Another possible trail closure (1 Viewer)

[LandCruiserPhil]

Sounds like a possible trail closure....More state wide growing pains

Coconino National Forest - News & Events

 

[OffGridOverland]

Is this the same?

Out between Surprise and Lake Pleasent is also now gated, locked and posted for no motor vehicles.

Seems to be a trend happening.

 

[BrotherRob]

There's still time for comments, make your voice heard. FS is leaning towards leaving it open for jeep tours only. Giving a commercial business exclusive access to public lands should be opposed. Option C limits access but leaves it open to all.

 

[Pitch]

This is a trail that has been in the cross hairs for a long time. Like the Broken Arrow trail elsewhere in Sedona, homeowners are not happy with the traffic and noise. This has been sharply exacerbated with the explosion of rental OHV's in Sedona. Loud, (2-stroke?), uneducated rental unit drivers, and the popularity of Jeeps, etc has reached a tipping point. This trail already has a gate that limits access to daytime hours only.

FWIW, I still don't understand why people move to/ live in these neighborhoods when they are intolerant of these things, though. Kind of like having a house next to a school and complaining about kids laughing and buses outside.

I for one would support the permit system in this case. Soldier's Pass is a one-lane two-way traffic trail that does not handle excessive traffic well anyway.

 

[OffGridOverland]

Almost everything out in the wild now days is 4 stroke.
85% of the people on that trail don't even know what a 2 stroke is.

I think a permit or really nothing should be done. Once that ball is rolling it will keep going till its closed.

Permits would help offset clean up costs.

But being open for commercial tours only is BS. I wonder how much money is going out of one pocket into another for that even to be brought up.

 

[Living in the Past]

There's still time for comments, make your voice heard. FS is leaning towards leaving it open for jeep tours only. Giving a commercial business exclusive access to public lands should be opposed. Option C limits access but leaves it open to all.

Not sure I would say twelve permits a day is keeping it open to the public, that's only two groups ATVs. It also says " adjust the outfitter/guide use authorization to improve consistency with other motorized outfitter/guide use on the District " What does that mean in real numbers? For all we could mean increasing tours a day. How about plan E that closes it to vehicles under two thousand pounds. Again 4X4s are going to suffer because of the quads. They run in groups, for there size the are too loud the least courteous on the road/trail. Personally unless the 4X4 can separate from the quads/side by sides think we are fighting a losing battle. For the most part they create the problems and we suffer closures.

 

[Pitch]

In other, non-permited areas around Sedona, guided jeep tour companies have "earned" exclusive tour rights to an area by adopting the trail and providing maintenance. I suspect that this is the leverage being used here as well.

And I think John is right, his Plan E option sounds better. Set permits at say 20 or 25 a day, and >2K pounds.

 

[Funner]

Email address to send comments:

comments-southwestern-coconino-redrock@fs.fed.us

 

[oilbrnr]

FWIW, I still don't understand why people move to/ live in these neighborhoods when they are intolerant of these things, though.

Yup, just like people moving to Flag and complaining (with unfortunate ultimate success) the the Santa Fe RR horns were too intrusive in their daily lives.

Once again, the vocal minority controlling the passive majority.

Don't even get me started on Sedona.

 

[splitshot]

This is a trail that has been in the cross hairs for a long time. Like the Broken Arrow trail elsewhere in Sedona, homeowners are not happy with the traffic and noise. This has been sharply exacerbated with the explosion of rental OHV's in Sedona. Loud, (2-stroke?), uneducated rental unit drivers, and the popularity of Jeeps, etc has reached a tipping point. This trail already has a gate that limits access to daytime hours only.

FWIW, I still don't understand why people move to/ live in these neighborhoods when they are intolerant of these things, though. Kind of like having a house next to a school and complaining about kids laughing and buses outside.

I for one would support the permit system in this case. Soldier's Pass is a one-lane two-way traffic trail that does not handle excessive traffic well anyway.

Rental OHV's, the wife and I were blown away how many "Golf cart gangs" cruising the trails when we were up there.

 

[DSRTRDR]

. . . .
I think a permit or really nothing should be done. Once that ball is rolling it will keep going till its closed.

Permits would help offset clean up costs.

Forest Service permits typically don't cost anything, so there would be no offset of expenses