Ruby Mountain Trails

Snow hike in Right Fork

2012-01-22T08:49:00.001-08:00

Well, it looks like winter is FINALLY here. And about darned time, I say.

Bruce, RJ and I decided to go out and celebrate by hiking about four miles up Right Fork Canyon yesterday, right into the teeth of the blizzard. We had an absolute ball - smiles all around, when we didn't have our heads down trying not to get sandblasted by the wind and blowing snow. The blizzard conditions were pretty much limited to above the bench - below that, it was a beautiful, calm snowfall.

Just goes to show how variable things can be up there.

We were able to drive all the way to the Right Fork trailhead. It was obvious that the storm had started out as a slushfall - there were about three inches of slush underneath the skiff of snow that was showing. There had been no snow up there in recent weeks, so we decided to leave the snowshoes in the truck and hike it. Not a bad choice, although snowshoes would certainly have been appropriate a couple of miles in.

We crossed the creek at the higher of the two creek crossings just past the Scout Camp. The little bridge is gone, but the water is low and the rocks are placed appropriately to keep one's feet dry.

HooDoo, a favorite ice climbing destination. Don't know that it's been cold enough recently for this to be safe at the moment.

For the most part, once we got above the Scout Camp, the snow was mid-shin deep to just below the knees. It was over-the-knees in a few places.

Once we got above the bench, we were able to hike almost to the creek crossing before the blizzard really started blowing up. A good place to turn around and head back.

So beautiful up there in the winter.

We turned around right at 8600', which is a little lower than the Lamoille Canyon Road turnaround. There are still a lot of willows showing and no base to speak of.

Figured I'd stay out of the canyon today since there is bound to be a million snowmobiles, will hopefully head up to the turnaround tomorrow on my sled and see if it's skiable yet. Given the avalanche conditions, if I do ski it'll be a meadow-skipping kind of day.

Hike classifications

2012-01-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted an update. I tore up my left Achilles tendon several weeks ago - how, I couldn't tell you, but likely from not being as conscientious about stretching as I could/should be. Getting old ain't for sissies, and my days of bounding out of the truck and onto the trail are likely over. Warm up first, please.

At any rate, I've gotten a bit of grief from folks for the (extremely subjective) ratings I've given some of the hikes for which I've provided beta on this blog, most particularly my most recent write-up on Griswold Lake. What's "easy" for me may be less so for other folks, and what I might consider something that should earn a "difficult" rating could be a cakewalk for another person.

Fair enough. Let's take the subjectivity out of it.

Back when I lived in Colorado, I was a member of the Colorado Mountain Club. They have tens of thousands of members and needed a workable rating system to make sure that people signed up for the hikes they were interested in and/or qualified for. Their rating system did a pretty good job in letting folks know what they were in for, so (since plagiarism is the highest form of flattery) I'm going to steal it wholesale. Not only that, but as a courtesy I'll go back and update the ratings I've given various hikes on this blog to reflect this rating system.

Fair enough?

OK, here it is, straight from the CMC website:

Hike Classifications

Hikes (including some trips that require rock-climbing skills) are normally classified as A through D:

Class A: Up to 8 miles round trip and 1200 ft. elevation gain. (Prior hiking experience is usually not necessary.)

Class B: Up to 12 miles round trip and 2500 ft. elevation gain. (Moderate to strenuous physical activity. Some prior experience is beneficial.)

Class C: Up to 15 miles round trip and 3500 ft. elevation gain. (Strenuous to very strenuous physical activity. Prior experience and training is beneficial.)

Class D: Over 15 miles round trip or 3500 ft. elevation gain. (Very strenuous physical activity often including exposure or requiring use of technical skills. Knowledge based on prior experience and training is highly beneficial.)

If you also see the letter "E" after the classification (such as C-E or D-E), the trip involves exposure (i.e., risk of falling) and may require advanced climbing skills.

Got it? That should be easy enough. Since a lot of the hikes around here require route-finding skills, I'll add an "R" after the classification to indicate that, too.

I'll put a link to this post at the bottom of my trail beta from here on out. FWIW, I pretty much considered Class A and B hikes to be "easy" hikes back in my CMC days, C hikes to be "moderate" and D hikes to be the ones most worth doing. ;)

Griswold Lake and the Hennen Canyon Trail

2011-11-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

I've always kind of "dissed" Griswold Lake as a hiking destination, largely because I generally have more distant goals in mind: Ruby Dome and Lee Peak, to be exact. The trail up Hennen Canyon to Griswold Lake is the easiest way to access those two peakbagging goals, and so Griswold tends to be a snack stop along the way.

That said, the hike to Griswold is well worth doing. I had a chance to walk up there this weekend, and really enjoyed the snow, the silence, and the herd of big bucks I saw along the way. ATVs won't make it up this canyon, so the bucks are largely safe from Elko County hunters. Given the sometimes slippery footing and the late start I managed, I was happy to have a headlight along. It got pretty dark around 4:30pm. The trail's so good, though, that getting back to the truck was easy-peasy.

Here's a little beta for those interested in making this trip.

HENNEN CANYON TRAIL TO GRISWOLD LAKE

Length: 6 miles RT from Spring Creek Association campground trailhead

Elevation gain: 2750'

Difficulty: Class C-R (moderate with route-finding)

Time required: Day hike or overnight

The Hennen Canyon trail is a great day hike or overnight for those interested in an easy-to-moderate, accessible, low-commitment trip away from the mass of people that populates Lamoille Canyon. Because this trail is the main access to Ruby Dome, it sees regular use in the summer and a fair bit of use in the fall and winter. Most people don't go far up the trail when the snow comes, though, and you can just about be guaranteed of having the place to yourself as the days start growing short.

Hennen Canyon Trail

If you choose to make this an overnight, there is good camping at Griswold Lake. The lake itself is very shallow, with a mud bottom and a rock in the middle that makes for an excellent swimming goal. There are fish in the deepest part of the lake. An overnight at Griswold and a hike up Ruby Dome makes for a fun weekend trip.

The Hennen Canyon trail is a non-wilderness, non-motorized trail, meaning it's open to hikers, horsemen, mountain bikers, skiers, etc. However, while the trail clearly sees some maintenance from USFS crews, there are some large-diameter deadfall logs that make the going pretty difficult for the horsey set. In addition, once the trail leaves the trees, it spends a lot of time traveling through some very rocky terrain. While I know that horsemen can and do occasionally get their animals up there, it's very difficult going in places and there's a high probability that your horse will be injured. Be advised. As far as MTBs go - it's well beyond the capacity for my legs and lungs. If you're up for a steady 16% grade, have at it. I've never seen a bike up there, or even tracks... that doesn't mean that it can't be done, but it certainly isn't an entry-level MTB trip.

I couldn't begin to tell you the "official" USFS name for this trail. It is located in the bottom of Hennen Canyon, along Butterfield Creek, up to Griswold Lake. I'll call it the Hennen Canyon trail, but if you ask at the ranger office they may well call it something else.

The hike is rated Class C-R (moderate with route-finding). The hike itself isn't difficult - there's not much elevation gain in the scheme of things, it's not that long, there's no scrambling or exposure. The first two miles or so are on good, reasonably well-maintained trail that's easy enough to find, even in winter. That said, you will be spending some of this hike off-trail following rock cairns, some of which are difficult to see. Not only that, but you will need to be comfortable out there on your own - there's no road up this canyon, no way to get an ATV up there, and you'll need to be prepared to self-evacuate if you have an issue.

One other note - if you are not a Spring Creek property owner, you are technically trespassing using this trail. You have to go through a section of land owned by Spring Creek Association to get to it. I've never heard of anyone being hassled about this, but if somebody does get in your face about it, don't say that you haven't been warned. Stay low-profile, be a good guest, and hopefully their non-harassment policy won't change.

GETTING THERE:
Hennen Canyon is accessed through the Spring Creek Association campground. To reach the SCA campground - from Elko travel SE on Lamoille Highway (5th Street) approximately 17 miles to Pleasant Valley Road, a dirt road that takes off straight as an arrow towards the Rubies. The road will make a 90-degree turn - at this corner you'll see a locked green gate to the left. If you have a key to the gate you can save yourself some walking by driving in. Otherwise, park here and climb over the gate.

THE HIKE:
From the gate, walk or drive up the dirt road and take the right fork up to the campground. The road switchbacks up past some pull-out campsites and eventually dead-ends at a flat turn-around with a nice view of the valley. There'll be a large sign that says "Ruby Dome 4 mi, Griswold Lake 3 mi". Follow the arrows, cross Butterfield Creek on a nice new-ish bridge, pass through the man-gate and you'll be on the trail proper.

The trail maintains a pretty steady 16% grade overall. This can be a little... eye-opening... right out of the gate. It can also be fairly annoying in August, when the trail tread is dusty and somewhat slippery, particularly on the downhill. It does get better when you get past the initial sagebrush rise. The grade doesn't really relent but the trail surface improves. Other times of the year, when the trail isn't dusty, it makes for fine walking.

You'll pass through a second man-gate somewhat more than half a mile up the trail. At this point, you're on the Forest proper and are no longer trespassing. Be sure and close the gate behind you.

Butterfield Creek

The trail climbs up to the left of Butterfield Creek, weaving in and out of the aspens and mahoganies on the way up. It's easy to find, even with the snow - follow the tree carvings and cut logs if you can't see the tread itself. There are carvings by Basque sheepherders dating back to the 1930's that are easy to find without much looking. You might find even older ones if you look hard enough.

Old carvings

At about two miles in you'll reach the end of the aspen grove and will be faced with a large, flat rock outcropping. This is a good turn-around spot if you're on a horse or are interested in a shorter, easier hike. If you're interested in pressing on, head up the rock, walk uphill and start looking for rock cairns.

The rock bench begins

There are some really nice views of Spring Creek, Elko Mountain and the Adobe Range from here. Don't forget to take time to gawk.

Valley view

There are about four lines of rock cairns that will eventually lead you up the rock bench to the lake. They all follow roughly the same path, so it doesn't really matter which line you follow. The cairns pretty much hug the left bank of the draw in the middle of the rock bench - if you lose the line it is no big deal, it just might take you a couple minutes more getting up there.

You'll go through a bit of a squeeze right next to the creek, and then the canyon will widen out again. At this point, there are two draws below the lake. The cairns, again, hug the left bank of the left draw, the obvious snow-filled gully in this picture.

Final approach to Griswold Lake

Once the grade begins to relent, you'll know you've all but reached the lake itself.

Griswold Lake

Griswold campsite

If Griswold Lake is your goal for the hike, hang out for a bit, have a snack and enjoy the day before heading down. If Ruby Dome is your ultimate goal, I'll do a real write-up for you one of these days. Generally speaking, though, the easiest way to do it is to circle around the left of Griswold Lake, making your way uphill to the wide saddle between Hennen Canyon and the right fork of Seitz Canyon. Stay on the rocks, stay off of the plants! Once you've gained that saddle, skirt to the right of the large knob, then start picking your way across the boulders up to the obvious low point to the west of the Dome. Once you've achieved that low point, Ruby Dome is to your left, Lee Peak is along the ridge to the right.

Transition into winter

2011-11-22T16:58:00.000-08:00

I lost my camera this summer and so haven't been all that great about taking and posting photos. Sorry about that! Anyway, here are a few recent ones celebrating the gorgeous transition from fall to winter.

They're crappy phone photos, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. I finally broke down and got another camera, though... luckily the Rubies are gorgeous enough that those stunning alpenglow sunsets I photographed with my phone - yeah, I didn't think it'd work but I had to try - they'll be back. And I'll be equipped to photograph them.

From a hike up to Liberty Pass a couple of weeks ago:

Thomas Canyon hike, with my friends Bruce and Jeff. It started out pretty dreary but turned into a truly lovely mountain day.

Recent hike up to Lamoille Lake. Not enough snow for skiing the Dollars yet.

Great Basin Institute's most recent bait-and-switch

2011-10-31T15:25:00.000-07:00

I got this e-mail a couple of days ago from a young woman who came to my home town from Switzerland to work for the Great Basin Institute on the Secret-Lamoille Trail project. It is a disturbing - very disturbing - indictment of the Great Basin Institute, the man they've hired to "oversee" the project, and of the local USFS office. This utter incompetence is why GBI and the USFS has blown through most of a half-million dollars RAISED BY THIS COMMUNITY on 3.5 miles of trail that is going to have to be substantially rebuilt. It's nothing more than a gross and ugly bait-and-switch, played on the people who put this project together AND on the well-meaning kids who sign up to work for GBI.

Good God, this pisses me off. It should piss you off, too.

I've changed the author's name, as well as the name of her partner, to protect their privacy.

Hello,

I found your mail adress in blogger.com because I read your articles about the Ruby Mountain Trails. I write you because me and my boyfriend= were part of the GBI workers working this summer to built the Secret Pass Trail and we had a very bad experience!! We really hope that GBI will stop its activities because it´s a very bad organisation.They lied to us about what we were suppose to do during our stay in USA and we paid a lot of money to come to USA from Switzerland!

GBI hires American (american corps workers) but also foreigners. Some foreigners are volunteers (they are not at all paid) others (like [my partner] and me) are interns (paid two times less than the american corps workers).

[My partner] and me came to do an internship in environmental conservation. Our goal was to gain some experience because we just finished our Master in geosciences. What we were suppose to do is described in the attached document. This document, the DS-7002, is part of the J-1 Visa process that explains what the foreigners participating to an internship in the USA are suppose to do in the USA. As you can see, this document contains a plan of what we were suppose to do while we were in Lamoille. This document contains a "contract agreement" part signed by us, the supervisor and the program sponsor. A lawyer explained me that this DS 7002 has the value of a contract.

GBI never admitted that this document has the value of a contract. The organization persisted to say that it is a list of readings and topics to be covered during the internship but if you read it you will see that it's clearly not!

We wrote to Nancy Taylor from the US Forest Department [ed. note - Ruby Mountain Ranger District recreation planner and overall project manager] to explain the situation but she never answered! We really don´t understand why the US Forest Department work with an organisation that doesn´t respect a contract from the US Department of State!!

About the work we did in Lamoille, I totally agree with what you say on your blog! The work done is unprofesional. A lot of the GBI workers hadn´t any motivation (like the interns because we didn´t know that we will do this job!). Some switchbacks were done 3 times instead of doing it well the first time! The result was that we had to cut a lot of trees because of the mistakes mad! The supervisors, team managers, etc. had no idea about environment. When we started the work, we didn´t received any informations about the trail. GBI just explained us how to use tools like a shovel!! I had to ask and ask again to have at least a map of the site and have some informations about the trail (like the historic of the trail, where the trail is going, informations about the environmental assesment, etc.)

We lost a lot of money, time and energy with this experience. We choosed to leave the internship because we were tired of this situation. Now we are still waiting for a full refund of the money that we spend to participate to this internship.

Maybe this story can help you to persuade people to stop the collaboration with GBI, an incompetent organisation that lies to hire its workers.

(signed)

[Name]

Here's what these kids were supposed to be learning, taken from the State Department paperwork granting them a visa to enter this country. Their internship was supposed to be broken into three phases:

Overview:

Interns will see, first hand, how the theories of ecological and habitat restoration are being applied in the field. Participant will be able to apply their knowledge and skills gained while working in the environment in which they are studying.

Phase 1
Week 1: Introduction to Concepts of Ecological Restoration, discussion pertaining to the required research project.
Weeks 2-4: Concepts of Ecological Restoration, Principles of Habitat Restoration, check topic of research project for relevancy.

Phase 2
Week 1: Introduction to Restoration Project Planning.
Weeks 2-6: Restoration Project Design.
Weeks 7-11: Site Analysis and Preparation.
Weeks 12: Introduction to Native Plant Revegetation/Control of Invasive Plant Species.

Phase 3
Weeks 1-11: Monitoring, assessing, and evaluating restoration projects.

As far as I can tell, the only restoration work that needed to happen up there was fixing the butcher job that GBI itself is doing!

Where do I start with how terribly GBI wronged this young woman and her partner?

1. You do NOT abuse volunteers! People sign on to projects like this for an absolute pittance because they want to do great things for the environment, for the forest, for future trail users. Interns sign on for projects like this to further their education! GBI promised these kids a well-rounded season of work learning about environmental restoration, and instead handed them a shovel with NO oversight or guidance and set them to a job they had no desire to do.

2. These young people spent thousands of dollars of their own money to fly half-way around the world to further their education. Most young people don't have a money tree growing in their apartments. They were defrauded of the educational experience they thought they were paying for - wasting not only money, but also time that they could have used to get the experience needed to move into the workforce.

3. My guess is that these two kids were not alone in their experience, based on the absolutely abysmal quality of work I see up there. They had NO guidance, NO supervision, even though GBI's executive director is paying his Reno "buddy" out of the project's funds to provide precisely that. The blind were leading the blind, which can give no thinking person any kind of job satisfaction. The best part, though, is that once they were here it was almost impossible for them to leave! They were trucked out from Reno and bivouacked at the Lamoille USFS Guard Station, with no vehicle other than the ones driven by their crew leaders.

And, on a personal note - I love Lamoille, I love the Rubies, and I love this state. Northeastern Nevada is, to me, paradise, and I'm very, very proud of the beauty, history and hospitality of this place. To know that these young people traveled halfway around the world to get here, and then were so ABUSED... angers me beyond belief. I wish there were some way that I could show them that the rest of us here aren't charlatans, but I can't. They're gone, as are the rest of the kids GBI brought here last summer.

Travel management and Pandora's box

2011-10-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

I got in a bit of back-and-forth a few days ago with a couple of folks on the Elko Daily Free Press website regarding travel management. I've largely stayed quiet about the process in recent years, mostly because I thought it would negatively impact the work I was doing on the Secret-Lamoille Trail Project. Since I've been booted out of that project, though, I don't see a lot of point in staying quiet any more. What the hell - Pandora's box can hold some interesting stuff.

An off-the-top-of-my-head history of Travel Management

For those unfamiliar with the history of Travel Management, several years ago the Bush Administration directed public lands agencies to begin the process of changing travel rules on USFS and BLM lands from "open unless designated closed" to "closed unless designated open." This has the effect of limiting travel on routes in the Forest and on BLM lands to identified system roads, thus in theory stopping overland travel and the incredible resource damage said overland travel can cause.

