Daniel Greenstadt’s article, “Mountain bikes shouldn’t be banned from wild landscapes” (Writers on the Range, 8/7/18), covered all the complaints of the wannabe wilderness bike riders without addressing the reason for their exclusion. Bikes, like all other wheeled vehicles, create a continuous groove in soft earth that serves to channel running water from rain or snowmelt and erode the trail. Given the extreme physical labor needed to produce user-acceptable trails in the wilderness, the 1964 Wilderness Act was prudent in its decision to ban wheeled vehicles.
Walt Briggs
Missoula, Montana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Erosive grooves.
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