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Show THE ZEPHYR/DECEMBER 2003-JANUARY 2004 THE FUTURE FEEDBACK The Readers A REPTILE BY ANY OTHER Your “future retrospective” article (Return to Moab, 2089AD...... Redux) describes not 2 decades. the future in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, but the reality of the last nearly Respond NAME... Dear Jim, The plea from Chad Arment of Landisville, PA, for information about sighting of unusual reptiles leaves me unclear regarding the area of interest; that is whether he expects readers from the Zephyr's area to respond with info about reptiles in Pennsylvania or about mysterious reptiles in the Moab region. In greater Utah, there are several species of unusual reptiles known as snakes in the grass. Among them are Governor The Honorable [please fill in the full name] Leavitt, Senator The Honorable Orrin Hatch, Retired Representative The Honorable Jim Hansen [check me on name], Retired Senator The Honorable [can't remember IS HERE... Dear Jim, the bad bastard's name now took the freebie to space station, please fill in and list more Reps or Sens as you like, retired or current also]. There are also numerous toadies found in the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service [please fill in names of the Utah bureaus negative to the environment, the wilderness, etc.] Lest your readers think it too crazy to be possible, let me describe it a bit. If you wish to be permitted to run the Colorado River through Grand Canyon on your own, that dream-of-a-lifetime for many backcountry enthusiasts, you may only apply during the month of February. Your check for $100 gains you a spot behind approximately 8200 others hopeful permittees for an assured trip date that will launch 20 years from now. that is the Park Service’’s projection. And you better be conscientious That is not a typo: about reminding the Park Service every year that you still want to take the someday. Skip 2 years of reminders, and you’re off the list to start over (no trip refunds.) That list of 8200 decreases by about 260 per year who finally get their permit to run the river, while another 100 or so cancel, die, whatever. But, you say, you see photos of plenty of young folks (anyone waiting 20 years to get there won’t be young) crashing waves on huge motor-driven boats splashed with big lettering in ads and on public television documentaries. Yes, easily done if you have plenty of cash pricey trips catering to the top 10% of American earners can be had virtually anytime you want. Fifteen Grand Canyon river concessionaires have successfully locked up 75% (or 90%, depending on how you look at the numbers) of the access to that most glorious of river trips, with the full complicity of the Park Service. There is some small hope for do-ityourselfers on the horizon now, with an ongoing Colorado River Management Plan redevelopment. Will it be business as usual, or will there be some real change? The solution to this problem is not difficult......simply funnel all river running hopefuls into one line, a reservation-based allocation-free system, where the permit comes first, entirely divorced from method of travel (with a guide, with an outfitting company, with Chuck Miller, Mt. Prospect, IL some rented gear, or completely on your own.) There still may be a long line for entry, but it will be blind to ability to pay, with all comers getting their equal, and assured turn. And your point about unholy alliances between the commercial recreational industry NEVER ARGUE WITH A RAILROAD HISTORY BUFF and the large enviro organizations is well taken. In fact, itis already quite evident. In the Jim, without exception, rich folks themselves), been introduced to the joys of the river in Grand Canyon? By their concessionaire friends in those large motorized boats on taShivips.<.2.. just the way those important people want to see it...... sanitized, painless, nicely packaged into week-long trips to better suit their busy schedules, complete with gourmet meals and a case of the Grand Canyon, how have the large enviro groups’” board members (almost The train photo on Pg. 23 of The Zephyr was taken in Silverton, Colorado. The Denver and Rio Grande Western was the only line operating there after WW II. The Cumbres and Toltec is a tourist line on that operates between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico over Cumbres Pass. It was developed in about 1978 with funding from the two couple of guided side canyon hikes. This effectively biases those influential people to have states and operated on a D&RGW avery commercialized view of use in Grand Canyon, and by extension, elsewhere. After all, it’s almost impossible to have a “Gad” trip only good, better, and best. narrow gauge grade with refurbished equipment and gallant purpose and was called the Cumbres and Toltec extension (of the D&RGW) and it's still running which is good. Your vision of 2039 is already here, well ahead of schedule in that grandest of Canyons. Thank you for an outstanding edition of a fine publication. This photo could have been taken in 1948, since the web page photo shows Herb Ringer in Durango at that date. It was surely taken before 1953 when a statue of Christ (hand carved from Italian Carrera Marble) was placed on the hill side in the background (Anvil Mountain), as a plea to the divine to reopen the mines in the area. It worked, for a while, but that's another story. The railroad now runs as the "Durango and Silverton Narrow Yours for the river, Jo Johnson Boulder, CO Gauge Railroad" and is as fine a ride between two towns full of gift shops as there is Co-Director anywhere. River Runners for Wilderness, There was a remarkable network of Narrow Gauge railroads operating around southern ~ Colorado and No. New Mexico, which have been documented (A project of Living Rivers, Moab, UT) in a series published by Sundance Books.They were doomed by General Motors, General Eisenhower and the Navajo Reservoir. I'm sure no train historian, but my uncle lifted me up into the cab of a Nevada City Narrow Gauge RR engine in 1943 (just before it went to the scrap heap as it turned out) and I never could get that cinder out of my eye. DITTO—MORE ON ‘RETURN TO MOAB: 2039 AD” FROM SCOTT SILVER Jim - I much enjoyed "Return to MOAB 2039 AD ... Redux", but fear you are being too much the optimist. 2039 is many years away and while your extrapolation appears to be linear, These photographs and the Zephyr are great. Regards, an exponential extrapolation would likely be more predictive. Don Bachman, Bozeman, MT From my own experience, it's not until Wal-Mart come to town that the process of growth really starts to zoom. To many would-be Moabians, the thought of settling in SE Utah is still too exotic, too challenging and, most likely, too darned Mormon. Where, would one shop and where would one meet the right kind of people with whom one could associate??? But if ever those executives in Benton Arkansas determine Moab's time has NY MIDDLE EASTERN \ if 7, (Cdl 4, (— al gin Jj COW CANYON TRADING POST : ‘\ Me i : “FRESH IS THE ONLY WAY TO. ENSURE TRULY *\) = DELICIOUS MIDDLE EASTERN FLAVOR: PENS . MONDAY-SATURDAY MAM TO 9PM BLUFF, UTAH 435.672.2208 _ 1515 SOUTH 1500 EAST SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 801.484.9259 PAGE3O | Our Traditional Holiday Message... IT’S WINTER TIME... "Just knock a little louder |