Few who care about the condition of public lands can argue with the concept. All you have to do is head out to your nearest Forest or BLM land to see the incredible damage that careless motorized travel does every day. More and more people are out there riding, and the motors and tires get bigger every year. One little track from some guy testing his skills driving up or down a steep hill becomes a deeper and deeper track after other folks try and follow him, and after erosion starts taking place. Pretty soon those tracks become rocky gullies and scars on the hillside... so the next guy tries another hill a few feet over and the cycle of damage begins again. Those scars are visible from miles away and will never heal in this dry desert climate. These kinds of "pioneer trails" are rampant around here and are an amazing degradation from when I was growing up.

When the travel management process begins in a public lands district, the district staff does its best to inventory the existing roads, ATV tracks and trails. They look to the public for a lot of help on this because it's not physically possible for them to find everything... something's certain to be missed, and in so doing a good route would be closed to public use since it wouldn't end up on the finished maps. Once they have an inventory done, they go through it looking for routes that should stay open and routes that should be closed. Closure is usually recommended for one of three reasons:

Resource damage/unsustainable route - travel along the route is causing damage to the soils, fisheries, wildlife habitat, cultural sites, etc.

Duplicate routes - multiple routes accessing the same destinations.

Lack of access - routes are locked off from access due to lack of public easements through private property. In these cases, the roads' designation was changed to "administrative" in order to allow for use by permittees and to allow for future categorization as "open" should an access easement be arranged.

As part of the Environmental Impact Statement necessitated by this significant of a change in public lands use, four different alternatives are proposed for the new travel management rules, from "no change" (not possible under Federal law) through increasingly restrictive scenarios. Environmental and cultural studies are done on each of the proposed alternatives, and the public is invited to comment through a formalized "scoping" process. Based on the results of the studies and the public scoping, one of the alternatives is chosen as the most appropriate for that district and is modified based on findings during the process. A draft of the new rule is published for comment again and, after the public has had a chance to have its say one more time, the new rule is adopted and implemented. It's reviewed again in a year and into the future to see what's working and what isn't, and changes are made at that time.

An EIS is an open invitation to a lawsuit, and the likelihood is that the agency is going to get sued by a variety of parties after the rule is adopted. If the EIS is done well and if the agency can demonstrate that it used good science and good scoping policies to do its work, the lawsuit generally doesn't get very far. If the agency's work is slipshod, the lawsuit will drag on for years if not more. Your tax dollars at work - generally speaking, entities that sue the federal government get their legal fees paid by the taxpayers. Groups like Western Watershed Project pay themselves nice, fat salaries that way.

That's the basic concept of how travel management is supposed to work, and how it is working across the country.

Travel Management and the three local Ranger Districts

By and large, that's how the travel management process worked here, up to a point. The USFS conducted an inventory of routes and published very preliminary and incomplete maps in 2005, asking the public to fill in the gaps. The ONLY people who participated were members of the Gold Country ATV club, even though the USFS ran articles in the paper, got on the radio, held public meetings, sent out letters, begged people to get involved. The overwhelming sentiment was that people didn't want to participate - to spill the beans on their favorite routes - because the USFS would then just close the route. These people missed the entire point of travel management, because unless the routes were identified and categorized as open, then they were GUARANTEED by law to be closed.

Another big problem with trying to get the routes identified was that the maps were, frankly, awful. You literally couldn't tell by looking at them which road was which, where it went, or anything. They should have been topographic maps or satellite images, but instead were simple black lines (routes) on a white background. Utterly useless... even if a person WANTED to help the maps were so bad that they couldn't.

This went on for several years, with the USFS trying to get their maps to be more complete and the public largely ignoring them. Scoping came and went, and while a few people commented most people didn't really say much.

And then, after the public scoping period had come and gone, one of the local USFS "haters" got wind of the deal.

Oh, my, god, you'd have thought the USFS was trying to murder Santa Claus! The commissioners blew up. Members of Elko County Staff, on Elko County time, spent days and weeks attacking the USFS and the travel management plan. People screamed in the media, screamed in meetings, made all kinds of false statements and accusations. Much of it was politically motivated, and a few people now hold elective office here in large part because of the noise they made about travel management. What started out as a fairly orderly and necessary process turned into a national example of a process gone wrong.

Travel management has been extended for multiple years at this point at the request of the commissioners and other local politicians - demanding more and more public meetings, more and more opportunities to attack the USFS, more and more ways to drag things out. As things sit right now, they've chased the local ranger out of town (no tar and feathers, although I'm certain that they'd be applied if they could catch him). The Forest supervisor has had to put her foot down and refuse to extend the process any farther. Meetings at this point are accomplishing nothing - they're just more opportunity for local residents to abuse USFS staff. Said non-tarred-and-feathered ranger will sign the travel management document as likely his last act for the Ruby Mountain Ranger District before leaving this area forever. Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

How things could have - and should have - gone

Frankly, anybody with any kind of familiarity with this area could have seen this coming. There has long been a hugely antagonistic relationship between locals and the USFS, and given the history of belligerence and the emphasis on motorized recreation here, it was a given that this was going to be an explosive issue.

The USFS made it radically worse by publishing terrible maps, by terrible communication, and by not playing the politics well.

One of their very FIRST acts should have been approaching the commissioners looking for help and buy-in. In 2005, before this all went to hell, the commission had some very level-headed people on board who were more about problem-solving than putting on a big show. They didn't do it, though, and now they're reaping the seeds that they didn't sow.

Before publishing the EIS with its four alternatives, the USFS should have identified the reason behind each and every mile of proposed road closure, and identified what needed to happen in order to keep those stretches of road open. That would have given people productive ways of working to address problems. If the road/trail needed to be improved, if erosion control needed to be done, if access easements needed to be purchased and/or negotiated - those things can happen if people are given the opportunity to work on them. Just telling somebody *NO* is guaranteed to get peoples' hackles up.

We needed people at the USFS working on this project who were more familiar with the local area and local politics. Frankly, while Gar Abbas is a very nice man, he was the wrong man for this job. He wasn't local and didn't have the local connections and buy-in that was absolutely crucial to make this process work. In addition, he didn't enroll locals to help the USFS to engage the community more fully in the process. The USFS became more and more insular as things went on, which is an understandable reaction given all the abuse that was directed their way. It was, however, absolutely the worst thing they could have done.

The commissioners and the local agency haters haven't had a lot of reason to try and find constructive solutions to the problems caused by unregulated motorized travel, because they've been almost completely successful in derailing the process. Ultimately, though, they're playing a losing hand. Whether they like it or not, Travel Management is the law of the land and is going to happen one way or another. It's earning them all kinds of political points now, but it isn't doing a damned thing to resolve the underlying issue, which is public lands access.

They need to decide to work WITH the USFS, rather than against them. There are common goals out there - the USFS wants increased public access, too, believe it or not. Be leaders - find commonalities and build on them, rather than just launching attack after attack. That just wastes tax dollars, both at the local and federal level.

Find out what can be done to minimize the REASONS for road closures. There are tools that the commissioners have been reluctant to use that would guarantee access into the future - for example, changing planning and zoning rules to require that subdividers provide a public access easement whenever they're dividing property adjacent to public lands. Using RS2477 to establish public access easements on established roads that have been used for access for years. Write grants to purchase public access easements from property owners. Develop a local volunteer corps to do road improvements, erosion control, etc. The list goes on.

There's not a lot of possibility that any kind of real leadership on this issue is going to come out of the Elko County political class. They're winning elections based on their public posturing, so why change? The agency haters are in full cry and will be satisfied with nothing less than the complete departure of any and all Federal agency presence in this part of the country. It'll never happen, but it keeps them busy and earns them business from the other haters in town. Nice little closed (and closed minded) loop. No solutions, no progress, nothing but a lot of hate and wasted energy.

I can always dream that we'll see the likes of Mike Nannini or Sheri Eklund-Brown or John Ellison on the Commission again, but the haterade runs deep in Elko County and anybody who emphasizes solutions rather than belligerence doesn't have a chance in hell of being elected here. I can always dream that we'll get a new ranger that has a clue how to work with the locals, but there's not a lot of hope that anybody with any talent is going to want to come to Elko County. This is the place where agency careers come to die. It's a downward spiral that I have little reason to believe will stop any time soon.

Sorry to be so gloomy - time to go walk around in the Rubies and forget about "travel management" for a while.

This just can't be allowed to stand...

2011-10-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

In my previous post, I suggested that the organizers of the Secret-Lamoille Trail project look to the Nevada Division of Forestry for project labor, since they do a great job for significantly less money than what the project is paying for GBI. One of the commenters on my previous post replied:

NDF is not any better at building trails than USFS or GBI. A community-trained crew would be even worse. I have seen GBI and NDF projects across the state and GBI always has done a much better job and had less environmental impact. NDF is just as expensive as GBI now.

Just about everything in that poster's response was flat-out wrong, but this one I see no point in letting stand.

The Nevada Division of Forestry will hire out ten-man crews, complete with tools, transportation, supervision, their own food and drink, etc. for about $850/day. For projects like this one, they'll do it for half that price, with the other half going towards grant matching. In other words, you get a supervised, equipped, self-contained crew for about $425/day. Since these guys earn the right to do projects like this, they're darned happy to be out there and work their butts off.

Simple cost comparison - $2550 for six work days from adult men, with another $2550 going towards grant matching, vs. $15,000 for six work days from GBI's kids. You do the math.

NDF is local, and they're part of this community. Many of the folks on their crews are locals, too. Opportunities like this benefit the community in myriad ways, as well as getting the trail built for a reasonable cost. The money saved using NDF crews could be and should be used to bring on a professional trail builder who can provide direct, constant, on-the-ground supervision to make sure that NDF is building the trail to standard. And, while he's at it, said professional can train local volunteer crews how to build trail, too. That would give our local community a talent base to maintain this trail down the road, as well as to work on new trails elsewhere in the area.

Win - win - win - win - win.

Here are photos of NDF crews that came out this summer to build trail up at SnoBowl. These guys kick ass in all respects. That project would be going better if we'd had the opportunity to train local trail builders on the Secret-Lamoille Trail Project, as was originally envisioned. Right now we have a lot of enthusiasm but not a lot of on-the-ground experience from our volunteers. Just imagine what a group of experienced local trail-building volunteers could accomplish!

Going forward with the Secret-Lamoille Trail project

2011-10-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

One of the commenters on my previous post said the following:

This is outrageous and needs to stop. We have many months before Great Basin solicits its workers fornext year. All I can think of is to go to the FS and ask them to supervise this project more carefully. What do you suggest? How. Much further is Great Basin's work funded? Should we start a petition to engage thew FS more, require a cleanup, take the project away from them? Please detail your ideas and suggestions.

In a nutshell: the project's management needs to be immediately replaced by a community-based team like the one that got it going in the first place. This started out as a community project, and was hijacked by people who had nothing to do with getting it off the ground. The hijack needs to stop, and the people who did the hijacking need to be held accountable.

Here's a letter I wrote to the editor of the Elko Daily Free Press that I didn't send in for publication, for a variety of reasons.

Editor:

I hear through the grapevine that the current managers of the Secret-Lamoille Trail Project are nearly out of funds and are looking to the community to help pay for the project. Here are some numbers that you might find interesting:

The Great Basin Institute is doing the trail construction based on an agreement with the US Forest Service. It costs approximately $15,000 for a Great Basin Institute “tour” on the project. Each “tour” is described as six work days, two travel days for a crew of ten college-aged kids, most of whom have little to no trail-building experience. In other words, it is costing the project $250/workday for an inexperienced worker to drive out from Reno and build trail. The best part, though, is that these kids are all Americorps volunteers so very, very little of the money is going to them. I really don’t care what GBI says to justify themselves… we can build this project much, much more cost effectively than what GBI is doing.

The money for this project was raised by members of the Elko community as part of the very hard work that went into getting this project off of the ground. This project was never intended to be a 100% hand-built trail. Quite on the contrary, project organizers spent a tremendous amount of time looking for alternative construction methods and building up a corps of community volunteers to get the work done. Unfortunately, neither the Great Basin Institute nor the then-new recreation planner for the Ruby Mountain Ranger District were interested in pursuing the community’s vision for the project. In the words of the USFS recreation planner last year: “My relationship with GBI is more important than building a cost-effective project.”

We see the result on the hillside. The construction work on the trail is shoddy at best. Much of it will have to be redone. The switchbacks are unsustainable and largely unrideable by the mountain bikes and pack strings the trail is supposed to serve. The money that should have been more than adequate to take the trail from Lamoille Canyon to Talbot Canyon, if the project was managed as it was originally conceived, is gone and the trail is significantly less than half complete. And they’re now coming to us asking for more?

This trail will be a tremendous asset to the Elko community when it’s finished. It’s already seeing a lot of use all year long, and will see more as time goes by. It is very much in the community’s best interest to see this project through. At a minimum, though, the community should insist that the project be managed by people we can trust not to squander our energy, our money, and our volunteer efforts. The management team for the project, as well as the Great Basin Institute, needs to be held accountable and immediately replaced by a community-based team with the entrepreneurial vision to understand what a real community partnership looks like.

GBI was the grantholder on the project, after the Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group decided that there was too much money involved for it to handle. However, just because GBI was the grantholder and fiscal agent for the project did NOT mean that they had to provide all of the labor and all of the oversight for the project. That was never what was intended when Bill and I wrote the grant, and that's where the problem came in.

Originally, our GBI partner was Bill Wolf, a long-time Elko resident and a believer in the strength of this community. He is a good man and was very, very behind the community's vision for the project. Unfortunately, GBI closed the Ely office where Bill was based, and brought all of Bill's projects to Reno for management. So, not only did we lose Bill from the project, but we lost control of the money.

We also lost the USFS recreation planner who started the project with us. The woman who replaced him is a very nice person, extremely well meaning and very much behind the project - but she'd never built a trail before. Not only that, she'd never worked as a USFS recreation person before, never mind managing the recreation programs in three ranger districts! In my opinion, the executive director of GBI used her inexperience and Bill's departure to take control of the project. He hired one of his buddies to "oversee" the construction, and said buddy drives out from Reno every couple of weeks to "oversee" what's going on. That's just about all the supervision these kids are getting. The USFS has had some summer crews out there, too, but they don't have a whole heck of a lot more experience than the GBI kids do. The USFS rec planner is pretty well lost without GBI to get her projects done, because she doesn't know enough to understand the alternatives available to her.

And here we are.

I don't know where we are with the money because I have not been involved with the project since GBI's coup. They didn't want me around, either, for obvious reasons. I made a LOT of noise about where this was all going, and was eventually told by GBI to back off. Since I got no support from the folks at the USFS, I did. My continued involvement at that point would have been useless.

Here's a blog post I did at that time:

So long, and thanks for all the fish

My understanding is that GBI has scrounged up enough money to go for a while next summer, and that's it. However, what they've scrounged, combined with what this community can bring to the table and with some new resources from the state USFS office, should be able to get us a whole lot closer to done with the first segment, anyway.

My suggestion would be this: Immediately get a committee of trail-friendly locals involved in overseeing all aspects of this project: one from the hiking community, one from the equestrian community, one from the mountain bike community. Make sure at least one of those people has significant project management experience. I would suggest Bill Wolf, since he's intimately familiar with both the community, the project, and GBI. Get rid of the "buddy" immediately, and if GBI doesn't want to be the fiscal agent any more, so be it. NNSG or the Great Basin Trails Alliance can assume that role. Bid the project out to the trailbuilding community and bring on an experienced trail boss to manage construction. The labor for the project can come from paid NDF crews, who work a lot more efficiently than GBI crews as well as a LOT less expensively, as well as local volunteers. It should be bid to GBI and other, similar entities to see if they can do it more cost-effectively. I doubt it but you don't know if you don't ask. And by using community volunteers we can get locals trained up in trailbuilding techniques - useful down the road when it comes time to maintain this trail or build new ones.

There are likely other ways of getting this done but we'll never know as long as GBI is controlling the project. Certainly we won't end up with the community buy-in needed for this and other projects down the road. Having a strong, experienced team of community trail builders will help us immensely, not only with projects in the Rubies, but with trailbuilding at the SnoBowl and other possibilities that may present themselves in the future.

Pissed off but not surprised

2011-10-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Didn't realize it'd been so long since I wrote an update for the blog. Lots of reasons/excuses, primarily centering around work, family and (ugh) road biking. Remind me to never sign up for 1000 miles worth of road bike tour in a summer again.

Now that THAT ordeal is over, I've finally had a chance to spend some quality time in the Rubies. This isn't a bad thing as we are currently in the throes of a SPECTACULAR fall. We'll see if it lasts through the snow forecast for Wednesday... can't we just keep the pretty leaves for a little while longer?

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The Great Basin Institute kids have left for the summer, and a horrific mess snakes up the hillside in their wake. Their supervisor should be ashamed of himself for the gross mismanagement that has made a shambles of the Secret-Lamoille Trail Project. There are ten switchbacks on the trail so far, and not a one of them meets the minimum specifications for an equestrian or mountain bike trail. None of them are remotely sustainable and three of them are patently unsafe. The benching is so narrow in some places that the "trail" is literally falling down the mountain, and horses are forced to walk on the trail's critical edge, exacerbating the problem. The three sets of steps that the kids wasted their time constructing are not only needless and unsustainable, but unusable by two of the trail's three target user groups.

Here's the one that really pisses me off, though:

Remember this photo from last winter?

Here's another shot taken from the same spot:

That was one of the prettiest viewpoints on the entire trail.

Here's what the butchers left in their wake:

They killed five trees - completely needlessly, since Greg's original design had the switchback placed well before the trail reached the trees. They ruined the framing for the spectacular view, turned the great shady sitting rock that was right there into the trail base. They just tossed the dead trees off to the side to rot.

Do these people even use trails???? You have to wonder why they're here, unless it's to use power tools that somebody else is paying for.

