RVers and OHVers are True Environmentalists

RVers and OHVers are true environmentalists. You've got to be kidding! At least that is what a lot of our critics will say and I'm sure I will take a lot of heat from some people for even suggesting the idea. Many self-styled "environmental" groups strongly oppose any type of RV or OHV activity and often frown on ANY kind of human presence in wilderness areas.  "Environmentalists" tend to believe theirs is the only valid position on the use (or more acurately, non-use) of public lands.  The famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) Sierra Club in California had a written manifesto in the late 1900s calling for the TOTAL elimination of ALL off road activity by the year 2000.   Fortunately, they did not succeed but they did manage to alienate their own Explorer 4WD group.  They depict OHV folks as criminals, insensitive to the environment, seeking only to defile it.  In reality, most of the people I've met while RVing and OHVing are very much concerned with the environment and strive to take good care of it. Virtually every group I've ridden dirt bikes with for nearly 40 years makes sure they leave a camp site cleaner than it was when they arrived and strives diligently to comply with local rules and regulations. We are off-road USERS, not off-road ABUSERS. Admittedly and unfortunately there are abusers out there, just as there are those among the general public who abuse alcohol and their on-road driving privileges. Our group once observed a rider showing off and doing donuts in the middle of the main street of one of the small towns we sometimes visited on our dirt bikes.  The offender got away before we could counsel him, but one of my buddies did approach the riders he had arrived with and warned them if he kept it up he'd end up with a shovel handle in his spokes one of these days.  The other riders quickly disavowed any association with the offender and agreed that some kind of disciplinary action was needed.  People like that can spoil things for everyone else.   Most RVers and OHVers have a real appreciation of and love for our natural resources. They're actually out there enjoying them, not sitting behind some desk 500 miles away filing frivolous lawsuits like many of our opponents. Yes, I admit I am a bit cynical about arm-chair environmentalists. When I lived in southern California we had a 100-year old road closed in a popular OHV area by legal action from a group in Arizona who had never even seen the location. The road should have been protected by federal law under RS 2477, which protects existing right of ways on public lands. But that didn't stop the self-styled do-gooders and their liberal judge in Arizona from issuing an injunction against the Bureau of Land Management who had legitimately designated the road as open to off highway vehicles.  The road had been a popular off-road route for more than 40 years and in existence for mining and ranching activities for more than 100 years!  The closure was not based on any actual (or even imagined) concern about erosion, noise, traffic, or threat to wildlife. It was purely a paper and political attack based on a alleged minor procedural error by the BLM, inflicted by people who had never visited the area and had no legitimate business challenging the BLM ruling in another state. It was clearly an issue of pure harassment and an unabashed attack on the OHV lifestyle. To add insult to injury, the filers of these environmental lawsuits have their legal costs reimbursed by the Federal government so our own taxes are being used to sue us! Yet off-road organizations and even government agencies are prevented by law from recouping costs of defending against these frivolous suits. Seems more than a bit one-sided to me since I'm on the OHV side of the battle!  Here in Utah there is a vocal environmental group whose CEO lives in Switzerland and has never been to Utah.  More than half the members of their board of directors are convicted felons.  Can you blame me for being very skeptical of their alleged concerns for the environment in Utah?  On the other hand, my associates in the OHV community are all upstanding local residents who are frequently actively engaged in service projects to clean and maintain BLM and Forest Services facilities, not all of which are open to OHVs.

