DAY 23: DINOSAUR HEADS & SHARKS - From Nez Perce to Homestake, Montana - Today we started out early thinking that it was going to be a long day in the saddle followed by a short bushwhack. The morning was chilly and the trees hidden in mist. As we climbed the sun came out and the firs turned into green crystal and the undergrowth hit by rays of light were coated with tiny shining crystals. The forest areas that we passed through were more open and filled with giant gray piles of boulders some almost neatly stacked others a jumbled pile shaped by time and weather into wonderful, fanciful shapes. Here a great white shark with blunt snout and beady eye, another a giant dinosaur head, monstrous mushrooms, and upended stacks of huge petrified cookie wafers. For a child or those of us who never want to grow up it was a paradise for climbing and fort building.

The bushwhacking on horseback was fun but involved a certain amount of leading the horses - for the safety of the horses. Some of the stuff was REALLY steep! Mickey not only proved himself to be very sure on his feet but also behaved perfectly throughout the day.

We rode today with John Favro, US Forest Service Region 1 (Northern District) and Eric Tolf, Recreation and Trails, Jefferson Ranger District, Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. As we rode I thought about the complaints I often hear from different recreation communities about land managers. Because of these complaints the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (NOHVCC) offers at its Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) workshops a session on “Government 101, Land Managers are People Too.” Too often the public does not look beyond the agency or the uniform and recognize that land managers are people just trying to do their job to the best of their ability.

Throughout the Journey I have discussed with each of the land managers we have met what recreation opportunities are offered in their areas, what are the primary concerns and what actions are being taken to address these concerns. Almost all have considered off-highway recreation activities as one of their primary concerns. The majority, and this is true throughout the country, can only offer to the OHV public existing routes to ride and drive on. These routes are almost all roads developed for access to private property, mines, and timber harvest, as service roads for management purposes, or user-generated for recreation riding/driving, hunting or fishing. Few if any of any areas routes are designed, constructed, maintained and evaluated to offer quality recreation and address environmental concerns. What I find particularly frustrating is that even when concerns are known and collaborative solutions possible planning processes or budget constraints allow little or nothing to be done. And the results of inaction are dissatisfied, poorly served recreation publics, unnecessary resource impacts and increasing conflict. From the Journey, dana