RS2477 & Claiming Roads... Which Ones?

[cruiseroutfit]

Take a second to read this article...
http://www.sltribune.com/2003/Oct/10302003/utah/106714.asp

Now knowing the State governement is in the process of claiming existing, historically used roads... which ones would you prefer they claim?

My short list...

Cardiff Fork - Big C.
Mineral Fork - Big C.
Days Fork - Big C.

Some of the old fire roads up Corner Canyon...
Draper Ridge Trail
Movie Road
Jacobs Ladder Trail

Miller Hill - AF
Eagle Earl (Upper Major Evans) - AF
Pitsburg Lake - AF
(Forest Lake and Mineral Basin are ALREADY CLAIMED County Roads )


What about you?

 

[bobdog]

I hate to be a pessemist but It seems like what will be claimed are the roads that commercial intrests want, locking out recreation.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I hate to be a pessemist but It seems like what will be claimed are the roads that commercial intrests want, locking out recreation.

I consider myself a commercial interest...

Even at that... if they keep them open to oil/gas/mining... so be it... we potentially still have access to them. And an article I posted a few months back discussed the fact the State may even name historic mining trails up Big and Little Cottonwood as "county roads"... So any step forward is a good one...
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jul/07312003/utah/79908.asp

We met with a Utah County Commissioner last month regarding trails up AF... I was very surprised at what we learned.. such that Mineral Basin is a County Road... as with a few other popular roads in the canyon. One reason Mineral basin has been closed? Forest Lake?

 

[bobdog]

I hope trails are opened for our use but as someone who worked in the mining industry for 16 years, I know that they have no interest in sharing. They do not want and do not tolerate the public anywhere near their properties.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I hope trails are opened for our use but as someone who worked in the mining industry for 16 years, I know that they have no interest in sharing. They do not want and do not tolerate the public anywhere near their properties.

Good point, but if the road they claim has been opened for a certain amount of years to the public.. they can't just close it.... Think of Mary Ellen Gulch in AF Canyon.. the only reason this road is still open is because it still leads to active mines... (active as in curently owned and mined within the last 20 years)...

The first roads the claimed were VERY uncontroversial... all of them were roads that SUWA expected them to claim becasue of their "economic" significance.. so yes thes ones do represent bug business. But as they start to name more an more roads, it is gauranteed that some of them will have interest to us. Such as Cardiff, Mineral Days? You never know...

 

[bobdog]

Anouther thing to consider is that there really are no viable mining claims in our local mountains which leaves developers and they really do not want four wheelers in their areas.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Anouther thing to consider is that there really are no viable mining claims in our local mountains which leaves developers and they really do not want four wheelers in their areas.

True, but we have to start somewhere... Most, if not all of the stuff up Big and Little will be very hard for any developer to start a new project. So and assertions the county/state take is better than nothing.... take note the FA has drastically begain reducing the trails that ATV/snow mobiles are allowed on in the past few years..... a recent article in the Trib shows that...
http://www.sltribune.com/2003/Oct/10302003/utah/106669.asp

If the roads are county clamed... even in Forest Sevice jurisdiction, the FS can't suddenly do emergency closures of trails like they have in the past.

AF still has mine claims that sell/trade privatly all the time... example... the Eagle Earl mine claim and associated patented claims in the Upper Major Evans Gulch area. Now that is is privatly owned, a gate is going up... Why can't we stop them? Because it is NOT a county road. The county only claimed the road up past Silver Flat Resevoir, right where the actual trail begins. Had they claimed the entire portion of it in 1978? The new property owners would have no choice but to allow us a public right of way through their land. So just because a developer buys land... doesn't mean existing roads in the area can be closed...

 

[bobdog]

I really am hoping for the best. I get scared when I hear about Salt Lake County taking control of public lands though. They have to much history giving away public lands and even private land taken from citizens through condemnation(family center as just one example) to large developers. There is one reason people maintain mining claims in the local mountains and that is the hope of selling them to ski resorts or large developers one day.

 

[bobdog]

One road I would like to drive again is the desolation trail at the top of Millcreek Canyon starting at the very top of the canyon road and droping into The Canyons resort(one of the last legal wheeling roads in the salt lake valley). Number one on my list would probably be Pitsburgh Lake That is one that was an old mining road and should fit the definition of 2477 for sure.
I don't think anything up Emigration Canyon would qualify but it sure was cool to be able to go wheeling that close to the city. I would also like it if Kennecott made good on their promise to open other opportunities to off road vehichles when lark sand dunes was closed.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

...desolation trail at the top of Millcreek Canyon starting at the very top of the canyon road and droping into The Canyons resort......Pitsburgh Lake That is one that was an old mining road and should fit the definition of 2477 for sure......

When was the Desolation Trail closed? Is it open to any type of motorized travel? Sounds like a good canidate, what was the history on the road? Mining, Fire?

Pitsburgh is high on my list too... We talked with the County Commisioner regarding that one. In order to get it to fly, we must prove that is has been open for over 10 years prior to 1975*. Then we must convince the county that the road should be opened to OHV use. The hardest part according to the commissioner is proving that the road was open for 10 years. One issue... Snowbird owns all the land surrounding the lake, so it could turn into a Upper Major Evans/Mineral Basin you can legally drive up the road, but once at the end, your no longer allowed to proceed.

The reason the 10 year rule doesn't work on the Upper Major Evans road (Earl-Eagle Road)... conviniently the USGS maps show the road ending abruptly at the exact point the gate is being placed... in other words the last existing mile of the trail is undocumented as existing, though reports and other maps show it leading to the mine dating to the early 1900's. So it leads you to beleive that the FS does their research as well. Plaing the gate where they did leaves them no liability for lawsuit over getting it reopened. If they had placed it at the beginning of the trail (like they had once proposed) then we could potentially force the county to claim the road and reopen it in thename of public interest.

*the year the county asserted all their claims to roads within the canyon.

 

[bobdog]

When was the Desolation Trail closed? Is it open to any type of motorized travel? Sounds like a good canidate, what was the history on the road? Mining, Fire?

QUOTE]

Not sure, it was closed in the 70s. Late 80s/early 90s there were sheepherder trailers halfway down from park west with trucks and their dumpy trailers they towed in there. By that time most of the lower part of the trail had turned to mostly single track, but the double track route is still apparent in places.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

...Not sure, it was closed in the 70s. Late 80s/early 90s there were sheepherder trailers halfway down from park west with trucks and their dumpy trailers they towed in there. By that time most of the lower part of the trail had turned to mostly single track, but the double track route is still apparent in places.

Cool, I'll add it too my list, sounds like a rough one but the more options we give em' the more we end up with....

I am seriously compiling a list of possible trails... next step is do the research required to prove the 10 year law... then off to the county/state.

I do need to meet with a SL County Commissioner, anyone know one of em'?