The people from the state forest service office are finally coming out to have a look at this shambles, and I can only hope that big, big changes are in store. Certainly the very first thing that should happen is that the incompetent hack running the show should be fired and replaced by somebody willing and able to provide direct, continual, on-the-ground supervision to the kids doing the work - somebody who not only knows how to build a sustainable mountain bike trail, but somebody who actually cares about building a good one.

Quick snow update

2011-07-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

There's still plenty of it in and around the Rubies' "Greatest Hits" destinations - the trails out of Lamoille Canyon, Ruby Dome, the passes on the Ruby Crest Trail, etc. The trail to Island Lake is clear - the waterfall is absolutely ROARING at the moment! The short trail up Thomas Canyon is open, as is the trail up Right Fork (as far as it goes, it turns into rock cairn and bushwhack about 1.5 miles in).

Those looking for clear trails would probably be best served taking off out of the various Ruby Valley trailheads, or heading towards the East Humboldts. The Secret-Starr trail will be clear - of snow, at any rate - and both Gray Lake and Smith Lake will be open. The Boulders are likely to still have snow at the lakes.

Keep in mind that these trails receive very little use and thus very little maintenance and you'll have to deal with deadfall, overgrowth and/or route-finding. The mile-long trail out of Angel Lake to Smith Lake is new-ish and in good shape. The Secret-Starr Trail between Angel Lake and Gray Lake is easy enough to find, but past Gray Lake can be pretty tenuous.

THIS mountain biker's view of the Secret-Lamoille Trail

2011-07-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

I took a break from kid wrangling and road-bike training to take my mountain bike for a spin this morning on the Secret-Lamoille Trail. It's the first time I've been up since they started work this summer, and after the rave review I got the other day I figured I'd better have a look for myself.

The trail is clearly a work in progress, but it's super-fun on a mountain bike now and is going to be more so as they get things up to snuff.

Right now the trail is benched in to 3 miles. They re-routed it from the original design and now it's a bit of a grunt - 7.7% trail grade, certainly rideable but not the 5-6% cruise that was originally intended. The downhill has good flow - at least until you come up on a switchback - and hopefully will be even more flowy after the switchbacks are improved. The switchbacks are, by and large, not rideable at the moment; however, I understand that the trail crew is bringing up some timbers and will spend the summer improving the switchbacks to a reasonable (and hopefully rideable) standard. I also am given to understand that they're going to focus on getting these first three miles finished before moving the benching forward.

The trail dead ends on the line laid out by the original trail designer, and I hope that they decide to keep his design from here on out. It was a nice one. There is a very challenging switchback section coming up about 3 more miles in, and based on what I saw from this bunch at the get-go they're likely to throw Greg's work out and substitute their own. Hopefully they'll remember that this was, first and foremost, a MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL and will build those switchbacks accordingly.

The trail is clearly getting regular use. There were abundant bike, horse and hiker tracks (good to see the mix) and I ran into three hikers along the way. One of them told me that he was up there every other day or so - that he very, very much enjoyed what was happening up there.

All in all, it's an excellent short trip right now and is destined to get only better. It is showy with wildflowers at the moment, a beautiful hike or ride, challenging enough to provide good exercise, well worth taking the time to visit. There is shade along the way, but like any trail at this elevation this time of year, it'll be more enjoyable early in the morning or late in the afternoon. My in-laws will be in town tomorrow and this is certainly one of the places I'll take them. Just gorgeous.

A mountain biker's view of the S-L Trail

2011-07-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd pass this along... a fellow I know gave me a call first thing this morning to let me know how very much he enjoyed riding the Secret-Lamoille Trail. Good to hear! I guess he went up after work to take it for a spin. Obviously he had to walk the switchbacks - they're unrideable at this point - but the rest of the trail has won his rave reviews. In his words "this is like riding a trail in Colorado - I can't believe we have something like this here!"

Since a very big part of that project's concept was getting some decent mountain bike trail on the ground, I'm glad to hear that a) the bikes are out there and b) they're enjoying what they're finding.

Well, the CALENDAR says it's summer...

2011-06-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

... however, the mountain says it's not. Quite.

I finally had a chance today to break away from my inhumane schedule and head for the hills. I've been wanting to throw some skis on my pack and see what's been going on for a while now.

What's going on is a lot of snow, a lot of water, and a lot of amazing beauty.

I checked the SnoTel site before I left this AM, and it said that it had gotten down to 42 degrees overnight at 7700'. That puts it at somewhat below freezing up higher, which made it a safe bet for reasonable skiing conditions. I left the trailhead at 6A, which was a pretty good choice timing-wise. The temperatures were enjoyable, the snow was still frozen and easy walking. I didn't even bother to put my skis on, just hiked up the frozen snow.

It was a snow hike just about from the trailhead. I left the trail about 200 yards in - water was running pretty much continuously down the trail and hiking up the snow was both easier and less damaging to the tread.

You could hear the roar of the creek, the singing birds, the silence of the snow. Breathtaking.

There is more than 100cm of snow at the Ruby Mountain Heli-ski snow stake, a few hundred yards above the trailhead.

About a half-mile in, in a flat snowy open space, I came upon an area where somebody had had a fire. Fine, as far as it went... until I looked more closely and realized that somebody had burned a snowmobile up there. They dragged the burnt carcass out but had left lots of little burned-up pieces in their wake. Seriously, it was funny as hell but come on, clean up after yourselves...

But I digress.

After a couple of hours hiking I got to the top of Liberty Peak, which I figured was an appropriate goal for the morning. It's clear that there is going to be decent summer skiing for a few weeks yet. It is just as clear that the Ruby Crest Trail and other high destinations are going to be snow trips for quite a while.

Here are Lake Peak, Wines Peak, Castle Lake, looking south-ish along the Crest Trail.

This is Fitzgerald and the cirque at the top of Box Canyon. Good destination for early risers.

It's not real obvious from below, but there's a huge crack in the ice in Lamoille Lake, the extent of which is very apparent from above. Probably a good idea to stay off the ice. Click on the photo to enlarge it and really see the crack.

The skiing was good for the end of June. The chute I picked to get into the Lake Shot was a little on the crunchy side - should have chosen one farther skier's left - but Sweet Thing really lived up to its name.

All in all, the canyon is going OFF right now. Waterfalls everywhere, a million flowers, new leaves slowly working their way uphill. If you're planning on hiking, though, plan on snow and start early if you're not into postholing.

Whoop whoop! SnoBowl's officially OPEN for the summer!

2011-06-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's official - opening day at the (new) SnoBowl Ski & Bike Park was this Saturday, and it'll be open for lift-served mountain biking all summer! Operating hours this first year will be Saturdays, 12N - 4PM.

We tried to keep the opening small so that we could shake things out before things got too busy, and it worked out really well. We had everything from kids with their dad all the way up to some very experienced downhillers out there, and everybody found some good challenges for their skill levels. The feedback from the riders was great - fun trails, and they're ready to spread the word about what we have going up there. It was all VERY good to hear!

The riding this weekend was a lot of fun. It was a major flower show... at one point I felt like I was riding through a flower shop... the lupines smelled that good.

Lots of arrowleaf balsamroot up there, too. I love the juxtaposition of their bright yellows with the lupines.

Here's one of the places that needs some work. This switchback is on the beginner trail, and is one of two switchbacks on that route that need better than beginner bike handling skills to manage. We've got it signed to warn people to slow down - giving beginners a chance to get off and walk - but we need to rebuild this to make it safer for new riders. This won't be a small project as it's in steep terrain. We're working out how to get it done, though, and hope to have it completed before the end of summer.

Dave Todero, our trail designer, is using the Kennedy Ranch backhoe to build terrain park features at the bottom. Folks riding the intermediate trail can finish their run through the park, or can opt to ride straight back down to the lift. One of the really nice parts of this is that the park features are positioned to transition nicely into ski season - won't our snowboarders be happy to see all of these new features come winter time!

Here's the map. SnoBowl sits on a section of land (640 acres) which gives us plenty of room to work with as we develop riding. The downhill trails, obviously, will by and large be routed down the east side, where the skiing happens. Most of the cross-country trails will be built on the back side, although we'll obviously put a trailhead at the base area. The trail grade on the beginner trail averages 9%, so when the lift isn't running it's rideable as an uphill. It's a grunt, but it's rideable. Once we get the XC trails done, that trail will be full time one-way downhill. The intermediate trail averages 16% and is a lot steeper than that in places.

There's plenty more work to be done, of course. Those who are interested in helping get stuff built are invited to show up Saturdays at 9AM for trail work. Those who help build trail on Saturday morning will ride the lift for free that afternoon! Otherwise, lift tickets are a very affordable $15. A bargain at any price!

In case you missed it, the Elko Daily Free Press did a front-page story on the SnoBowl this weekend. Thanks again to them and to the rest of our local media for helping us get the word out. What a great community!

SnoBowl Opens Lift-Served Mountain Biking

Last, and certainly not least - a very, very big shout-out goes to Elko Blacksmith Shop. We'd asked for help all over town getting the bike hooks built that allow us to attach mountain bikes to the chair lift. Folks made some commitments... and then fell through. Somebody suggested at the last minute that we talk to Elko Blacksmith Shop and, even though they were completely booked up, they found a way to get us ten hooks in time for opening day. Seriously - we COULD NOT have opened without their help. We have another 23 hooks coming so that we can have one every three chairs, which is where we need to be with uphill capacity. If you have ANY opportunity to throw some business their way, please do. They will certainly be the first people we call from here on out!

For those planning a Ruby Crest Trail trip this year...

2011-06-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

I notice that quite a few people are finding this site looking for information on the Ruby Crest Trail. Hopefully the beta here has been useful!

Be advised that we have a HUGE snowpack this year... it's hanging on late... and the high passes could be snow covered later than usual. We're supposed to have hot weather next week and may finally see some melt-off, but right now (9 June) the snowpack at the Lamoille Canyon trailhead is still deeper than I am tall.

If you're planning on doing this trip with a horse you might want to consider waiting until mid-to-late July, in order to give the snow a chance to melt off. Otherwise, you risk injuring your horse and tearing the hell out of the trail. Obviously I'm no oracle, but based on my observations from having lived here most of my life I think that's probably your best plan.

I'll keep an eye out for you and will post up as things melt out a bit more.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program...

2011-06-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

... to share some AWESOME new developments at the Elko SnoBowl... now the SnoBowl Ski & Bike Park.

The SnoBowl hosted its first National Trails Day event June 4th, with a goal of constructing brand new lift-served mountain bike trails at the resort. For the first 20 years of its existence, SnoBowl depended on natural snowfall to generate skiing fun, and largely sat unused for the rest of the year.

Not any more.

SnoBowl mountain manager Roche Bush invited several long-time SnoBowlers to join the somewhat moribund committee that had operated the SnoBowl for the last couple of decades, and this new shot of energy is changing everything up there.

The first change, and it's a big one - SnoBowl will now open on weekends in the summer so that people with mountain bikes can enjoy lift-served riding just outside of town. This will be one of the first - if not THE first - lift-served trail systems in the state of Nevada.

It's exciting, and that excitement is contagious. More than 50 people showed up for National Trails Day, and worked hard all day to get the beginner trail on the ground.

There's still plenty of work to be done. The beginner trail is going to need more work to be sustainable... the intermediate trail still needs some benching... the advanced trails haven't been started yet. But, oh how fun it is to see what's going on up there! Best of all, while SnoBowl's biggest attraction as a ski area is its funkiness and proximity to town, the terrain is apparently extremely suitable for both downhill and cross-country mountain biking. David Todaro, a former professional downhill mountain bike racer, has been working with the SnoBowl Foundation board to develop this project, and he's beyond enthused about the potential here. He's put in trails all over the country and says we have the means of developing something really special in the hills north of town.

Cool to hear.

Because SnoBowl will be one of very few places in the state where mountain bikers can enjoy lift-accessed terrain, Todaro envisions Elko becoming a stop on the mountain biking race circuit once the trail system is established. Pretty cool plan if you ask me. Elko continues to be blessed by the contributions the mines make to the community, and especially by the incredible talent pool of people like David who move here for good mining jobs.

It's funny,.. people who don't use the SnoBowl often dis it because it isn't one of the towering Western resorts that populate this part of the country. I'm thinking those folks don't spend much time at SnoBowl. I've enjoyed powder days there that would surprise you... good people, good skiing, an excellent vibe. And now SnoBowl is getting even better, with year-round fun and even the potential for snowmaking in the works.

Don't look now, but our little town is starting to get awfully fun for non-motorized recreationists of all stripes.

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A few folks deserve a big hearty THANK YOU for making the 2011 National Trails Day event possible:

- First and foremost, the SnoBowl volunteers for putting in so much time and effort
- Greg & Gina Kronenberg, Albertsons, Maggie Morgan and Kennedy Ranch Custom-Fed Beef for sponsoring lunch
- Event Source for providing the tents, tables and chairs
- The Elko Fire Department, Nevada Division of Forestry and Bureau of Land Management for providing trail-building tools
- Elko's media for helping us get the word out about the project

Back at work on the S-L Trail

2011-06-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

Another year, another set of kids hard at work...

The GBI crews are back in Lamoille Canyon at work on the Secret-Lamoille Trail. Let's wish them good luck and happy building. They have a long ways to go to get to Talbot Canyon, hopefully they'll make decent progress this year.

Ready for roadies!

2011-05-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

Spring is here - on occasion - and the road biking up the Canyon is primo right now. The snow is clear from Lamoille Highway up to the "official" closure just past Pete's Corner, somewhat more than 6 miles one-way. It's melting out quickly above the closure, and as of today you can get a passenger vehicle up to Terminal Cancer (if you're a skier) or Dead Snag (if you're a climber). The road to the Scout Camp is melted out... the snow starts just past the main lodge, currently, but if you want to skin or snowshoe higher you're going to enjoy either a good bushwhack or an annoying creek crossing. There is a fair bit of wet slide activity on the climber's right wall, so if you're going to stay right of the creek be cognizant of time and temperature.

I have to say that the new, improved road is a lot of fun on a road bike. You can certainly tell where they switched from new pavement to a chip-seal job over the old pavement... that said, it's very rideable and a HUGE improvement over the crumbling piece o' crap we've "enjoyed" in recent years. If you're up there on a bike, be aware that the downhill lane has quite a bit of rock and gravel in it along the Narrows... control your speed and be ready to swerve into the left lane.

The Secret-Lamoille trail is clear but muddy. We're supposed to have rain/snow again this weekend, so it may be a few more days before it dries out and stays dry for the season. All the rest of the trails up there are still under many feet of snow.

If you're going to be heading up climbing, be aware that tick season is here in full force. Fortunately it doesn't last long, but you're likely to end up with more than a few of them if you're out there playing in the brush right now.

Winter on the Secret-Lamoille Trail

2011-03-20T14:27:00.000-07:00

I wasn't into the big time commitment necessary for a ski tour today, and so decided to go for a quick winter hike on the under-construction Secret-Lamoille Trail. What a nice change of pace!

I was gratified to see a lot of tracks on the trail - it's clearly getting steady winter use, which just goes to validate the years of work I and others put into getting this project off the ground. It makes sense, though - not everybody wants to use a motor for winter fun, and not everybody is a backcountry skier. An accessible lower-elevation trail like this is going to see use by folks who want to get out and enjoy the winter mountains in a low-commitment kind of way.

Right now, the trail surface varies between mud, frozen mud and snow. It's quite walkable, but if you have the option go early in the morning to enhance the chance that you'll be walking on a frozen trail surface. It'll be easier walking and better for the trail. Snowshoes are no longer necessary.

The trail is very easy to find for about the first 1.5 miles, where the GBI crews left off working last summer. After that, the line is still very much there but it's a little harder to locate in spots. If you're up there and can't see where the trail goes, look behind you. The difficult-to-find places were, by and large, undefined switchbacks.

The views up there in the winter are astounding, even with a little spindrift thrown in for fun.

So where the hell have you been lately?!?!?

2011-03-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

Skiing, that's where.

Ruby Mountain Ski Days

Ruby Mountain Ski Days started out as nothing more than a place for me to upload photos. I and several of my friends used to post trip reports over on Telemark Tips - it was a great way to share photos, ideas, updates on conditions, etc. Unfortunately, the TTips photo server went down and if we wanted to post photos they had to be linked from a non-TTips url. Thus, Ruby Mountain Ski Days.

It's kind of taken on a life of its own as Google Analytics tells me that people are visiting pretty regularly. Don't know why, there are much better places out there to find local ski photos and info on conditions, including the website for Ruby Mountain Heli-Ski. But hey, if people are interested in lurking and watching the backcountry ski adventures of a slow 50-year-old woman, well, I'm not going to argue. I put it out there after all.

I will admit, though, that the pictures are pretty good.

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Trail update - they're all covered with snow - duh! Bring your skis or snowshoes. ;) The road's closed at its usual winter closure place, just past Pete's Corner. The snow on the road is very whooped out from all the snowmobile traffic right now, which is usual for this time of year. Snowshoes are NOT necessary for a hike up the road right now. The snow is OK for XC skiing, as long as you don't mind dealing with the whoops.

You can also take your touring skis up Right Fork. The jeep tracks have enough coverage for short tours, and you can always make your way across the creek and through the willows up above the Scout Camp. Be aware that the climbers right wall does slide, so if you head up that way have an eye to avalanche conditions.

The first couple of miles of the Secret-Lamoille Trail are quite suitable for snowshoeing right now, and there have been snowshoe tracks on it on several occasions. A friend of mine told me recently that it was an excellent snowshoeing day trip. I've been focusing on skiing recently and haven't broken out the snowshoes, but on high avalanche danger days (like today) it's a good winter workout alternative. Might just head up there myself today. ;)

Quick road and snow update

2010-12-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

As of yesterday, they have Lamoille Canyon Road plowed up to the entrance to Ruby Dome Ranch, and you can drive up to the first pullout. You could likely drive farther if you wanted to push it but I didn't really see a need. The official closure barricades are up at their normal spot just past Pete's Corner.

Hoping to head up for some skiing and ice climbing today and tomorrow... will post an update if possible.

UPDATE: Went up skiing today (Wednesday, 12/1/10). Was able to snowmobile from the house. The Canyon road is starting to melt out. People haven't tried to drive their vehicles above the first pull-out, but if we don't get more snow then Pete's Corner will be fairly reachable soon, perhaps even by tomorrow if we get the warm day that's forecast. You could probably get that far right now if you had chains and weren't pulling a trailer.

