Meet the woman who knows Bears Ears best

[Jackson]

Just in case, make sure you bring an ultralight titanium arm-saw next time out.

Now sold by Black Diamond for $350.

 

[Rockskipper]

Just in case, make sure you bring an ultralight titanium arm-saw next time out.

As long as it took to save up for my titanium spork, I could probably never afford one.

$350? Wow. Maybe I should start a Gofundme.

 

[Kishenehn]

As long as it took to save up for my titanium spork, I could probably never afford one.

$350? Wow. Maybe I should start a Gofundme.

Just start a “titanium arm-saw users” Facebook page, and Black Diamond will send you free product to test. ;-)

 

[Rockskipper]

Great idea, but I'd probably want to go light with the photos.

 

[Kishenehn]

You almost lost me early on, but I finished reading through your spiel and actually agree wholeheartedly. I've refrained from posting a lot of trip reports here 'cause they're not "epic," but your post made me realize that many TRs here are not that kind of epic and don't need to be.

I need to install some sort of speed regulator on my keyboard that will kick in whenever I start stream-of-consciousness typing.

But yeah ... the point of all this is that ultimately, the most interesting and rewarding outdoor experiences are almost never the ones that were pre-choreographed to be "epic." The narratives here prove that, in a really good way. I'd much rather hang out with you guys than that attention-seeking Bears Ears Trail-runner.

 

[gnwatts]

I have re-read the Mens Journal article. She never says anything about "epic", the author of the article did. The author is the one playing up her accomplishments. Anyone who writes a book seeks attention, that is how they sell their books.
The person we should be hating on is Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. He is the enemy.

 

[LarryBoy]

Great idea, but I'd probably want to go light with the photos.

OK guys you seriously made me spit water. That's some funny stuff.

On a related note, Black Diamond TOTALLY gave me the homie hookup a couple wks ago. Skis were q year out of warranty and I cracked the core (along with the sidewall and edge). They replaced them for free anyways. Score!

 

[LarryBoy]

I have re-read the Mens Journal article. She never says anything about "epic", the author of the article did. The author is the one playing up her accomplishments. Anyone who writes a book seeks attention, that is how they sell their books.
The person we should be hating on is Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. He is the enemy.

I'm willing to bet a substantial amount of money that Mr Zinke has never actually spent a night in the backcountry. Sometimes I wish we could just drag all these politicians into the backcountry aND force them to actually spend a couple days in all these wonderful places they're endangering.

 

[Rockskipper]

I'm willing to bet a substantial amount of money that Mr Zinke has never actually spent a night in the backcountry. Sometimes I wish we could just drag all these politicians into the backcountry aND force them to actually spend a couple days in all these wonderful places they're endangering.

But...but...Montana's proud of him, and he wears a cowboy hat. It takes a specially-shaped head to wear a cowboy hat. (At least I think so, I never could get my dad to take his off long enough to check.)

I think a couple of days is insufficient. Hows about we drop them off with a few survival items, including a titanium arm saw, and pick them up in a month or two (unless it just slips our minds). @Ben and @Outdoor_Fool know some good spots up in Alaska.

Oh, and we should tranquilize 'em, put a blindfold on 'em, load 'em up in a helichopper, and drop them off where they have no idea where they're at. Kind of like they do to bears, except for the blindfold. We could even radio collar 'em so we know if they're coming back and we need to go out and shoot 'em again.

I bet there's a lot of people that would donate to a cause like that, probably more than to titanium arm saw stuff.

 

[WasatchWill]

I always thought it was funny to see articles like "10 Most Secret Places in Montana."

What I want to see are more trip reports like @WasatchWill taking one of his girls backpacking. Now that's quality. Backpacker and Outside could never match that.

Thanks @Rockskipper. We'll see what next year's adventures are.

 

[Kishenehn]

But...but...Montana's proud of him.

Hey, that hurt! I can assure you that a lot of Montanans are thoroughly ashamed of Mr. Zinke. In fact, I'd hazard that the percentage of Montanans who are ashamed of Zinke is probably higher than the percentage of Utahns who are ashamed of Rob Bishop. Despite the state's libertarian streak, Montanans do love their public lands.