Speaking of service projects. Many RV and OHV groups sponsor service projects to perform cleanup and maintenance of camp sites and trail systems. The Good Sam Club, the oldest and largest RV club in the world, sponsors may service projects every year.   In 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013 I had the privilege of coordinating a clean-up day for the Utah Trail Machine Association at File Mile Pass, a popular OHV area about 20 miles west of Lehi, Utah. Our volunteers (about 100 each year) scoured acres and acres of BLM land, picking up trash -- including discarded appliances and automobile chassis, overfilling a big dumpster. The mantra of the UTMA, the oldest and largest dirt bike association in Utah, is "Conservation, Courtesy, and Safety". Very little of the trash collected came from RV or OHV use of the area. Most was household waste illegally dumped by residents of nearby communities: sofas, TVs, plumbing fixtures, refrigerators, automobile engines, transmissions, and entire cars. I've worked on similar projects in the BLM managed lands in the Mojave Desert and on trail maintenance projects with the U.S. Forest Service in the Sequoia National Forest. In every case I found all volunteers very appreciative of and eager to protect and preserve natural resources. In one case, we spent days rerouting an OHV trail to skirt around a designated equestrian campsite.  And in each and every case, very little of the trash collected could be attributed to RV or OHV use. One of my California OHV service projects included members of a student environmental group from a nearby college so I KNOW environmentalists and OHV activists can work together, but most of our invitations to environmental groups to participate in service projects have been flatly ignored. I guess they're too busy filing their next frivolous law suit. They'd rather lock up an area and throw away the key than help take care of it for legitimate recreational use. It never ceases to amaze me how self-styled environmentalists will twist or ignore facts to achieve their goals. When an OHV dealer here in Utah proposed using remote land recently purchased by the city to create an OHV park for residents, he was met by strong opposition claiming dirt bikers were responsible for huge amounts of household trash, such as couches and appliances, that had been dumped on the property. I can honestly say I've NEVER seen anyone carrying couch, a TV, a toilet, or a kitchen appliance on a dirt bike or ATV but there are sure a lot of them cluttering up our designated riding areas!  Many times I've talked with both land mangers and organizers of service projects and in virtually every case, the huge amounts of trash collected was due to illegal dumping, NOT to OHV users.

Off roaders often get a bad rap in movies, on TV, and in the media in general. It is somehow "OK" to bash them in ways that would invite large scale protests if other non-mainstream groups were equally "profiled" while totally ignoring reality. They are typically portrayed as mean, nasty, lawless creatures with no regard for anyone or anything but their own perverse pleasure. If a movie wants to portray an individual or group as bad, they often put them on dirt bikes.  I must admit that, due largely to misrepresentation in the "lame stream media", even I had a distorted and untrusting view of off-roaders when I first started riding, but that changed quickly. During one of our first outings I was watching from a hill top as my boys rode in a "playground" below. My younger son (about 8 years old at the time)  accidentally rode off into a gulley as deep as his bike. At least a half-dozen other riders -- all strangers -- were there to help him before I could reach him from only a short distance away. Our Desert Rat group included people from a variety of walks of life:  a banker, a chiropractor, a nurse, an IT executive, and a whole bunch of rocket scientists -- really:  they were guys who built things like the space shuttle, the B-2 stealth bomber,  and the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.  Another riding buddy is a high level manager at NASA.  All law-abiding, respected citizens and all a far cry from the stereotypical outlaw dirt bikers the media are so fond of portraying.

Off-road activities are a great source of family recreation, a fact that is largely ignored by the media as they label and depict off-roaders as loners, renegades, and outlaws. In reality, you'll find a lot of families riding ATVs and dirt bikes.  A few years ago the BLM fought vigorously and rather futilely to combat depiction of riding areas in the Mojave Desert as having huge tracts being devastated by off-roaders. The photos, which were published and re-published over and over by local media, were presented as representative of large scale damage when in fact the photos were only applicable to less than 1% of the riding areas and were restricted to areas where environmentalist sponsored closures had concentrated heavy activity unnaturally into small areas near legal staging areas -- a fact the BLM sought diligently but in vain to get the media to report. In another area we had over 600 miles of dirt bike trails in the Sequoia National Forest for more than 40 years without any environmental problems. Then a large portion of the trails were closed by a new wilderness designation. The very first year it was legal wilderness, a card-carrying Sierra Club member (the organization that had campaigned hard for the wilderness designation) burning her toilet paper (why the heck was she doing that?), set the place on fire and burned 55,000 of brand their new wilderness acres to a crisp. Over the next 15 years or so, backpackers set it on fire at least 4 more times while we were camping and legally riding in the vicinity still open to us. On several occasions the rangers came to our dirt bike camp and asked us to ride our OHVs up into their precious wilderness and help rescue hikers from the fires they had caused. We never turned them down.  Despite our differences, we value all human life, a sentiment not necessarily shared by environmental groups who overtly sabotage OHV trails and spike trees, often maiming or killing people!  A second casualty to the wilderness designation was the pristine condition of hundreds of miles of single track trails that soon became whooped out and widened into double-tracks the size of fire roads due to forced two-way traffic resulting from the wilderness designation deliberately cutting off trail loops and forcing riders to back track. Wise resource management, not indiscriminate wholesale closure is the key to protecting the environment. I greatly admired the local U S Forest Rangers in Sequoia who petitioned for an allocation of California's "Green Sticker" money (from OHV license fees) to build new connecting trails to re-establish some of the loops lost to the new wilderness area.  If you looked at a map of the wilderness area you would see perfectly straight borders that took unexpected detours in order to cut off looping trails to interfere with legitimate use.