About 64" of snow at Ambrosia.

Wilderness - the intent, the reality

2010-11-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent essay by Geoff Baker, an avid backcountry recreationist from the great state of Idaho. I post it here because I think that the movement to create more "capital-W Wilderness" is practical ONLY if the agencies responsible for administering it get back to the intent of the people who wrote the 1964 Wilderness Act.

In truth, they've abandoned that intent by barring mountain bikes from using Wilderness trails. And because of that, people like me who would otherwise be strong advocates of wilderness are instead put in the position of fighting against it.

As a rancher, I don't howl with outrage when cattle graze in our wilderness mountains - although I do see opportunities for improved management practices. But other than that small point of contention, I think Mr. Baker is right on.

+++++++++++++++++++

Here's what Geoff Baker said:

"I wholeheartedly support the preservation of "wild" places, so that they remain free from the intrusion of the factors that lead to environmental degredation - resource extraction, permanent, semi-permanent or temporary "development" (including, but not limited to, cattle grazing, ranching, farming, and residential or commerical facilities construction), and any sort of motorized use. I further wholeheartedly support the preservation of "wild" places to be used for recreation by man, but as long as those recreational activities do not require or depend on any sort of motorized power source or other non-living power source.

"However, I cannot and do not support the imposition of formal "capital-W Wilderness" designation. Capital W "Wilderness" advocates and their financial supporters either ignore, forget, or don't know/understand the dual intent behind the Wilderness Act of 1964 - preservation and protection of the environment AND it's recreational use by as many people in a non-motorized method as possible. "Wilderness" advocates overly focus on the former, while typically either ignoring or reducing the importance of the latter. Such focus is myopic and disregards Congressional intent behind the Wilderness Act, as well as its primary sponsor, Senator Frank Church of Idaho.

"The Congressional record and legislative history behind the 1964 Act clearly reveals that Congress did not intend for "Wilderness" to be exclusionary and enjoyed only by those on horseback or on foot. The historical era of the late 1950's and early 1960's had seen a rise in motorized recreation, which was seen by many as leading to the "softening" of America's youth and greater population. Preserving "wild" places in which people could quietly recreate in "solitude" in a "primative" environment under their own power - ie, without motorized assistance - was one of the co-equal driving forces behind the 1964 Act.

"This intent was followed in 1966, when the USFS promulgated a new regulation that interpreted the meaning of the term "mechanical transport" and how that applied to recreational use in "Wilderness." This regulation - which exists today - defines "mechanical transport" to include "any contrivance which travels over ground, snow, or water on wheels, tracks, skids, or by floatation and is propelled by a non-living power source contained or carried on or within the device." This interpretation stood for many years, and allowed for the use of bicycles, backcountry skis, snowshoes, climbing gear, and boats and rafts with oarlocks and other mechanical parts to be used and enjoyed in "Wilderness."

"In 1980, Congress' intent to permit human-powered and non-motorized recreation was confirmed in its statement of intent in the creation of the Rattlesnake Wilderness in Montana. This is the law of the United States, and it reads as follows:

"16 USC §460ll(a)
(a) The Congress finds that—
(1) certain lands on the Lolo National Forest in Montana have high value for watershed, water storage, wildlife habitat, primitive recreation, historical, scientific, ecological, and educational purposes. This national forest area has long been used as a wilderness by Montanans and by people throughout the Nation who value it as a source of solitude, wildlife, clean, free-flowing waters stored and used for municipal purposes for over a century, and primitive recreation, to include such activities as hiking, camping, backpacking, hunting, fishing, horse riding, and bicycling; and
(2) certain other lands on the Lolo National Forest, while not predominantly of wilderness quality, have high value for municipal watershed, recreation, wildlife habitat, and ecological and educational purposes.
(b) Therefore, it is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress that, to further the purposes of the Wilderness Act of 1964 (16 U.S.C. 1131) and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 1600), the people of the Nation and Montana would best be served by national recreation area designation of the Rattlesnake area to include the permanent preservation of certain of these lands under established statutory designation as wilderness, and to promote the watershed, recreational, wildlife, and educational values of the remainder of these lands.

"The activities listed in subsection (a)(1) were found by Congress to be consistent with the ethos and recreational purpose of Wilderness designation. One rule of statutory construction is that all words of a statute are to be considered and provided equal weight when determining the meaning and application of the statute. However, one of the words in subsection (a)(1) of this law has been and continues to be ignored by "Wilderness" advocates and the Federal government - and that word is "bicycling."

"In 1984, in a quick and hurried rulemaking process, the Forest Service arbitrarily and capriciously banned bicycles from captial W "Wilderness." While true "mountain biking" in the United States was in its relative infancy at the time, the modern "saftey" bicycles (which was invented in its current form in 1885) had been used to explore and recreate in "wild" places since its invention. Disregarding this historical use - as well as Congressional intent, legislative history, its own 1966 regulation, and Congress' express statement in 1980 that bicycling is a recreational activity consistent with capital W "Wilderness" designation, the Forest Service hurriedly banned bikes from the Wilderness. That ban stands today, barring millions of recreationalists from millions of acres of "wild' places from enjoying quiet, non-motorized use in "solitude" simply because they'd rather ride a bicycle than use another non-motorized form of transport such as skis, a horse, modern snowshoes, or a raft or rowboat.

"That the 1984 regulation banning bicycling is arbitrary and improper is supported by the words of Sen. Church. The following quote has been attributed to him (although I have not found the original source):

"'As the floor manager of the 1964 Wilderness Act, I recall quite clearly what we were trying to accomplish by setting up the National Wilderness Preservation System. It was never the intent of Congress that wilderness be managed in so 'pure' a fashion as to needlessly restrict customary public use and enjoyment. Quite the contrary, Congress fully intended that wilderness should be managed to allow its use by a wide spectrum of Americans. ... I believe . . . that the agencies are applying provisions of the Wilderness Act too strictly and thus misconstruing the intent of Congress as to how these areas should be managed.' If indeed these are the words of Sen. Church, then the 1966 interpretation of "mechanical transport" and the 1980 words of Congress support the concept that bicycling was never meant to be prohibited in those environments suitable for "Wilderness" designation.

"However, "Wilderness" advocates wrongly and disingenuously continue to support the ban on bicycles, which ironically works to directly hinder their own interests in achieiving as much "Wilderness" designation as possible. In doing so, they fabricate arguments that have no basis in law or fact - such as ignoring that bicycles have been used in "wild" places for over 100 years and straight-facedly contending that Congress intended that "wild" places are to be ONLY experienced "slowly" or "on foot" without any form of mechanical advantage. Such arguments are ignorant at best and dishonest at worst, as they ignore the use of skis with mechanical binding, boats with oarlocks, modern snowshoes, and pedal-driven kayaks that provide a "mechanical advantage," but which are allowed in capital W Wilderness. These devices - skis particularly - increase the speed of the user that could not be obtained on foot alone. But, somehow, with no real explanation, they are more palatable to "Wilderness" advocates than quiet, human-powered bicycling.

"Another argument that is constantly made by "Wilderness" advocates is that bicycles cause more environmental damage than other forms of recreation. These advocates, however, base this argument usually on anecdotal, personal examples and not hard reseach and science. Scientific studies have shown on multiple occasions that bicycles cause no more damage and often less damage than do hikers. And far LESS damage than pack trains and iron-shod horses - which are permitted in "Wilderness" - do to the environment. Further, because bicyclists using trails are usually "in and back out" users, they do not stay on the land or stay in the area, unlike backpackers and other foot-based recreationalists, who typically occupy the Wilderness for days, themselves creating their own human-caused damage. Conveniently, however, these facts are ignored.

"It is time for the "Wilderness" advocates to stop treating those who would choose to quietly recreate in "wild" places by the means of a bicycle as, at best, second-class citizens, or enemies at worst. That the 40,000,000 bicyclists in the United States could be powerful allies in the fight for "Wilderness" is lost on the "Wilderness" community - again, to their detriment. This is no more than blatant and hypocritical prejudice against persons who are "different" merely on the basis that they are "different." The America I love has shown that it can overcome prejudice and find commonalities among groups that are more important than these differences.

"The primary and ultimate commonality between bicyclists and "Wilderness" advocates is that we both want to see the continued and permanent preservation of "wild" places free from development and to be used for quiet recreation. We both work for the betterment of the environment AND the betterment of humanity. We SHOULD and MUST work together on this issue.

"However, this is not happening. The advocates - and paid lobbyists - of "Wilderness" do not see bicyclists as equals. They insist on pushing forward with misguided and sometimes dishonest arguments that somehow bicyclists are not privileged to experience "Wilderness" on our terms and our choice of human-powered recreation. They say "go ride elsewhere" and "you've got all you're going to get," like they somehow are in a position of authority to ultimately determine the rights of bicyclists. This negative attitude is moralistic, bombastic, and condescending, as well as without support. This attitude only serves to alienate and anger a constituency who could be an ally in the work to save "wild" places.

"I hike and I backpack. While these activities are enjoyable in their own right, the feelings I feel and the emotions I experience while doing so do not approach the joy, exhilaration and contentment I experience when riding a bicycle in a natural, "wild" environment. I feel far closer to nature and far more in touch with myself when on a bicycle than when I am forced to trudge along by foot. However, I am denied to experience these feelings when "Wilderness" is imposed.

"For these reasons, I will support the protection of "wild" places, but not "Wilderness" until and unless "Wilderness" advocates end their prejudice against bicycles and work towards permanently preserving equal footing for bicycles and bicyclists in our "wild" places."

Time to talk recreation!

2010-10-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes - ok, for me a lot of times - the decision-making done by our public lands agencies is utterly mind-boggling. Why, for example, do they continue to allow public lands to be locked up by private landowners? Why are they not fighting for land-use ordinance changes that would mandate public lands access whenever new subdivisions go in? Or... why are they allowing themselves to be held hostage by a few loudmouthed crackpots rather than making decisions that genuinely serve the public? Just as a couple of examples. I could come up with dozens... hundreds... thousands of questions.

I'll bet you have a few questions, too, and here's your chance to ask them.

The Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group is hosting a public question and answer session with representatives from the Forest Service, BLM, and wildlife agencies, November 4th at the Elko Convention Center. Doors open and refreshments will be served at 6:30PM, with a facilitated Q&A session starting at 7PM.

Show up. Bring your questions and comments, and be heard.

If you need info, call NNSG president Larry Hyslop 385-8870.

Quick road and snow update

2010-10-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

Good news - they're largely finished with the Lamoille Canyon Road project! There are still a couple of odds and ends they're finishing, but the semi trucks rushing up and down the road are mostly gone and peace has returned to the canyon, by and large. There's still some striping to do and I understand that they're going to put some more emulsion over the chip-seal part to try and tighten up some of the loose material on top. They'll be doing traffic control for another ten days or so... after that, they'll have a small crew up there if needed to take care of punch list stuff, but that's it.

For my money, the chip seal stuff is still too loose for a road bike... hopefully it'll be better after they spray the emulsion over it. The bottom part, from Lamoille Highway up to the Scout Camp, is good to go. They've largely finished the shoulder work, so between the safe shoulders, the smooth pavement and the lack of potholes it should be enjoyable on road bikes and mountain bikes both.

Also - snow has started flying and there's currently snow on the trails at the Lamoille Canyon trailheads. That will likely come and go a time or two before winter sets in, but if you're headed up there be prepared.

If you want to go for a hike and keep your feet dry you can head up the Secret-Lamoille Trail construction project - you can hike in about 3.25 miles before you hit the end of the line that the firefighters cut this spring. It's a lot lower altitude and so won't be seeing snow for a while yet. You can also hike for a while on the Right Fork and Thomas Canyon trails before you hit snow, but once you get up to the tops of the benches you can count on mud, at the very least.

Backpacking with kids in the Rubies

2010-09-29T21:32:00.001-07:00

My husband and I recently took our kids for their first backpacking trip. At 9 and 10, it was a grand adventure for those guys... well worth the effort it took to make it happen.

There are several options for folks wanting to get their kids out in the Rubies, but I think that three of them, in particular, are just about perfect.

Lamoille Lake and Island Lake are each about two miles one way, with relatively minimal elevation gain. There are good campsites at both lakes, as well as plenty of trout for the kids to chase. I've swum in both lakes, and they're both cold... but on a hot summer's day they're entirely doable, at least if you have a kid's enthusiasm for swimming. Alas, I am afraid that my alpine-lake-swimming days are likely over.

In any event, the trailheads for both are at road's end in Lamoille Canyon.

The third primo kid trip, IMHO, is Smith Lake near Wells. Smith Lake is in the East Humboldt range (OK, not technically the Rubies, but close enough for government work.) The USFS recently re-did that trail and it's very kid friendly these days. Smith Lake is about a mile one way from the trailhead at Angel Lake. There are, again, good campsites and plenty of trout at Smith Lake. The lake itself is in a really beautiful glacial cirque... a great opportunity to show "glacier tracks" to your kids. To reach Angel Lake, take the west Wells exit off of I-80, head south and follow the signs.

And, FWIW, make sure they have a backpack. One of your daypacks will probably fit... cinch it down tight so that it fits reasonably, and put their clothes and snacks in it. Keep it light. Giving them a pack to carry makes them part of the trip, much more so than would be otherwise.

Ruby Crest Trail - beta, maps and photos

2010-09-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

I've hiked or ridden a horse on the Ruby Crest Trail for decades - I first hiked to Lamoille Lake as a barefoot nine-year-old, and first overnighted with my horse (and otherwise by myself) at North Furlong when I was about 12. It's been seven years or so since I hiked it from end to end. To me, it's kind of like one of those great books you read over and over and over again - you don't want to over-do it, because you don't want to lose the sense of wonder it engenders.

As it turns out, one of my outdoorsy friends who's relatively new to the area hadn't yet done the Crest Trail, and hell - as far as I'm concerned, if you're at all interested in the outdoors and live in the shadow of the Rubies then there's no excuse NOT to do this trip. It was a great opportunity for me to see the trail through somebody else's eyes, and to enjoy again for myself the beauty that this trail holds.

Right now, the trail is in pretty reasonable shape. We've had a recent heavy snowstorm, so there's a lot of deadfall across the trail from Harrison Pass to McCutcheon Creek. If you're bringing a horse, bring a saw. The early part of the trail, before it leaves the North Smith Creek drainage to head over the crest to Overland Lake, is very findable but quite overgrown. The tread is good, just expect to be wading through a lot of young aspen shoots.

Here's the beta for folks interested in doing this trip:

RUBY CREST TRAIL

Length: 31 miles, plus an extra mile to access lakes
Difficulty: Moderate, all on trail
Day 1: Class B
Day 2: Class C
Day 3: Class D
Day 4: Class A
Time required: 3 night/4 day backpack

The Ruby Crest Trail has a lot to offer just about anybody interested in the backcountry. For backpackers, it's an assessable, beautiful, easy-to-follow trail that wanders through some of the most spectacular desert mountain scenery imaginable. For horsemen, it's a beautiful trail that any reasonably competent mountain horse and/or horseman can do. For hunters and fishermen, there is game aplenty and the fish always seem to be biting. If you have the time and the energy, the Ruby Crest Trail is a must-do trip.

In my experience, it's best to leave a vehicle at the Lamoille Canyon Road trailhead, and arrange a shuttle to start your trip from Harrison Pass. There are a number of reasons for doing the trip this way: first, you'll have the sun at your back, not in your face, for most of the trip. Second, you'll cover the potentially dustiest part of the trail first, as well as the most tedious of the switchbacks. You'll go down the steepest of the switchbacks, not up them. Third, you'll not have to worry about meeting somebody at a specific time at the end of the trip. And, finally, you'll save the best for last... the scenery just gets better as you go along, hour by hour, mile by mile. This is gorgeous country, and it's more beautiful with every step you take. Don't hesitate to dawdle.

Every day of a Ruby Crest Trail trip features something different, if you break it up into a four day trip. The first day, from Harrison Pass, is dominated by a lower-altitude ecosystem full of aspens, creeks, and ranching history. In fall, when the leaves are changing, it's stunning. Day two, heading into Overland Lake, introduces you to the Ruby Crest itself as well as the Ruby Mountain high-alpine ecosystem and some of the most impressive historical CCC trail work of the trip. The third day is dominated by the sweeping Ruby Crest... mile after mile of lonely, austere, wind-swept ridge with unending Great Basin views. Day four is the day of alpine lakes... a chain of glittering jewels scattered among some of the most jagged peaks of the range. Breathtaking.

The trail is open year-round, and you'll want to choose your time for a trip based on your expectations. Some few hardy souls do it as a ski tour. The route is snow covered and/or muddy in many places until June, and the high passes reliably hold snow until early July. Starting in July, though, the route is a riot of bursting spring, with wildflowers everywhere and plenty of water in myriad creeks and streams. In August it can be very hot, with the trail dry and dusty on the Harrison Pass end. Starting in mid-September, though, the colors are back, this time with the changing leaves of autumn. Once the precipitation starts again, with rain or the first little snowfall, travel becomes less dusty and incredibly beautiful again.

To reach the Harrison Pass trailhead, take Lamoille Highway out of Elko to the intersection with Jiggs Highway (there's a stoplight). Turn right and stay on the highway through Jiggs and into the mountains to the top of Harrison Pass. There's plenty of room for parking here. If you are in a passenger car or are towing a horse trailer, this is where you'll start your trip. If you're in a 4WD, you can turn left onto the signed Ruby Crest Trail jeep road and drive another 2+ miles to a kiosk parking area. The road gets significantly rougher after the kiosk, the walking is pleasant enough and the first day is a short one anyway, so there no reason to keep driving past this point.

This trip is described as a four day backpack; however, extra days can easily be added by spending an additional night at Overland, Liberty or Lamoille lakes. Hunters might consider spending a night in the McCutcheon Creek drainage, as well.