And also, I realized today that Outside Magazine is reading this thread, and that they're decided to taunt us. This afternoon, I received one of their clickbait e-mails with the subject line, "273 Pieces of Essential Winter Gear."

 

[Rockskipper]

Hey, that hurt! I can assure you that a lot of Montanans are thoroughly ashamed of Mr. Zinke. In fact, I'd hazard that the percentage of Montanans who are ashamed of Zinke is probably higher than the percentage of Utahns who are ashamed of Rob Bishop. Despite the state's libertarian streak, Montanans do love their public lands.

And also, I realized today that Outside Magazine is reading this thread, and that they're decided to taunt us. This afternoon, I received one of their clickbait e-mails with the subject line, "273 Pieces of Essential Winter Gear."

I figured you would see that. Having spent time in Bozeman and Livingston, I know there's some pretty concerned people up there. I personally find almost all of Utah's politicians pretty lacking. Actually, I find pretty much all politicians pretty lacking.

But I'm wondering, did that list of essential winter gear include a titanium arm saw? If so, they're reading this for sure.

 

[Kishenehn]

If there's no arm saw on their 273-item list, you need to write them a complaint letter.

 

[WasatchWill]

LONG, LOOONG POST ahead...but hopefully worth it to those who dare read it as it adds greater clarity on my previous posts and where I stand with others in this thread...

I agree with many sentiments put forward in this thread. As others have said, I'm not against lots of other people out enjoying the backcountry. If all did their best to exercise LNT ethics, I'd be happy to share trails with anybody. It's the people that don't care to pack out their TP and leave it hanging on a bush for everyone else to see, or who lazily place a small rock on top of it allowing the odor to permeate the area, or who leave behind other bio-hazardous products, vandalize trees, vandalize rock walls, leave fire-rings full of trash, and the list goes on and on.

There was mention of Coyote Gulch in some posts above and how relatively clean it is for the crowds it now sees. When I took the opportunity to take a trip down through there, it was in 2009 (pre-Instagram and in Facebook's infancy) during a Fall weekend with as perfect weather as could be imagined. My wife and I entered at Crack-in-the-Wall and went all the way up to Jacob Hamblin Arch. We had encountered no more than a dozen people the whole way among various groups. Our target campsite for the night was that iconic spot at the toe of the arch underneath that great alcove there. It was well past sundown before we got there and I was absolutely sure it would be occupied, given how popular the site seemed to be with what few reports and info I could find on it in guidebooks, but we still pushed on. To our amazement, it was fully vacant with nobody around. Knowing it could have been a once-in-a-lifetime chance to camp there with nobody else around on a weekend with such prime weather, we settled in quick.
And nobody, I repeat, nobody passed through our alcove camp from the time that we set up to the time we broke camp mid-morning the next day, despite such a fine weekend. I think now days, this would be much much more improbable.

Anyway...there was no sign of anyone else having been there save a bunch of exposed TP, feminine hygiene products, and the like all scattered about under the bushes between the arch and the alcove. So at least in that spot, I would disagree that it was all that clean. I can only imagine how much more stuff like that might be partially buried in the sand throughout that area given all the growth in popularity it has received with the advent of social media, regardless of the WAG bag requirement there now (when we were there some super-clean, composting toilets had been newly installed (I understand the one closer to the arch couldn't keep with with the crowds in the years to follow and was ultimately burned down by some careless visitors). We only encountered up to another dozen people among various groups going back downstream to another spot we set up camp not far from the confluence with Escalante before heading back up and out crack-in-the-wall. I'll bet if I were to repeat that trip on the same weekend now days, the crowds would far surpass what we encountered back then. And I'll bet encountering a dozen or two others then would have felt like a big crowd to those who were able to experience it a couple decades prior before the Internet was publicly available.

Anyways...enough with that tangent. Now back to an earlier post I made in the thread relative to the OP, where I spoke of some "secret" spots specifically down in what is now Bear Ears National Monument...

