Wilderness designated by Congress occupies just 2.7 percent of the Lower 48 states, yet mountain bikers have convinced Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee that their sport fits into areas deliberately set aside from motorized or mechanized intrusions. Wilderness advocate Kevin Proescholt warns that bikers are not alone in wanting in: Rock climbers, trail runners, paragliders and recreational pilots all want their piece of the wilderness pie. But as the writer Wallace Stegner put it, "Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed…”
Opinion: Mountain bikers push to ride through wilderness
