Proposed St. John's Rock ORV Trail

THANKS FOR THE INFO.
PLEASE KEEP US INFORMED.
WE ALWAYS CAN USE A NEW PLACE TO RIDE.  

Dang, look at that rzr with tracks   Looks like some nice trails.

Well it looks like the DNR had a meeting at the Lake House at New Germany State Park on Sept. 4th. From what I have seen on line, there were very few riders and lot's of hunters and adjoining land owners. Not good. This could be a start of some good riding in the state of Maryland. They are wanting the public's input. They are taking comments until October 4th, 2013. You can send your comments/suggestions to:

http://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/orv_Projects.asp

There will be another meting in Hancock in the next few weeks. When I find out where, I will post it. If you want to ride in Maryland, you should try to attend. We can join forces with the dirt bike riders(which I do also) and try to get some nice places to ride in Maryland.

Yampol

I would like to go to one of those meetings.

Yampol wrote:

there were very few riders and lot's of hunters and adjoining land owners.

As they expected...

It was brought up during discussion at the evaluation ride that meetings would be listed for public comment to basically comply with the required project requirements.  I think the biggest thing to come out of all the meetings is the needed 'closing dates' for hunting seasons and the number of permits that will be allotted per day to ride.

There's no where near the parking area or road access of Big Flat or Pine Grove in Michaux State Forest.

Time is getting close on the Oct. 4th deadline for comments.

Please send them to:

Jack Perdue
Maryland DNR
Tawes State Office Building, E-1
580 Taylor Avenue
Annapolis, MD 21401

Or by email to: jperdue@dnr.state.md.us

I just sent ours. Here is a template you can change and use.


Mr. Purdue,
As an off-highway vehicle user and a resident of Maryland, I strongly
support opening the Savage River State Forest and Sideling Hill areas to
responsible, sustainable OHV use.  The previous closure of Green Ridge State
Forest to OHV users was most unfortunate, resulting in my family spending
our OHV time in neighboring states and supporting their economies.
The trail proposal provides a sound beginning.  However, just a like a ski
resort can't serve their entire clientele with a single slope, we encourage
DNR to consider broadening the ORV system to include more technically
challenging jeep, ATV, and bike trails.  

I recognize that labor to create and maintain any trail system becomes a
driving financial factor.  To help defray the burden to DNR, I would like to
offer to volunteer to support such a great venture between ORVers and the
State of Maryland.  

Lastly, I would like to encourage DNR to establish sound metrics to
objectively quantify condition of the trail.  This will allow a consistent
method to monitor the trails, and predict when the trail will need
remediation work.  Nobody wants to see trails closed abruptly, in a repeat
of Green Ridge State Forest. As responsible OHV users, we are all
conservationists and want to protect the resources we use.

{signed}
{include city & State}


Yampol

Doesn't look any different then the Wayne National Forest trails here in Ohio.
Open April 15 & close Dec 15 every year here .
Permits $45 for a year .( used to be $25)
2 separate riding areas with 150 ?? miles of trail...
It can be done

We need to continue with our comments. As a Western Maryland rider it is hard to get those up here on the same sheet of music because they are going to ride anyway. I do have many different business owners working on signing people up for our organization and to make a voice count. I have given out the letter that Yampol sent to many people so hopefully things will be ok. As for the meeting at New Germany, it was not as bad as some may think. That meeting was set up for those who voiced an opposition to the trails or who had questions. We had about a dozen or so riders there. I don't think that we were hurt by that meeting at all. Getting people to understand "Tread Lightly" is not easy. Anyway, looking forward to more trails getting put into our area. The state has some money for trails and there is no reason why Green Ridge can not be re-opened correctly this time.

That was another thing I forgot to mention. It would be much cheaper for the state to reopen Greenridge with the proper remediation rather than create the new trails on Seidling Hill, although these would be well used also. If you do send your comments, be sure to mention this also. Greenridge may be one of the things they are looking at.

Yampol

There will be another ORV meeting this Wednesday (Sept 25th) at the Hancock Town Hall 126 W. High St,  Hancock, MD .  The meeting will be at 7pm.

Please attend if you can!

Here is an article from the Herald Mail.

http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/sideling-hill-residents-oppose-off-road-vehicle-trails-sign-petition/article_334c516e-23d1-11e3-b84d-001a4bcf6878.html

Yampol

Update:

The trails at Savage River are moving forward.  DNR received the preliminary engineering sketches of the proposed trails on a topo map.  The engineering firm has listened to all the users input and has added some loops and single-track as well as wider trails for ATVs, etc.  We expect to hear more towards the end of the month.

Thanks for the update.
Lets hope it moves along with out any problems.

From the October 2014 issue of AMA’s American Motorcyclist.

http://mdohvalliance.org/?p=262

Everything is moving ahead and with the two experts that came to the meeting and trail evaluation the state is changing the drawings and number of miles that this trail with accept. Hopefully the state will allow these experts to lay out the trail with some volunteer help

Who were the experts? Are they from around here?

We brought in NOHVCC Jack Terrel and the leading DNR, now retired and working with NOHVCC, lead trail builder from Minn. We had a one day workshop to educate DNR and Maryland trails folks and then spent a day on the site. The MD OHV Alliance is making some progress within the state and it is good to see some common sense methods being applied

That sounds really great. Maybe there is a little hope for MD yet. Got to get rid of that signing up to ride deal though. If you wake up one nice day and want to ride, you probably will not be able to.

Yampol

Thanks Elk

~~~

I don't think this location (SJR) will ever be able to sustain a "come & go" ride ability.

Although other places being looked at would likely have enough acreage, trail miles, parking etc.

It's good to see things heading in the right direction though.