With the high concentration of archeological ruins and artifacts within its boundaries, there's a more sensitive nature to BENM than the majority of other public lands areas out there. Yes, most of the thousands upon thousands of artifacts that landscape once held have already been looted and/or put into museums and special collections over the last century and a half. That said, there are a few fully intact artifacts still relatively undisturbed down in BENM such as the following example:





It is unique and isolated spots such as this where I feel the best way to keep them pristine is by keeping them obscure from the masses for as long as possible. It took a ton of detective work for me to not only find where this ancient treasure was precisely located, but also finding a feasible route to it. A big key to that work also required some research using some non-Internet resources, in fact. Only after putting in all my detective work, did I PM a fellow member on the forum here who I knew had done some similar work previously himself to find it, whereby I asked him to confirm my findings to which he graciously did. I then drove down during a colder off-season month with my wife to the beginning of our intended route I had put together and made sure nobody else was there in the vicinity before venturing on.

So Why keep location details of such spots secret from the greater population???

Because:

(A) One can only imagine how viral a spot like that could become if people who've seen it up close in person posted its location details anywhere in a blog post, forum, Instagram, Facebook, etc, especially in a new national monument that's gotten all the attention it has recently and how much more visitation that whole area will likely receive over the coming years. If such crowds intruded upon it, there's no telling what kind of damage it might accidentally, or worse yet, intentionally incur. Too many people in the hunt to build up their collections of as many selfies as they can, in all the photographic hot spots out there that are now ever-viral, only to show-off among social media followers, don't often take the time to truly educate themselves about all the rules and regulations and how to care for the fragile nature of such areas and artifacts. Among the masses, there are some people who simply don't care about their impact on public lands and how it will affect future visitors. Then there are those who don't mean to do harm and are well-meaning, but also don't have the pro-active mindset to educate themselves with LNT ethics and to acquaint themselves with all the rules and regulations designed to preserve and protect such areas. If such a spot like this were to go viral, all it would take is one of those types of people to, however well-meaning, reach down to touch it or even attempt to pick it up, only to have it crumble apart on them. At worst, it could be completely vandalized and destroyed with ill-intent.

And...

(B) Reaching such spots often require going way off trail, route-finding, and navigating obstacles that can be tricky and dangerous, especially for those who aren't experienced with such obstacles and off trail navigation. If such a spot were to go more viral, it could pose greater risks on the less experienced and less prepared intent to go out out to get "their" picture. This in turn puts more of a burden on SAR crews and so on.

So...with all that said, I believe keeping a spot like this "secret" from the masses is not about arrogance, elitism, or whatever. It's about being socially responsible. If someone did some similar amount of work to locate the particular spot I've used as an example above then contacted me privately for a confirmation, I would do so, if I knew I could trust them to treat it with dignity and care and would likewise be socially responsible in how they shared any pictures they took of it and so forth. These last remaining places where archeological artifacts remain well-preserved are probably best served by having their whereabouts only confirmed and/or shared privately among circles of those trusted to have a common desire to respect the fragile nature of such artifacts and a desire to leave them as they are so that others might have the privilege of experiencing such a discovery and sight back into an ancient time and culture.

Also, for me, putting in all the time and work and preparation into finding that artifact, made the experience of actually seeking it out, navigating to it, and discovering for myself in person with all of its surroundings a much more rewarding pay-off than it would have been had a GPS track complete with waypoints and all been given to me. I would not want to rob someone of the opportunity to experience that pay-off and sense of achievement and accomplishment from having to put so much effort to locate its whereabouts, travel there, and navigate around to find it. For me, it was truly like a treasure hunt, putting together all sorts of clues and so on, only the treasure wasn't something of material wealth for me to take home, but simply a special experience made sacred by the reverent, still, calm ambience of the atmosphere combined with the surrounding landscape in a remote location that has preserved that pot for so many hundreds of years now as I pondered how an ancient people were able to sustain a living there without the modern comforts and technologies so many of us are now fortunate to enjoy.

As for other places of a less sensitive nature, I have nothing against sharing pictures of places and general locales for them. I've been inspired to visit so many other areas myself that I likely wouldn't have ever known about had it not been for others TRs, social media posts, etc, and I likewise share in return. BCP is a fantastic community for this. Thanks @Nick! But again, as others have alluded to, there's a difference between sharing pictures captioned with landmark names and general locales leaving viewers to searching out maps and other resources for information about it to put together a trip itinerary aimed at making it a quality experience (in addition to becoming educated on how to safely prepare and gain experience for hiking or otherwise adventuring in the backcountry), versus serving up every detail of a particular area on a silver platter and then actively pushing it out, promoting it, relentlessly sharing it to thousands upon thousands of followers. Those who insist on doing this should put an equal emphasis on LNT ethics and virtues at the forefront of the posts they push out to keep it more socially responsible in my opinion.

