Trail Recon...

JimLee

Hooked
Gotta do it for the clicks, likes and sub’s. Semper I!
A ton of others on YouTube boners do it as well or even worse. Convincing viewers to buy into their patreon or only fans accounts to gain access to a list of coordinates.
Yup, we had a few good trails around the edge of Death Valley that we could do on weekends and almost never run into any other traffic. A few youtubers put out video's of these trails telling everyone "you have to go!" with directions after running them with a local club. Now you can run into traffic jams on these trails and the amount of things being destroyed and graffiti/ trash is through the roof. I'm totally not against people doing trails and enjoying themselves as we do, but at least make them do the research themselves, I think having to put any effort into it helps weed out some of the "trash".
 
What is with this Trail Recon guy posting coordinates on the web of trails? Do any of you know this guy?
Yes I do know Brad personally. The coordinates he posts and shares are ones either already posted publicly online or in trails books. Which I wish none of it was posted at al but… is what it is I guess. The internet has fucked up a lot things for everyone including the off-road community.
 

BlueRubicon

Caught the Bug
Yes I do know Brad personally. The coordinates he posts and shares are ones either already posted publicly online or in trails books. Which I wish none of it was posted at al but… is what it is I guess. The internet has fucked up a lot things for everyone including the off-road community.
Thanks Casey, your a solid guy and care about the 'community' so if you know him and are not talking shit about him, he must be a solid guy too.
 

ScottofKSU

Caught the Bug
I don't know Brad (i.e., Trailrecon) personally, but I message back and forth with him from time to time. I will mention something to him... I fear that nothing can stop this issue, but it can hopefully at least be slowed... Seems our ranks (i.e., offroaders) have been infiltrated by folks who "don't get it"... Other than helping trails remain secret by not divulging their location, how do we stop this? I have seen graffiti in natural places and it sickens me. I thought about carying graffiti removing chemicals with me off-roading so I can clean up the graffiti I find while out, but I fear doing more damage trying to clean it up (e.g., killing lichen and native mosses, etc.) than I would just leaving it...
 
Thanks Casey, your a solid guy and care about the 'community' so if you know him and are not talking shit about him, he must be a solid guy too.
Yeah I don’t agree with sharing these locations even if they’re already posted but I can tell you he’s not doing anything with malicious intent. I think deep down he’s really passionate about off-roading and he wants to share that with everyone. Sometimes it’s misplaced.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Yes I do know Brad personally. The coordinates he posts and shares are ones either already posted publicly online or in trails books. Which I wish none of it was posted at al but… is what it is I guess. The internet has fucked up a lot things for everyone including the off-road community.
I have to say, I totally disagree with you on this. Just because things are already posted publicly online or in trail books doesn't mean that you have to be a part of the problem too. The whole "it is what it is" IS the problem and why things are as fucked up as they are.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah I don’t agree with sharing these locations even if they’re already posted but I can tell you he’s not doing anything with malicious intent. I think deep down he’s really passionate about off-roading and he wants to share that with everyone. Sometimes it’s misplaced.
You don't need to have malicious intent to be doing something wrong. Your defense of actions like this is misplaced.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
I don't know Brad (i.e., Trailrecon) personally, but I message back and forth with him from time to time. I will mention something to him... I fear that nothing can stop this issue, but it can hopefully at least be slowed... Seems our ranks (i.e., offroaders) have been infiltrated by folks who "don't get it"... Other than helping trails remain secret by not divulging their location, how do we stop this? I have seen graffiti in natural places and it sickens me. I thought about carying graffiti removing chemicals with me off-roading so I can clean up the graffiti I find while out, but I fear doing more damage trying to clean it up (e.g., killing lichen and native mosses, etc.) than I would just leaving it...
You can help stop it by not being a part of the problem. When you have a LOT of people paying attention to what you're doing, you can teach others how to be good stewards of the trails. This as opposed to just telling everyone how to get places.
 
You don't need to have malicious intent to be doing something wrong. Your defense of actions like this is misplaced.
Sorry. Didn’t mean for it to come across as such. Just wanted to explain my experience with the guy. I completely am against sharing that kind of info even if it’s already made public. Apologies of it came across differently.
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
There are places
Sorry. Didn’t mean for it to come across as such. Just wanted to explain my experience with the guy. I completely am against sharing that kind of info even if it’s already made public. Apologies of it came across differently.
You have your personal experiences with me as well and I hope that you understand how passionate I am about preserving these places. I am absolutely heartbroken from the destruction that I have seen in just recent years and yeah, I do blame it on things like social media. There's a BIG difference between having to pick up a book or even do research online to find places and watching a YouTube video that will tell you where everything is. To me, this is flat out wrong. You know full well that I would be happy to take you with me to special places BUT would NEVER make a video telling everyone how to get there. Granted, I am getting old and maybe nobody really cares anymore.
 

WJCO

Meme King
I remember the days not all that long ago, when Wayalife was pretty much the only Jeep/offroad channel on YouTube and it was all about the adventure (still is). Before all of these other posers showed up just trying to make a buck. YouTube has too many whores now.
 
There are places

You have your personal experiences with me as well and I hope that you understand how passionate I am about preserving these places. I am absolutely heartbroken from the destruction that I have seen in just recent years and yeah, I do blame it on things like social media. There's a BIG difference between having to pick up a book or even do research online to find places and watching a YouTube video that will tell you where everything is. To me, this is flat out wrong. You know full well that I would be happy to take you with me to special places BUT would NEVER make a video telling everyone how to get there. Granted, I am getting old and maybe nobody really cares anymore.
1000% and it’s a big reason that I came here and enjoy staying and, why like many here I am grateful that you do take us to these places. It’s also bothersome to me that this info is even made public at all. You made very good point that I didn’t even think of or consider in your second post about how to combat this kind of stuff. Which is why I enjoy having these conversations and when you offer up your thoughts, I respect them.

I do know you personally and I’m grateful for that friendship and the fact that we can have these exchanges because I always learn something.
 
I remember the days not all that long ago, when Wayalife was pretty much the only Jeep/offroad channel on YouTube and it was all about the adventure (still is). Before all of these other posers showed up just trying to make a buck. YouTube has too many whores now.
Yup. Couldn’t agree more. It’s a feed full of sellouts.
 
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