Lightweight Backpacking News: Digest No. 10

[Stephanie Jordan]

Companion forum thread to:

Lightweight Backpacking News: Digest No. 10

[Ken Thompson]

Hope Hurkan enjoyed the can's liner.

[Jon Leibowitz]

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.

[Ken Thompson]

Agree w/Jon. Too much could go wrong.

Then Dave will have his bikes on the JMT.

[Jack M]

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

[David Thomas]

Brainstorming here, but the FAA initially dealt with ultralight aircraft with a "foot launchable" requirement. They later went to specific weight and fuel capacity limits (254 pounds and 5 gallons), but as a starting point or even just a concept, is "launchable by a single person" a reasonable middle ground? That would allow pack rafters, kayakers, and canoeists but put an upper limit on raft size. 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.

Just like I'm an advocate of bear boxes in Wilderness areas (I think they do so much good in keeping food away from critters that their presence is justified), if these river corridors are open to more travel, I'd want to see some sanitation facilities added. In January, we did some of the New Zealand's "Great Walk" – 4 and 5-day backpacking trip, and, unlike US national parks, there were outhouses every 3-5 miles. And therefore there weren't bits of toilet paper and poorly dug catholes all over the place. Especially in a river corridor where you can't get far from surface water, the potential for overuse is high (e.g. the Colorado through GCNP).

[Jack M]

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.

[Jon Leibowitz]

Jack, I agree they are separate issues but the language used in the proposed policy, "hand-propelled" invites the biking community to ask, "well our mode of transportation is leg-propelled". There is already a big movement pushing bikes in wilderness areas and if this passes, it will only make their argument stronger. I say all of this as a backpacker, mountain biker, and occasional rafter.

Plus, as you say, rafting is already allowed in almost every other national park…..is it such an affront to humanity to leave two rivers wild and free from rafts?

[Rex Sanders]

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

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