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This will be preaching to the choir, but here goes. I enjoy fishing high mountain lakes. And I agree that hikers, bikers, and horses can co-exist. Copper basin has trails for ever type of outdoor enthusiast! My family hikes, motorcycles, four wheels, and RZRs to reach fish. What really gets my goat are the motorized people that can’t keep from literally tearing up mountain trails. I would include pictures, but most of you know what I am going to describe. Somebody tore up the trail between Big Lake and Golden Lake which will likely mean that Fish and Game will close that trail because somebody decided to do some off trail mud bogging in a pristine mountain meadow. The trails exist for our use, not to be abused. I saw the same thing happen to the trail to Swagger Lake over in the Dry Creek basin off of the Little Lost road. Because somebody made a mud bog out of the start of that trail, that action led to it being closed to motorized vehicles of all kinds.
I can hike to either of these lakes, but my son who has cerebral palsy can’t hike, so I take him with me in our RZR; he loves the outdoors. I hope that the foolishness of others doesn’t ruin my ability to share the outdoors with my son.
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Look at the disabled license you can get for your son to be able to access those trails. it mainly meant for disabled individuals to access those closed trails during the hunting season. Fish and game enacted stricter regulations on trails due to the destruction of areas like you discussed. The Lemi range is a perfect example of the carnage others can do with off road vehicles. The biggest problem is enforcement. F&G is stretched way to thin to cover the vast areas assigned to limited enforcement resources. I've hunted an area since the late 80's that has deteriorated due to off road use of UTV's and 4 wheelers. Every guy wants to get to the top of hill first. There is absolutely no etiquette any more when it comes to hunting. But there's something we can do. You have a cell phone, most UTV's have registrations, take a video of the occupants, and record the coordinates if you have an app like On X or the restrictive trail sign. report them to fish and game. Hopefully they can enact stricter fines and enforcement measures. I believe it should be considered on the same level as poaching. More times than most, I've hiked miles into a no drive area only to find others abusing the restriction, and more times than most when I've confronted them about it, I just get the middle finger! at least their letting me know I'm number one as I video them driving off. Currently the only other option would be a wilderness area designation, but we all know what goes along with that, and the Polaris lobby would be after us. I moved here form Alaska and they have adapted really strict laws on off road use. You get caught off road, you can lose your license for life in some situations.
Good luck, hope others can adapt and realize what they are doing. Education and enforcement is key, and we can influence both.
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