So I went to the T.V.Trails and Pathways board meeting last tuesday.
Here is the skinny...very, very cool things are happening, along with some 'developments'.
For those of you who don't know, we were facing the possibility of many, many user-created trail systems being closed/reclaimed, and all 'overland' priveledges' (meaning we can go overland on bikes, foot, or horse anywhere in the Big Holes).
It seems a compromise of sorts has been reached, and it fundamentally favors Mt. Bikers in the long run.
Brief history:
Starting about ten years ago, Mt. Bikers started pioneering trails in the Horseshoe Canyon and Henderson Canyon areas, due to the fact that the existing system trails were simply brutal for mt. Bikes. Over the years the 'pioneering' got more and more bold, to the point where every year there were full on crews building a variety of different trails in the area, illegally. The F.S. more or less knew what we were up to, and kinda turned a blind eye, for many speculative reasons.
Well, the population base finally got to a point where hundreds more people were discovering and riding these trails, and it became clear that the F.S. had to step in in some fashion. They did that last year by announcing a Comprehensive Travel Plan for the Big Holes, (which has 467 miles of system trails), and this new plan is essentially being implemented as such.
The Horseshoe trails/loops are going to be included in the master plan as system trails.
That is EXCELLENT news.
There will be a ban on 'overland' travel, which essentially means that any riding on non-system trails will be considered illegal. That includes almost all of the good Henderson trails.
That sucks.
BUT:
The F.S. is doing a few cool things.
There will be three official F.S. trail days this summer..
June 14th, Horseshoe loops trailday.
July 26th Probably Red Creek, where all creek crossings will be bridged or re-routed.
Aug 23rd. TBD.
Unfortunately, they have mandated that one of the best CC/DH-es in the area, Deer Hunter DH (henderson) will be eliminated/reclaimed. That blows ass.
However, there will me a crew of 16 from the Montana Conservation Core in the Big Holes for 12 weeks, just working on making system trails more friendly to Mt. Bikes. That is HUGE.
Also, the F.S. has basically given us the green light to go explore, defing, and flag pretty much as much new singletrack as we can handle in the Jack-Pine area (East of Tetonia), which could add dozens of miles of choice singletrack to our area.
This is the short version, if anyone is interested, I can post many more details. Overall, this is pretty good.
Comments Q's, ask me, or send them to
www.tvtap.org
Here is the skinny...very, very cool things are happening, along with some 'developments'.
For those of you who don't know, we were facing the possibility of many, many user-created trail systems being closed/reclaimed, and all 'overland' priveledges' (meaning we can go overland on bikes, foot, or horse anywhere in the Big Holes).
It seems a compromise of sorts has been reached, and it fundamentally favors Mt. Bikers in the long run.
Brief history:
Starting about ten years ago, Mt. Bikers started pioneering trails in the Horseshoe Canyon and Henderson Canyon areas, due to the fact that the existing system trails were simply brutal for mt. Bikes. Over the years the 'pioneering' got more and more bold, to the point where every year there were full on crews building a variety of different trails in the area, illegally. The F.S. more or less knew what we were up to, and kinda turned a blind eye, for many speculative reasons.
Well, the population base finally got to a point where hundreds more people were discovering and riding these trails, and it became clear that the F.S. had to step in in some fashion. They did that last year by announcing a Comprehensive Travel Plan for the Big Holes, (which has 467 miles of system trails), and this new plan is essentially being implemented as such.
The Horseshoe trails/loops are going to be included in the master plan as system trails.
That is EXCELLENT news.
There will be a ban on 'overland' travel, which essentially means that any riding on non-system trails will be considered illegal. That includes almost all of the good Henderson trails.
That sucks.
BUT:
The F.S. is doing a few cool things.
There will be three official F.S. trail days this summer..
June 14th, Horseshoe loops trailday.
July 26th Probably Red Creek, where all creek crossings will be bridged or re-routed.
Aug 23rd. TBD.
Unfortunately, they have mandated that one of the best CC/DH-es in the area, Deer Hunter DH (henderson) will be eliminated/reclaimed. That blows ass.
However, there will me a crew of 16 from the Montana Conservation Core in the Big Holes for 12 weeks, just working on making system trails more friendly to Mt. Bikes. That is HUGE.
Also, the F.S. has basically given us the green light to go explore, defing, and flag pretty much as much new singletrack as we can handle in the Jack-Pine area (East of Tetonia), which could add dozens of miles of choice singletrack to our area.
This is the short version, if anyone is interested, I can post many more details. Overall, this is pretty good.
Comments Q's, ask me, or send them to
www.tvtap.org
