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Show THE ZEPHYR/DECEMBER 2003-JANUARY A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS 2004 DEPARTMENT THIS 1S ‘NON-MOTORIZED’ RECREATION| THE 9TH ANNUAL ‘24 HOURS OF MO AB’ BIKE RACE The 9th annual '24 Hours of Moab' bicycle race occurred on October 18-19, just ten miles south of Moab, near the Behind the Rocks at the top of Blue Hill. The 12 mile race course comes within a fraction of a mile of proposed Utah Even a wide angle lens could not capture the size of '24 Hour City.’ It extends both north and south from this vantage point. Wilderness Coalition wilderness areas. Race organizers estimated that as many as 7000 people participated in this event, and clearly, the vast majority were spectators, not participants. And our estimate is that perhaps as many as 2000 vehicles--mostly SUVs and motor-homes were parked off -road and camped for the event. The Vortex of '24 Hour City.’ This race course comes very close to proposed wilderness; from 1995 to 1998, the course DID invade Utah Wilderness Coalition acreage. In 1998, the UWC withdrew the land as potential wilderness, although SUWA maintains that the withdrawl had nothing to do with the '24 Hours’ event. In addition, much of the course Is run on ‘user-created! roads, which the UWC does not recognize as roads at alll. The registration tent. No one from any Utah environmental group monitored this event. The Zephyr hopes the UWC will re-instate the lands it once considered worthy of wilderness designation...JS Entrance to '24 Hour City' from US 191. It was possible to hear the public address announcer, even from here, a mile away. "We are sponsored in part by...Honda Eclipse! And now just 20 minutes fo go to the start of the racell!" (followed by huge roar of the crowd...you can almost feel the wilderness shudder in fear and disbelief. : PAGE7 The race begins... |