Where to Ride !

[WoodRat]

Hello Everyone,

I would like to share some places to ride in Southern Oregon which we have enjoyed, and perhaps some of you will reciprocate with ideas for us .  See links to my maps and photos on my page here:http://forums.atvconnection.com/Photos.cfm?ID=11964.  At the moment you'll find links to our riding at Diamond Lake, Rabbit Ears in the Prospect OHV Area, and Palmer Ridge near our home in Applegate.  I'm looking forward to seeing more posts from local folks like you in the section "Where to Ride" on the "categories" menu on this website.  Look for topic "Southern OR & Northern CA riders right here" , where I've been the lonesome poster lately. "

This is a national forum I've enjoyed very much because of all the  information about  ATV riding on topics ranging widely; everything from performance modifications to environmental issues.

Enjoy, and I hope to hear from you!
WoodRat





Posted on: August 30, 2007, 06:29:03 PMI should clarify that I  would be just as happy if there were an ongoing discussion of places to ride in Southern Oregon here on TemporaryInsandity.com.  The appeal of atvconnection.com only comes from  the volume of users,  providing interesting comments on so many ATV related topics, and it has obviously had more time to flourish.   Since I was led to this website by reading posts on atvconnection.com, I would guess other people who ride in Southern Oregon have found TemporaryInsandity.com in the same way.

Anyway, it occurs to me there is an inherent weakness in what a national forum like atvconnection.com can offer in the way of first-hand accounts of places to ride in a specific area like Southern Oregon.  That is, only a small percentage of the users are interested in the topic so there isn't much content contributed.  And yet they do have the topic; a few people in our area have taken a stab at it, because site's prominence makes it easier to find.

As a Southern Oregon-based forum for ATV riders, I think TemporaryInsandity.com could do much better than atvconnection.com with this.  Though it's user base is much smaller, just about everyone should be interested in where to ride here in Southern Oregon.  Some of you do like to ride trails don't you?  I hope this isn't just about sand, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Happy Trails,
WoodRat

[Sandflicker]

Hey there WoodRat,
we too ride the trails sometimes, but usually just around here (the Merlin / Galice) area.
So I don't know about many trails, in fact you have made reference to all the ones that I know about.
I did hear about a trail along the Klamath River that I hope to check out sometime - but that's a going to be awhile.
Apparently, just off I-5 there's a route.  I'll be looking into it when I get some time to do so.

[WoodRat]

Sandflicker,

Thanks for your reply.  I would be very interested in hearing more about the Klamath River trail and the one along I-5 when  you get more specific information.  Palmer Ridge & John's Peak are the two closest places with lots of room to ride from our place here in the Applegate.   From our home I can ride on the logging roads above Humbug Creek and Foots Creek.  They used to connect to the John's Peak OHV area, but the way through is now blocked to prevent all the John's Peak riders from spilling over onto private property on this side.

Do you ride mainly on private property in your area, or is BLM land accessible near you?

 I will keep adding maps and photos on my site at http://codysguide.com/atv2007/ as we find and explore more places to ride.

[Sandflicker]

Thanks WoodRat,
When we ride logging roads we usually are bouncing between the BLM and NF lands.

I would like to know if you would be willing to help in talking with the BLM  about access to their land.  As you are most likely aware, the NFS and the BLM  (seperately) are evaluating their lands for OHV use.  I met yesterday with Trish Lindaman of the BLM and she would like to meet both with our group and others that are riders to help indicate where riding takes place.  I explained to her that lumping of OHV users is not a good answer as their are different ways people ride,  some are playing on trails, some like to ride longer distance and so a one size fits all approach does not work well. One prablem I've had is conveying this same message to the NFS.  It seems they want to lump all riders into a basic riding area.  This wouldn't work for myself as I usually take the family out for a days event with an ice chest and gold pan (or what ever) and we are not interested in just tearing up the side of hill, but rather enjoy seeing the country and spending family time together.

She told me she didn't know much about these different usages, and was very open and appreciative of my input.  So, she was very open, and as stated asked for further assistance with their development of these rules.


You, if I remember correctly, said you had mapped some of the areas you ride, and this information may prove helpful in this issue.
So, let me know, most of the Temporary InsanDity folks are exclusive to the Dunes areas and are not knowledgeable or effected by forested area issues.

Talk to you soon.
Colllin
Sandflicker

[WoodRat]

Sandflicker,

You bring up a lot of issues; I'll try to give you a few answers:

I am happy to contribute my input to Ms.Lindaman or anyone else in govt. positions about ATV riding on public lands.  We respect the environment, don't leave trash, stay on existing roads and trails, and enjoy long rides in the mountains on a given day or weekend.  One day we logged 140 miles in the Diamond Lake Recreation Area. (see my page for map and photos)  That's the most we've done in a day.

Strictly speaking I'm not mapping.  The maps I post are scanned from maps I have on hand, with markups done in PhotoShop to illustrate specific points.  Look at my page at http://codysguide.com/atv2007/ and click on some of the links under "Riding in Southern Oregon" to see what I mean.

On some official State-Of-Oregon website I think  I read that all unpaved single-lane forest roads on public lands, except in national parks, are open to ATV use.  Of course there are some specific exclusions, but if an area is not expressly prohibited I take it to be open.  This leaves many thousands of miles of logging roads open to ride; places that were once devastated by clear-cutting, and all we want to do is ride through and see it all coming back.

I'll have to post more later.

WoodRat

[Sandflicker]

On some official State-Of-Oregon website I think  I read that all unpaved single-lane forest roads on public lands, except in national parks, are open to ATV use.  Of course there are some specific exclusions, but if an area is not expressly prohibited I take it to be open.  This leaves many thousands of miles of logging roads open to ride; places that were once devastated by clear-cutting, and and all we want to do is ride through and see it all coming back.


WoodRat

You are right, that is how it is today, but soon they'll be changing how this works.  Instead of being able to ride anywhere unless posted, the new rule will be you can not ride anywhere unless it's posted.  Something we may not stop but have to try keeping as much open as possible.

[WoodRat]

Sandflicker,

I agree 100%.  Letting these officials know how we want to use our public lands before they make hasty decisions is very important. The issue is not so black and white that one can simply equate ATV use on existing logging roads with degradation of these lands.  In fact if the shoe fits, I don't mind being called a tree-hugger who happens to enjoy our public lands riding an ATV.  This usage is hardly detrimental.  For crying out loud, these same departments of government that would now restrict this type of benign usage are themselves guilty of allowing clear-cutting to devastate huge tracts of forest for decades.  Yet even all that harm is beginning to heal in many areas. So now it seems, for the moment, the fickle pendulum of opinion might have swung a little too far in the direction of hyper-sensitivity toward the rightful use of these lands by responsible citizens.  I for one would be interested in hearing how current BLM & Forest Service administrators respond to this point.

These things work slowly, but I will be happy to assist any effort by anyone to head off a knee-jerk over-reaction further limiting ATV access to our public lands.

All the effort and tax-payer dollars spent on this issue by our government would do so much more good if it were instead put to work apprehending and prosecuting the vandals and idiots who desecrate our public lands .

[Sandflicker]

Hey there WoodRat,

You can e-mail me directly at collin_sum@yahoo.com

Thank you for your stand, we are going to need all the input we can find.