Even when location and route details are revealed in a forum TR, a blog post, or a guide-book...most people who get such information from those resources are actively seeking those out, and from what I gather, or among a niche group of followers that are generally more collectively conscious about caring for the places they're seeking to visit or be inspired by. All too many times I see posts in Facebook groups where someone shares an image or set of images and even identifies landmarks, and then people will ask "where is that?" or "how do I get there?" which doesn't make sense to me because a simple self-sufficient google/map search will reveal results showing all the info they're looking for and its more often quicker that waiting for a reply. As another noted, it's about quantity and not quality for so many people now, and they seem to expect to have everything about a particular place or trail all served up and spoon fed to them from a silver platter that they can just download into their phone, load it into GPS, and go rather than putting in any effort to adequately study out maps of an area and known landmarks, followed by time to appropriately plan and prepare a trip to the desired destination equal to the effort to actually do the hike or whatever activity it may be. Too many people just want to "plug and play" to re-create another's experience, and I think this culture of convenience and reliance on others is largely adding to increasing numbers of less responsible, more careless, and lazier visitors that are having a more notable and negative impact on our precious public lands, and other times puts themselves and/or others in danger.

Such an incident happened recently when an elderly couple from Texas had plugged in some simple GPS coordinates for a remote spot in Grand Staircase only to have their rental 2WD sedan take them down a road to it that their car ought not to have gone. Their car got stuck and so they got out and started wandering back up the road, presumably to find help, only to be exposed to the elements and become dangerously dehydrated over the course of several days before they were located and taken into a hospital for treatment.

At any rate, when it comes to overall crowds, I have no fear of not being able to find secluded little jewel spots that I treasure so much for the reverent solitude and tranquility that can be had. I have found that is not often hard to do, even along trails and areas that receive incredible amounts of traffic and visitation. If that weren't the case, I'd strongly consider saving up to seek out scenic plot of land to purchase for the sake of having a quiet space. Thankfully...that's not the case...yet.

So with all of the above said, I absolutely respect and even encourage every one else's right to be out enjoying our public lands, so long as they seek to do it legally, responsibly, and ethically and am all the more happy to advocate, contribute to, and help grow the community that shares this mindset.

 

[JulieKT]

So...with all that said, I believe keeping a spot like this "secret" from the masses is not about arrogance, elitism, or whatever. It's about being socially responsible. If someone did some similar amount of work to locate the particular spot I've used as an example above then contacted me privately for a confirmation, I would do so, if I knew I could trust them to treat it with dignity and care and would likewise be socially responsible in how they shared any pictures they took of it and so forth. These last remaining places where archeological artifacts remain well-preserved are probably best served by having their whereabouts only confirmed and/or shared privately among circles of those trusted to have a common desire to respect the fragile nature of such artifacts and a desire to leave them as they are so that others might have the privilege of experiencing such a discovery and sight back into an ancient time and culture.

...

So with all of the above said, I absolutely respect and even encourage every one else's right to be out enjoying our public lands, so long as they seek to do it legally, responsibly, and ethically and am all the more happy to advocate, contribute to, and help grow the community that shares this mindset.

YES. Thank you. Particularly the two paragraphs above, but absolutely everything you said in your post. Thank you for saying so eloquently exactly what I was thinking.

 

[wsp_scott]

I believe keeping a spot like this "secret" from the masses is not about arrogance, elitism, or whatever. It's about being socially responsible.

I think this is the idea behind the "8th LNT principle". You spell out perfectly the point behind this idea. Thanks

 

[Rockskipper]

Great response, @WasatchWill and that's a beautiful pot.

 

[Junipers333]

My letter to the editor :
To whom it may concern:

I came across the recent Men’s Journal article, “Meet the Woman Who Knows Bears Ears Best” which highlighted Morgan Sjogren and her recent upcoming guidebook The Best Bears Ears National Monument Hikes, being published by Mountaineers Books with support from Colorado Mountain Club.

