Cyclists anxious about plan to close Big Hole bike trails

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

By Ben Cannon

In the Big Hole mountain subsection in Caribou-Targhee National Forest, a small but vibrant mountain biking community has taken root over the last decade.

That region, west of Driggs and Victor in Teton Valley, Idaho – with soaring views of the Grand Teton across the valley – has been a favorite horse riding, ATV and dirt bike recreation zone, but it only emerged as a mountain biking haven after a handful of pirate off-system trail builders took it upon themselves to create more viable riding options in to the area.

Now riders, pirate trail builders and bike trail advocacy groups (the three are not mutually exclusive) say a public comment period with the Forest Service, which ending this week, might be the last opportunity to intervene in a trail management plan that could put a damper on riding opportunities and stunt the Big Hole mountain biking scene.

For its Summer Trail Management Plan draft, Caribou-Targhee officials, including District Ranger Jay Pence, advocate an amendment that would adopt some of the pirated trails, while effectively condemning others and banning cross-country, or off-trail, travel by mountain bike.

“As I know it, the bottom line is that this is a pretty major cultural change,” said Wendell Stamm, a Teton Valley resident who has been riding the Big Holes for about seven years.

While Stamm and others, such as Teton Valley Trails and Pathways Director Tim Adams, have said they are in favor of many of the measures in Amendment C, it is the uncertainty by which their riding opportunities might change that worries them.

“I think our biggest concern we have is the cross-country travel ban,” Adams said.
Adams said his group is not necessarily in favor of pirating more trails through the area, but wants the Forest Service to remain open for dialogue about opportunities that already exist.

The Forest Service is eyeing for adoption the Horseshoe Canyon trails west of Driggs, which were technically created illegally, though with something of a wink-and-a-nod understanding between trail builders and local officials, who recognized the opportunity for well-built trails the agency would have had difficulty funding on its own.

“One of the reasons we’ve had user-created trails is because so many of our trails are not very friendly for a lot of users,” said Rob Marin, a geographic information specialist with Caribou-Targhee, who said has ridden those off-system trails. “The pirate trail building is seen as getting out of hand, and that’s coming down from above.”

Marin said he expects to hear an even louder outcry from the ATV community, which will be prohibited from accessing as number of trails that were previously “not recommended” for that use.

When contacted at Racin’ Station, a Driggs ATV and dirt bike dealer, a company representative said he did not have time to comment.

Michael Woodruff, a native of Teton Valley, got into mountain biking after he returned to the area in ’96 and helped to build or maintain some of the pirate trails.

“I have probably done a lot more legitimate Forest Service trails,” said Woodruff, who, like others, supported many of the conservation measures in preferred plan alternative, but is bothered at an outright prohibition on cross country travel. “Now I can be fined a thousand dollars?” he said in dismay.

District Ranger Jay Pence said the matter boils down to a long-coming Wilderness Plan, the likes of which the Bridger Teton National Forest has not yet had to deal with, but which will likely lead to similar prohibitive biking measures when it does.

Pence warned a proliferation of off-system impacts habitat and create erosive tread lines.  He said he has in the past allowed Forest Service tools to be used to improve drainage on established off-system trails, but never, to his knowledge, for the creation of new trails.

“The pirate has this impression I’m changing everything,” Pence said. “I’m not really. It’s always been illegal to use off-system trails. That’s called resource damage.”
The deadline to comment is Friday. To learn more about or link to the Big Hole Mountains Subsection Summer Trail Management Plan Draft EA, go to www.TVTAP.com, or submit comments to comments-intermtn-caribou-targhee@fs.fed.us.

Photo by DEREK DILUZIO
Damian Quigley, of Jackson, riding on the Horseshoe Canyon trails west of Driggs.

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Cyclists anxious about plan to close Big Hole bike trails | Planet JH News Article: Sports & Recreation

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