Colorado B.S. Thread

Well no it's set up with new shocks, but just blocked the leaf pack.

 

So your a turd gen with a square? You need to think outside the box

 

When everything is free you don't complain.

 

Happy birthday!!

 

The OHV sticker, is a very real thing and the 61 roads on that list, give or take, are required to have a sticker if you want to drive on them. Regardless of vehicle type or license.

You can thank Stay the Trail for bringing it to attention that fees were not being collected.
The rule/law/ordinance has been in effect for some time now, but was never enforced.
It wasn't enforced because of the vague definition of "road" vs "trail".
Dudes with suits are currently working to pin all that down, thanks to Stay the Trail.

What does this mean currently?
Well, it's still not enforceable at this time. So, for now, if an official of the forest sees you on one of those trails, they will either....
do nothing,
or, let you know that a sticker will be required in the near future.

It's estimated that tickets will be handed out in the next 1-2 years, maybe sooner on certain high use trails.

You can buy your OHV sticker at any Parks and Wildlife outlet. The first time you have to buy it in person. Renewals can be done online after that. They are good for a year, it's not a calendar year, and not by date of purchase. I can't remember the valid months start to end. Some government bs.

25 cents of the fee goes toward Search and Rescue. Not that it matters, being volunteer, they can't charge you to rescue you anyway.

There are still hundreds of roads/trails not currently on the list, but that will prolly change.

Some interesting things I was not aware of.
When a designated "trail" is damaged, it's fairly easy to get a grant and do the repairs without having to get the feds involved. Clubs do this quite often.
If it's designated as a "road" an environmental impact study has to be done. This can take years and often results in the road being closed indefinitely.

For those of you on Fakebook, there is a Mountaineers (Larimer County 4 Wheel Drive Club) page that might have some discussion and more information. Anybody is welcome to join and ask questions.

It's not a bad thing, the ones who truly benefit from the OHV sticker are the big boy buggy drivers, or dedicated monster trucks on 40's, etc... Now that they are classified as OHV's, with the sticker, it negates having to license and insure a vehicle that is a trailer queen off the trail.

Now some of the listed trails might actually be a spur road off another unlisted trail. So that is something to think about. Might be a good idea to just get the sticker and avoid inadvertently being on a trail that requires one. In my part of the woods. Jenny Creek is the closest trail that is affected. Then of course the Buena Vista area which I like to visit.
So I'll be getting a sticker.

That's all I got.

 

What??

 

Send me pics of the back of the shackles to my phone, pretty please

 

Not you. The guy with the blocks in the rear.

 

Again, part of the whole free set up from Toytec.

 

Wasn't it discussed that the current rate is ~$25? I think many would/should register at such a low cost. Good post, Brett.

 

"Probably change"... Didn't see that one coming.

There's also an interesting paradox there in that first thing you learned. If it's much easier (and cheaper given the cost of an impact study) to repair a 'trail' than a road, that's a 'good' reason to look at reclassing a lot of roads as trails. But then you'd need a permit to drive on them, which you didn't before.

"Closed indefinitely" sitting between the two definitely is another thing to consider, and I find myself wondering if there is a list of examples out there somewhere. Almost every case of road/trail damage I can think of, it was repaired within a year or two. I'm also wondering about under what conditions such damage occurred and the requirement of an impact study. I mean, there was a shit-ton of damage to FS roads around here in the last few years due to fire and flood. Did they really do an impact study for each one of those before they fixed it? Schofield Pass got fixed pretty quick (maybe that's county though...). The only closure I know of still in effect was land ownership issues. Not being near it, I've never paid close attention to the whole Lefthand situation - how long what was closed and why, what reopened and what never will. Though I also might be blending that one with another one that received a lot of attention on forums like this.

I'm also finding it interesting to watch the fee opposition/support (and related the amount, as distinct from existence). I'm not seeing a lot of opposition to this one in particular (maybe because there's more confusion than anything else). But 90% of the time something like an access fee comes up along these lines, most of the people are screaming bloody murder about public lands and freedom.

 

Here's the ones I bought no resi

Black Friday sale 2 yrs ago

 

There are two right here.
Pierson Park. Which is actually open on each end, but no longer a thru road.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recreation/ohv/recarea/?recid=80647&actid=94

West White Pine. Closed from fire and flood
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/arp/recreation/ohv/recarea/?recid=80663&actid=94

Lefthand Canyon will never be reopened. There was simply too much shooting back there. Then the flood of 2013 really did some damage.

Yes, the sarcasm is dripping on the Stay the Trail reference.
They are a private organization. Not sure why they felt the need to start this, unless designating "roads" and "trails" is the goal. I feel they are opening up a can of worms. I could be wrong, The outcome of all this is very cloudy right now. It's starting innocently enough, but it's not government funded or spearheaded, so there is some distrust in sending money. It's not much for now, but that's how they rope you in, just a few dollars...

Ultimately, the USFS and BLM has the say over what is opened, closed, repaired, or left to go fallow. Nobody else.

 

Just giving you some shit. The block is fine especially for free. Gives you a lift for now while you consider exactly which way you want to go with your build. I started out with a spacer lift up front and an AAL in the rear from Toytec.

 

Stay the Trail is funded by the USFS. They report to the USFS and are restricted by them too.

 

Yes, but they are privately run.

http://staythetrail.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=266593&module_id=224594

Funded by grants.
http://staythetrail.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=266593&module_id=224597

 

I should have said funded/managed in part by USFS among others. Yes they are privately held. What I was eluding to was that they get their "guidance" from USFS. So their "stirring the pot" with the fee thing came from USFS and BLM in my opinion.

 

Distrust in sending money to Parks & Wikdife, or distrust in donating to Stay The Trail? Inevitably some of it is going to the same place, I just didn't quite understand what you meant.

I'm one who doesn't think registering is the end of the world. I'd much rather register and get a sticker than worry about a larger push to shut down a bulk of trails (extreme case is Bears Ears in Utah). Part of me also has a slight feeling that the gov is working vicariously through Stay The Trail on this subject, as STT's influence to the Offroad community is prevelant in CO, whereas there is more opposition to government entities. Maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist, though.

I do think your comment about opening up a can of worms is true. This can either go one of two ways; people start registering, stay the trail benefits from it in some way, and everyone goes about their business; or no one registers and the government starts flexing their overarching muscle.

 

I distrust any agency that solicits money, and doesn't disclose where every penny goes. The government is at the top of the list. You should be concerned too.
But it's not that much, so it's not a big deal. Right?


In other news, I'm heading to Estes Park for a job. Should be a nice day for a drive.