How a ski resort effectively removed riding Blackwood Canyon for many of us.

[koolaid]

For those who don't know, Blackwood Canyon is a great snowmobile riding area on the west shore of Tahoe near Homewood ski resort. For decades, we'd go there 3-4 times a season from the Reno area, stop at the Bridgetender in Tahoe City on the way home, great days!

It is now, a complete sh*show to try and get there. Simply put, the traffic back up on 89 from those going to Palisades makes it no longer worth the effort. Expect 1.5-2 hour delays on weekends just to get to Tahoe City. It's sad that a ski resort is allowed to cause that much congestion to a major road with no relief in sight.

Blackwood will go back to the locals around the lake and although there is nothing wrong with that, I wish it wasn't that way.

 

[Pickin’ Boogers]

It’ll be closed for real soon enough. The Pacific Crest Trail runs right through it and the USFS is closing a corridor from Canada to Mexico, 1000ft to either side of the trail

 

[volcano buster]

It’ll be closed for real soon enough. The Pacific Crest Trail runs right through it and the USFS is closing a corridor from Canada to Mexico, 1000ft to either side of the trail

Can you provide more details on this?
This would affect a couple more states if true.

 

[Zrider]

Yeah Raymond, trying to get up to the high country from Reno on the weekends ain't fun, so we normally hit it during the week when most folks are earning a paycheck. Even then, we run into delays. If I-80 West from Reno gets wet, it doesn't take much to cause a major CF. And when the chain controls go up, forget it. Stopped traffic(and long waits) are now a given. Keeps getting worse each season.

 

[Pickin’ Boogers]

Can you provide more details on this?
This would affect a couple more states if true.

The Pacific Crest Trail Association and the usual "Alliance" organizations are using the Travel Management process to close 1000ft to either side of the PCT. Travel Management occurs forest-by-forest, so it's being done in relatively small chunks that aren't very noticeable. Look at any forest that's done Winter Travel Management recently (Lassen, Tahoe, and Stanislaus are examples) and you'll see closures along the PCT.

They're starting it in California where they know there will be agreeable judges, then will use that precedent for similar closures elsewhere along the PCT. Then other National Scenic Trails will go through the same thing. Prepare to say goodbye to anything near the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail and the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Any other summer trails being managed as non-motorized will eventually be threatened by this scheme.

In the below OSV map for the Tahoe National Forest, green is closed, brown is open (the USFS likes to use counterintuitive color coding to keep things simple). All the numbered spots are PCT "crossings" where the Alliances will get the USFS to post signs and possibly bamboo jungles to mark very specific crossings. Now do that from Canada to Mexico, and then a few years later on the other National Scenic Trails. The Alliances are already building a group of volunteers and a few paid staff to police it, and a reporting app to submit "evidence" to the USFS. https://winterwildlands.org/rims-app-winter-training/

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, which is actually a National Forest of its own, has yet to go through Winter Travel Management. They released some info prior to COVID that made it clear Blackwood/Barker Pass will close because the PCT runs through it. If I remember right Barker Pass Rd itself remained open as one of the PCT crossings, but no off trail riding to disrupt the peace and love of all the PCT thru-skiers. The LTBMU is just starting up this process again post-COVID.