Most OHV riders I know readily admit there are certain areas that deserve wilderness status and that those who prefer hiking, backpacking or horseback riding are entitled to quiet trails that are free from motorized traffic. I have yet to meet anyone of the anti-OHV groups who is willing to acknowledge that OHV enthusiasts have any rights at all. Most irrationally seek a total ban of OHV access to public lands. As mentioned before, the "Sierra Club" of California had a written mandate demanding the elimination of ALL off-road activity by the year 2000 and caused their own 4-wheel drive division to separate themselves from the Sierra Club.  BTW, a wilderness designation even prohibits wheel chair access, a likely conflict with federal ADA laws.

Since 1976, the BLM has been charged under Federal Law with managing lands for multiple-use public access and for the most part they strive diligently to live up to their responsibilities. However, self-style environmental groups and power-hungry politicians continually seek ways to force their own selfish goals on everyone else. Strong opposition from Congress in 2011 thwarted a "Wild Lands" mandate from Interior Secretary Salazar that sought to designate million of acres of public land as defacto wilderness without the Congressional approval required by law. Even today the current Obama Administration is threatening to designate new protected areas without Congressional review or approval and without input from the people who live there. Imagine the uproar that would erupt if someone attempted to designate OHV areas in a similar way!

Go Green! (Maybe that's why my family favors Kawasaki dirt bikes!)

Sharing With Your Non-camping/Non-riding Friends

All of us have friends who don't share our enthusiasm for the RV, OHV, or camping lifestyle. Some may have tried it and rejected it but many have never even given it a chance and thus have no idea what they're missing. It can be both rewarding and challenging to bring them along on a weekend adventure. The key to success is planning and proper preparation. You might even be surprised how well a properly presented invitation might be accepted by even your hard-code environmentalist associates, but don't count on it.  Too many of the so-called "environmentalists" I know definitely subscribe to the "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up" philosophy.  Sorry, I am, admittedly, a bit cynical on this subject, but with lot of personal experience to back it up.

RV guests. One of the most comfortable ways to introduce non-camping friends is to invite them along on an RV trip. Make sure you have enough beds in your RV or bring along an extra tent. Do whatever you can to make your guests comfortable. They will not be familiar with RV systems, so take a few minutes to show them how to turn on the water pump and how to operate the toilet. Remind them that while in camp you are on battery power and to turn off lights and appliances when they are not in use, but don't be pushy about it.  Also, if you're boondocking, remind them that the water is limited and show them how to perform routine tasks without wasting water. Find out if they have any food allergies or special preferences so you can accommodate their needs and tastes as you plan your menu. Encourage them to bring along favorite games and/or music or videos. Be sure they know how to dress for the climate and activities. Have them bring along any prescription medications they need. Involve them in pre-trip preparations, menu planning, in setting up camp when you arrive, and in routine tasks like building a fire and preparing meals. Guests should consider it a kid of working vacation and not expect to be waited on hand and foot. This isn't intended to "make them pay their way".  It gives them a better sense of involvement and will help them learn what camping is all about.

