Lightweight Backpacking News: Digest No. 10

The rafting bill is a bad idea. In theory I agree with it, but it's going to reinvigorate the biking community to try and pass their bills to allow biking in national parks and wilderness area.

There is a lot of movement to allow biking in wilderness areas and this bill, I think, will push that envelope.

They're completely separate issues. Rafting is allowed in every other national park. Bikes aren't allowed in any(except in AK).

Or more simply you could ban all for-profit trips/enterprises in national parks. That would reduce use, therefore improving the surrounding areas. The number of people who do non-commercial trips in large rafts/boats is fairly low.

Controversies over river trips in National Parks and other wild areas have raged for decades. Many parks allow a variety of boats under unique rules for each park. And each park adjusts the rules from time to time to minimize impacts.

On riverside sanitation facilities:
Most major Western rivers removed outhouses and required boaters to pack out solid waste years ago. Pre-trip ranger inspections verify that you brought a suitable waste system. Most require an easy-access "day tripper" to reduce the temptation to run behind a bush while underway.

These schemes work well on some very heavily used rivers, e.g. the Rogue River and the Grand Canyon. By day 18 in the Canyon, I was rowing hundreds of pounds of human waste down the river, and I was very glad the rocket box seals held up – in 1996.

On commercial vs non-commercial:
Authorities heavily scrutinize commercial river runners, and I've seen river rangers conduct random inspections. Those companies generally follow the rules quite closely, at risk of their business permit. I've seen far too many private boaters blow off rules about waste disposal, campsite selection, tree cutting, etc.

David writes:
"A single person can not reasonably launch a 16-foot raft with overnight gear for 4-6 people of the sort we took through the Grand Canyon."
"Swampers" running baggage boats do it all the time. Many parks or other agencies use very specific regulations to get the kinds of boats they desire. No need for a rule that could be gamed with enough incentive.

These issues have been discussed and often resolved successfully, for quite a long time.

Opening selected sections of Yellowstone rivers to boating under tight rules and permits should have very manageable impacts.

The slippery slope argument about enabling mountain bikes in the wilderness is a red herring. Bike advocates already have plenty of boating examples to make that point.

— Rex