Lettter of the Week
This week’s feature letter comes from Evelyn Dong who presents us with a contrasting viewpoint on the Tumalo Backcountry proposal — from a skier’s perspective. Thanks for the letter Evelyn.
The proposal to expand the non-motorized recreation area to include Tumalo Mountain is selfish, wishful thinking. It will only serve to embitter snowmobilers against skiers, whether or not the proposal actually goes through.
While I agree it’s nice to be skinning along in your own magical silence up Tumalo without hearing that motorized whine and see an entire bowl of untouched powder, I also think it’s important to share.
I’ve never had a bad run-in with snowmobilers (snowmachiners, slednecks, sledders…whatever you wish to be called) here in Oregon. Around Tumalo, my experience has been cordial with snowmobilers. Generally, they slow down and wave if I happen to be skiing out on their tracks.
For those who think that snowmobiles are impacting the wilderness area in a negative way (i.e. fuel consumption, stinky exhaust, loud noises disturbing wildlife) it’s not exactly as if Tumalo Mountain is a pristine, untouched reserve in the middle of nowhere. Can skiing on Tumalo even be considered backcountry in every sense of the word? And now that everybody and their mother is ripping turns in the bowl, Tumalo has turned into the Phil’s Trailhead of backcountry snow sports. So, there’s more of us skiers (but we’ll let you splitboarding/snowshoeing snowboarders on our side too) and more of them (sledders)…big deal.
It’s too late to redraw the lines of the game, so why don’t we all recreate in peace?
Evelyn Dong
This article appears in Jul 3-9, 2008.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Well said, Evelyn. Let it be known that any form of legal and ethical recreation is a blessing. If running over snow on a motorized vehicle makes someone happy then let them do it. Those who are opposed probably have a check mark on their kindergarten transcript next to “does not share well with others”. If motorized recreation turns a person off that bad then make a stop at the greater expanses where motorized travel is not allowed. There is certainly more public space dedicated to non-motorized travel than not.
Tell the non-motor heads to go to Broken Top and the whole range that is already closed to motorized use. Done, don’t take away more of there land or bigger issues will arise!
What a refreshing article. We should get t-shirts or stickers that say “plays well with others” with a sled and skis, for those of us who understand the concept of sharing!
As a “sled-head” I have had both negative and positive experiences with X-County skiers and other “grouchy” people on and around tumalo. I can only speak for myself when I state that I ALWAYS slow down when I come upon skiers on the trails and try to give them the widest berth possible when I go by. We have been sharing those thousands of acres for as long as anyone can remember. Why now, all of a sudden is there an issue? I really dont understand why skiers feel that they should be the only ones to be able to enjoy all the splender of that area. There is a simple fix here….. Make the Dutchman parking lot about 10x bigger, divide it for cars and trucks/trailers and just keep the rest how it is. If you dont like the sound of a sled in the distance, go somewhere that you wont hear that…. There are several of those types of areas right around here.
What a great attitude Evelyn! I have skins and a snowmobile, so if you ever see that setup leaving Dutchman, stick out a thumb and we will head to the Wilderness for some real backcountry!
As a reminder, if people really have their day ruined by a snowmobile, there is Swampy, and Virginia snowparks, along with four entire mountains in the Wilderness that are closed to motorized vehicles.
It is a pleasure to share a parking lot, and recreation area with people like you. We are all out to enjoy ourselves in a beautiful area!
Matt