Tent camping guests. Bringing guests along on a tent camping trip may require a lot of additional preparation. If you normally use a small tent, you may need a larger one or, even better, a second tent for your guests.  The second tent is probably the better idea unless you and your guests are comfortable sleeping in the same "room". They are probably not used to sleeping on the ground. If they have any back problems they may need a cot or an extra thick pad to sleep on. As mentioned above, alert them how to dress for the climate and activities and to bring any necessary prescriptions with them. Involve them as much as possible in pre-trip preparations and in setting up and running camp when you get there. Help them choose their own tent site and set up their own tent, perhaps with your guidance.  They will probably not be aware of things like making sure they sleep with their feet downhill if the round isn't level.

OHV guests. Preparing your OHV guests will require a lot more work. Be sure they are dressed appropriately and if at all possible, are wearing proper safety gear. A helmet and goggles are essential for minimum protection. Gloves and sturdy boots are highly recommended. NEVER let them ride in flip-flops, sandals, or thin tennis shoes.  Most likely you will have to provide the safety gear for them to use but they should bring their own tough jeans and sturdy shoes or boots.  Unless you have verified they are already experienced riders make sure to take the time to go over controls and help them get started. Even with adults you should sit with them to make sure they understand and can use the controls properly. Take them for a little ride and explain how things work and what you are doing as you ride. A little extra time getting them started will prevent unnecessary damage to your equipment, your relationships, and to your friends!   Let them warm up and get used to riding on level ground near camp before taking them out on the trails. And when you do go out on the trails, choose routes that will be suitable for their emerging skills. You will want to include some fun places that are interesting so they don't get bored and get a chance to see how much fun it can be, but aren't too challenging so avoid technical sections that are clearly beyond their experience. Forcing them to ride beyond their skills is a sure way to sour them completely and could result in serious accidents that would spoil everyone's whole weekend. In most of the riding areas we frequented in southern California I could always find a section of little "roller coaster" hills that made excellent skill builders and were good places for beginners to get a feel for what they were doing.  They were fun to ride without being TOO challenging.  The trails winding over and around the hills and through the bushes were interesting enough to be fun for even experienced riders without presenting a danger to novices.

Campfire protocols are probably going to be new to your guests. Take time to explain what you are doing as you prepare and use your campfire. Demonstrate proper safety procedures for cutting wood and building the fire. Explain why camp chairs should always be removed from near the fire or at least folded and laid down flat when not in use so they don't get blown into the fire. Explain to them what can and cannot be burned in the fire. Tell them not to put non-combustible items like cans and batteries in the fire and to avoid plastic bottles that can give off toxic fumes and pressurized containers (like cooking sprays and whipped cream as well as paints, lubricants, solvents, hair spray and shaving cream) which can explode. You may even have to politely guide them to avoid blocking someone else's view of the fire (and access to the warmth).  Be sure to remind them to put away their camp chairs when they leave the fire.

Keep it clean! Teach your guests by instruction and example how to keep the campsite clean. "Pack it in, pack it out" is a long time slogan of back packers and "nature freaks", but it is also a rule of thumb for RV, OHV, and tent camping activities. Provide convenient trash containers near your food preparation and dining areas. It may take extra effort if your guests include young people who may resent having to live by your rules while on "holiday", but ultimately it is worth it. Not only will it make your life easier, your guests will be learning valuable lessons and outdoor skills and ultimately, EVERYONE will have a better time.

Find out what your guests like to do and plan some activities to cater to their preferences. You may learn some new things that will become part of your regular repertoire too. If you are going to share OHV activities with them, discuss the options ahead of time and plan rides that meet their criteria and give them opportunities to develop their emerging skills and interests while experiencing the fun of OHVing.

Share teaching moments with your guests. They may enjoy impromptu astronomy lessons as you sit by the fire or may want to learn more about the flora, fauna, geology, and history of your surroundings. If you take them places you frequently go you'll probably already know the answers to most of their questions. But if you're trying someplace fairly new to you, spend some time on the Internet and bone up before you go.

