The Volunteer Trail Patrol is set to launch in June with training
sessions starting in Northeastern Colorado and working south then
west. Club support from the four wheel drive community has been phenomenal,
but support has not only come from those that drive full size 4x4's.
Motorcycle and ATV clubs have expressed a huge interest in the trail
patrol and are happy to see that UFWDA
has a program that is multidimensional that all can participate in.
I am ecstatic about the launch. The team I have in place that is
the pilot program in the Boulder Ranger District of the Roosevelt
National Forest have been working side by side to help me launch state
wide. I could not ask for a better group of individuals to volunteer
their time and effort into this program.
The pilot program that is currently working within the Boulder Ranger
District is doing quite well. We have built great relationships with
the rangers, which has helped immensely. We've identified trails with
resource damage and are working to mitigate the damage.
One "hot spot" that is currently under Travel Management
Planning is Lefthand Canyon (aka Carnage Canyon) outside of Boulder.
The Forest Service were able to walk the trail with some of the patrol
volunteers and help us identify areas with significant user created
resource damage. Due to the area being under Travel Management Planning
we were only able to place down logs across the areas in effort to
prevent further damage, but we are using every resource available
to get the word out for people to please stay off the areas where
we placed logs.
Following are pics of what needs to be kept as no travel zones for
the 2005 season and until the Forest Service is able to finish the
Travel Management Plan and work with us to permanently mark off these
routes:
Area 1: This is the rock after Guardian
that is off to the right after you start up the creek bed. People
traveling to the right of it are eroding away at the hill. Please
stay to the left of this rock. |
 |
Area 2: This is just past the bend in the
photo above. People have started traveling between the trees
and major root damage is occurring - there is no reason to travel
between the trees, it is not the harder route or the easier
route, so either follow the actual trail to the left or right
and stay out of the center. |
 |
Area 3: This is clearly not part of the
trail, nor was it ever, so stay on the road. |
 |
Area 3 (Close-Up): This is a close up of
Area 3 for clarification. The route goes to the right around
this area. |
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Area 4: You can obviously tell that this
is eroding at the hillside - but also note that this is a user
created route that is tearing up the trail. It's only a matter
of time until the hill slides if we keep driving on this route,
so please use the other two lines when going through the V-notch
(the left or center lines only). |
 |
Where the trail splits right past the picture
above you must take the left upper road and stay out of the
creek. The creek is not the trail at this point on Lefthand
(Carnage) Canyon. If your rig is not capable of going this route,
turn around before you get yourself into a worse situation.
Full size vehicles may have difficulty on the left route because
there are two trees that leave a narrow gap the a full size
may not fit through.
|
Please remember these are our trails, but we have to respect them.
We are laying it out on the line: work with us, wheel responsibly
and help our entire sport and the Trail Patrol to keep trails open,
or wheel irresponsibly and work against us by continuing to create
and/or use user created routes and give the land managers fuel to
shut down trails.
Valerie Douglas
Director, Rocky Mountain Off-Highway Vehicle Patrol
