Yacolt Burn 4x4 Trail Updates

[hootie]

This Sunday June 1st. Some of the members of Pistons Wild motorsports club are taking members of the DNR to Browns Camp.

A group of people are working with DNR on a plan to make new trails for 4x4 trucks, cycles, quads in the Yacolt Burn east of Vancouver. This is very exciting. If you happen to be at Browns Camp on the 1st... please be in good behavior,,, because we are hoping they will be impressed with the area and we hope to fashion Yacolt after Browns Camp. Good behavior means staying on approved trails and not tearing things up too much.

Wish us luck,, if you see my truck,, come say hi.

[hootie]

Well.. We took 5 members of the Wash. Dept. of Nat. Resources up to Browns Camp. Met with Oregon people who run the Tillimook forest and Browns Camp. They told nothing but great stories about the sucess of Browns Camp.

We drove the Wa DNR up a few fire breaks and power lines and up to crusher. The 3 ladies and 2 men absolutely loved it. None of them had any 4 wheeling experience. They imagined a bunch of people racing and ruining the forest. They saw people slowly moving around the trails being careful not to destroy their vehicles or the trees. They saw whole families of quad riders from dad to 8 year old kids. They saw communication between the users in the forms of verbal hello's to the counts of vehicles in our groups.

I heard them say ,, several times,, Why haven't we done this,, We need to do this,, This is Great. and MORE !! All Good.

We saw a few bikes go past a closed trail,, and stopped the remaining bikes,, explained the rules of the forest and further impressed the DNR.

Wish us luck,,, but it seems that we may have made an impact on future 4 wheeling in the Yacolt Burn.

Keep on doing the right things in the forest everyone,, it helps.
thanks.. Dave. Pictures will be posted as soon as I get them.

[poorboy1]

right on.....

[Buzzer]

[blk01ram]

That sounds great. It's things like this that will keep our lands open for the public to enjoy. There will always be a few that aren't responsible, but the many that do will out weigh the few that don't. Great job Hootie.

Also goes to show the amount of responsible wheelers that are up at Brown's Camp, that not only enjoy being out on the trails, but also passing along how to be responsible to others and family.

[The Black Jeep]

SWEET! If we would have had the gas money, we would have been up there. Good job!

[hootie]

I just went up to look at little rubicon,, and Darryl kept giving me directions to get me up further,,

[hootie]

For more pics of my trip up Little Rubicon see ( Members Rigs, Chevy, hootie Big S-10 blazer )

[hootie]

7/8/08 Word is back from DNR. They had an awsome time. Regarding the Yacolt Burn Area. The preliminary trail map is about to be presented to us in the next few weeks. A member of DNR hinted that we would be happy. We will be presenting the Map to PNW assoc. or arranging a meeting so all can view and comment on their proposal. Our goal was to have some trails up and running by April 2009. It seems as if our goal could be made.

[hootie]

Also a reminder for all. Damage is happening in the forests.. we all know that and have most certainly caused some ourselves. I would like to encourage everyone to think twice before you tear something up or cause a new mud hole. The forestry dept. and naturalists think this damage will be multiplied by opening trails.

Help to encourage other users to be responsible so our areas will at least remain open and hopefully we can all help to actually cause an increase in user areas. Thanks.

[hootie]

Yacolt Burn Trail Map has been upgraded. The Jones Creek Cycle Club did a lot of work up there mapping every trail in Yacolt Burns. They spent many hours up there with GPS units and did an overlay of the area. There are over two hundred miles of trails and roads in the Burns. We are hoping for about 40 miles for the 4x4 trucks.. ( seems reasonable ) The Pistons Wild went up there Yesterday ( Saturday Aug 2 ) and started to plan some trails for 4x4 trucks to use. The other user groups are up there as well. ( Quads, Cycles, Bikes, and horse groups ). Each group is to turn in a proposal later this month and that will be the beginning of a final trail plan. PRETTY EXCITING !!!

[poorboy1]

keeping my fingers crossed it all goes thru, great work.

[hootie]

More trail info from Pistons Wild after the first trail assessment.
This copied from an email to me.
quote..
Hi Everyone,



Saturday was an excellent day “wheeling” in the Yacolt Burn. We successfully mapped 6 miles of “4x4 ready” trails and found another potential 5-7 miles of trails that will need to be surveyed on quads (due to access limitations). We also noticed another potential 4-5 miles of “4x4 ready” trails that we didn’t have time to survey because we ran out of daylight. This all took place in a very small SW corner of the forest – the potential for mapping 40-50 miles of 4x4 trails is highly likely. Some will be ready to go immediately with very little prep work, some will require just some serious brush clearing and others may require major work with heavy equipment and materials (rock).



Our goal is to have 40-50 miles of trails mapped for our proposal to the DNR at the next planning meeting. That meeting is September 17th, 2008. That only leaves 6 more weekends to get those trails mapped. We cannot propose a trail we have not seen with our own eyes.

So – with that said – I would like to request additional “ALL ACCESS” days from DNR, but wanted to check everyone’s availability and interest before I request the permits.

If your vehicle is not ready to go – or if you don’t want to take the chance of scratching your paint (some of these trails are somewhat primitive), just let me know and I can arrange a “seat” for you. Please feel free to call me directly if you have any questions or concerns at [phone]. Or toll free [phone]. I look forward to everyone’s replies and I will get this schedule set up as soon as I hear back from everyone.

Have a great day!

Crystal Crowder

www.pistonswild.com/

[hootie]

Of course the above email was meant for members of the Pistons Wild group. I am sure Crystal would be happy to help educate anyone who is interested and sincere about this project and the possiblility of a properly maintained trail system.

I get more excited each time I get more information.

[hootie]

Pistons Wild are going back up to Yacolt Burn on both Saturday and Sunday , Aug. 16 and 17 to map trails for our proposal to DNR. I will be going with them on Sunday. I will let you know what we find and how it looks.. maybe even some pics.