DAY ONE - HARRISON PASS TRAILHEAD TO SOUTH FORK SMITH CREEK

Distance - 8.5 miles
Elevation gain (loss) - 1800' (1900')

McCutcheon Creek Drainage

The first day of the trip is spent winding in and out of a series of drainages, walking through a tunnel of aspens through an overgrown part of the trail. The tread is good and you won't lose your way, but expect to spend some time brushing through low-slung aspen shoots or occasionally watching your head. This part of the trip can be full of bug dust in late summer, be advised.

Once you leave the kiosk, you'll walk uphill along a rough jeep road for about three miles, until you reach a saddle with a sign that points varyingly to the Green Mountain Trail (indistinct) and the Ruby Crest Trail. At this point, the route becomes singletrack, and you'll reach the wilderness boundary in less than a mile. The trail traverses along, never losing or gaining much elevation. You'll pass an intersection with a trail down Gilbert Creek along the way, and will see an old Forest Service sign there telling you that you're on the Harrison-Lamoille Trail. There are a few boggy spots along the way. At five miles you'll reach McCutcheon Creek. If you get a late start or are out looking for deer, there's decent camping here, along with reliable water. Otherwise, press on into the next drainage.

Once you cross McCutcheon Creek you'll start walking somewhat steeply uphill to a saddle between the McCutcheon and Smith Creek drainages, and then unfortunately you'll lose a lot of the elevation you gained walking downhill to the south fork of Smith Creek. Get used to it, you'll be gaining and losing elevation for the duration of the trip.

You'll eventually enter a forest of large aspen trees that holds a lot of carvings from the sheepherders who have been working in the area for decades. At first, the sheepherders who left their marks here were Basque; these days they're mostly from Peru. There are quite a few names carved in the trees from hikers and horsemen as well... if you're a local you'll likely recognize a few of the names.

At 8.5 miles you'll reach the south fork of Smith Creek. There's a good campsite in an aspen grove near the creek crossing. Antonio Hidalgo, a sheepherder from Peru, spent 1982 and 1983 here, "con mucho cojones y poco dinero." If you're on a horse, there's a spot just downhill from the campsite where you can build a temporary corral in the aspens. Unfortunately, we didn't see any fish in the beaver ponds that abound in the area, perhaps you'll have better luck.

Day 1 map... click on it to enlarge:

DAY TWO - SOUTH FORK SMITH CREEK TO OVERLAND LAKE

Distance: 6 miles
Elevation gain (loss): 2600' (1000')

This is the day you'll first be on the actual spine of the Rubies, at least for a while. It's a short day, which is a good thing because you'll want to take time and savor the sights today. If you're traveling on horseback, give your horse a chance to graze in the morning because the grazing at Overland is very limited.

North Fork Smith Creek

You'll climb fairly steeply out of the South Fork of Smith Creek, and then lose elevation gradually to cross the Middle Fork. You'll intersect a trail here that goes down to Mound Valley, and uphill to a small un-named lake. There's reliable water but no place to camp. Climb uphill again out of the Middle Fork drainage... and keep climbing into North Fork. The climb's not steep but it is steady, and is largely through a forest of scrub aspen. You'll pass a marked intersection with the North Fork Smith Creek trail, which goes down to private property at the base of the range. There's minimal camping available in the last stand of large aspens at timberline, as well as a small trickle of water from a spring uphill. The trail climbs steadily up a series of switchbacks about 1500' out of the bowl, to finally reach the spine of the range.

The views here, of Ruby Valley and the endless ranges of the Great Basin, are breathtaking. In July there will be masses of wildflowers - mule-ear daisies, paintbrush, lupine, maybe even phlox and forget-me-nots, if you're early enough. And, take note of the trail itself - the men of the CCC did amazing rock work here, clawing this trail out of the mountain. It's truly something to see and appreciate.

Overland Lake Cirque

After a short time traversing the ridge, you'll be greeted with a stunning view of Overland Lake and the beautiful tarn above it. The trail makes its way down a series of steep switchbacks to the absolutely lovely little tarn, and then switchbacks again through a field of red and yellow columbines and willow bushes down to Overland Lake itself. If you choose to visit the tarn, stay on the rocks - the grass around the tarn is actually a bog, and something you don't want a careless boot or hoof to damage.

Once you reach Overland Lake, you can find a number of campsites around the cabin and the rocks surrounding the lake. Firewood is scarce, as is grazing. DON'T tie your horse to a tree next to the lake, as some careless folks had done shortly before our trip. Instead, look for the horse camp downhill a bit from the lake, to the east of the outlet stream, and build a temporary corral there. It's well-established, horse campers visit Overland quite regularly. Again, there's little grazing here, so you'll want to bring some horse nuts or other type of weed-free feed for your pony.

There's a good chance that you'll find equipment and supplies in the old cabin on the shores of Overland. They were likely left there by one of the guides working in the area. Don't plan on using the cabin for sleeping unless you like mice and spiders.

The fishing at Overland is fantastic, so anticipate augmenting your dinner with trout. They won't be big but they sure are hungry.

Overland Lake

Day 2 map... click on it to enlarge:

DAY THREE - OVERLAND TO NORTH FURLONG (FAVRE)

Distance: North Furlong - 11.5 miles, Favre - 13.5 miles
Elevation gain (loss): North Furlong - 4500' (4000'), Favre - 4800' (4700')

Day Three will show you how well your backpack and hiking boots fit, as well as demonstrate the beauties of Ibuprofin. It's the longest day of the trip, with some of the most spectacular scenery. Once you leave the Overland Creek drainage, there is no water along the trail until you reach North Furlong, so plan accordingly.

Whether you head for North Furlong Lake or Favre Lake depends on your priorities for the trip. If your emphasis is on fishing, head to Favre. I've been staying at North Furlong since I was 12 years old, and have yet to even see a fish in that lake. They're supposedly there, but I have zero first-hand evidence of it. Favre, on the other hand, is full of enthusiastic and suicidal trout just waiting for you to tempt them into your frying pan.

If fishing isn't all that for you, stay at North Furlong. One, it's a shorter day, but two (and most importantly) the terrain between North Furlong and Favre is breathtakingly beautiful, and it really is best to enjoy it in the morning with fresh legs and eyes. There's plenty of camping at the lake itself, as well as a really nice campsite right at the intersection between the Ruby Crest Trail and North Furlong Trail. You can get water by walking several yards up the Furlong trail.

Either way, get an early start from Overland Lake. You'll be above timberline for the majority of the day, so you'll want to try and minimize any potential exposure to afternoon wind and lightning.

Sunrise at Overland Lake

The trail takes off next to the old cabin, and starts off by dropping down to the intersection with the Overland Creek Trail, leading to Ruby Valley below. It then begins a 4 mile rising traverse around the huge Overland Creek drainage. This is lovely country, complete with some beautiful waterfalls (large and small), a nice hanging valley that makes for a good side trip if you have the time and energy, and some impressive trail-building work by the men of the CCC.

Overland Creek drainage

Top off your water bottles at the beautiful black slab waterfall, if you haven't already. You may cross another stream after that, but it's not as reliable and it's better to be safe than sorry.

After four miles and 2500' of elevation gain (with 1800' of loss, there's that recurring theme again), you'll reach the spine of the range at Peak 10,207', and you'll see what the rest of your day will look like. You'll be hiking up, down and around a series of six "Groundhog Day" points, all along an austere, wind-swept ridge that offers stunning 360' views of the best of the Great Basin. Shade is nearly non-existent - there are a few wind-sculpted pines up here, but most of the plants are ankle-high. The trail grades aren't steep and the walking is very pleasant. You'll get a great view of some of the range's named peaks along the way, including Ruby Dome, Ruby Pyramid, King Peak, Snow Lake Peak, Silliman, Mt. Gilbert, and Lake Peak, among others. The third peak you go over, instead of around, will be Wines Peak, and the last of the points you'll climb for the day. Watch out as you switchback down to the sweeping saddle between Wines Peak and Lake Peak for a gorgeous wind-sculpted pine teetering over Ruby Valley, with an old USFS sign nailed to its trunk. Both are testaments to the extremities of weather here.

Looking back towards Overland Lake, Ruby Crest Trail

Gedney Creek drainage from Ruby Crest Trail

You'll drop off of the broad saddle into a quiet and lovely limber pine forest. If you're staying at North Furlong, or particularly at the camp at the trail intersection, you're a few feet from done for the day. If you're planning on hiking to Favre, your route will start to climb again after that intersection to a narrow pass between the North Furlong and Kleckner Creek drainages. PLEASE stay on the trail, even if there's snow - there has been a lot of damage here from people (and particularly horses) cutting switchbacks.

Trail between North Furlong and Kleckner Creek

Once you clear the pass you'll switch back down into an intimate, spring-filled drainage... a beautiful Ruby Mountain garden. Take some time to enjoy this, even if you're tired - it's your reward for a lot of work getting here. The trail wanders around a little bit, gradually losing elevation, until you round a big rock corner and start making your way to Kleckner Creek. You'll pass an old, decommissioned trail that goes to Favre Lake, will cross the creek and pass a trail heading down the canyon, and will eventually reach a good trail leading to Favre Lake itself. There are a couple of very nice horse camps downhill from the lake, as well as good backpacker camping in the trees next to the lake itself.

While you're here, take a few minutes to hike the short uphill to Castle Lake. You won't be disappointed.

Day three maps, south to north. Click on them to enlarge.

DAY FOUR - NORTH FURLONG (FAVRE) TO LAMOILLE CANYON TRAILHEAD

Distance: North Furlong - 7 miles, Favre - 5 miles
Elevation gain (loss): North Furlong - 1250' (2500'), Favre - 900' (1600')

Keep your camera at hand this last day of the trip, because the opportunities for stunning photographs are endless. This is the day you'll walk to (or past) the chain of lakes that is the heart of the Ruby Mountains - Favre, Castle, Liberty, Lamoille, the Dollars.

Favre Lake and Liberty Peak

Once you leave the shores of Favre Lake, you'll switch back uphill to Liberty Lake - deep, blue, nestled under Liberty Peak in a beautiful mountain cirque. There is wonderful camping here, and if you're looking for a way to stretch out your trip, this is a great place to stay. Gain a little more elevation, and you can catch a view of Liberty, Favre and Castle, all three, along with jagged Lake Peak towering over them all. Along the trail, as you climb above Liberty, there'll be thousands of wildflowers in July, as well as small springs hosting an evident population of wild onions. Convenient for the onions and trout to be so close together.

Liberty Lake and Lake Peak

You'll reach 10,400' Liberty Pass less than two miles after leaving Favre, and will get your first look at sweeping Lamoille Canyon. You can see the tiny trailhead below from here, as well as Verdi, Snow Lake and Full House Peaks, although you won't be able to see any of the lakes from the pass itself. Switchback down the impressive trail, keeping your boots on the tread in order to avoid destroying the thousands of fragile alpine flowers you'll pass. This pass holds snow quite late into the summer, so staying on the trail will require a conscious decision on your part to do the responsible thing. The trail winds its way down from Liberty Pass to reach Lamoille Lake in about a mile.

Swimming in Lamoille Lake

Lamoille Lake is a beautiful, greenish-blue lake tucked into a rocky cirque, full of trout and with good camping nearby. It gets a lot of day-hiking visitors, so you likely won't have the place to yourself. If you have the opportunity, take out some of the trash that's inevitably been left behind. Your backpack will likely be pretty light at this point, and there's a trash can at the trailhead. The place isn't a disaster by any means, but you may have a chance to pick up an item or two as you walk along the trail.

The trail forks just below the lake. It's 1.5 miles to the trailhead via the left fork Stock Trail, and 2 miles to the trailhead via the right fork. The right fork is shadier, if longer. The left fork is largely in the sun, steeper, and bursting with wildflowers in July. If you take the left fork you'll miss the Dollar Lakes, which are well worth seeing. Let your knees and your appetite for alpine lakes and/or wildflowers be the deciding factor.

One of the Dollar Lakes

Hopefully, once you've reached your vehicle, you'll also reach a cooler full of beer and some sandals to change into. Both will be very welcome after your days on the trail.

Day 4 map - click on it to enlarge.

OPTIONS:

If you want to make this a four night trip, instead of a three night trip, consider camping at Liberty or Lamoille Lakes, or spending an additional night at Overland.

There's a peak register on Wines Peak, if you want to scramble the ten feet or so to the actual peak and look for it.

Lake Peak is a very easy climb from the Wines Peak/Lake Peak saddle. Liberty Peak is a very easy scramble from Liberty Pass.

If you continue on the Favre Lake trail, rather than returning to the Ruby Crest trail, you'll contour around the east end of Favre and eventually gain Liberty Lake that way. It's a very short walk up to the saddle above that trail to peer into the isolated Colonel Moore drainage.

If you want to avoid the Harrison Pass end of the trail altogether, you can access the trail via the Overland Creek trail that leaves from Rock House in Ruby Valley. That is a steep, dusty trail that sees a lot of horse traffic, but because it does it'll likely have been recently cleared of deadfall by one of the packing guides. If you know one of the private property owners in Jiggs along Smith Creek Road, there's good trail access that way, as well.

Bailing out of a Ruby Crest Trail trip isn't easy and will require a lot of travel through some very isolated terrain. Be advised that you won't be able to get a reliable cell phone signal for much of the trip. Once you leave the Overland Creek drainage, you're probably best off staying on the trail itself, if possible. That said, there are good trails out of Smith Creek, Overland Creek, and Long Canyon, all of which (eventually) will get you to civilization. The trails out of North Furlong and Kleckner are unmaintained and sometimes hard to find.

The old guide trail to Talbot Canyon

2010-09-16T11:30:00.001-07:00

Several decades ago, somebody - and I couldn't tell you who - built a steep-ass trail from just short of Pete's Corner in Lamoille Canyon, near the Glacier Overlook, over the top of the ridge to intersect the Talbot Canyon trail. The trail is four miles long, and was built by and for some awfully tough folks - or, at least, folks riding awfully tough horses. It's a 30% grade for much of its length.

That trail was allowed to fade into the grass over the years, and these days it takes some looking, a GPS, and a good imagination to find it. The hunting guides used to keep it cleaned out, but since they have access from the homeowners at the base of Talbot Canyon these days, it doesn't look as if they've done any trail clearing since the mid-1990's. That said, the trail's there, and some friends of mine are working with me to make it easier to find.

There are some good reasons for re-establishing this trail. First and foremost, for skiers, it allows reasonably ready access to some truly marvelous ski terrain. Getting up there otherwise is an interminable bushwhack, but with the trail in place accessing that ridge becomes more realistic. Painful, but realistic.

Second, with construction moving slowly on the Secret-Lamoille trail project, brushing out this old trail will allow access to Talbot Canyon and Verdi Lake more quickly. It's eight miles from Pete's Corner to Verdi Lake on this trail - doable as a day hike or day ride if you're really fit, very reasonable as an overnight if you're less insane.

And, third, once they DO get the Lamoille to Talbot section of the Secret-Lamoille Trail project done, people will have the option of a really nice loop route. This trail isn't close to suitable for bikes, but for everybody else it'd be a nice, if strenuous, trip.

So far, we have it located and brushed out to about where it says "On Ground" on the map. We still have quite a ways to go, obviously. If we can get the trail brushed to the ridgeline before ski season, I'll be really happy.

It's not very likely that the old trail left the road where it shows on the map. This was a horse trail, and the official GPSed route isn't doable by horses in a few spots. It probably took off down canyon a few hundred feet.

Even though it's steep, the trail is worth doing. Some of the views from up there are amazing. Here are Mt. Gilbert and Terminal Cancer couloir from the trail.

It's clear that this route needs a lot more than brushing. Some of the old rock work is findable, as is some of the benching. A lot of it just needs about four people with pulaskis and mcclouds for a couple of weeks.

An (amazingly unofficial) Secret-Lamoille Trail update

2010-09-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

I'd not set foot on the new trail since they threw me under the bus earlier this year, for a variety of reasons. And none of the folks running the show have been talking with me, that's for sure. But snow up high, coupled with a desire to get some exercise prior to ski season, got me thinking about going for a dayhike, even with the extremely inviting "keep off" sign at the trailhead. It wasn't my intention to do a blog update on my findings, but what I saw up there changed my mind.

All I can say is that the incompetent hack running the show these days has pretty much needlessly squandered a LOT of money accomplishing very little. They've worked all summer long and have less than a mile of trail completed. Not kidding.

I'm not denigrating the work done by the Americorps kids, at all. They're busting their asses and have done some truly beautiful rock work. The thing is, though, that the overwhelming majority of the work they've done has been done needlessly.

When Greg Mazu from IMBA/Singletrack Trails originally did the design for this trail, he routed the section out of Lamoille Canyon with an eye towards construction costs. It was patently obvious that costs for that section of trail could go through the roof because of the huge number of rocks we'd have to work our way through if he wasn't careful. There was no question that there'd need to be rock work done with Greg's design, and we all knew it - but he'd put a lot of thought into how to lay things out to minimize it. And - we intended to use a lot of community resources to get that rock work done for free or close to it.

After they took away control of the project from the community, though, they threw out Greg's design - as well as the majority of the trail built by community volunteers - and rerouted the trail right through the areas we were trying to avoid. They're probably doing five times more rock work than we'd originally envisioned, driving costs through the roof. Not only that, but they're clearly building a Class 3 trail, rather than the Class 2 trail that was budgeted. That means the trail is much wider and much more smooth than we'd envisioned... more like a sidewalk than the kinds of trails you see around here. Again, more money wasted.

And - here's the truly ironic part - they're building this project in the middle of a mining community, where thousands of people earn a lot of money every day safely moving and reshaping millions of tons of rock. Several people from the community who were involved in the project previously have decades of experience doing exactly that. Modifying a five-ton boulder to accommodate a trail would have been an afternoon's work for these folks. Instead, the hack running the show has these kids doing this work with their backs and rock bars. Unbelievable.

I talked yesterday with one of the community volunteers who was working a pulaski on Trails Day. He's a mining engineer at Newmont, and just shook his head at what these idiots have these kids doing. He described a method to me of using a drill and some chemicals to break rock almost effortlessly and very, very precisely. Instead, these kids have been working like slaves all summer - or, more accurately, like people in the Himalaya who don't have access to methods developed in the civilized world over the course of the last century or two. All because the Powers That Be wanted to push the community out of the project. It was easier to just let the hacks take over.

