Who's responsible in McCall?

[westsledin]

I have to say, that I expected a lot more out of the trail systems around the McCall area after having to pay $32 per sled (4 sleds).

We rode out of Bear Creek Lodge and there was not one trail marking up! Being new to the area, and wanting to do a lot of riding, we ended up spending most of the time making sure we didn't get lost.

With the family wanting to ride, it is/was very hard to tell the kids we don't know where we are going and having to back track where ever you went because you didn't know where you would end up.

I fault the folks who should have put the trail markings out. There is/was no reason they aren't/weren't out!

If there is someone on here that can pass on to me whom I should send a letter of disappointment to, please pm me with that information.


Rich

 

[TreewellDweller]

I have to agree with you. I have only been out 3 times this season and I have yet to see a sign or a groomed trail. I went into Warren the Wednesday before Christmas, went out of Titus(Upper Elevation) Parking lot this last Thursday and today. The trail today was as bad as it was 3 years ago in the spring after a totalling disappointing year of grooming. That's about as bad as I've seen it in the 8 years I've been riding here. After visiting with a friend or two, it seems that the Francis Wallace Parking area was packed along with the Titus Parking area which means a lot of sleds were on the trails today. It sounded like the trail to Secesh, and possibly Warren, was in pretty good shape but anything off of them hadn't been touched. I agree that the Brundage side of the system hadn't been touched in days, if not a week or so. I looked at some of the threads here on Snowest and came up with the County Commissioners for Valley County. It might be of interest to you to read a few of the threads. Anyway, I am cutting and pasteing the names and a phone # or two along with an email address. Good-Luck!!!!

chairman Jerry Winkle (jwinkle@co.valley.id.us) or at (208)382-3242(home#)
GERALD “JERRY” WINKLE
COMMISSIONERS
FRANK W. ELD
GORDON L. CRUICKSHANK

208-382-7100 (courthouse#)

 

[drew sattler]

grooming

We ride mccall at least 6-7 times a year and always unload at goose creek parking lot. We unloaded the other day at the bear basin parking lot and the trail wasn't marked very well until goose creek area. We just followed the more traveled trail and made it to the upper parking lot but, if we we're the first through it could have been a little confusing, now that we've been through that part of the trail it won't be a problem for us. I do hear what your saying about not being marked very well. We rode on monday of last week for goose creek parking lot and the trail was pretty good you could tell it had been groomed a couple days before. When we went on new years day the trail was awful all the way through. It was 45 miles of beat the crap out of yourself riding. It usually isn't llike that, I thought I read somewhere that one of the groomers was down until the first part of january so the other groomer is working overtime to do all the trails. Like I said I'm sure I read that somewhere on here or on the mccall groomers report. Like I said it usually isn't that rough of a ride and wouldn't ride their as often as we do if they didn't groom often.

 

[Tackbtch]

???

Rode outa Francis Wallace on the 28th thru the 30th. Trails were in good shape all three days. Rode into Wallace and Burgdorf, went into Copet Creek, Sater Meadows and eventualy ended up at Granite lake. All the trail markers were up at the junctions. Rode some roads that were not on our trail map, went into the woods some...had a blast. On the negative side....bought stickers at Pauls Market, no one there had a clue as to where to find a trail map, F.W.P. had these old bats sitting at there desk that acked as if we were a pain in there drain No trail maps. Local law enforcement didnt have maps and were quite rude to us Finaly the folks at Cheap thrills turned us onto a map, nice folks. Just need more snow, might go back in March. Dino

 

[Bear Creek Lodge]

Hi Rich
The forest Service puts out the trail signage each year. They also pick them up for the summer, no idea why? They have control of when and where. The club is looking into leaving them out year round. I called Gary at the forest service and he did put them out. Sorry

 

[Bear Creek Lodge]

BearCreekLodge has maps and tags and is located right on the trailhead. No trailering

 

[westsledin]

BearCreekLodge has maps and tags and is located right on the trailhead. No trailering

Mike/Belinda/Tim,

Thank you very much for the time we had with you folks. We all loved the lodge, the rooms were excellent and the hospitality couldn't have been better. Made up for a lot of confusion for the group riding.

We look forward to coming back and seeing you folks!

Thanks again,

Rich

 

[meadowoodlodge]

We rode red ridge today and no signs were up that way yet. Trails were not groomed either.

 

[idaspud]

trail markers and signs

There is a work party, to put up the signs, with maps, and trail markers for the Red Ridge, Blue Bunch, and No Business area on Thursday.

Anyone willing to come along and help, meet us there at the West face lot across from Bear Creek Lodge at 9am tomorrow the 7th. Or come along for the ride and offer leadership. Looks like the weather will be good too.

