Horesemen should be lauded, not jeered
I was disappointed with the angle the Rocky Mountain News took in the article about a group of horsemen riding in the Spanish Peaks Wilderness Area (“Rich horsemen get special ticket to ride,” July 21).
The paper calls the riders a “secretive fraternity ... conducting swanky rides.” And one Montana-based “advocate” accuses them of “breaking the rules,” as if they were a bunch of good ol’ boys out to destroy our wilderness areas.
The truth, which was buried in the article, is that “little harm was done to the environment,” they were “very aware and sensitive to wilderness ethics” and when their ride was over it was “hard to tell they had even been through” the wilderness area.
It sounds to me like this group should be applauded, not vilified.
I think the real reason why the Forest Service allowed the Roundup Riders of the Rockies into the wilderness area, yet allegedly would disallow access to a large Boy Scout troop as wilderness advocates argue in the article, is that the Scouts would most likely be unable to scrape together the $15,000.
It seems the Rocky would rather ignore this issue and instead take undeserved pot shots at a private group lawfully enjoying our public lands.
Tom Munson, Littleton