Twin Lakes and Palmateer trails, Mount Hood NF
A meeting was held on July 2 at the Mount Hood Ranger District Office in Parkdale to discuss the status of the Twin Lakes and Palmateer trails.
Trail Meeting with Daina Bambe (2nd from left).
In the past, before the consolidation of Ranger Districts on the Mount Hood National Forest these trails were actively managed by the Bear Springs Ranger District as multi-use trails, which allowed for hiking, horses, and mountain bikers. Mountain Bikers, under direct supervision of Forest Service personnel actively put in time maintaining these trails for no less than 8 years. Special use permits for races and tours were issued for uses consistent with local management of the trails during this time as well. It was not until the abolition of the Bear Springs Ranger District, and after Oregon Wild began advertising Appendix C of the Mount Hood Forest Plan that the use of these trails began to be questioned. For example the 482A trail is listed as a hiker only trail in Appendix C but it is used, and was managed for both hikers and horseback riders.
There was a lot of heated discussion at times between trail users, including a comment by the PCTA (Pacific Crest Trail Association) representative that she had never heard of a mountain biker ever putting in work time on trails. I pointed out that she wouldn't, if she only worked the Pacific Crest Trail where bikers are prohibited.
Contracts are going to be issued very soon to do some reconstruction work on some of the trails. Any trail work performed at tax payer expense will have to be up to certain specifications as to trail width, grade, etc. A .7 mile spur trail (marked in green on the map) will then be abandoned. It was pointed out that this was a favorite trail of bikers, and why abandon it. The response was sorry, that's the way it is going to be without having to re-issue/re-open the whole issue which was not very likely because of the bureacracy in the system.
Daina Bambe, the Recreation Manager for the Forest from the Sandy office who ran the meeting also let us know that there also ways in which we can also expand trails for our use. She mentioned that there are procedures available to us to re-open abandoned trails, and she identified several that could significantly increase the amount of trails available to us and horseback riders. She further identified where we might be able to have connector trails between the Twin Lakes area and the Bonney Butte/Meadows/Badger Lake trail system. Trails that are maintained, or adopted by specific groups, would not need to be built/maintained to Forest Service standards. The process would have to be published in the Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA) for the Forest and there would be a comment period before work could begin. She mentioned that optimistically we could get something going next summer.
What I took away from this meeting is 1. that hikers and horseback riders will throw in your face the number of hours they spend maintaining trails. What do you do is their attitude? So, put your trail work time in. 2. Anyone concerned with riding the trails of any National Forest has got to read the SOPA, published quarterly by the individual forests. It can be found on the Forest's website, or mailed to you. E-mail Shelly York at syork@fs.fed.us to get on the Mount Hood NF SOPA list. 3. Lobby Congressman Blumenauer to change his wilderness proposal to allow mountain biking to continue and be expanded in this area. 4. Buy your yearly Forest Recreation Pass.
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