I can't stand the tree huggers when they do **** like this. I don't have any problem whatsoever with someone trying to conserve the environment, that's great. I love the outdoors and hate to see it abused and destroyed but i'm not a damn tree hugger. What I can't stand is when they do it with the goal of taking away other people's priveliges like you're showing on that masterpiece of a web site, for things that are not threatening the environment in any real way.
A few years ago there was the big battle over Paragon (greatest riding spot in PA) getting shut down because the land owner we were renting the property from decided to break off our 25 year agreement in less than 5 years so the land could be sold for millions. I heard they had settled on around 110 million for our land.
The damn environmentalists were fighting AGAINST us because we cut down a few trees to make trails, and every once in a while some oil might get spilled on the trail from a punctured oil pan. They completely lost sight of what the land was before we got it, and what the plans were going to be if we lost the land.
First, this particular 5,000 acre plot of land is retired coal mines, like much of the land in Pennsylvania's coal region, and Paragon worked with environmental agencies and cooperated in installing filtration ponds to remove all the damaging impurities washing out of the mine shafts into the streams. The land was in far better shape even with jeeps and quads traveling it daily than it was 5 years before, with toxic runoff and open mine shafts and anything else you could ever imagine in a mining area.
And even worse, the environmentalists were so flat out stupid that they didn't consider that any other use of the land would be far more damaging to the environment. What sounds worse to you guys, land that is 95% untouched, or having the entire 5,000 acres completely leveled and asphalted to make it into a cargo airport? Hmmm... i'm thinking that trails and off roaders have a signifigantly lesser impact on the environment than leveling 3 mountains, and turning it into nothing but concrete with cargo jets taking off at sound levels over 140 decibels every 10 minutes.
Few things in my life made me seriously consider a killing spree more than those damn environmentalists did. They don't even think about it, one sees a broken twig and screams murder and the other 5 thousand of them grab their picket signs and come running without even considering what would be in the best interest of the environment. Aside from land being completely untouched, what could the land be used for that impacts the environment less than off roading? Yeah, camping, mountain biking, that's about it. Anything else would involve complete desctruction of the environment.
Right now Paragon would probably be nothing but an asphalt wasteland if the economy didn't take a dive. Now the land development is going nowhere but they won't let us have it back just because they don't want to back down and admit it was a bad idea. Word on the street is that the land isn't being patrolled though, and there's places to park and ride there still. I'm normally not one to ride without permission but I have absolutely zero repsect for the property owner anymore so I'm going to look into it some more and try to get a ride going there sometime. I'm thinking the first time I go up i'm going to trailer my dual sport up there, park at a shopping center a couple miles away, and ride the bike out to the trails from there to check it out. Then if somebody does give chase i'll have no issues getting away either, let's see somebody try to keep up with my bike in a jeep or 4x4 quad on the street, it'll never happen.
It's all a bunch of tree hugging hippie crap.