After reading the article, I was curious who Morgan Sjogren was and intrigued. I viewed her webpage, Twitter, and Instagram account. What I read and gathered from her writings and photographs, was not exactly what I had hoped to see. To say the least, I was very disappointed in how she is promoting Bears Ears National Monument in rural Utah.

Sjogren has a very powerful position with the task of writing a guide book for a controversial area and her media presence. What concerns me most is that she has very little to say about the importance of these archaeological and cultural sites and the native culture located within Bears Ears. She barely mentions any ethics of how to treat archaeological sites. I read very little mention of leaving no trace hiking/camping ethics, not destroying crypto-biological soil, not touching the walls of ruins, not entering ruins unless you are permitted to, not touching rock art, and/or not removing any pieces of pottery or any other artifact on her social media. Her photos and writings are tacky, immature, nonprofessional, and even incorrect in some places. Her push for corporate sponsorship is adding to the ridiculousness and is what makes people not take her seriously. Is she really concerned about the protection of Bears Ears National Monument or is she more concerned about selling items with Patagonia, Sufferfest Beer Company, REI, or La Sportiva?

With big media and Sjogren’s Instagram account having over 19,000 followers, this is only going to bring more and more attention to this highly sensitive area. It creates impacts beyond what we will ever know for now and the future generations. These companies that stand behind her she hold her accountable that she is advocating for Bears Ears in the ut-most ethical and mindful sense. I demand that she write the guide book with the highest standards and showcasing the proper respect of visiting of these sites. She hardly even mentions the cultural aspect and native voices that are involved in this controversial subject. I highly suggest she pays the utmost respect to the Native tribes of the Ute, Navajo, Zuni, and others in the area who have called this place home way before us.

After viewing her Instagram photos, I came across at least four photos were Sjogren was climbing out of a ruin via ladder, stepping in the doorway of a ruin, entering a ruin, and holding a large piece of pottery. I was able to recognize some of these ruins and locations, as I live in the area and have visited Cedar Mesa several times. Sjogren failed to mention in her posts that this was a legal place to do so. She failed to mention any sort of ethic of how to protect and respect ruins or archaeological artifacts. If the common lay person, does not know or understand the rules of archaeological sites, they might assume that is actually OK to behave in a similar manner among archaeological sites. Sjogren is not setting a good example.

It is well known that Bears Ears does not have the resources or law enforcement to protect the rich and sensitive archaeological sites for such a huge area, especially in this time of government budget cuts. This is public land and for all of us. I do not want to see our ruins, rock art, or other artifacts get destroyed. Once we lose them, we have lost these treasures forever, as they are irreplaceable.

As Erin Alberty states in her Salt Lake City Tribune article, "This used to be a place that almost no one knew of, with no name and minimal human impact. But things change fast. Social media makes an easy brag of every adventure. We want to share the excitement, to be helpful, to inspire, to develop community with other fun-seekers. Much has been made of Instagram’s role in driving unmanageable crowds to remote natural wonders.” Certainly a newspaper/magazine article/ or Instagram Photo of Sjogren climbing around a ruin could do the same.

• Please work closely with the Bureau of Land Management-Monticello Field Office to ensure that GPS points and exact locations of highly sensitive rock art or ruins that are protected under federal land are not published for the public. Please include in the guide book information pertaining to the The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (ARPA).

Thank you for your time and hopefully Megan Sjogren can portray herself more professionaly with these complex issues.
A concerned citizen and public land lover,

Crystal
Please read these following articles as well:
http://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/ou...bears-ears-better-than-anyone-living-or-dead/
http://www.terraincognitamedia.com/features/cultural-appropriation-in-the-outdoors-bears-ears2017
http://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/ou...s-a-natural-wonder-too-secret-to-write-about/
https://thepetroglyph.com/the-running-bum-lost-in-the-bears-ears-national-monument-area-27b306ea8c7c

 

[Rockskipper]

Bravo - well done!