Avoid "showboating".   While it is a good idea to show them just how much fun camping or OHVing can be, don't overwhelm them with your advanced skills.  Give them time to adapt to the situation and let their interest in things evolve naturally.  Demonstrating the best and safest way to negotiate an OHV trail will be more productive and appealing than showing off your skills by riding wheelies up the hill!

Share the fun!

Plan Ahead!

Planning is one of the most important tasks of any kind of RV, OHV, or camping activity.  It has been said failure to plan is planning to fail, and that is a very good axiom.  Without proper planning you are pretty much doomed to fail, especially when venturing out into the unknown -- be it your first outdoor recreation trip, camp cooking, or just about any other kind of activity.

Start by deciding where you are going and when.  Where you are going and when will determine much of what you need to prepare.  For example, a simple afternoon at the beach on a plesant summer day will required very different planning and preparation than a weekend riding OHVs or personal water craft or a week boondocking in a remote location.

Once you have decided where and when you are going you need to compile a list of what you will need for a successful outing.  Basic preparations will include transportation, shelter, food and water and whatever equipment and supplies you will need to support your planned recreational activities.  You will also need to consider an special circumstances for you and your companions, such as prescription medications, special diets, and any physical disabilities.


Always check the weather and any local conditions before setting out on an RV or OHV adventure. Last spring three of my grown children set out on a dirt bike ride in the mountains of Utah. It was a beautiful sunny day and they were headed into an area very familiar to my eldest son, Mike. They had barely left the road on their dirt bikes when they encountered a familiar river crossing. This was one Mike had crossed many times before. However, the snow melt from the warm day had swollen it so it was much faster and much deeper than usual, although it didn't really look any different. Even so, he rode half way across without any problems. Unfortunately, the channel was deeper and faster on the second half and about half way through part two, he found the water almost up to the handlebars and the current much stronger than usual. His bike stalled out and soon he and the bike were being swept down the river in the swift, icy current. He managed to guide the bike toward a tree caught in the rocks and stopped his downstream journey. His "little" brother (14 years younger but defensive lineman of the year his senior year in high school a few years ago) saw his plight and rushed to his rescue. Between the two of them they managed to wrestle the water-logged bike ashore but it took at least a half hour of struggle against the icy, snow-melt current. The cylinder was hydraulically locked with river water so the engine would not turn over at all. They had to manually pull the bike up on its back wheel in "wheelie" position and water poured out of the exhaust pipe. They could then kick the engine over but it still wouldn't run. They ended up taking it home and spent at least two hours draining and replacing oil and gas and drying things out before they got it running again. The water-saturated engine oil looked like frothy marshmallow cream when they drained it the first few times.  A quick check with the ranger on the way in could have alterted them to the increased danger of the river crossing.

The situation could have been a LOT worse. They were lucky no one was hurt and no equipment lost. If Mike hadn't had help he would probably at least lost his bike -- and maybe his life -- in that river. You really don't want to try to hang on to 300# of motorcycle in a fast current! If his clothing had gotten caught on the bike he easily could have been dragged under or swept downstream.  Even though the outside temperature was moderate, the cold snow-melt would quickly introduce hypothermia if they were in it very long or even in wet clothing once out of the river.  Even if the water were warm, being wet could quickly create a hypothermic emergency.  You will loose heat around 25 times as fast in wet clothing, and that could be fatal if not recognized and properly addressed.

There are two lessons in this incident we should all take to heart: first and foremost, NEVER ride alone! Fortunately, they were already following this basic rule. Second, ALWAYS check local conditions before heading out on the trails. A quick check with the ranger on the way in would have alerted them that some trails were closed due to high water and other symptoms of a long winter and spring runoff and they could have avoided the whole incident. I had sent along a warning that the water crossings may be higher than usual because I had picked up on on-line weather alert for a Flood Watch due to heavy snow pack and warm temperatures in the mountains. Someday maybe they'll learn to listen to the old man! Later Mike would tell me "The funny thing is that Kristen told me as we were pulling into the parking lot that you had cautioned us about the Flood Watch. Then just minutes later I ended up falling prey to it anyway!" I'm sure Mike simply figured the river didn't look much different from other times he'd made the same crossing successfully. He crossed the first half cautiously without difficulty and the far channel looked deceptively normal -- until he found himself waist deep in it and getting an E-ticket ride downstream! Guess I might need explain what an E-ticket ride is. For the current generation, an e-ticket is nothing special, just an electronic ticket usually purchased online to an event or plane ride. My use here comes from the days, long ago, when Disneyland had various lettered tickets for their rides. The kiddie rides took A and B tickets and the E-ticket got you onto the best and most exciting adult rides.

