The Four-Wheeler's Companion: The Off-Road Guide to Southwestern BC. 3rd ed.

Allen Soroka is assistant law librarian at the University of British
Columbia Law Library.

A Seattle-based environment group, the Northwest Environment Watch, in
their December 1995 report on logging roads on public lands in the
northwest American states and British Columbia, cautioned that the
number of these roads has nearly doubled since 1960. The group urged a
halt to new construction and the closing of the old roads. British
Columbia has the longest

combined logging-road network in the region, about 305,000 kilometres.
Is it possible to utilize these roads for recreational purposes, to
enjoy the wilderness areas opened up by the roads without destroying the
environment? The Four-Wheeler’s Companion indirectly addresses this
issue.

The book is a useful, readable, and thoroughly enjoyable recreational
guide to many of the southwestern B.C. logging roads. The maps are good,
the photographs are interesting, and the road descriptions meticulous.
More than that, however, the directions and descriptions are suffused
with the author’s enthusiasm for outdoor adventure and care for the
environment. Bostwick encourages the off-road four-wheelers to join
clubs, clean up their campsites, and behave responsibly. There are lots
of technical and safety tips and many stories designed to instruct the
four-wheeler in safe travel besides the detailed trail notes for 72
trips along the backcountry roads. One omission, however: the Personal
Trip List is missing two important items—stout rope and matches or a
lighter.