 

[LarryBoy]

My letter to the editor :
To whom it may concern:

I came across the recent Men’s Journal article, “Meet the Woman Who Knows Bears Ears Best” which highlighted Morgan Sjogren and her recent upcoming guidebook The Best Bears Ears National Monument Hikes, being published by Mountaineers Books with support from Colorado Mountain Club.

After reading the article, I was curious who Morgan Sjogren was and intrigued. I viewed her webpage, Twitter, and Instagram account. What I read and gathered from her writings and photographs, was not exactly what I had hoped to see. To say the least, I was very disappointed in how she is promoting Bears Ears National Monument in rural Utah.

Sjogren has a very powerful position with the task of writing a guide book for a controversial area and her media presence. What concerns me most is that she has very little to say about the importance of these archaeological and cultural sites and the native culture located within Bears Ears. She barely mentions any ethics of how to treat archaeological sites. I read very little mention of leaving no trace hiking/camping ethics, not destroying crypto-biological soil, not touching the walls of ruins, not entering ruins unless you are permitted to, not touching rock art, and/or not removing any pieces of pottery or any other artifact on her social media. Her photos and writings are tacky, immature, nonprofessional, and even incorrect in some places. Her push for corporate sponsorship is adding to the ridiculousness and is what makes people not take her seriously. Is she really concerned about the protection of Bears Ears National Monument or is she more concerned about selling items with Patagonia, Sufferfest Beer Company, REI, or La Sportiva?

With big media and Sjogren’s Instagram account having over 19,000 followers, this is only going to bring more and more attention to this highly sensitive area. It creates impacts beyond what we will ever know for now and the future generations. These companies that stand behind her she hold her accountable that she is advocating for Bears Ears in the ut-most ethical and mindful sense. I demand that she write the guide book with the highest standards and showcasing the proper respect of visiting of these sites. She hardly even mentions the cultural aspect and native voices that are involved in this controversial subject. I highly suggest she pays the utmost respect to the Native tribes of the Ute, Navajo, Zuni, and others in the area who have called this place home way before us.

After viewing her Instagram photos, I came across at least four photos were Sjogren was climbing out of a ruin via ladder, stepping in the doorway of a ruin, entering a ruin, and holding a large piece of pottery. I was able to recognize some of these ruins and locations, as I live in the area and have visited Cedar Mesa several times. Sjogren failed to mention in her posts that this was a legal place to do so. She failed to mention any sort of ethic of how to protect and respect ruins or archaeological artifacts. If the common lay person, does not know or understand the rules of archaeological sites, they might assume that is actually OK to behave in a similar manner among archaeological sites. Sjogren is not setting a good example.

It is well known that Bears Ears does not have the resources or law enforcement to protect the rich and sensitive archaeological sites for such a huge area, especially in this time of government budget cuts. This is public land and for all of us. I do not want to see our ruins, rock art, or other artifacts get destroyed. Once we lose them, we have lost these treasures forever, as they are irreplaceable.

As Erin Alberty states in her Salt Lake City Tribune article, "This used to be a place that almost no one knew of, with no name and minimal human impact. But things change fast. Social media makes an easy brag of every adventure. We want to share the excitement, to be helpful, to inspire, to develop community with other fun-seekers. Much has been made of Instagram’s role in driving unmanageable crowds to remote natural wonders.” Certainly a newspaper/magazine article/ or Instagram Photo of Sjogren climbing around a ruin could do the same.

• Please work closely with the Bureau of Land Management-Monticello Field Office to ensure that GPS points and exact locations of highly sensitive rock art or ruins that are protected under federal land are not published for the public. Please include in the guide book information pertaining to the The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (ARPA).

Thank you for your time and hopefully Megan Sjogren can portray herself more professionaly with these complex issues.
A concerned citizen and public land lover,

Crystal
Please read these following articles as well:
http://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/ou...bears-ears-better-than-anyone-living-or-dead/
http://www.terraincognitamedia.com/features/cultural-appropriation-in-the-outdoors-bears-ears2017
http://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/ou...s-a-natural-wonder-too-secret-to-write-about/
https://thepetroglyph.com/the-running-bum-lost-in-the-bears-ears-national-monument-area-27b306ea8c7c

That's a heck of a first post. Welcome and I couldn't agree more.