RV and camping trips. You'll want to check weather and other conditions at your destination and along your route when planning an RV or camping trip too. Bad weather, wild fires, and even road construction can wreak havoc on an outing and turn an expected good time into a frustrating nightmare. It's well worth a few extra minutes to look up the weather on the Internet and call the local ranger station or law enforcement to be sure you won't encounter unexpected obstacles and delays. You might still choose to make your trip in inclement weather or when there is road construction, but at least you can be a little better prepared and perhaps bring an extra jacket or blanket and allow a little extra travel time.

Regular, routine preparations put you in a better position to be able to take spontaneous trips at a moment's notice. If you always clean and service your equipment at the end of each trip you'll have a good start on getting ready for the next one. Periodically invest a little time to clean and organize your tools, supplies, and equipment. Review your inventory of non-perishable supplies. If you're using an RV, keep non-perishables stocked. If you're tent camping, keep everything organized and labeled in duffle bags or plastic tubs so you can grab them and go.

Menus. You'll want to pre-plan you menus so you can be sure you have everything you need on board before you leave home. Unless you're staying in a commercial campground with a well-stocked camp store you won't be able to just pick up what you need at the last minute. Take into consideration the number of people in your group, the number of meals, and how long you're going to be out. Think about how long foods will keep and plan your meals to use up perishables early in the outing. Fresh foods should be scheduled for use in the first day or two, frozen foods will last a little longer, and canned goods should easily survive the length of any normal camping trip.

Water. If you're staying in a developed campground you'll probably have access to water but if you're boondocking, you'll have to bring enough with you to last the entire trip. If you're tent camping or have an RV with a small fresh water tank, you'll need to bring extra water. A convenient way of doing this is using portable 5-gallon water jugs available just about anywhere camping gear is sold. If you have room in the back of a truck or trailer you might bring a 55-gallon drum. There are collapsible "buckets" and roof-top bladders that can be used to transport water from a shared location to your individual camp site. These are light weight and take up little room when empty. .  I once had large military water bag.  It was made of canvas and would hold at lest a couple hundred gallons of water with handy spigots all around.  Something like that is only practical if you have way to fill it up once you get to camp and won't be moving it around.  One of my dirt biking buddies solved the problem of his teen age kids using too much water showering in camp by allowing each one a certain number of 1-gallon plastic milk jugs filled with water for their personal use. They could take as long a shower as they wanted -- but once they used up their personal allotment, they were done showering for the rest of the trip. It was surprising how adept they became at showering with as little water as possible!  All it would take was being left with shampoo in their hair or soap on their skin from running out of water once or using up a whole trip's water allotment in the first day or two for them to quickly get the idea.

Tools and equipment.  Another basic consideration for any outing is bringing along the right tools and equipment to ensure a safe and enjoyable outing.  What you need will depend on where you are going, what time of the year it is, what activities you are planning, and what kind of gear you are bringing along.   You probably don't need many extra tools for a picnic in the park (hopefully you have a basic tool kit in the trunk of your car for routine problems) but you may need more tools plus spare parts if you have other equipment, especially motorized toys such as OHVs or personal watercraft.  Think about what you might need to support what you plan to do.  Just bringing along a ball pump and needle might save the day if your volleyball or football goes flat.

While planning ahead, plan for the unplanned too. That may sound like a paradox, but having some kind of plan for emergencies will ease your mind, save you a lot of grief, and may even save your life!