As the weather gets better it becomes increasingly tempting to hit the trails in our OHVs. However, those who manage our off road riding areas may not agree with us yet. You may still see some or maybe even a lot of seasonally closed trails for a while. While it may be tempting to bypass the CLOSED signs and keep going, it definitely is NOT a good idea! Doing so may subject you to expensive fines, poor riding conditions, damage to your equipment, and you may cause the trail to be permanently closed! Often the trail within view of the CLOSED sign looks just fine, but further along there may be downed trees, washouts, or muddy sections that pose threats to your travel and your equipment as well as to the environment. Negotiating around those obstacles can do irreparable damage to the environment an the trail. As anxious as we are to get out and get riding, it will be better for everyone in the long run, if we pay attention to seasonal closures. A little patience will be rewarded with better, safer riding conditions and less negative results to the environment and to continued access.
As an off road enthusiast you are, no doubt, used to encountering CLOSED signs on some trails. Trails may be seasonally or permanently closed. Either way it is a frustration for OHV riders. Often is is tempting to find a way around the CLOSED signs and blockades, especially if the trail looks OK for a ways beyond the closed sign. As tempting as that is, is is NOT a good idea for at least a couple of good reasons. In the first place, ignoring CLOSED signs will very likely result in further closures and more stringent ways of blocking access. Secondly, seasonally closed trails are closed because they aren't suitable for use yet, usually due to residual snow or mud. Riding trails too soon will result in unnecessary damage that may trigger permanent closure and often leads to difficult riding conditions that can damage your equipment or cause injuries to riders. I personally know a rider who ignored closed signs on a trail with river crossings one spring and nearly lost his off road motorcycle when it was swept out from under him and carried way down stream. Upon dragging it from the river it took hours of disassembling the engine to clear the hydrolock and dry it out enough to run again. The river crossing looked normal, but the clean, clear water was actually a lot deeper and a lot faster than usual and the rangers knew it, hence the warning signs.
I once spent a weekend working with an off road group in California installing CLOSED signs on some quite popular trails around Randsburg, California. Sound a little out of place for an OHV organization to install closed signs, but in reality the group was working to keep the riding area open. By closing some trails and directing traffic to others we were able to avoid having then entire area shut down permanently! It was a good example of OHV users and land use managers working together to appropriately manage the resources, quite a pleasant departure from the normal knee-jerk reaction of arbitrary closures often triggered by those who oppose off road activity.
CLOSED signs often don't make any sense at all, at least to OHV riders. I once rode more than 7 miles down a sand wash on my dirt bike with sides too steep to ride out of before encountering a CLOSED sign in the middle of nowhere! Made no sense whatever. Frankly we weren't too worried about damaging the sand wash. Even a light rain would erase months of OHV riding. If it were actually in danger of being damaged by riding, why wasn't it closed at the beginning and not 7 miles down the wash? I expect riders turning around at the sign and riding back out the way they came would have done more damage than riders continuing to the natural end of the wash. I definitely saw mountain trails totally destroyed when the meandering boundaries of a new wilderness area cut off a number of looping trails, forcing riders to backtrack. Before long the beautiful, pristine, single track trails that had been used successfully and frequently for more than 40 years became whooped-out, double-track roads due to excessive two-way traffic. I must give credit to the forest service rangers who petitioned for California "green-sticker" funds to create new loops outside the wilderness area. BTW, that same wilderness had 55,000 acres burned to a crisp in its first year or two of existence from a forest fire caused by a card-carrying Sierra clubber burning her toilet paper! Why the heck was she doing that in the first place? It must also be noted that there were exactly zero forest fires in more than 40 years the area was open to OHV riding.
CLOSED signs are a nemesis to all OHV riders. But seasonal closures are there to protect and maintain our trails. Please recognize that seasonal closures are normal and necessary and should always be respected. When you encounter permanently close trails make note of them and contact the relevant land manager to see what, if anything, can be done. I was told managers sometimes receive a mandate to close a certain number of trails or miles of trails and it essentially is done as a paper exercise without anyone inspecting the trails or making any attempt to determine if they are frequently used. They just arbitrarily mark off a certain number of trails or miles of trails on a map to comply with the order, without ANY consideration of current use or environmental impact. Sometimes you can work with land managers to reopen popular trails. The best way to do so is to present as much evidence as possible regarding the popularity and safety of the trails. I have seen trails in the bottom of sand washes closed to supposedly reduce erosion when a single rain does far more damage than years of off road use. Sometimes pointing that out to land managers along with justifying the need for the trails to connect popular destinations is enough to get them to take a second look. It is also helpful if you are prepared to trade some alternate routes for closure that may be less desirable or may even be more environmentally sensitive. When you come across seasonally closed trails, turn around! You may want to contact the land manager to see if there is any trail work you could help with to speed opening of trails, but don't blithely go around or ride past CLOSED signs. Doing so is likely to result in problems for you and your machine and for the future of the trail.
Ride respectfully!
No comments:
Post a Comment