SBNF Route Designation Process

[Russ Chung]

The area around Pontiac Sluice and Heartbreak Ridge is proposed to be designated as "Wilderness". This means that motorized vehicles would not be allowed. I cannot attend any of the route designation public meetings, so here is a copy of a comment letter that I have sent in. If you would like to keep the route open to motorized vehicles, I would appreciate it if you would attend one of the public meetings or send in a comment. According to the SBNF website, comments can be submitted by mail or email and should be received by March 9. More information about the Route Designation Process can be found here and here
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February 22, 2007

San Bernardino National Forest
ATTN: Richard Thornburgh – OHV Route Designation
602 S. Tippecanoe Avenue
San Bernardino, CA 92408

RE: Route Designation – Heartbreak Ridge (2N61Y)

Gentlemen:

Reference is made to the San Bernardino National Forest Route Designation Project Proposed Action map of Onyx Peak (ONYX_PEAK.PDF)

I recently discovered that the area known as Heartbreak Ridge and Pontiac Sluice (vicinity of 34º13’N 116º42’ W) lies within a zone designated as “RW- Recommended Wilderness” under the 2005 Forest Land Use Plan. The existing OHV route to the summit branches off of 2N61Y and is shown as a dotted line on the map. I presume it would be closed to motorized use once the area is designated as Wilderness.

This is a popular OHV route that provides scenic vistas of Yucca Valley. A memorial to U.S. Marine Corps MAJ Alan Rowe is located at the summit of Heartbreak Ridge, and the logbook at the memorial shows many visits to the memorial each month, year round. The trail has been in use for many years; it is described in Charles Wells “Guide to Southern California Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails” which was published in 2003.

I respectfully request that a corridor be placed around the trail through the proposed “Recommended Wilderness” zone to allow continued motorized access to Heartbreak Ridge. Although it is definitely a black diamond route, the trail to Heartbreak Ridge should be designated for street legal use.

Sincerely,


RUSSELL W. CHUNG

Cc: pacificsouthwest-san-bernardino@fs.fed.us
Cc: comments-pacificsouthwest-san-bernardino@fs.fed.us

[FishPOET]

Thank you for you efforts Russ. The next few months will be very interesting for the SBNF.

[freewaydan]

I put my name on it and sent it in,thanks russ for all the info

[Mike]

Great letter Russ!

I also sent a letter regarding the Pontiac Sluice but I also included some other areas that I noticed at the Hesperia Open House. My letter is not quite so motivating as yours but it reads as:

"Dear Mr. Richard Thornburgh:

After reviewing the proposed changes to the routes in the San Bernardino National Forest, I have the following requests for changes to the proposed plan:

1. The sections of X2W47 (Cleghorn Trail, Cajon SE and Silverwood SW) that are planned for Rehabilitation should be instead added to the open motorized routes.
2. All of X2W47 should be opened to street legal vehicles. It is a popular trail among people that do not realize that it is currently unauthorized and I am confident that if it were opened for use that the Adopt-A-Trail program would be quickly put in place for this trail.
3. The proposed green sticker trail for X2W33 (Pilot Rock - Silverwood Lake SE) should be opened for street legal vehicles as well.
4. Three unauthorized routes should be made designated street legal routes. These routes are U2034, U2032, and U2043 (Onyx Peak NW - popularly known as the Pontiac Sluice). These routes are suitable for street legal vehicles and the path is such that it should have little effect on the existing wilderness around this area.
5. Do Not allow Green Sticker use of 2N61Y (Heartbreak Ridge - Onyx Peak). Allowing Green Sticker use could encourage unauthorized trails into the existing wilderness bordering the trail. This trail, as with the trail above (#4) should be designated for street legal vehicles only to limit the possibilities of intrusion.

Best Regards,

Mike Anderson"

This process is an excellent and easy way to tell the USFS what we want. They are openly asking us to do so. We can not let this opportunity pass. The Rangers at the meeting were pointing out the closures and were encouraging us to submit comment sheets. They can't change the proposed plan, but we can.

[sarah]

I'm sending mine now. FYI, the SBNF site says:

To be most effective, comments need to be received by March 9, 2007. Please be as specific as possible in your comments. If there is a particular route or routes that you are concerned about, please include the route identifier (e.g. 3N14) and the start and end points if you are only concerned about a portion of it (e.g. “between X and Y”).

If we have any PHP geeks around here that want to help me create a web form for everyone to use for "easier" submission of comments, please send me a PM.

[Mike]

Everybody Should Do This!

The US Forest Service is actively asking for feedback on the proposed plan for the users of the trails. It is SOOOOooo easy to do. Just send an email to Richard Thornburgh at these addresses:

pacificsouthwest-san-bernardino@fs.fed.us
comments-pacificsouthwest-san-bernardino@fs.fed.us

The subject line must include "Route Designation" in the text.
Then just tell the USFS what you would like to see that is different than the proposed plan.

There are several things that I noticed that I put in my letter in a previous post. I put it in the terms that the USFS would best understand but I want to tell everyone what I am concerned about in the proposed plan.

Cleghorn's first two side excursions are proposed to be CLOSED, essentially FOREVER! For those of you who have been on this trail, the two runs are the first hill:


And the second run includes Jeep Virgin's famous spot:


These are on the trail designated as X2W47. The rest of trail is proposed to be opened but only for green sticker vehicles. We need to ask for street legal vehicles to be included.

The Pilot Rock side trails are being added as Green Sticker only trails as well. This is called X2W33 and we should ask for street legal vehicles to be included in these as well. The trail has some fun stuff like this rock fall that requires side-wall action to climb:


Apparently the Pontiac Sluice has never been an authorized trail! The USFS designates the loop as three different unauthorized trails. They are numbered as U2034, U2032, and U2043. If we loose access to the loop, we loose the Squeeze:


And some great play areas:


As you may note in my letter to the USFS, I also feel that the rest of Heartbreak Ridge should NOT be made open to Green Sticker vehicles.