And, lastly - this was supposed to be a MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL. That's why the community paid for a trail designer from the International Mountain Biking Association, to design and build a MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL. The grant funding that we won was specifically to build a MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL. So - these idiots threw out the MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAIL design and put in a series of short, stacked switchbacks right out of the gate, with a big bunch of hairpin turns, nearly unrideable and certainly not fun. Switchbacks were inevitable given the terrain, but Greg's design gave riders a chance to rest between switchbacks, as well as switchbacks that were, in fact, rideable. At least, if they'd built them according to his design.

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In any event, here's what's up there these days - as I said, some really beautiful rock work as well as some rock work in progress. If you're at all curious about how the CCC built trails back in the day, including big chunks of the Ruby Crest Trail, go up and have a look for yourself. If you're a trail geek it's really cool to see.

Once you get past the end of the construction, you can hike for another mile and a half or so to the end of where the NDF guys and Ruby Mountain Hot Shots did their work back in May. They made a really nice trail line - as nice as or nicer than most of the trails in the Rubies.

The cleared path ends in a tangle of aspens about 3.25 miles from the trailhead - a really nice short dayhike, lovely this time of year, and well worth doing.

Mountain biking in the Rubies

2010-09-11T16:46:00.001-07:00

I get asked all the time about where the great mountain bike riding is in the Ruby Mountains. Unfortunately, the answer is... there isn't any.

Not a single foot of it.

Oh, there are places we all try to go... most of us have ridden the Ruby Crest Trail from the Lamoille Canyon trailhead up to Liberty Pass (ugh)... and have ridden the Island Lake Trail (double ugh)... we've ridden up Soldier Canyon, ridden the laughable joke called the Toyn Creek Trail... even ridden the Ruby Crest Trail from Harrison Pass to the wilderness boundary.

And it all sucks. All of it.

Some of it sucks mildly less than other parts of it. Soldier Canyon is really nice in the spring when the flowers are out, even though it's a ride on a dirt road passible by passenger car. I used to ride the Lamoille Lake segment of the Ruby Crest Trail fairly regularly - it's anti-flow, 15% climbing, technical nonsense, not built for bikes and NOT FUN. But when you're desperate to ride you do what you gotta do.

The Harrison Pass portion of the Crest Trail doesn't suck too badly in July, when (again) the flowers are out. Still, you're riding up a road for the most part, and parts of it are the kinds of sharp, loose rocks combined with bug dust left by ass-wipes on ATVs who are too lazy to get off their portable couches and walk. That was a trail when I was a kid, but I digress. The truly annoying part is that the Harrison Pass end of the Crest Trail is eminently suitable for mountain bikes, at least to the McCutcheon Creek drainage. It would be absolutely fantastic riding. Unfortunately, the selfish wilderness jihadist mountain-bike haters of the world are determined to keep us quiet users out of their sacred space. We're rampaging wildland rapists, after all.

So, if you want to ride mountain bikes in the Rubies, you're out of luck. Hopefully, they'll get the Lamoille to Talbot section of the Secret-Lamoille Trail done sometime before I'm too old to ride it, but based on what I saw hiking up there today that is becoming increasingly less likely.

Here's the good part of this post - there's EXCELLENT riding outside of Ely, about 2.5 hours south. I rode down there over Labor Day Weekend, and I was (once again) blown away by just how beautifully those trails are designed and built. What's more, the absolutely stellar folks at the agencies are working hard with folks from the community to get more trails built all the time. I hate that it's not in my back yard, but the riding in Ely is WELL worth the drive.

My personal favorites: If you're looking for a short ride (about an hour), do the G Loop up at Ward Mountain Recreation Area. That's what MTB trails should be - flowy, aerobic, aesthetic, uber-fun. Even better, it can be combined with the Ice Plant trail system to create longer riding options. You can get about 27 miles worth by leaving from town, riding up Ice Plant, taking the connector to the G Loop, then taking the connector again on the way out to ride down Ice Plant again. The trail fairies have done a lot of work on Ice Plant and have put in some fun MTB features - teeter-totters, gap jumps and the like. Personally, I like keeping my rubber on the ground, so avail myself of the great singletrack they've been creating. So, so fun.

Also amazingly fun - the Twisted Pine to Overlook trail up at Cave Lake. I've ridden this both ways... riding up Overlook and down Twisted Pine means you'll have a steeper climb, but the downhill will be one of the funnest XC downhill runs you can imagine. Up Twisted Pine and down Overlook means that you'll have a hard time staying on the trail because the views of Cave Lake are so stunning.

Do it, if you've not made that trip. Go to the Great Basin Trails Alliance website for info, and huge kudos to the people making this stuff happen.

www.greatbasintrails.org

Fun and games on the Ruby Crest Trail

2010-09-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

In a desperate push to ride our mountain bikes in actual mountains, my friend Kasen and I loaded our bikes in the truck the other day and headed for Harrison Pass to see what the Ruby Crest Trail might look like these days. The trail is actually open to bikes until you hit the wilderness boundary. Whether it's good riding or not is another story.

I've ridden this route several times in July, what counts for spring at that altitude, up to the Green Mountain saddle. And even though the pedaling itself is uninteresting at best and annoying at worst, the trip is worth doing for the views and wildflowers. It's just carpeted with flowers up there - arrowleaf balsamroot, mule-ear daisies, lupine, paintbrush, lots of snowberry bushes. The ATVs and jeeps have pushed the road 5+ miles up the trail, to the saddle on Green Mountain. It is trail past that point.

In September, I'm sorry to say, the pedaling turned into 100% annoying. For the most part, the road surface was loose gravel, sharp moto-loosened rocks, and bug dust. And once you hit the trail, it became all bug dust, all the time.

At any rate, I wouldn't recommend heading up there with a bike this time of year. We'll be back in July... even with the annoyance created by the ATVers, the flowers will be worth it and (hopefully) the bug dust won't have formed.

We'll be hiking the Crest Trail next week.

On the (Lamoille Canyon) road again...

2010-08-25T17:59:00.001-07:00

Quick road update - they're chewing up the Lamoille Canyon road right now from the intersection of Lamoille Highway, up through the turnoff to Scout Camp. It's open, but expect delays. The chip seal portion of the project is happening up top... it's closed about a mile from the turnarounds but you can still hike in to the trails, if you're so inclined.

One of the flagger gals told me that I'd been misinformed by the last guy I talked with, that the project was due for completion at the end of September. That makes more sense to me, otherwise they'd be flirting with weather.

Mount Gilbert

2010-08-22T13:22:00.001-07:00

It's been a few years since I've climbed Mt. Gilbert, and I have to wonder why. What a great climb - stellar views, an impressive-looking peak, all kinds of wildlife... even a good trail that gets you a lot of the way there. What more could a girl ask for?

My friends Bruce and Jeff suggested the trip a couple of weeks ago, and I'm darned glad they did. That said, our day turned into a bit more of an adventure than we'd anticipated - nothing we couldn't deal with, but we ended up back at the truck about seven hours late. Yes, folks, once again I ventured into Seitz Canyon, and once again I ventured into a lightning storm. So far, Seitz and I are batting .1000 for storms.

In the past, when we've climbed Gilbert, we've done so from the Scout Camp, downclimbing our up route back to the truck. One of our number had had recent back surgery, though, and between that and the storm rolling in we opted to downclimb into Seitz Canyon in order to get below timberline more quickly, to avoid slippery rain-soaked rocks, and to avail ourselves of the trail to walk out. As luck would have it, we ended up pinned down by lightning several times, squandering a few hours of daylight we could have used walking out. The good news is that we had a great time, got out safely, and had cold beer and dinner waiting for us when we got home.

Gilbert clearly doesn't get climbed very often - the old cairn and register had been removed since I was last there in 2007, and the new register placed in 2008 had only three entries besides ours. Gilbert looks a little daunting from the road, I guess, but it's such a fun climb and so readily accessible you'd think more people would venture up there. It's a super ski destination in the spring when conditions are safe. It's a darned fun - if not much visited - summer climb, as well.

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Gilbert's obviously an off-trail route, which provides an opportunity to talk briefly about off-trail hiking. If you're reading this blog, this is likely old hat to you, but hopefully this will remind you to share this information with your less-experienced climbing partners.

As off-trail hikers, it's our responsibility to minimize our impact on the mountains we're visiting. As rugged as they seem, the mountains are in actuality very fragile, and it's astonishingly easy for us to create significant ecological damage through careless travel habits. It should go without saying - if you pack it in, pack it out and, what's more, pack out the other idiot's garbage, too. A little less obvious, though, is route selection.

Choose a walking surface that minimizes the potential damage done by your footsteps. The best walking surface for this purpose is - SNOW! Walk on it all you like, you aren't going to hurt anything. It's just going to melt away and leave the plants and soils underneath unimpacted.

If there isn't a handy snowfield you can use, your next best bet is ROCK. Lamoille Canyon is full of conveniently-placed rock rims, boulders, and torso-sized stones, and they make great walking surfaces. Often times you can pick your way through plant areas by stepping rock-to-rock. It usually provides great traction, too. Bonus.

If you can't find rocks where you want/need to go, opt for dirt. This will require some care on your part to avoid causing damage, but it can be done. Look for game trails - they abound, and they're obviously already impacted.

Your last option should be stepping on plants. There aren't a lot of places up the canyon where you can't find snow, rocks or dirt to walk on, but sometimes stepping on plants is necessary. I get it - just keep it to a minimum.

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Here's some beta for would-be Gilbert climbers:

MT. GILBERT - 11,120'

Length: 7 miles RT from Right Fork Lamoille Canyon trailhead

Elevation gain: 4,026'

Difficulty: Class D-E-R (difficult with exposure and route-finding)

Time required: Day hike

Mt. Gilbert is the impressive-looking peak that looms over the Lion's Club Campground nestled at the base of Right Fork Lamoille Canyon. It's a north aspect, meaning that it holds snow and (later) moisture until later in the summer than some destinations. If you're planning on a summer climb, I'd suggest August to snowfall as a good time to consider. That will give time for some of the small waterfalls to dry up, creating a very user-friendly set of staircases to use to avoid brush-bashing.

To get to the trailhead, drive up Lamoille Canyon Road, and turn off at the Lion's Club Campground road. There's a trailhead parking area at the Campground gate. Leave your vehicle there. The trail starts out up the road through the campground - sometimes the people who've rented the campground will get in your face and try to tell you that's not where the trail goes... just smile and show them the carsonite trail signs you're following. They're there.

The trail departs from the road at about the A-frames and makes its way upstream to a couple of small bridges. Cross the creek and follow the trail through a lush collection of aspens and raspberry patches to the top of a glacial bench, about 1.7 miles in. Leave the trail here, crossing the creek and heading through the brush to the base of Mt. Gilbert.

Keep to the left of the dish beneath the peak, and you'll find a small waterfall path that, by August, should be largely dry. This is a great way to make your way up. It's only steep in a couple of places, other than that it's like walking up a rock staircase. You'll eventually end up at a rock band, with a very climbable mini-chute towards the left. Climb up the chute and continue to make your way uphill along a series of rocky ramps.

At about 9900', you'll reach a talus field on the east end of a glacial bench, with a lovely tarn off to your right. Start skirting right here, across the talus, beneath the obvious point, and climbing up to a series of rocky ramps and ledges. You're shooting for a spot just to the left of the lowest part of the ridge between Right Fork and Seitz Canyon. This is the crux of the route... there are a couple of places with some exposure here, where a fall would lead to significant consequences. However, there are some reasonable ledges and the hand and footholds are bomber, so it shouldn't create much whimpering. There isn't a trail, obviously, so you can choose whatever seems safest to you.

Once you gain the ridge, cross over to the other side - not only for easier walking, but also for spectacular views of Seitz Lake and Seitz Couloir, also known as the Come Line by skiers. Walk up beside the ridge until you reach the shoulder of the summit block - it's an obvious change in pitch. Cross over again and traverse across the face until you reach the obvious cleft between the main peak and the eastern sub-peak.

Here's where it really gets fun. This cleft is really wonderful Class 3 climbing, with solid holds up a steady pitch. There are lots of options here... once you gain the top you'll be greeted by spectacular views of a magnificent jagged ridge and a large summit cairn with a sparsely notated register. Enjoy.

To exit, either downclimb your route or arrange a shuttle and exit via Seitz Canyon. If you leave via Seitz, be aware that there are a number of cliff faces you'll have to pick your way through. The easiest down routes to find are closer to the lake.

Map:

Topo - this would be more useful if Google Earth had a summer image, but they don't. Sorry. It at least gives you an idea of where the route goes. You'll note that it's a little bit off - the waypoints are on the ridge and the route is actually on the other side... it's a cliff face where it shows the route on this image. You get the idea, though...

Seitz Lake Trail beta

2010-08-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Why is it that every time I go up Seitz Canyon I end up in a rainstorm? Today's drenching was actually pretty welcome - no lightning and I was beginning to get a bit ripe. In the past, though, I've been caught up there in "Holy SHIT find cover FAST" kinds of lightning storms. Nevada - don't like the weather, wait a minute. ;)

Seitz Canyon holds some good memories for me. Waaaaaaaaaay back when, Seitz Canyon was the scene of my very first backpacking trip - as well as my very first "Holy SHIT find cover FAST" backcountry experience. When I was sixteen years old, the trail up this canyon was in good shape. Now, not so much. It's there, but it's a "Where's Waldo" hide-and-seek-fest.

Flowers are putting on quite a show right now, and there's no need to die of scurvy - currants are everywhere. The serviceberries are just starting to generate fruit, not close to ripe. There'll be a lot of chokecherries this year, too (if Seitz is any indication).

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Figured I'd throw up some beta for those Californians looking for Ruby Mountain trail info.

SEITZ LAKE TRAIL

Length: 10 miles RT from Spring Creek Association 4WD "trailhead"

Elevation gain: 2700'

Difficulty: Class C-R (moderate with route-finding)

Time required: Day hike or overnight

The Seitz Lake trail is a great day hike or overnight for those interested in getting off the beaten path. Literally - the trail is very faint and there's a high probability that you'll spend at least part of the trip routefinding. Be that as it may, Seitz Lake is one of the most beautiful destinations in the Ruby Mountains, and that's saying a lot.

The Seitz Lake trail is a non-wilderness, non-motorized trail, meaning it's open to hikers, horsemen, mountain bikers, skiers, etc. That said, it is not even remotely SUITABLE for mountain bikes, and unless you have legal access you'll have a hard time getting a horse in there. And, once you do - this is no trail for a $30,000 sandbox horse, or for a horse that stands around six months at a time. This is a trail for a steady, strong, self-confident mountain horse. Be advised.

The hike is rated moderate due to the necessary route-finding. The hike itself isn't difficult - there's not much elevation gain in the scheme of things, it's not that long, there's no scrambling or exposure. That said, you will be spending much of this hike off-trail, and will need to be comfortable with cross-country travel. Not only that, but you will need to be comfortable out there on your own - there's no highway up this canyon, cell phones don't bounce, and the cavalry will NOT be coming. I doubt more than a couple of dozen people make this tour every year.

GETTING THERE:
Seitz Canyon can be accessed three ways without getting into mountaineering, none of them particularly easy. You can travel overland legally from Lamoille Canyon, starting your hike by the pulloff for the Powerhouse Picnic Grounds. That makes for a long day. You can ask for access from Ruby Dome Ranch - you're not likely to get it, but you definitely won't get it if you don't ask. Don't trespass, these guys will not put up with it.

The easiest way to access Seitz Canyon is through the Spring Creek Association campground. If you're not an SCA homeowner, you'll be trespassing, but I've never heard of SCA having problems with it. Be a good guest, stay low profile and it's likely that they never will. That's how this trip will be described.

To reach the SCA campground - from Elko travel SE on Lamoille Highway (5th Street) approximately 17 miles to Pleasant Valley Road, a dirt road that takes off straight as an arrow towards the Rubies. The road will make a 90-degree turn - at this corner you'll see a locked green gate to the left. If you have a key to the gate and a high-clearance 4WD vehicle, you can save yourself some walking by driving in. Otherwise, park here and climb over the gate.

From the gate, walk or drive up the section fenceline (it'll be on your left). The road will very quickly turn into a rutted 4WD road. If you're adventurous you can take this road almost all the way to the ridgeline and save yourself a bunch of hiking. You are here to hike though, right? The road will bear right away from the fence and you'll come to a convenient wide parking spot. Leave your vehicle here if you've driven in.

You'll start the trip cross country. Find a nice contouring cow trail and head north east towards the section fence. There are plenty from which to choose and there's no reason to turn this into a brush bash. Make your way uphill to the ridgeline... you'll likely want to follow the contour trails and make switchbacks for yourself. When you get close to the ridgeline, be near the section fence, where you can pick up another nicely contouring cow trail heading into the canyon.
An altimeter or GPS comes in handy here. You'll need to cross Seitz Creek at right around 7000', otherwise you'll be tangling with a hell of overgrown chokecherries. Stay climbers right of the creek and contour your way along the hillside - it's a pretty walk and, again, there are plenty of cow trails and game trails to keep the brush-bash to a minimum. When you get to about 7000', look for a portion of the creek bank that's been cut away by the water. There are some deer trails through the trees about here, and the creek's comparatively shallow at that point. Once you cross, walk straight ahead and you'll be able to get onto an old jeep road that goes another 1/2 mile or so up Seitz Canyon.

As you walk up the road, keep an eye out for the "trailhead" - a rock cairn by a mahogany tree. If you get to the end of the road, at a hunting camp, you've gone too far. Backtrack about 150'.

Once you get on the trail, it becomes very lush, very overgrown, very beautiful. The route largely sticks with the route shown on the USGS topo... if you get that route into your GPS you'll likely stay pretty close. If you don't have a GPS or can't be bothered with trying to find this ephemeral trail, don't worry. Stay climbers left of the creek, stay out of the beaver ponds. The trail will skirt climbers left of those ponds.

There'll be two big benches you'll want to climb... it's best done by getting above the rimrock shelves on your left. There are a fair number of rock cairns, as well as other routefinding friends - sawn deadfall and branches, a few blazes, bent/broken grass. There aren't a lot of tree carvings, but there are a few.