 

[drmiller100]

that is awesome!

Great job Mel!

Any chance of having another work party on a weekend so the weekenders can help out?

 

[westsledin]

There is a work party, to put up the signs, with maps, and trail markers for the Red Ridge, Blue Bunch, and No Business area on Thursday.

Anyone willing to come along and help, meet us there at the West face lot across from Bear Creek Lodge at 9am tomorrow the 7th. Or come along for the ride and offer leadership. Looks like the weather will be good too.

If I didn't have to drive 8+ hours, I would be there to assist! Glad to hear this is being done!

Rich

 

[Wade]

There is a work party, to put up the signs, with maps, and trail markers for the Red Ridge, Blue Bunch, and No Business area on Thursday.

Anyone willing to come along and help, meet us there at the West face lot across from Bear Creek Lodge at 9am tomorrow the 7th. Or come along for the ride and offer leadership. Looks like the weather will be good too.

Wish I'd have known. I would have taken a day off work to help.

How's that other project, we talked about, going?

Wade

 

[F-Bomb]

Doug why aren't you involved in the groomer program anymore? I can't remember what the deal was there (remember it being a cluster bomb of politics)...but I do remember that McCall's trail system was never better in all of my 15 years of riding there!

The system was as bad during the holidays as anytime that I can remember including late spring well after the grooming stops.

I know it's a brutal thankless job but I sure wish either you or someone as dedicated to the situation was involved...as I don't care about the bickering, money, kudos, what ever. I just enjoyed the results of your efforts! I think the people around the area that get to eat and clothes their families do to winter tourism dollars might think the same thing! (especially if they have any awareness)

From anyone with information on the inner workings of this situation...Do you get the feel that the powers that B understand the impact of snowmobiling on the economy of McCall and a huge portion of it's inhabitants?

I know it's a dead horse (and sounds like it's being addressed) but not having your ducks in a row on one of the rare and premium high use time frames is really inexcuseable. I wonder if they will forget to plow the city streets during Winter Carnival? Bet not! You only get one Christmas per year...and Santa Claus appeared to be down in Phoenix enjoying the Fiesta Bowl! "dang"...Joe Dirt

 

[drmiller100]

The commissioners, sheriff, and club ran me out.

Last year a buddy ran it, and did a danged good job. To do the job, you spend 40 hours a week dealing with the commissioners and club, 40 hours keeping the groomers running, and 40 hours operating a groomer (commissioners wouldn't let us hire more people even though we had the money).

The commissioner/club complaints are along the lines of "you are grooming too much", "you are running the groomer wrong", "doug is an *******", and 7 phone calls of "doug had a high speed crash when he ran the groomer over a guard rail".

Club member comments to my wife (gee you are a crappy person and you married a crummier person)

"You are a ****ing liar" from the club president to me while I was doing my county job in a county building. I've got that one on tape.

Club officers telling groomer operators to take the week off to sabotage the program.

Club members ****ing with the electronics on the cats, locking tool boxes, hiding parts.

Last August the head of the program told the commissioners he wanted some changes or he wouldn't run the program. The commissioners wouldn't do it, so he quit.

He quit last August so they could figure it out.

I guess they showed him.

I think the answer is to go to Butch Otter, and ask him to help Parks and Recreation find some direction, and some testicles.

 

[PowderGirl]

Trails were horrible over the holidays. I was extremely embarrassed for my out of town guests who had previously raved to about how well maintained our trails were! I have a feeling they wont be coming back. At least we had corduroy to ride in and out on today! Gave me hope! I sure hope our issues are taken care of anyway, and that the commissioner's words aren't just like you say drmiller - typical politics. I was pretty pushy with him but nice when addressing our trail conditions to him the other day - doesn't sound like it will help but he assured me what we saw over the holiday weekend was just a short term issue.

 

[drmiller100]

Jack Struthers owns Carl's Cycle Sales.

A few years he told me something I did not believe at first.

He told me the season is half over by January 5 for McCall grooming.

His theory was a lot of people go up to mcCall for the holidays, and either the trails are good, or they are bad.

When they are bad (usually) everyone tells all their friends and no one comes back.

My experience is when you are organized and running smoothly before Xmas, the operators are motivated, they have a job, you get a rhythm, and the hiccups which come up are just that; hiccups, and not excuses.

To do that, you have to have everyone hired by December 5, the groomers tested and some basic decisions made.

This is just like the snowplow program works in Valley county, so the commissioners understand the issues, especially Cruickshanks who ran the road department for a number of years.

But they do not want the program to be succesful. If they do not hire anyone until December 20, they save 4 percent of the annual grooming budget for those 2 weeks which gets put back into the general fund at the end of the season.