walterbyrd

Hard for me to believe that I have just discovered this guy.

“Let our people travel light and free on their bicycles—nothing on the back but a shirt, nothing tied to the bike but a slicker, in case of rain.” ― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness

“A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles.” ― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quo...8.Edward_Abbey

easyupbug 

“The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. ”
― Edward Abbey

His best book: The Monkey Wrench Gang

Polaris OBark

One of my favorites:

Polaris OBark

AnotherEdward Abbey aphorism to live by:

Steve B.

Well, his best fiction no doubt. Desert Solitare is maybe is best book. Required reading if you plan on any trips to the US SW.

Polaris OBark

Then there is this:

veganbikes

Good Ole' Ed Abbey, such a good dude.So many great quotes but I won't share them here I am sure the GoodReads link has a lot of them already but stir things up bit don't let the scum float to the top...

Rolla

Vox Clamantis in Deserto is a great collection of his many aphorisms; among them is, "Nobody has so many friends that he can afford to lose one," which I've always liked.

Koyote

Black Sun is a very good little novel, and a bit unlike Abbey’s other works. It’s autobiographical, and my old friend’s mother is the basis for one of the characters. (She and Abbey were an item back in the ‘60s.)

But yeah, Desert Solitaire is a classic, and helped inspire me to spend large chunks of my 20s and early 30s roaming around the Southwest.

boozergut

Growth for the sake of growth, the ideology of the cancer cell.

boozergut

Every time I loan someone that book I never get it back.

Joe Bikerider

Not not sure where this came from in a bike site but I am all in. I love his writing. Solitaire is his best IMO. Reinforces my hate of mountain bikers however. I think watching and listening is a much better idea than zooming and showing off what you think of as style.

thumpism 

Regarding one character's failed ambitions: "If he hadn't followed his pr*ck all over the Southwest he'd have a bishopric of his own."

Polaris OBark

I can't remember if it is in that book [edit: it is. On-line version here], but he has an essay called something like The Rise of Industrial Tourism. He wrote an obituary for Moab that proved to be alarmingly prescient.

I still love Moab, but it is unrecognizable compared even to 20 years ago, let alone when I first set foot there in 1982.

rsbob 

Hate is such a healthy and unifying emotion. Make sure to nurture and embrace it as it what brings this country and its people together. Hate is not knowing or wanting to understand.

Am sure there is a percentage of MTB folks that despise Lycra clad entitled road bikers because they don’t want to understand either. No one has a corner on hate. I do both and love both for very different reasons. PS: I don’t zoom or show off my lack of style.

Rolla

You and this guy should get together; you're both a load of laughs (or a load of something, anyway):

Koyote

Yep, this. First time I hiked out to Delicate Arch at sunset (in the mid '80s), there were a few people out there with me, and we all sat quietly at a respectful distance; last time my wife and I did the hike, there were about 100 people out there. I think we witnessed one (maybe two) marriage proposals, and it was impossible to get a good photo, as people were endlessly posing under the arch for selfies and portraits.

I've had umpteen experiences like that in the canyon country: places that used to be wide open that now require permits (some of which are doled out through lottery systems), some places are just closed off, some are just too crowded to enjoy. It's sad.

But its me 

Not bike related, but my favorite:

All men are brothers, we like to say, half-wishing sometimes in secret it were to true. But perhaps it is true. And is the evolutionary line from protozoan to Spinoza any less certain? That also may be true. We are obliged, therefore, to spread the news, painful and bitter though it may be for some to hear, that all living things on earth are kindred.

Point

I can relate. Last time at Delicate Arch a member of our party yelled a request that everybody clear out from under the arch so we could get a photo. Actually, everyone complied for a few minutes.

First trip there here in the mid/late 80’s there were 4 people on the Slickrock Trail, and I knew two of them.

As for an E. Abbey quote, I’ll throw out “Any town with more churches than bars has got a serious social problem”

Steve B.

When you consider all the 4 wheel drive expeditions Abbey did, I think he'd have loved mt, biking, if only the need to actually break out a sweat to get anywhere. Ed didn't seem overly concerned about such things as trail erosion and such when he was needing to get someplace like the Maze or up a mt. valley.

Fredo76

"Where are the restrooms?"
"Where's the Coke machine?"
"How long does it take to see this place?"

dmanders

Ain't that the truth. I first visited in 1981. Now I view Moab as "the big city" on my trips to Canyonlands.