Once you top out on the second bench (past a couple of truly lovely waterfalls), you cross a large field of slickrock as you make your way to the lake. Take some time and savor this - it's beautiful and it gets more so with every step you take.

After about five miles, you'll be at Seitz Lake.

Keep your eye out for critters, I've seen river otters up here (very cool). There are also a lot of ducks and plenty of the other usual suspects for the Rubies.

Heading down, you'll find that it's a whole lot easier to stick with the trail. Don't miss the creek crossing, it comes up faster than you expect. There's a big glacier-remnant erratic boulder with a rock cairn on it, that's your clue to leave the jeep trail for the creek.

Map:

Ruby Dome access update

2010-08-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

For those of us (ahem) who have keys to the locked gate at the Spring Creek campground - and thus access to the trailhead for Ruby Dome and other destinations in that part of the range - the Spring Creek Association is going to be changing out the lock (boo!) Anyway, a new key will be $5 if you turn in your old key in exchange.

If you don't have a key to the gate you can still crawl over/through and walk up the road to the campground to get to the trailhead. I don't know if it's legal or not but I've never heard of anyone being busted for trespassing. Based on the number of names in the Ruby Dome register that obviously don't belong to Spring Creek property owners, it's pretty apparent that more than one person has gone over that gate.

IMHO it's utterly ignorant that Spring Creek Association locks people out of that trailhead. I can understand Spring Creek wanting to keep the campground and rifle range for its residents - it's their investment, after all. But put in a man-gate already so that people can at least walk in or ride in on the road and access the forest. Sheesh.

Lamoille Canyon Road update

2010-08-05T09:45:00.001-07:00

Well, since Google Analytics tells me that there are still a lot of folks coming to this blog for information on Ruby Mountain trails, I guess I should pass along updates as I have them on topics other than the Secret-Lamoille Trail.

I had a chance to ride my bike up the Lamoille Canyon Road today - a friend of mine likens my riding a 35-lb mountain bike on that road to pushing a barn door uphill for eleven miles, but I digress - anyway, the road is still open to the top and all trailheads accessed via the road are still reachable by car. The snow melted out significantly during my trip to Iowa, and the trails are open and in good shape.

So far they've replaced a lot of the culverts that went under the road, have installed some new ones, and have done some drainage improvements. They're also in the process of replacing the guard rails. The road is still driveable... on a bike, it's a little sketchy on the downhill... lots of gravel and a few places where the pavement has been cut out all the way across for culvert installation. They've also done some work cleaning out the shoulders, so the previous 2" or so dropoffs are bigger. I'm not sure I'd take a road bike up there... will stick with my cross bike when it's running again. YMMV.

They're using a pilot car system, so if you're in a car plan on some delays during work hours. They've been letting me through on my bike, which is nice.

One of the crew guys told me that they planned on starting chip sealing the road in another week or two, starting from the turnaround and heading downhill, and that they are planning on digging up and repaving the road from Lamoille Highway through the Narrows. Completion date as of now is scheduled to be November. They are not planning on widening the road, which is good news IMHO.

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I was interested to see that they've replaced the no hiking sign (hiker with a red circle and slash) at the S-L trailhead with a couple of signs that say "Trail under construction - please do not use. Unsafe." That's funny as hell considering that half of the system trails in this forest are nothing more than blazes and rock cairns. It's more dangerous riding my bike down that piece-o-crap pothole-riddled road. Give them credit for trying, at any rate.

So long, and thanks for all the fish

2010-07-13T07:27:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been pretty quiet for the last month and a half, and I owe you all an explanation.

The long and the short of it is - I've resigned from the project.

I could go into a lot of angry details about why I've left, but the bottom line is that I fundamentally disagree with the way the project is being managed and consider it to be a betrayal of what we were trying to do in the first place - to get a trail on the ground, yes... but do it in a way that reflected the values and interests of this community. This was a project driven by the community and for the community. It isn't that, any more... hell, they've even posted a "no hiking" sign at the trailhead. What a waste.

That all said, if they get this first segment of trail on the ground, and there's no reason to think that they won't, we'll have good trail to Talbot Creek. The Talbot Canyon trail needs a whole lot of work to be sustainable, but it's there and people will once again be able to use it to reach Verdi Lake. Not only that, but the existing Conrad Creek and Thorpe Creek trails will be accessible, as will the existing Secret-Lamoille Trail. None of them is in good shape, but they're there and you'll be able to use them.

There's a whole lot of work yet to be done, if somebody else wants to take the lead and see this thing through. The NEPA work for the rest of the project remains to be done, as does the trail design and fundraising. Those are the things that I've been able to coordinate along with my previous partners, primarily Bill Wolf. All of those things have to be completed before the project can go an inch past Talbot Creek (or for that matter, do the badly needed repairs on the Talbot Canyon trail.) Bill's already raised most of the money to get the trail to Conrad Creek, and to do the repairs on the Talbot Canyon trail, if they manage the project right. Without the NEPA, though, the project can't proceed. Maybe the Forest Service can get it done, or one of the other folks running the show these days. Who's to say, but without the team we had in place I don't envision anything happening quickly.

Dreams die, and life goes on. One of my friends has approached me about working on a mountain bike trail system in the hills around Elko, and that sounds like a worthwhile endeavor to me. There's tremendous potential there, if we can get the checkerboard problem worked out. Based on how the community made this project happen, there's no doubt in my mind that we can. I'll just be a lot more careful, next time, about who we bring in to help.

Breaking ground and blazing trails

2010-06-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have to say that this entire project has done more to impress me with the citizens of Elko County than I could ever have imagined. Yesterday, we celebrated our first National Trails Day with this project - and even on graduation weekend for Elko and Spring Creek high schools... even with it being about the first decent day we've had all spring... even with all of that, we had more than 40 folks show up to roll up their sleeves and get this trail underway.

Best of all, they had a great time and are going to bring their friends when we do this again. Awesome!

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We had the official groundbreaking for the project on Friday, and had a nice crowd on hand for the speechifying. We've had some amazing support for this project (check the list of partners over to the right) and it was really great to hear their take on why all of this work has been worthwhile. Gerry Miller from the Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group emceed, with comments from Lou Schack from Barrick, commissioners Sheri Eklund-Brown and Warren Russell, and USFS District Ranger Gar Abbas. After the brief ceremonies, everybody grabbed a shovel and headed to the trail to turn some dirt... the cool part is that most folks stuck around for a while to take a short hike up the route. How fun is that?

Then, yesterday, folks started showing up to roll up their sleeves... what an amazing community celebration! We got about 3 switchbacks worth of trail on the ground, on top of the work the Americorps kids did last week. Boy, will they be surprised at all the new trail that happened while they were gone! They'll be showing up again tomorrow evening... I can't wait to see their faces. ;)

We had all kinds of folks there... kids as young as 9 and as old as 86... fisher folks, horsemen, mountain bikers, hikers. David Ashby, the former USFS recreation planner for this area and one of the key people to get this project off the ground, came down from Burley, Idaho with his family in tow... so cool to see them and to celebrate his part in the project. We had a dozen kids from NYTC, who did a great job and had a blast doing it. A real cross-section of our community.

Best of all, people had a chance to "pay it forward"... we've all been enjoying the trails other folks built all those years ago, now it's our turn to build a trail for people who'll enjoy it 50 years from now.

Horsemen and hikers and bikes, oh my!

2010-06-05T04:56:00.001-07:00

I had a conversation last night with an anonymous commenter in response to my "What A Community" post that I think is worth sharing with everybody. The poster was concerned about the multi-use concept of this trail - she hadn't spent a lot of time sharing trails with mountain bikes and was concerned about how those interactions would go. Since there isn't currently any actual mountain bike trail around here, she's probably not alone.

There are a lot of things that trail builders can do to help prevent user conflicts between horses and mountain bikes, and since this is a new trail we're incorporating a lot of lessons learned elsewhere. One of the real keys is in trail design... you can design a trail to keep MTB speeds in check, and to make sure everybody sees everybody else in plenty of time to act accordingly. Those two things alone will resolve about 95% of user conflicts.

Some of it, too, is in education, and that's also part of what I'd like to see accomplished here. It is my dearest wish to get mountain bikers and horsemen working side by side building and maintaining the trail, so that each can learn from the other about how they use the trail - and each can learn that the other folks aren't bad people, just people enjoying the trail differently. Nobody wants to cause wrecks, either for horsemen or bikes.

As far as protocols go... everybody yields to horses, bikers yield to everybody. That isn't always practiced... a lot of times it's easier for a hiker to step off the trail than for a biker, and they often do. But that's the protocol and most people follow it, especially if you remind them with signage.

The standard protocol for a mountain biker approaching a horseman is for the biker to stop a ways from the horse and talk to the rider, finding out what the rider needs to have happen to pass safely. The biker usually steps off the trail with his bike, preferably to the downhill side, while the horseman rides past. That lets the horse see and smell the human under all of that sweat, and keeps the bike downhill where it won't "pounce" on the horse.

Every trail user needs to be responsible for his own actions. Mountain bikers need to understand that horses are prey animals and react accordingly. If a horse doesn't know what that scary-looking thing is, it is going to react like any other animal that thinks it's about to be eaten. In all likelihood, too, the horse's rider is now scared to death and the situation can spiral out of control. By increasing education and understanding among mountain bikers, and by designing a trail to keep speeds slow and sightlines good, those kinds of wrecks can be avoided.

Horsemen have responsibilities, too. Their primary responsibility is to be certain that their horse is ready to be ridden on a multi-use trail. A lot of times a horseman lets his animal stand around for a month at a time, gets on for an hour or two, and wonders why his horse doesn't trust him and/or misbehaves. A horse on a multi-use trail needs to be thoroughly desensitized, and he needs to trust the leadership ability of his rider. Even if you're in the wilderness where there are no bikes, there are plenty of things for a horse to spook at and cause wrecks. In the last couple of weeks, for example, I've flushed about a dozen grouse up there. They spooked me, never mind a touchy horse. There will be deer up there, cows breaking out of the brush, mules and llamas (a lot of horses don't like either), hikers with big backpacks, loose cinches and turning saddles - all kinds of things that will give a spooky horse fits. A rider that accepts his/her responsibilities as a trail user will ensure that his partnership with his horse is strong enough to be on a trail of this nature.

For what it's worth, I own five horses. There's only one of them right now I'd take on this trail. With some work on my part, three of the others would likely be fine. But I'd never try it without spending some time desensitizing.

What a community!

2010-06-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Elko and a day full of meetings with folks from the USFS and the Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group... had a call from Craig Smith, one of the Friends of the Secret-Lamoille Trail who had made some signs to help volunteers find us on our work days.

Craig is the Wells HS shop teacher, and unfortunately for all of us here has decided to leave our lovely climes and take a job near Teton National Park, in Wyoming. Tough duty.

Before he left, though, he wanted to do his bit for the trail. I should have known better than to expect anything less than something amazing. These signs are beautiful and will serve us well for years to come. Look for them this Saturday as we work on the trail on National Trails Day.

Thanks, Craig, we'll miss you and look forward to having you back for a hike or MTB ride sometime very soon!

While one great volunteer is moving on, a few more are coming to join us.

Jerry and Shar Williams from the Reno Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen spent their Memorial Day weekend here in Lamoille touring the project. They're very excited about the opportunities the project presents, and are staunch supporters of the multi-user trail concept. Our kind of people! They plan on working with us on the trail themselves, and hope to make this a regular project for their Reno BCH chapter - great news!

One of the more interesting aspects of having Jerry involved is that he is an experienced horse packer, and teaches horse packing techniques for BCH. His insights into what works best for pack strings will be invaluable to us as we move ahead with the project. The fact that horses and bikes will share the trail will make his contributions critical to the trail's success - by pointing out potential problem areas he'll help us keep this trail enjoyable for everyone.

Welcome to the team, Jerry and Shar!

Americorps and the kids from everywhere

2010-05-25T19:46:00.001-07:00

Part of our partnership with the Great Basin Institute is that they're sending kids from Americorps/Nevada Conservation Corps to provide the backbone of the trail construction effort. This is a lot of trail, and even with the great community support we enjoy, we still need regular crews out there all summer to get things done.

I got a chance to meet these kids when they arrived yesterday - they're camping on our ranch - and they got a chance to meet the project today.

Mark Kimbrough from GBI, our new trail boss, welcomed them to the project and gave them an overview of what their lives will look like for the next few months. The kids then introduced themselves... they're from all over the country, some from overseas, most of them have never built trail before. They're all here because they saw the opportunity to go someplace new, to do something new, to get their hands dirty for a good cause.

We all took a walk up the corridor that the NDF guys had cleared... I pointed out a few landmarks for them, talked a bit about the history of the project and the valley. They were pretty interested in taking in the views - I think more than one of them was surprised to be working in such a lovely place.

After we walked to the end of the cleared corridor, I met up with the fire crews while the kids walked back to begin their long summer building trail. I don't think they're going to be too miserable - although they're likely to be a bit sore tomorrow morning.

Pinch me. It's finally becoming real.

2010-05-25T18:09:00.001-07:00

What an amazing few days for the Secret-Lamoille Trail Project.

Last week, we got word from both the Nevada Division of Forestry and the Ruby Mountain Hot Shots that they'd be interested in volunteering for the project, using it to shake out their fire crews before the start of the summer fire season.

Man, what an offer. That's a lot of manpower right off the bat, AND it's a great opportunity for them to get some important pre-work training done for their crews. A real win-win.

That meant that we had to move into overdrive to get ready for their arrival. On Thursday and Friday, trail designer Greg Mazu set pinflags for much of the project, marking exactly where the tread would go. Mark Kimbrough from GBI, our new GBI trail boss, was on hand to get his arms around the thing, scoping the route and working with Greg on the final alignment. By Saturday, Greg was up above the snow line, so he marked trees for the fire crews and worked on the final alignment for the Talbot end of the project.

Lots of work, lots of walking, lots of thinking going into a great route.

On Sunday, I went out with biologist Kendra Olcott from JBR Environmental Consultants, along with her husband Jay, to look for migratory birds before the saws arrived. It's a late spring and we didn't see anything, but it was important to check and make sure we weren't destroying any nests while we went through. Kendra and Jay jumped in at the last minute... Rich Weber from JBR had been scheduled for this walk-through, but got stuck in an airport on the other side of the country. Thanks, guys, for being so incredibly cool and helping us out!

And then, it was Monday - and all of a sudden, we had something on the ground.

After seven years of work, the trail is finally under way!

The NDF crews did one hell of a job for us, clearing out brush, scraping a line, limbing and sometimes removing trees to make the clearance necessary for the folks who will use the trail. The trail needs 6' of horizontal clearance and 10' of vertical clearance so that horsemen and pack animals can safely get through. These guys moved steady, moved strong, moved with a smile on their faces. And more than one of them told me they'd like to come back and bring their kids to see the trail they helped build after their stint with NDF.

In the meantime, the Ruby Mountain Hot Shots went blazing by - man, those guys are amazing. They hustled a couple miles in and started working backwards, meeting up with the NDF crews as they worked their way up. Great cooperation and good practice for the fire season. They probably all went back to base when they were done and did a push-up contest or something, followed by an even 500 sit-ups or so. Just to make sure they got a good workout for the day.

With all of this hustle and bustle from the area's wildland fire crews, it was quite the whirlwind day. And yet... when everybody passed on by and the quiet came back, it was there.

The birdsong. And the genesis of a trail.

Groundbreaking June 4th, Trails Day June 5th - be there!

2010-05-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

The Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group is hosting official groundbreaking ceremonies for the project Friday, June 4th, 9AM, at the pullout above Powerhouse Picnic Grounds in Lamoille Canyon. Be there!

In addition, National Trails Day is June 5th (yes, that would be the next day). Bring your work gloves, your water and your enthusiasm - let's get some trail built! NDF and the Ruby Mountain Hotshots will be done clearing a corridor for us, so we can get down to work on building the tread. We'll have sign-up sheets available for future volunteer days, too, so you can schedule some time getting dirty for a great cause.

Even with the blustery spring, progress on the ground

2010-05-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a big, big shout-out to the Nevada Division of Forestry and the Ruby Mountain Hot Shots - both groups volunteered crews to go out and do saw work, clearing a trail corridor for our construction crews!

This is a real win-win... NDF and the Hot Shots will use this project for training, getting ready for the summer fire season. The work they'll do clearing the corridor is very, very similar to what they'll need to do to clear fire lines. We'll have GBI and volunteer crew leaders along to make sure they follow the line of the trail, clearing what they're supposed to clear and dispersing the slash where it's supposed to go.

What a great contribution to the project - not only will it save us a lot of money, but it will allow us to leverage their big volunteer contribution to help us with fundraising in the future. A lot of the folks on these crews are locals, and I hope they take pride in the work they've done when they visit this trail 20 years from now.

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Of course, this means that the rest of us are scrambling a bit, marking nests of migratory birds, marking the exact line of the trail, figuring out clearance and dispersal standards for the fire crews. It's a good scramble, though. The picture is of trail designer Greg Mazu from Singletrack Trails, marking the line for the firefighters this weekend. Thanks to Kendra from JBR Environmental for making sure we don't create problems for the birds with what we're doing.

Why we need more trails, and better access to the ones we have

2010-05-18T08:39:00.001-07:00

A few people have questioned why we are going to the effort and expense of building new trails in the Rubies. Fair enough. This stuff ain't easy - there's a lot of effort and money going into this, and sane people could easily wonder why we're bothering.

Here's why.

Check out this link from the Humboldt-Toyabe National Forest website, outlining every trail in the Ruby Mountain ranger district, which includes the Rubies and the East Humboldts. There are a grand total of 108 miles of trails people can actually use in the Rubies and East Humboldts combined. That's it. In a 450,000-acre ranger district. And some of those trails are almost impossible to find if you're not a local- there are no trailheads or signage and the trails themselves are almost invisible. Some of them are so obscure that they don't even show up on USGS topographic maps. Several of the ones you CAN find are duplicates that access the same places.

See for yourself. Break out a calculator and do the math. Here's the link.

