H
Hillclimber
Active member
Keeping the forums interesting.
Thanks for the good debate and valid points, on both sides of the fence.
Yes, I'm the problem. I want to groom that trail so I can get all my lazy friends on their 600's in to all your good stuff.
I had a very nice e-mail from a concerned local rider, Since I've got a lot going on right now, I'll share my reply to him rather than reinvent the wheel...
not sure how to post the PDF of the proposed groomed trails. I can e-mail it to PJ if need be.
Thanks for contacting us about the proposed grooming at Spring Creek.
The idea behind the grooming is not to increase the popularity of the area or to give people a highway of groomed trail that leads right to the edge of the wilderness, effectively closing the area. Our intention is quite the opposite.
As a concerned local, you have no doubt heard about the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign. Their plan has been to get the entire Elliot Ridge/Spring Creek area designated as Wilderness. Representative Polis held off on adding the Elliot Ridge area to his legislation, http://www.polis.house.gov/wilderness/ due in a large part to our club's opposition. Polis is waiting until the Hidden Gems organizers can "come to some agreement with the motorized users" before adding Spring Creek back into his legislation. Our fear is that with or without that agreement, Polis will add Elliot Ridge into his legislation right before it is rushed thru Congress.
We have recently been in communication with the organizers of the Hidden Gems campaign and they still have their eyes on taking Elliot Ridge and the Lower Piney area on the other side of the ridge. The HG folks have not had much luck getting motorized area in the other Lower Piney area (by Red and White) due to the fact that the Eagle County Snowmobile Club established a grooming program there a few years ago. Our hope is that if we help the Forest Service with maintaining, grooming and signing the trails (and boundaries) in the area, we can permanently keep Spring Creek from becoming wilderness and keep it open for snowmobiling.
Please see the attached map of the proposed groomed trails. The trails and grooming plan was developed by us in conjunction with the Forest Service. Part of the plan is to bring people further down the lower road which contains a lot of open motorized terrain. The Spring Creek area isn't small at all, it just seems that way when every single track heads the same direction and most head right out past the wilderness boundary. We rode the area yesterday and were surprised to find a lot of untracked snow in the lower areas below the ridge. We broke trail on the lower road thru snow that hasn't been ridden all year. Our long term goal is to drop over the ridge and groom trails down into the Sheephorn Gulch area of Lower Piney. There is at least 40 miles of trails over there with some great snowmobiling areas. Hopefully by expanding over there we can also help protect that area from becoming Wilderness.
Can grooming in the area increase the usage of the area and potential abuse in the wilderness? Yes but we've been working with the Forest Service and the Friends of the Eagle Nest Wilderness Group to install and maintain the new signs along the wilderness. With some persuasion, hopefully the Forest Service will let us install more signs along the boundary to help educate the idiots. We can really use the help of other concerned snowmobilers like you educating people about the importance of respecting that boundary.
We have pledged to the Friends of the Eagle Nest volunteers that we will do whatever we can to help with signage and educate riders to stay out of the wilderness. Since they volunteer inside they area, they really like having a group volunteering outside the wilderness and helping with the boundary. The Forest Service realizes we can't keep everyone out of the wilderness but appreciates that at least some snowmobilers are trying.
With the recent release of the White River National Forest Travel Management Plan, the areas in Summit County that are legally open to snowmobiling shrunk to 3, all we have left is Montezuma, Spring Creek and a little bit of Tiger road. Betweeen Travel Management and Hidden Gems there's not much left and it's even more important to protect what we have.
Establishing our grooming program isn't easy, it involves a lot of work getting permissions from the Dillon Ranger District and the BLM (which owns the first mile of trail). We have to apply for equipment grants from State Parks, get long term funding to pay for equipment, maintenance and fuel and pay more for club insurance. It's a real pain to organize and it will take a lot of volunteer hours from our members to ride the trails, clear downed trees and get the area ready for grooming. The only reason we are even trying is that we think it's the only chance to keep the area open for the long term.
Thanks for your understanding, give me a call if you have any questions.
Rich Holcroft
President,
High Country Snowmobile Club
Hope this helps clears the air on what our intentions are. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever get support of 100% of the sled community, but we can try to keep things open and see what happens.
Thanks for the good debate and valid points, on both sides of the fence.
