Club member update on Travel Management

Hello Summit County Snowmobilers,

It's been a little over 2 months since my last e-mail. Since then I have been in touch with Ken Waugh and Paul Semmer of the Dillon Ranger District. I really don't think those guys like snowmobilers. They told me in a packed town hall in Blue River: Too bad, we don't have the money or staff to keep snowmobile trails open, so we are closing them all.

CSA has been very active on our behalf meeting with Scott Fitzwilliams the WRNF supervisor in Glenwood Springs. It seems my last club update e-mail ended up on Scott's desk and he was sympathetic to our concerns. CSA filed an appeal to the Travel Management Plan decision and included our input on the various closures in Summit County.

I have been told by CSA that the result of these meetings and appeal is that the re-designation of the Indiana Gulch and Pennsylvania Gulch open motorized area to restricted has been reversed. This means snowmobilers will still be allowed to legally ride the entire area below Boreas Pass road. The upper Horseshoe Basin of Pennsylvania is still designated as non motorized (as called for in the forest master plan).

In exchange for this reversal, the local ranger district is asking for our help installing no snowmobiling signs where the non motorized boundary is located. Scott Jones the VP of CSA is obtaining the signs from State Parks, so our club can install them later this fall.

In addition to Pennsylvania, I have been told the trail restriction to the Miners Creek area in Frisco has also been restored to open motorized. Looks like we will have to do some exploring up there next winter and figure out the best riding in the few small open motorized areas. (Should be a lot better riding once the dead trees fall.)

There has been no change to Porcupine or Mayflower/McCullough gulches.

This information has come straight from CSA via Scott Fitzwilliams's office; I haven't been notified by the local district of any changes by the local district. My guess is they won't be happy being told what to do by Glenwood, that's their problem.

Our club owes a big thanks to CSA and especially VP Scott Jones for the hard work writing the appeal and negotiating with the Forest service for us. They certainly earned their $22 portion of the club dues this year.

I would like to pursue the club filing a formal proposal to the forest service, amending the forest plan to allow snowmobiling in the upper Horseshoe Basin of Pennsylvania. As I've said many times, the more logical boundary for the non motorized area would be the upper ridge of Red mountain, not Pennsylvania Creek. This forest plan amendment will be a pretty big deal. It would require a NEPA study and hiring someone to help us craft the proposal however I believe there are multiple funding sources which could help us with the costs. I have been in communication with the Town of Blue River to see if they would contribute, since this would be a benefit for all the residents who snowmobile in the area.

In other news, I have recently been getting hassled by the Hidden Gems folks about expanding the Eagles Nest Wilderness further into Elliot Ridge past Mahan Lake and including the back side of the ridge as Wilderness. If anyone thinks this is a good idea, please have a friend smack you in the head, and let me know. Otherwise I will draft a response that says we will support no additional loss of snowmobiling terrain. I already told them if they want to pull the wilderness boundary back to the top of that Sleeping Indian Mountain and the end of the Gore Range, we'll be willing to talk about some boundary adjustments.

I'll keep you posted on final Travel Management Plan results and to see who wants to install some cool no snowmobiling signs. In the mean time, please go to CSA's web site http://www.snowmobilecolo.com/ and renew your club membership for next winter.

Rich Holcroft
President,
High Country Snowmobile Club