Why is Sunshine Canyon (Snakes) being graded with a frontend loader???

[jinxspot]

When I was at the "Snakes" trail on March 10th I noticed that after the 1st tailings pile the road had been graded with a front end loader... I went up to see the crashed jeep in the mine up top of the second tailings pile and could hear the backup beeper of the backhoe doing the work. I saw him on the fire road trail leading to "waynes world" obsticle. I was quite surprised to see this type of work going on back there, and have seen a couple other post mentioning that they saw this activity too. Im still very new to the area, but I really like to frequent snakes because its a decent technical trail and super close to me and I hope it doesn't go away anytime soon!

Does anyone know why this road is being maintained/graded? How do we as an offroad group (RME) that frequents this trail find out if the extent of this work will eventually hinder usage of the area by 4x4's?

 

[Smittyauto]

You bring up a very good point. I also noticed the same thing while I was out there this last Saturday. Lets hope that they are not going to take it to far!!!

 

[anderson750]

Is the property around the mines public, private or actively leased by a mining company would be one of the first questions I would have.

 

[jackjoh]

Kurt, you are our guy for that area, will you contact the BLM? If not let me know and I will.

 

[Smittyauto]

They haven't mined out there in decades, so it being under the management of a mine is not likely. I just looked it up and it is managed by the BLM. I think that the BLM may just be doing some basic trail maintenance and clean up. There is a dirt road that comes up to the first tailings, so it could be that they are trying to make it more accessible to more people. Again, I hope they dont make it to accessible, the last thing we need or want is people up there in their Cadillac Escalades!!!

 

[Bear T]

They haven't mined out there in decades,

there are still a few active mining operations. not sure who or for what but they were out there quite a bit last summer.

 

[Tacoma]

There are claims out there, and this has been brought up within the last year or so-- active road maintenance up Sunshine... I forget what, but there was some issue about a winch truck, or a mobile office being trashed up there?

I think Bear and I are recalling the same activity.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Much of that area is absolutely privately owned and from time to time does see some small scale mining work, more specifically drilling to see what stuff is there. I would need exact coordinates to determine if said activity is taking place on or off BLM land but if its near an actual mine or tailing, fair chances are its private property and could be related to mining and or drilling projects. The BLM won't have much input if any knowledge at all of activities on the private parcels, if its on their land they likely would (should) know. I actually left the SL FO a message today on a related (RS/Con) inquiry so I'll be sure to ask about this too.

 

[Smittyauto]

there are still a few active mining operations. not sure who or for what but they were out there quite a bit last summer.

Well I guess I was wrong on that point...lol

 

[Caleb]

There are others way more knowledgable than me on the topic of mines, but it's also my understanding that you have to do so much maintenance (improvements) on your mine claims every so often even if you aren't actively working it. I've heard stories of people making improvements to a claim over the course of so many years (7 years comes to mind) and then they can lay claim to that mine. Not sure if that's just wishful thinking or if there's any truth to that??? My other thought (if it is the BLM) is that the road between RS and Con was pretty trashed last time I was out there from people driving while it's super muddy. Maybe the BLM is just getting it back in to reasonable shape???

 

[RogueJeepr]

I noticed this when we were up there saturday mornin. They actually made the return road worse .
Last year I saw a truck with a 23-24 ft trailer parked near the tailings. I wouldnt pull a trailer up that road (kinda rough).
Maybe they are gonna tear up waynes world for the rock , like lil moab.

 

[wncrockbouncer]

we should keep an eye on this.

 

[Tacoma]

Should we?

Only part of that trail system is on BLM land. The rest weaves through a series of claims and BLM or county land. That they are in the wash means we probably won't have too much trouble with it but... best to let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

What we should watch is this:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53758922-90/snowbird-forest-resort-county.html.csp

Its swaps like this that lost us access in Mineral Basin and could lead to trail access losses on Miller Hill and in this swap Mary Ellen Gulch!

I'll be on the dialer tomorrow!

I'll followup in this thread here:
http://www.rme4x4.com/showthread.php?89546-AF-Canyon-Land-Swap-in-the-news&p=828711#post828711

 

[Tacoma]

Capital ide'er.

To expand a little on my earlier post: RS/Con are not in any significant danger from the BLM right now. Attempts by myself and others to find the boundaries of claims and other concerns have not come to much, as there is not much available. The county recorder's records here are almost comically uninformative, not through any fault of their own, but because they just.. didn't do things very informatively back when. My point is, the trail is in a wash, with established "roads" around the stuff we care about, and so far no one has given a whip about what us trail guys do there. So let's ignore the equipment up Sunshine, where they have every right to have equipment, and concentrate on more imperiled areas.

I'm sure that's what Kurt forgot to write.

 

[scoutabout]

Huh? The plot boundaries are on file with the county tax assessor. The exact boundaries are pretty easily identified based on maps we've received from the BLM in the past.

 

[Tacoma]

Things may have changed, but the county recorder had the sketchiest maps I've ever seen, and Julie at the BLM didn't dig up anything more clear. *shrug. Since I was told that trail was groovy with them, I didn't dig any further.

 

[scoutabout]

The BLM office has full GIS data for the whole area. They can render maps for anything within their FO. I have some good custom maps of 5MP collected over the years. The Tax Assessor has the plot boundaries. Accountants keep the best records.

*Edit: The BLM sells a CD of various GIS data sets, which would be another way to make some nice maps. I just got one for my b-day containing geologic data for state. Overlay some of these layers on a topo and you have a very nice map.