concern. If we cede control to Congress, to whom are we actually ceding that control? The House of Representatives is increasingly dominated by urban voters whose idea of wilderness might be one notch above or below Bambi. Overturning a wilderness designation in the Senate could be subject to a filibuster requiring 60 votes to stop. So I have little faith that there would be any flexibility in future use following a wilderness designation.
Kincade calls Hidden Gems a gift to future generations. But I prefer to let my child’s generation make its own decision, and I believe a stakeholder process will give it a better chance of doing so.
I think about decisions earlier generations might have made that could prevent us from making our own decisions today. For example, suppose a hundred years ago people decided that all that pristine land surrounding our major cities should be protected. Based on the primitive state of the automobile, people might not have imagined that these areas would, a generation later, become the suburbs which transformed American life. Perhaps 75 years ago, people might have decided that certain other exurban land needed protection. And after World War II, the returning soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division might have had no place close to major population centers to start the transformational ski industry.
These lands being considered for wilderness designation are lands that belong to all Americans. Before we restrict their use, and effectively take away the discretion of future generations to decide for themselves how they are to be used, we should ask ourselves whether we have a perfect crystal ball or the arrogance of thinking that we know best forever.
Chris Hynes
Tags: Blue Ribbon, CBTRA.org, COHVCO, Colorado Trails Preservation Alliance, Hidden Gems Wilderness, Slavens Racing
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