Now for something that is not in my letter because I have already sent a separate letter on this topic: Gold Mountain's Rock Garden!


I had heard a rumor that the rock garden was going to be closed. When I spoke to a Ranger at the Hesperia Open Forum, he specifically told me that it is proposed to be closed. He volunteered this; I did not ask him!

He said to submit a comment sheet asking to keep 3N69A open.

I can not find this route on any of the closure lists from this proposed plan. I can not find the trail on any of the Route Designation maps. The proposed plan does not show any planned changes for the Gold Mtn trail. So I am very confused about how to approach this. I guess the best thing is to submit a comment sheet with the request to keep 3N69A open, like the Ranger said.

Regardless of what you want to happen or think may happen, the proposed plan will close or alter the above trails unless WE send in our comments! PLEASE HELP! It's quick and easy.

[sarah]

I just got a failed notice on the address pacificsouthwest-san-bernardino@fs.fed.us. Comments@ appeared to go through.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for the great information. It's tough to keep up with all of this, and it's even tougher to get organized as a group. From what it sounded like at the Adopt-A-Trail meetings too, everyone wants to get involved but aren't sure how.

If anyone has any ideas on how we can use this site to get everyone on a common ground - whether it be contact forms, mailing lists, anything - please shoot me a pM or email.

[RAT]

I sent a letter as well. We all need to get on board here cuz these trails are prime wheeling spots. Like Sarah said, if anyone can get us all on the same page it would be great; not only for us but for the entire wheeling community as well.

Rat

[RAT]

The area around Pontiac Sluice and Heartbreak Ridge is proposed to be designated as "Wilderness". This means that motorized vehicles would not be allowed. I cannot attend any of the route designation public meetings, so here is a copy of a comment letter that I have sent in. If you would like to keep the route open to motorized vehicles, I would appreciate it if you would attend one of the public meetings or send in a comment. According to the SBNF website, comments can be submitted by mail or email and should be received by March 9. More information about the Route Designation Process can be found here and here
===============================

February 22, 2007

San Bernardino National Forest
ATTN: Richard Thornburgh – OHV Route Designation
602 S. Tippecanoe Avenue
San Bernardino, CA 92408

RE: Route Designation – Heartbreak Ridge (2N61Y)

Gentlemen:

Reference is made to the San Bernardino National Forest Route Designation Project Proposed Action map of Onyx Peak (ONYX_PEAK.PDF)

I recently discovered that the area known as Heartbreak Ridge and Pontiac Sluice (vicinity of 34º13’N 116º42’ W) lies within a zone designated as “RW- Recommended Wilderness” under the 2005 Forest Land Use Plan. The existing OHV route to the summit branches off of 2N61Y and is shown as a dotted line on the map. I presume it would be closed to motorized use once the area is designated as Wilderness.

This is a popular OHV route that provides scenic vistas of Yucca Valley. A memorial to U.S. Marine Corps MAJ Alan Rowe is located at the summit of Heartbreak Ridge, and the logbook at the memorial shows many visits to the memorial each month, year round. The trail has been in use for many years; it is described in Charles Wells “Guide to Southern California Backroads and 4-Wheel Drive Trails” which was published in 2003.

I respectfully request that a corridor be placed around the trail through the proposed “Recommended Wilderness” zone to allow continued motorized access to Heartbreak Ridge. Although it is definitely a black diamond route, the trail to Heartbreak Ridge should be designated for street legal use.

Sincerely,


RUSSELL W. CHUNG

Cc: pacificsouthwest-san-bernardino@fs.fed.us
Cc: comments-pacificsouthwest-san-bernardino@fs.fed.us

Thanks Russ.

Kurt

[Materdaddy]

I'm sending mine now. FYI, the SBNF site says:



If we have any PHP geeks around here that want to help me create a web form for everyone to use for "easier" submission of comments, please send me a PM.

PM sent.

[sarah]

Yikes, did anyone go to the meeting in Running Springs? I know we have a few BB/Arrowhead people here ....

[sarah]

OK KIDS!!! Russ, Mat and I have been working on a couple of email forms to make it easy for you to send in your comments. Now, there is no excuse! Doooooo it, NOW!

http://myjeeprocks.com/reports/categ...action-alerts/

[Kodiak Spirit]

closed routes dissapear...

I went to the meeting they had in Hesperia, along with most of the club I'm in, and we really scoured the maps. I met up with some MJR members and was humbled by the maps he had in his hand. I am ashamed to say I haven't paid much attention to the route designations, I just wheel with other guys that "know the trails" but one thing I noticed is that when they close a trail like Pontiac or the Gold Mtn. rock garden the trail just dissappears from the map and if you don't know the old route #'s you got nothing to say... There were quite a few uniformed individuals that refused to acknowledge the names of the trails, only the route designations. I wrote my $0.02 allready, thanx to the info found from MJR ! and strangely enough the old maps are not available anymore... or at least I cant find them. I would love to have a pack of maps like that one...

[maddmike]

sorry, put up a request for a list of places to petition for trails to be kept open and sarah already posted it.

should have read before i posted. oops.

[Old Fart]

Couple of points I'd like to clarify here. Any trail with a "W" or "E" designation is designated for motorcycles only (we may have some 50" trails that are W/E - Doug?), that's where the "street legal" comes in. "Green sticker" trails can be traversed by the _appropriate_ street legal vehicle, in this case it looks like a motorcycle trail has been "widened" by use by full size vehicles. What we really want is for the designation (number) of the trail to be _changed_ to a "N" trail.

My guess is that the trail is 2W47X, not X2W47