Yes, I'm the problem. I want to groom that trail so I can get all my lazy friends on their 600's in to all your good stuff.
I had a very nice e-mail from a concerned local rider, Since I've got a lot going on right now, I'll share my reply to him rather than reinvent the wheel...
not sure how to post the PDF of the proposed groomed trails. I can e-mail it to PJ if need be.
Thanks for contacting us about the proposed grooming at Spring Creek.
The idea behind the grooming is not to increase the popularity of the area or to give people a highway of groomed trail that leads right to the edge of the wilderness, effectively closing the area. Our intention is quite the opposite.
As a concerned local, you have no doubt heard about the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign. Their plan has been to get the entire Elliot Ridge/Spring Creek area designated as Wilderness. Representative Polis held off on adding the Elliot Ridge area to his legislation, http://www.polis.house.gov/wilderness/ due in a large part to our club's opposition. Polis is waiting until the Hidden Gems organizers can "come to some agreement with the motorized users" before adding Spring Creek back into his legislation. Our fear is that with or without that agreement, Polis will add Elliot Ridge into his legislation right before it is rushed thru Congress.
We have recently been in communication with the organizers of the Hidden Gems campaign and they still have their eyes on taking Elliot Ridge and the Lower Piney area on the other side of the ridge. The HG folks have not had much luck getting motorized area in the other Lower Piney area (by Red and White) due to the fact that the Eagle County Snowmobile Club established a grooming program there a few years ago. Our hope is that if we help the Forest Service with maintaining, grooming and signing the trails (and boundaries) in the area, we can permanently keep Spring Creek from becoming wilderness and keep it open for snowmobiling.
Please see the attached map of the proposed groomed trails. The trails and grooming plan was developed by us in conjunction with the Forest Service. Part of the plan is to bring people further down the lower road which contains a lot of open motorized terrain. The Spring Creek area isn't small at all, it just seems that way when every single track heads the same direction and most head right out past the wilderness boundary. We rode the area yesterday and were surprised to find a lot of untracked snow in the lower areas below the ridge. We broke trail on the lower road thru snow that hasn't been ridden all year. Our long term goal is to drop over the ridge and groom trails down into the Sheephorn Gulch area of Lower Piney. There is at least 40 miles of trails over there with some great snowmobiling areas. Hopefully by expanding over there we can also help protect that area from becoming Wilderness.
Can grooming in the area increase the usage of the area and potential abuse in the wilderness? Yes but we've been working with the Forest Service and the Friends of the Eagle Nest Wilderness Group to install and maintain the new signs along the wilderness. With some persuasion, hopefully the Forest Service will let us install more signs along the boundary to help educate the idiots. We can really use the help of other concerned snowmobilers like you educating people about the importance of respecting that boundary.
We have pledged to the Friends of the Eagle Nest volunteers that we will do whatever we can to help with signage and educate riders to stay out of the wilderness. Since they volunteer inside they area, they really like having a group volunteering outside the wilderness and helping with the boundary. The Forest Service realizes we can't keep everyone out of the wilderness but appreciates that at least some snowmobilers are trying.
With the recent release of the White River National Forest Travel Management Plan, the areas in Summit County that are legally open to snowmobiling shrunk to 3, all we have left is Montezuma, Spring Creek and a little bit of Tiger road. Betweeen Travel Management and Hidden Gems there's not much left and it's even more important to protect what we have.
Establishing our grooming program isn't easy, it involves a lot of work getting permissions from the Dillon Ranger District and the BLM (which owns the first mile of trail). We have to apply for equipment grants from State Parks, get long term funding to pay for equipment, maintenance and fuel and pay more for club insurance. It's a real pain to organize and it will take a lot of volunteer hours from our members to ride the trails, clear downed trees and get the area ready for grooming. The only reason we are even trying is that we think it's the only chance to keep the area open for the long term.
Thanks for your understanding, give me a call if you have any questions.
Rich Holcroft
President,
High Country Snowmobile Club
Hope this helps clears the air on what our intentions are. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever get support of 100% of the sled community, but we can try to keep things open and see what happens.
so sad 
Anybody know a good trail-mix? The amount of wilderness that is being created under the current administration is obsessive, punitive, and selfish to say the least. Those freakin greenies ride around in there subarus with "coexist" stickers on them yet they cant live and let live. 
