"On Any Sunday"

KevinsMap

Adventurer
The title of this thread does homage to a truly great movie, a watershed moment in 1971, and in the land-use history of our America. Is there any person on this forum, who has not seen it? Directed by Bruce Brown, in part produced by Steve McQueen - I watched it in first release, as a kid in Southern California, where large parts of it were filmed. Simply an excellent film, beautifully shot, it inspired an entire generation and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1972.

Watch it today, and you also see history... The end of the beginning, and the beginning of the end.

In the 60's, the desert and mountains were still very quiet places; our engines might be the only ones we would hear all day long. My family was already out there, in those places the movie showcased, in our station wagon, and then our K5 Blazer, with our Bultaco dirt bike. We also hiked, and backpacked, and explored the Ghost Towns, surfed up and down the Baja, and skied in the Sierra. We skied competitively, when resorts were primitive. But the most satisfying race of all? My family and I raced the San Gorgonio Ski Clubs annual event, even after SanG became fully protected Wilderness in 1964. Before and after, we hiked in, set the course by hand, claimed the heights of the slope on foot. It was a tough race.

San Gorgonio was the finest skiing-terrain mountain in Southern California, with the most snow, by a long shot (Mammoth is Central California). It was also an early victory for the Sierra Club, a grand compromise, who worked with the property and business owners of Big Bear, Wrightwood, and other mountain communities to close San Gorgonio (and not their own mountains and backcountry). The race had started before Wilderness Status, and went on for nearly a decade after. No one stopped us; we played by the rules. Eventually, it was just too easy to ski elsewhere. It was so hard to see the need for closing SanG. There was so much true Wilderness, right?

But the world had changed, and would change even faster very soon. On Any Sunday, showed us how. The desert, the mountains, the lonely beaches... they were not quiet, anymore.

We had company. And, very unfortunately, On Any Sunday shows lots of fully off-road riding - not dirt road, fully off-road - on virgin desert. It became cool. We had hardly ever done this; it had never occurred to us, since there were plenty of roads. It had been really unusual to see anyone doing that. Not anymore. The dirt-bikes started, me included. Teenagers are like that. That movie inspired the BMX movement nationally, too. And, from very early on, the bikes would avoid roads whenever possible. And dozens of Ghost Towns simply disappeared; people had "collected" everything bigger than a nail. Then they took the nails.

You could see the changes. You still can... and that is the purpose of this thread.

How did we get to this point, where there is sometimes a legitimate need to close all wheeled vehicle access to land that has been open forever? There are many who will deny this very premise, and say it is never necessary, that it is all a special interest fraud. This thread is meant to be a showcase, where the skeptics can visit the damage for themselves. It is also intended to highlight places where there are solutions short of full Wilderness Status: Wilderness with cherry stem access, Permit-based access, high-tech tools for monitoring access, and other solutions to protect our land, from ourselves. These places exist. Show them, please. These solutions exist. I hope this thread on this forum, will become a place to showcase these solutions.

My next post; an easily accessible destination in the SoCal Desert, well worth visiting, where nearly pristine wilderness, poorly managed BLM land, and outright large-scale devastation of the desert, come together in one place.
 

Jonathan Hanson

Supporting Sponsor
Great idea for a thread, Kevin.

Times and attitudes have certainly changed, thank God. I don't blame the racers in 1970; they didn't know any better. I have a Four Wheeler from that era; inside one cover is an ad for a brush guard called "The Cactus Smasher."
 
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KevinsMap

Adventurer
3 California Deserts

... all in the same place. No, not 3 different natural ecosystems, or types of deserts, such as where the Sonoran transitions to the Mojave. These 3 deserts are entirely characterized by the impact of people, and you can see the entire range of impact in one place. It will take you less than 4 hours of exploration.

Type 1: very limited or no access by motorized vehicles. Location - Desert Tortoise Natural Area

Most of the year:
DTNA_creosote_big.jpg

Spring

16747618769_9af8f60024_b.jpg

A wet Spring

sunflowers-desert-tortoise-natural-area-ca-DDF50N.jpg

Type 2: motorized vehicles and bicycles have regulated access to trail system. Red Rock Canyon California State Park

red-rock-2.jpg

red-rock-canyon-state-park-01-large.jpg

Spring

CRR-38-Bigelow-Coreopsis-Red-Rock-Canyon-State-Park-CA.jpg

Type 3: recreational access for most types of motorized vehicles. Jawbone Canyon OHV, Dove Springs OHV

signindovesprings.jpg

841087349_w2UUm-L.jpg

jawbone2.jpg

Yes, wildflowers bloom in OHV parks too, but I could find no good pictures online or in my collection. So, a description; they bloom off the trails, in small patches, where wheels do not compact the earth.

Do not use these pictures to form an opinion. They are only a guide. Go and see for yourself. Here is what you will see:

OHV areas - in my opinion, such places as Jawbone and Dove Springs need to exist; I have used them myself. By the same token, they are very seriously degraded desert ecosystems. They are a sandbox amusement park, we have shaped them as such, fun to tear up and get dirty. Only we thrive there. They are not wild, in any way.

Red Rock Canyon is moderately well protected, and it shows. You will see the few abused areas immediately; they stand out. The park looks like we imagine wilderness in a desert should look. It is alive.

The closed areas that have been protected for generations are a revelation; the desert looks "different". Like I remember when I was young. Go to the Desert Tortoise Interpretative Center, and walk out away from the center at least half a mile west, away from the access road. The living desert you thought you saw in Red Rock is, here, far more intense. You cannot miss it. You will see it. Look close.

Decide, in what proportion, this land should be devoted to our amusement, to our access and careful enjoyment, and to the long-term health and survival of the natural world. . In this place, you can see the enormity of the decision.
 

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lennao01

New member
Thank you for the detailed directions. It's seems like so much to fit into two days, but you seem quite experienced and I suppose most of the writing mentioned road names.
 

Heading Out

Adventurer
This,
I think there is plenty of land to go around. Some to drive over, and some we should only walk over.



As I have posted before in other threads, I've lived in the Mojave, very near the end of the Mojave Road, and have seen the changes and the damage over the years.
I visited again recently to show my family some of the things I found so awesome out there all those years ago, and was shocked at how much some areas have been looted, one canyon in particular with prehistoric art had stone pried from the canyon walls. this site was once on the BLM maps of the area, and has since been removed.

I have also seen some remote valleys in the springtime, carpeted with huge patches of wildflowers, like huge splashes of bright paints on a beautiful carpet of green grass, this is a sight I will never forget, and feel privileged to have seen, some friends who had lived in the area all of their lives told me this was one of the best displays in 20 years.

I believe things like GPS and the internet, along with the craze of off road toys have made public and easily accessed places that once only a few adventurous people knew of. That and the advertising for the toys is not entirely responsible, encouraging misuse.

Yes, I too watched the movie back in the day, yes it was OK then, the attitude was different, we drove and rode on beaches & in areas then that now are Snowy Plover preserves, if you went there today you'd be in jail and your equipment impounded.
Yes, it was the beginning of the end, as we knew it. BUT, we can protect what we have left.
 

Tazman

Adventurer
It's all about balance. I was a dirt bike rider for years. I have 4x all over the western US. I do like to see preserves and wild areas set aside. It's a balance and we need both.
 

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