Frederick Watershed limiting access (1 Viewer)

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DustyFJ

DustyFJ

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Location
Woodbine, MD
For any who aren’t aware the city of Frederick will be blocking access to the watershed at all access points other than mountaindale rd in December. Is nothing more than fun forest roads but it sucks access is being taken away. I access it from gambril park road or fishing creek at least every other week for trail running.

Anyone who hasn’t checked it out yet, it may be worth a Saturday morning cruise.

0E440BB4-E852-4C88-8583-3F0234D68C03.jpeg
 
DustyFJ said:
For any who aren’t aware the city of Frederick will be blocking access to the watershed at all access points other than mountaindale rd in December. Is nothing more than fun forest roads but it sucks access is being taken away. I access it from gambril park road or fishing creek at least every other week for trail running.

Anyone who hasn’t checked it out yet, it may be worth a Saturday morning cruise.

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Was there a reason given? Sounds capricious.
 
Stumpalama said:
Was there a reason given? Sounds capricious.
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Lots of shady activity can happen after dark. The change has been brewing for some time. I think the mountain bike community is behind it big time.

Mostly people dumping trash is outpacing volunteers to pick it up. The day the sign went up I was there for a run and came across a guy with a cooler full of beer bottles he spilled out trying to cross the creek. (Amateurs bring bottles) i ended up picking all his broken glass and freezer pops out of the creek after he left.

Sucks to lose our land but I kinda get it
 
How would I find it if I wanted to go check it out?
 
Just stumbled on this. I'm a mountain biker who works directly with the city on trail issues in the Frederick Watershed. Limiting road access is 100% the city's push, this did not come from the mountain bike community. Most bikers don't want this as it creates more access hassles for them as well. The city's original plan was to use key card gated access to allow any users to enter at certain points, they just wanted to monitor who was going in/out. They determined those gates were too expensive and came up with the current plan as a fall back.
 
I think the traffic on these dirt roads has gotten heavier in the past few years. I would love to buy land in Frederick and build a little trail system but I don't have the resources or understanding on how to run something like that; Be fun to have something like Red Cloud off-road close by.
 
fjman said:
How would I find it if I wanted to go check it out?
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Let me know, I know the dirt roads (I can't call it trails because it's not) ... maybe in September or October before fall crawl.
 
dbug said:
Let me know, I know the dirt roads (I can't call it trails because it's not) ... maybe in September or October before fall crawl.
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If you plug “Frederick watershed cwma” into google maps you’ll get to the entrance. My advice, don’t use maps. just ride around, it’s not that big.
 
FrederickTrails said:
Just stumbled on this. I'm a mountain biker who works directly with the city on trail issues in the Frederick Watershed. Limiting road access is 100% the city's push, this did not come from the mountain bike community. Most bikers don't want this as it creates more access hassles for them as well. The city's original plan was to use key card gated access to allow any users to enter at certain points, they just wanted to monitor who was going in/out. They determined those gates were too expensive and came up with the current plan as a fall back.
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How does one stumble upon this thread and create an account just to post one thing? haha just curious
 
fjdemon said:
How does one stumble upon this thread and create an account just to post one thing? haha just curious
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I was googling for a picture of the sign with the Watershed rules on it (no dumping, open hours, etc. - the one on the left in the pic at the top) This thread came up. Created the account to provide some accurate info since I work with the city on trail issues.
 
FrederickTrails said:
I was googling for a picture of the sign with the Watershed rules on it (no dumping, open hours, etc. - the one on the left in the pic at the top) This thread came up. Created the account to provide some accurate info since I work with the city on trail issues.
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We’ll see if you can get them to give up this gate idea. Traffic on mountain dale road through that little neighborhood is going to be crazy. Taking the public land away from the public sounds like a bad idea.
 
FrederickTrails said:
I was googling for a picture of the sign with the Watershed rules on it (no dumping, open hours, etc. - the one on the left in the pic at the top) This thread came up. Created the account to provide some accurate info since I work with the city on trail issues.
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Makes sense! Just interesting to see how it linked back to this club page on the forum. The power of the interwebs!
 
I agree, I don't think the community of Mountaindale is going to be happy about this change. As far as I'm aware, they weren't consulted or notified except for the signage that was installed. Unfortunately the city is set on doing this. They aren't good about putting information out, I suspect the hunting community is going to be upset when the word gets out more. When they presented the original keycard idea at a public meeting a lot of people who live at the top voiced their disapproval as it is a short cut for them. And people coming from the west will have a big detour. You can download the full forest management plan here: Management Plan
We'll see how the gates survive long term.
 
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