I was heading up to the Burnt Granite trail this morning and when I turned the corner on the 4650 road I was stopped by piles of rock and asphalt in a ripped up road. I knew it was in the plans, but wasn't quite ready for that one. I believe the plan was to decomission the road to the end of pavement where the 120 spur road comes off about 2 miles up the road. So if you want to get to the Burnt Granite trailhead on the 4650 road you will have to go around the back way up the 4670 road and come down the 4650 road to the trailhead. I would have had a picture, but the batteries in my camera were dead.
Another restriction to our access to our forest.
Don
Why rip up a good, paved road? Getting weird out there...
It's not weird. It's a reflection of the public sentiment of the majority voting public which no longer favors development of the woods.
D
A healthy dose of American Apathy can't hurt either, like whipped cream on top. Public sentiment? "Meh." they all say. Tuned into the Ipad instead. Electrodes.
Let's face it, MHNF has been developed enough. But some of the development, while designed for resource extraction - is still at times a good resource that's already there! It is short-sighted to brutally tank trench a good road that's already there, and won't look natural for hundreds of years. Especially if they lead to a (compromised) historical land or scenic place, or maybe just a favorite family camp.
And good luck taking the old pre-road trail. If it hasn't been slammed by clearcuts, it is completely overgrown from 50 years without maintenance.
The Forest Service is a branch of the Dept. of Agriculture after all, which means resource extraction is priority 1. No timber, no revenue. It's a shame Landscape Ecology isn't taken too seriously; we could return some of these logged over lands into decent recreation opportunities, ala "filling a quarry with water and calling it a lake".
Donovan, I now see what you mean by "keeping people out of the woods". I thought you were just being a cranky ass.
I was back up near Big Bottom today, so I went over to the 4650 road and took a couple of pictures of the new road decomissioning. It doesn't look pretty. At least they could have salvaged the asphault, but I guess that wasn't in the budget.
Don