Roadrunner

I received this from one of my CORE4X4 club members. Since this affects Virginia trails, I thought I'd share it with you. Some of you guys may have already read it. Southwest Virginia 4 Wheelers (SWVA4W) have been hard at work getting us access to VA trails.

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Morrison [mailto:mgmorrison@rbnet.com]
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 10:29 PM
To: vohvc-members@vohvc.org
Subject: Update from the trails commitee

I am very excited about the developments we are making in the trails committee. One of the goals of the OHV community as a whole is the development and preservation of trails. Last year at this time Pott's Jeep Trail was being shutdown due to the few individuals who couldn't stay on the designated trail. SWVA4W (Southwest Virginia 4 Wheelers) worked hard to keep access to the trail open. The VOHVC helped later during the summer on a trail cleanup/workday on the trail. The picture on the front of the membership brochure was taken that day. We were successful in saving that trail from extinction. All of this has obtained a great deal of respect for our cause from the New Castle District Rangers and the Regional Office.

Because of these efforts, I am pleased to announce that the Mill Creek area in Craig county will soon be the destination of choice for 4wds. The Oriskanny area right around the corner has Patterson Creek for ATV's
and motorcycle enthusiasts. Pott's Jeep road is the next ridge north. There is camping in the area and reasonably easy access. Mill Creek has been "worked" on for almost two years. The discussions with the Rangers don't involve whether or not to discuss opening new trails, instead they focus on how and where these new trails can be opened quickly. The latest time frame we have been given is 1 year before opening. During the next year we are going to finish mapping the new trails out and getting them through the various approvals needed and finally any clearing or other work needed to get the roads passable. I am confident that we are going to have some success here rather than the perpetual closings we have seen in the past. I intend to present at the VOHVC meeting in Jan as complete of a blueprint for this area as I can.

Going back to Patterson Creek, I have agreed to have the VOHVC do some maintenance on the trails during the early spring. The rangers are looking to install signs to clearly mark the trails so there won't be any question over what is legal and what is not.. Once again we have the potential to have some first class riding for all of our groups within a 10 mile radius.

With our group working on multiple projects throughout the state, there are some items worth mentioning again. We want to drive home the point that as a group we are going to accomplish some great things for OHV use in VA. There of course is the recent success that Mark has had down in Southwest VA with the county standing up and voting for ATV use. Also there is some discussion of trails out east on some military land that is being worked on. As Robert has discussed in prior mailings to the BOD and various other groups is that we have a potential mechanism to have various counties throughout the state host land for OHV use. Considerable thought and research are going into this effort.

One of the things that we need to finish prior to undertaking these ventures is a complete inventory of existing and potential OHV sites throughout the state. Please send me your lists of trails/areas so we can research and compile these for both our internal and public use. Include where the site is (GPS waypoints are great), who is responsible (local, federal, private), what type of vehicles, etc.

Thanks,
Martin Morrison
Regional Director, VOHVC
President, SWVA4W

Border411

I just got that from the guys in Core4x4.org. I think we should get involved. I would love to get some trails open in NoVa so I dont have to travel some damn far to ride!

Shaun Lewis

rwmorrisonjr

I'm glad you guys are getting this info, I've never received anything from CORE4x4 since the one meeting I went to in October. Now I have a reason to get an older p/u as a trail rig.

Roadrunner

Sometimes they're a little slow adding names to the email list. I'll send off an email asking them to add you to the list. Do you want to send me a PM with your email address?