“Those posts” are posts like above, because they are theory and they are reminder (at least for me) of increasing gap between theory how not to make impact and practice which behind “me and my bicycle are eco” there is dirty story hidden of more pressure against nature. So, basically I was talking about contract. But if anything needs update I would say adding a section about pure bike traveling (1 day by car + 1 day on bike + overnight in the forest is not nature friendly).

Peter, we heard you, but there’s a lot of nuance to that situation: according to reports, there were no signs or closures posted and we believe Jan was riding in good faith, saw nothing that informed him of any closures, and wasn’t even informed by forest service rangers he saw on route at the time of his ride. Additionally, that buried Dispatch gets no traffic and there’s no willful disregard or reason that retaining that it goes against these principles. If anything, people randomly reading that conversation may be encouraged to look at governmental websites for such closures before setting off.

Where I will take a bit of a dig at our friends who run bikepacking.com is they repost this article but still keep the Jan Heine article about setting the FKT on the Oregon Outback when he had to ride through two large areas that were officially closed due to the Bootleg Fires this past summer. Seems to go against several of the points posted above.

I’m not sure what you are referring to with “those posts” … there’s not much adrenaline-fueled content on this site.

Sure, there’s that which is affecting climate change, but I’d argue that the benefits of encouraging people to travel bike bike are far better than the other options (cruises, hotel-based travel, etc, etc.). We’ve made a big push to encourage local adventures over the years: https://bikepacking.com/overnighters

Agreed, and done.

This

Coming from Europe back to the states I barely use TP even at home anymore! Water-Bottle Bidets for the WIN!

Good suggestion. Create an Annual Leave No Trace Day aiming to make every day trace free.

I also teach Plan ahead and prepare as a great guiding principle. If you do not do that it is hard to do the other principles justice.

Yup, backpacking in the sierras I’d always pick some to have on hand.

I often stop and pick some as soon as I find it and stash it in my feedbags. Some people have reported irritation from using it as TP but IME it has always been a pleasure. My family and friends have used it for many years and almost prefer it over regular TP and we don’t have to pack it out in. The leaves are very soft and have a velvet like texture and they are reported to be analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic, all of which are great qualities in a TP.

Good tip. As someone with Crohn’s disease I rarely have enough time to find toilet paper when I have to go, so getting off the trail and finding some moss here in the PNW is about as good as it gets. Not always as straightforward as people think.

Resources:
https://www.invasiveplantatlas.org/subject.html?sub=3080
https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1478
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a32ae5797041663d804801d9c71c2016c91cb5ad3c2b5086180d1e33dc3dc4b3.jpg

It’s been one of the better changes seen in the last few years regarding LNT, imo.

As an UL hiker, I second this. Switching from carrying shit tickets to a bidet attachment from my water bottle was one of the best switches I made. Less waste and a cleaner feeling!

I’d also like to commend the addition of indigenous land acknowledgment on the site. I would love to see it become a more widespread part of outdoor recreation information.

edit: I use “see” in the non-literal sense.

Thanks! Yeah, it’s linked from quite a few posts, pages, and routes…

From tourists, climbers/cyclists??

Absolutely… thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the comment Robert. You should definitely trademark ‘asshats per square foot’! ;)

David,

To some extent you’re right. Based on other 300+ mile bikepacking events around the country, we anticipated 50-75 people showing up the first year. 400+ signed up within the first 3 weeks of announcing it, which came as a huge surprise. We tried our best to dissuade more folks from showing up primarily because we weren’t sure how the route could handle the environmental impact of that many riders (http://velodirt.com/a-healthy-rant/). Lots of folks ignored us and came anyways. Ultimately things went o.k. last year with about 100 people riding. This year 2-3 times as many showed up and the impact of that many people clearly was more than the route can handle. That’s why we’re trying to kill it. Yea, the route is there and we still encourage folks to come ride it, we just want to spread the impact and traffic over a greater time frame so we’re asking folks not to do any sort of mass start anymore. And to the rest of your comment, I’d reiterate Logan’s response. Self-supported rides are just that, self-supported. As a rider, you are expected to take 100% responsibility for yourself, as no one is there to clean up after you or rescue you if something goes wrong. That’s the only reasonable way these types of free, unsanctioned rides can happen. It’s also a huge part of the ethos behind bikepacking, something I think the new folks are still learning as bikepacking expands beyond the original core user group. Thanks!

Thanks for the comment David. I see where you are coming from… it was a huge event, and maybe the quick growth spurt of bikepacking played a role in creating an unbalanced number of participants who were new to the concept of self-support. But the nature of bikepacking is ‘self-supported travel’, and individual responsibility is key. I think that’s where education should come in to play, in this case, maybe it could have been applied within the event format, or prior to.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks Kurt!