• Jack-it Night: April 2024 RS Meeting Hey Guest: Wed. April 3rd is the next Rising Sun meeting, and you won't want to miss it. We're doing our annual offroad recovery equipment demonstration and trail skills training aka "Jack It Night." Meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. (early) Click here for all the details.

This is exciting

jps8460

Cruise Moab Committee
Cruise Moab Committee
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Attachments

  • Boulder Wagon Road Letter Final.pdf
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DaveInDenver

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I doubt Boulder and Gilpin are going to come around willingly. Beyond the recreational factor they don't want it becoming an I-70 alternative. It's interesting that the Grand County attorney mentioned the James Peak Wilderness and Boulder Wagon Road exclusion. This could also go sideways by bringing attention to the braiding of routes up there. But it's not just motorized people but hikers and bikes, it's a confusing mess.
 
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Cruisertrash

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Doesn’t this get kicked around every few years and wind up back at square one?
 

rover67

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Awesome, I love to see the effort put forth. Also, Who here rides mountain bikes?

Well, any time you travel those switchbacks on the Boulder wagon road you are breaking the law (as you can see from the .pdf). Same as when you go over the needles eye tunnel which is the popular route. Over the needles eye gets you into wilderness again. The only legal way is to scramble over the literal tunnel hugging it to the east which few folks do. Why do I mention this? Because the MTB'ers need to know this, maybe it will get them on our side to open the routes legally. Right now all but OHV folks think its open.

Also, If you haven't been up there it's awesome. The twin trestles are magical. The meadow on the east side where the Boulder Wagon Road traverses is gorgeous. the ridge above yankee doodle provides a great view of below. Above the tunnel in the wilderness is a lot of cool stuff to see also.
 

DaveInDenver

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Doesn’t this get kicked around every few years and wind up back at square one?
There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen and every once in a while things get boiling only to wither. Last time I remember a flurry of activity was 2014. You have the Federal and county governments, Wilderness advocates, OHV advocates. There's historical groups interested in the railroad route, tunnel and trestle.

https://www.moffatroad.org/RPRA/RPRA_Home.htm

The problem as I see it is there's not a unified goal here. From our perspective (OHV and MTB) I think anything involving structures on the route is a tough go. The RPRA might have luck saving them archeologically, it's an accepted endangered place in need of saving.

http://coloradopreservation.org/programs/endangered-places/moffat-road-hill-route/

There *might* be an option to use the trestle as a legal non-motorized path but even that isn't a slam dunk. Often pedestrian ways are just as difficult to engineer as vehicle ones and none of the counties I suspect want responsibility for inspecting and maintenance. The tunnel is the only option for vehicles, bikes could maybe snake a singletrack to stay legal.

The preservation people may have a valid existing case and importantly can get donations and grant money. But I don't know what's happened since 2017 with them.

Like I say, it's interesting about the Wilderness law. I'd never heard there might be an exclusion for the wagon road or supposed to be a protected motorized route. If so taking a page from the playbook would be to get into Federal court.

IMG_0914_mid.jpg
 
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rover67

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But you know that the trestle(s) do not have to be part of any proposed route right, there is a motorized route now to the top of the BWR switchbacks from the corona side. People seem to focus on the fact that the trestles would need to be dealt with when in fact they do not. I have even seen the trestle at rifle sight notch referenced as having to be addressed for a motorized route. That's just plain silly.
 

DaveInDenver

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But you know that the trestle(s) do not have to be part of any proposed route right, there is a motorized route now to the top of the BWR switchbacks from the corona side. People seem to focus on the fact that the trestles would need to be dealt with when in fact they do not. I have even seen the trestle at rifle sight notch referenced as having to be addressed for a motorized route. That's just plain silly.
Right, that's what I mean by unified goal. If we're interested in access then just need to stabilize the tunnel really and use the wagon road. The trestles aren't important for that. But when you're writing a grant for historical preservation the trestles do factor in. So the RPRA is probably indifferent to OHV needs without them being on the table. They mostly want to keep them from eroding, not necessarily making them into viable structures. But do you have two (or more) proposals and maybe two competing grant applications? Then the MTBs, do we throw in with OHVs or just try to convince Sierra Club that a singletrack that prevents scrambling over the Wilderness boundary would be sufficient? They could just as easily turn bikes against OHV by throwing that carrot.
 
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DaveInDenver

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Awesome, I love to see the effort put forth. Also, Who here rides mountain bikes?

Well, any time you travel those switchbacks on the Boulder wagon road you are breaking the law (as you can see from the .pdf). Same as when you go over the needles eye tunnel which is the popular route. Over the needles eye gets you into wilderness again. The only legal way is to scramble over the literal tunnel hugging it to the east which few folks do. Why do I mention this? Because the MTB'ers need to know this, maybe it will get them on our side to open the routes legally. Right now all but OHV folks think its open.
To show what Marco's talking about, the pink being the Wilderness boundary and the social trail across it.

rollinspass_google_usfs.png


Sort of what you're faced with to stay out of the Wilderness.

IMG_0953_mid.jpg
 
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