Hey all...

I'm kinda' trolling to see what the interest level would be to get some folks together for Weyerhaeuser trail runs. I've never done them - I hear that they're basically logging roads and you do them for the views more than anything else.

Permit's are required - $65 for the year. Some older info from 2002 is up here (anyone know of a current site?):

http://www.stonetrails.com/WAlocs/Tr...reefarmain.htm

Any interest?

 

Weyerhaeuser sold a lot of land in Washington to Hancock Timber and I think that included the White River and Snoqualmie tree farms so the rules have probably changed. I didn't see anything on the Hancock Timber web site that would answer the question or help figure out how to answer the question.

 

http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/citizens...ss/washington/

 

Thanks Rob! Thanks Alan!

I knew about the sale, and the reports I read said that access to the (old) northern area wasn't going to change. It was supposed to still be available for wandering.

I'd also found the link showing the southern areas but being based up here on the northside, I was hoping to not have to ride that far south.

There's a shop in Redmond ("Sportee's") that sells the Weyerhaeuser permits, they may know something about the Hancock rules. I'll have to run by there during the week.


Thanks guys!

 

Take me along when you go into Redmond.

 

You got it. I'll probably go on Monday - we'll talk offline and figure out a time.

 

Update!

As mentioned above, Weyerhaeuser sold off the north end of their land rights to Hancock Timber. Hancock _is_ still granting ORV access to the land, but...

The cost is $145/season, and the access times are greatly reduced. You can get onto Hancock land 3 days during the week from 9AM -> Sunset. Weekend access is 12pm (noon) -> Sunset. Passes are available at the True-Value hardware in Northbend. Acess doesn't start until after Memorial Day.


Weyerhaeuser is still granting ORV access to their southern land, that cost is $65/season this year. Passes are available at various places, as noted on the 2002 link here:

http://www.stonetrails.com/WAlocs/Tr...reefarmain.htm

 

Kinda steep pricing to travel FS roads

 

Yeah... at this point I'm no longer interested.

The guy I talked to (I called Sportee's in Redmond) had a bit of information on the backgrounder for the pricing. I had made a comment of "wow.. sounds like someone's getting greedy", and I kinda' pushed the wrong button. It's all good though.

It seems that the purpose behind Weyerhaeuser charging at all was to keep kids from throwing keggers or general misuse the property and to basically try to limit the users to a responsible flock.

The problem with this is that the income from the permit buyers didn't cover the cost of the upkeep of the trails - grating, gates, patrols, etc.

Of course, when the property rights were sold to Hancock, financial disclosure showed the funding issues that Weyerhaeuser had. So, while Hancock isn't looking to make a profit from the permits (so they say), they do want to cover the upkeep costs - hence the higher fees. The reduced hours come from the same line of thinking - if they limit availability times, then there will be less damage to repair and less required patrols.