Ruby Mountain Ranger District Trails

While you have your calculator out, add up the trails that ordinary folks are locked out of. 234 miles of trails that we can't access because they're behind locked gates.

If we can't get easements to access these trails, and landowners at the bottom of the canyons haven't been forthcoming in that regard, then we're going to have to build new trails so that we can legally get up into these mountains.

And, for what it's worth, one of my next volunteer goals will be to develop signage and trailheads for the few trails we actually CAN get to, as well as developing volunteer teams to get up there and do some trail maintenance and improvements. We're going to lose the very few trail miles we have if we don't roll up our sleeves and do something about it. Right now, many of those trails aren't much more than lines on maps - they're there legally but they often aren't there on the ground.

Seriously - click on the link and do the math yourself. Even I was surprised at how few trail miles in these mountains we can actually use.

The power of volunteers

2010-05-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a trailbuilding conference/training put on by the Tahoe Rim Trail Association. Pretty amazing deal all the way around - it's impressive beyond belief to see what the volunteers there have been able to accomplish over the years.

I'm pretty beat - long drive back after a long day building trail - but I have to tell you - we have the potential here to build every bit as exciting organization, capable of getting this trail going as well as other trails all over these Ruby Mountains. All it takes is energy, cooperation, and a refusal to take "no" for an answer. I know we can do it - all we have to do is pitch in.

Mark your calendars - National Trails Day June 5

2010-04-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

National Trails Day will be celebrated on June 5th, and that will be a great opportunity for folks interested in the Secret-Lamoille Trail Project to get out, roll up their sleeves, and get to work! Americorps volunteers from the Nevada Conservation Corps will have been out for a week or two at that point, getting some ground work done - but there'll be a very real need for folks from the community to come out and help us with some rock work. There are a number of switchbacks right off the bat that are going to need to be completed to a pretty high standard. The nice part about having community volunteers do these switchbacks is that - when you walk or ride the trail, you'll be able to point to it and say "yep, I helped build that one!" Pretty cool if you ask me.

We're also going to be developing a volunteer calendar for the summer so that we have crew leaders on hand as needed to be sure that our volunteer crews are being used to their best effectiveness. I'll post that calendar here and will e-mail it to those of you on the Friends of the Trail list. And - if you have a group at work, your church, your club, etc. that wants to schedule a group volunteer day, let me know and I'll get that on the calendar, too. We want to make sure that you have a good volunteer experience, and we want to make sure that, if you make a commitment to help us with the trail, your work goes to the best possible use.

We're hoping to bust out 11 miles of trail this summer - it's a big job but, working together, I'm confident we can pull it off.

PSA - Fears, Tears and Beers

2010-04-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's not *strictly speaking* about trails in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada. This is a kind of a "bigger picture" deal.

The Great Basin Trails Alliance is hosting the fifth annual Fears, Tears and Beers MTB Enduro in Ely June 12th.

If you love trails and/or love riding mountain bikes, this is a don't miss event. I mean, come on, they route the ride through the Jailhouse Casino. How often do you get a chance to do that?!?

The race itself is an enduro format, which means timed sections of flat-out downhill racing looniness are interspersed with a whole lot of social riding in an amazingly beautiful area. Some people (*ahem*) are so serious about the racing portions that they enjoy an adult beverage or two along the way.

But there are folks who really are serious about getting good times. More power to them. Makes for good pictures.

The event raises money to build more trail in this part of the world. And - I like the Great Basin Trail Alliance's philosophy - this is an ALLIANCE. Everybody who loves trails is invited - whether you ride a bike, ride a horse, ride a dirtbike, ride an ATV, ride the soles of your hiking boots. Come one, come all, lets work together to get some great stuff done. How can you not support a group like that?

Anyway, riders and volunteers are needed. Check out their website at www.greatbasintrails.org for info and entry forms.

With friends like these...

2010-04-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's great conversation with Colleen Memeo at Stewart Title reminds me that I really need to highlight some of the help we're getting from folks in the community. It's been amazing.

Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group - Where the project came from. The Recreation Pod of the Stewardship Group, led by then-rec pod chairman Duane Jones from Cedar Creek Clothing, asked the community what they wanted to see happen with recreational development. The community told us - lower-altitude trails in the Rubies, and *much* more access in the Rubies. This entire project sprang from that series of conversations and from the connections with the mines, agencies and local recreationists made in those meetings.

Barrick Gold North America - came to the rescue when this project was just a twinkle in my eye... we went to them with the idea, told them we needed to pay for a trail designer, and with pretty much nothing more than that they said - OK! Gave us a five-figure grant to do it. Talk about a leap of faith! That's Dave Ashby from the USFS in the picture, as well as Duane Jones from Cedar Creek Clothing, then-chairman of the NNSG Rec Pod, and Lou Schack from Barrick.

Backcountry Horsemen - We gave a presentation on the project in its early days to the national board of directors of Backcountry Horsemen. We needed to demonstrate to the Forest Service that we could not only build a trail, but that we could maintain it. No maintenance partners, no trail. Backcountry Horsemen responded to the request with an enthusiastic "HELL YEAH!" Not only that, but they gave us the idea for using draft animals to build the trail. This could end up being a huge labor-and-money-saver as the project progresses, especially in the wilderness.

Elko Velo Bicycle Club - Same story. We presented to their board of directors and they came with the support, too. They're hugely enthused about the project - finally, some real mountain bike trail around here!

Ken Jones, Lamoille rancher - The old trail alignment crossed private inholdings over and over and over again - one of the reasons the trail was allowed to fail in the first place. It just spent too much of its length in private property. Even with the re-route, though, there was one place where the trail simply HAS to cross a little piece of private property. Ken Jones, a long-time Lamoille rancher and the owner of that property, agreed to grant us an easement, allowing the project to move forward. Had he chosen to do so, he personally could have stopped this project in its tracks. Mr. Jones, however, believes in public access to public land and was great about helping us out. His importance to this project can not be overstated.

Bob Morley, High Desert Engineering - In order to get the easement ownership transferred, we needed an accurate map and legal description. Bob was great about knocking these things out for us.

Stewart Title - Colleen Memeo has put her resources at our disposal, taking care of the paperwork necessary to get this easement on the books.

JBR Environmental - Rich Weber - One of the biggest stumbling blocks for a project like this is the NEPA process - the cultural and biological surveys required, the public scoping, the reports... the USFS just doesn't have the staff resources to tackle a project like this. Rich stepped forward very early on and offered his staff's assistance in getting the surveys done. Help like this is going to be key with getting this project approved.

Lee Turner - NDOW - Same deal. Lee is a botanist and a huge trail fan, and jumped at the chance to help us conduct these surveys. Not only that, but he's going to help us write the NEPA documents going forward - significantly speeding the process of getting the project approved.

Sharon Reynolds, Tetra-tech - Sharon is a GIS professional, a long-time Ruby Mountain explorer and a big trail fan. She's helping us create maps for the project, which again will save us time and construction costs. And - since it reduces pressure on the overburdened USFS GIS staff, it will help speed things along.

Elko's local media - KENV, KELK and the Elko Daily Free Press have been amazingly helpful in getting the word out about the project.

Elko County Commissioners - Crucial to getting the project paid for - not because they're paying for it, but because their support is necessary for us to get grant funding for the project. No commissioners = no grants. No grants = no project.

USFS Ruby Mountain District - If these guys didn't believe in the project, there'd be no project. David Ashby got the ball rolling on the USFS side. Doug Clarke, Nancy Taylor and Gar Abbas, particularly, have been persistent about keeping it rolling. In addition, Dan Morris, formerly of the Ely District and now of Carson-Bridgeport, gave a lot of early guidance about outside-the-box methods of getting something of this scope off the ground.

Nevada Division of State Lands/Nevada's voters - OK, so they're not local - at least, not all of them. But when Nevada's voters approved the Question 1 bond, they made this project and others like it all over the state possible.

Great Basin Institute - This project was being managed out of their Ely office by Bill Wolf, although with budget cuts they've had to close that office and now work out of headquarters in Reno. But they've been great partners - helping us secure funding and keeping the bills paid, helping us with the nuts and bolts of getting the project built. They manage the Nevada Conservation Corps volunteers that will be doing the lion's share of trail construction.

Friends of the Secret-Lamoille Trail - I saved the best for last. We have more than 100 folks on the Friends list now - people who are offering up their skills to get this party going. They've written letters in support of the NEPA process, are helping us with pre-coordination, and when the time comes will get out there themselves and help with the building. Great bunch of folks.

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There are a lot of other businesses, individuals and groups just waiting for their chance to jump in. Don't worry, it will come - and when it does you can be certain we'll highlight those contributions here and elsewhere. This is a big project and we're years from being done with this. But we're started - and these folks are the ones who got the ball rolling.

I love living here - redux

2010-04-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Just got off the phone with the folks from Stewart Title. They offered to help us with some necessary real estate paperwork around the easement we've negotiated across a small bit of private property.

The support we're getting from the Elko business community is truly humbling.

More Pictures!

2010-04-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

Can't believe it's been this long since I posted pictures! Slacking off, I guess.

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The trail takes off from the first pullout at the mouth of Lamoille Canyon, above the Powerhouse Picnic Area. Eventually, we'll look at building a trailhead parking area here, but for right now parking will be at the pullout.

These photos are from last summer's biological survey trip.

The trail pretty quickly starts climbing out of the canyon, through some rock outcroppings and a beautiful pinyon-juniper forest. I'm thinking the shade will be pretty welcome in the summer.

It crests out in a gorgeous mahogany grove - really amazing valley views.

Once the trail hits the 7000' contour, it starts snaking along the front of the range, winding in and out of three steep drainages. This is really pretty country and shows off the best of the Ruby Mountains' lower altitude ecosystem. The NE aspects are full of serviceberries, currants, arrowleaf balsamroot, indian paintbrush... lots of low flowers and shrubs. There's a grove of scrub aspen in the centers of each that will make a cool, shady tunnel on the trail - and then you're back in the mahogany forests on the northwest aspects. Really, really nice.

Getting through these drainages without the trail in place is - in a word - ugly. It wasn't bad through the brush and mahoganies, but the scrub aspen groves are a real tangle. I was wishing for a machete right about here.

Back into the mahoganies again. I love mahoganies.

More valley views. I just couldn't get enough.

There's only one real campsite along the first segment - this little spur ridge about 4.5 miles in. That said - it is a magnificent campsite, with a little spring nearby and views that won't end. You feel like you're sleeping in a bowl of stars, and the lights across the valley are really beautiful.

Once the trail drops off the ridge it winds through Snell Canyon, and the only place on this portion of the trail where we cross private property. It's a good thing the trail is in a real tangle of trees at that point - not very likely that visitors will wander off the trail. It crosses Snell Creek just before hitting the private property - a good water source all season.

After leaving Snell the trail wanders through Jewett Canyon, and we start seeing signs of grazing. We were darned glad to see them, too - made the traveling much easier. My guess is that it'll make trail construction a lot easier, too.

And, here we are - Talbot Canyon! Closed to public trail access for decades, even though there's a Forest Service trail up to Verdi Lake at the canyon's head. Absolutely gorgeous.

I have some great photos of Talbot Canyon, too. Will post those for you one of these days.

Penny pinching and the planning process

2010-04-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Now that spring is here and the NEPA is behind us, we're getting a lot of pre-work done before we hit the ground on the first segment of trail. Job #1 as far as I'm concerned - continue tweaking to figure out how to get this trail built for the least amount of money possible. We're not willing to sacrifice quality, obviously - for a whole raft of reasons. But there are alternatives out there to hand-built trail, and we're looking hard at every alternative that could be suitable for this project.

One of the more interesting prospects is the idea of using draft animals to do some of the heavy work. The mule pulls along a piece of equipment that's kind of a cross between a plow and a box scraper, making the initial ground cut for the trail route. Hand crews then follow and finish with the tread. The process improves the efficiency by about half over hand-crew-only construction, thus reducing the amount of time needed and, obviously, the amount of money spent.

There's evidence that many of the old trails around here were built using this technique. Gerry Miller, a former Forest Service employee now with the NRCS (and Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group) tells me that you can see one of these old trailbuilders rusting along an old trail in the Overland Pass area. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Another option that might work for us is using trail excavators - essentially a very small backhoe-looking thing to do that initial cut. One of these excavators increases the efficiency significantly from even the draft animal method. The nice thing about the excavators is that they, too, will leave only a 24" tread - a very important element for this project, as a wider tread will invite incursion by ATV users. Since this is a non-motorized trail it's important that we keep the tread very narrow.

We have significant side slopes for the length of the project - this is big country - and these techniques may or may not work for us. We have some professional trail builders looking at the project, though - if we all think it would work, they'll work with our Nevada Conservation Corps crews and our volunteers to get this thing built in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible.

My personal goal is to save enough money on this first segment to give us real seed money for getting the second segment rolling. With the economic situation the way it is, we're going to have to work even harder to come up with funding for this project. We need to be able to demonstrate to the granting agencies that we're building very high-quality trail - as efficiently as humanly possible.

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Right now we have an on-the-ground meeting set for May 19-20 to get the trail centerline set. Once that's in, we'll be looking for volunteer help with the limbing/brushing that will need to be done. Watch this space.

WE ARE APPROVED!!!

2010-03-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, folks - it's finally done! Gar Abbas, district ranger for the Ruby Mountain District of the Humboldt-Toyabe National Forest, today signed the NEPA document allowing us to go forward with construction of the first portion of the Secret-Lamoille Trail!

I can hardly contain my excitement!

This means that we are set to go with building the first portion of the trail, from Lamoille Canyon to Talbot Creek. This trail will connect with the existing Talbot Creek trail, allowing visitors to get to Verdi Lake via trail for the first time in decades!

A lot of people deserve thanks for this, including a big, big thank you to Bill Wolf from Great Basin Institute, Nancy Taylor from the USFS, Doug Clarke from the USFS, and of course Gar Abbas.

The biggest thank you of all, though, has to go to the community volunteers and supporters that have made this project a reality. There would BE no project if it weren't for you. From the early funding from Barrick, to the support in public meetings, to the dozens of calls and letters you folks did in support of the project. Elko County's commissioners have been on board since the beginning. The Recreation Pod of the Northeastern Nevada Stewardship Group got the ball rolling in the first place. The Backcountry Horsemen. Elko Velo. The voters who approved Question 1. The list goes on and on.

This is the best kind of community project - where the community came together and made the project happen. This wasn't a top down deal.

To steal a slightly hackneyed phrase - "YES, WE CAN!"

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OK, so the next question becomes, where do we go from here?

These are the next steps for the first segment of the project:

We need to set the centerline of the trail so that, from here on out, the trail tread location is evident to all those working on the project. We'll get that done as soon as the snow melts out (another system coming through this week, so that won't happen this weekend.) Once the centerline is set we'll be sending out a call for volunteers to help with pre-work, namely brushing and limbing to clear the way for this summer's trail crews to start construction.

So - those of you who know people who'd like to help with the initial work, please send them our way. They're welcome to send me an e-mail - skennedy@nevadaevent.com - or call me at 934-4466.

Right now the GBI trail crews are scheduled to start work in early June, so we need to get this part of it rolling pretty quickly.

Money, honey, and lots of help

2010-02-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

While we're waiting for the NEPA approval that will let us start work on the ground, we're making progress on other aspects of the project - namely, getting it paid for.

We're fortunate that a lot of folks are stepping forward to offer help with the project, and that's going to go a long ways towards helping us keep our costs down. Still, there is a lot of stuff that will have to be paid for, which means fundraising is a big part of the process.

Right now we're focusing on two areas for funding - grant funding and stimulus funding. The fact that we're so far along with the process is proving very helpful in the applications we're making. The grants are all structured a little differently, which means that we can use them for different pieces of the puzzle... for example, one grant will help us rebuild existing tread on the Secret-Lamoille Trail itself. Another grant will help us upgrade the neglected trails that this trail opens to public access, like the Talbot Canyon trail. Hopefully, we'll be able to get enough work done by volunteers to really reduce the need for this kind of funding. USFS staff time needs to be paid for, though, as do crew bosses and core trail crew. And that means we need to come with the cash.

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Speaking of jobs, we are losing our very talented trail boss for the project and will need to replace her fairly quickly. If you know somebody who has good trail construction experience, who can manage both crews and volunteers effectively, who can work with trail designers to get good concepts on the ground, who can work with the agencies involved, who can make strong on-site decisions about the intricacies of trail construction... we want to talk to them. We will also have summer jobs available for folks who want to physically build the trail. Check out the Great Basin Institute website for information.

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I have to say that I just love living in this town. About two nights ago a guy stopped me to be sure I let him know when we needed trail volunteers, that he'd love to help. He is a big snowmobiler but it never occurred to me that he'd be interested enough in trails to volunteer getting one built - especially one that's not open to motorized users. What a community! Whenever I get discouraged about how long this all takes, something like that happens. So cool.

Flyover country

2010-02-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

Had an opportunity to fly over a big chunk of the second segment today with the folks from Ruby Mountain Heliski - that is big, big country and it's exciting to know that it'll be publicly accessible within a matter of a couple of years!

One of the nice things about seeing the canyons from the air is the opportunity to identify bits and pieces of old trail, which we hope to connect with this re-constructed route. Using old trail will help us keep our construction costs down, as well as minimize any potential impacts (and approval hang-ups) inherent in creating new stream crossings.

Our second segment trail designer has stopped work for the winter, obviously, but will be back in June when the snow melts off and he can see what's happening on the ground.

Progress, slow but sure

2010-01-29T16:07:00.000-08:00

Had a great meeting this week with Bill McKnight, the local rancher who holds the grazing permit for much of the project's first segment. He's very supportive of public access and is working with us to make sure that area visitors - human and bovine alike - can play well together.

His biggest concern is not with S-L Trail users, but with folks who'll access Talbot Canyon using the trail. He grazes up Talbot Canyon for much of the summer and is concerned that trail users will push his cows where they're not supposed to be. We're going to install a couple of self-closing gates across the trail on either side of Talbot Creek, as well as a small amount of new drift fence, to make sure trail users don't create problems for his grazing permit.

It's great to have the support of Lamoille's ranching community for this project, and I'm looking forward to working with Bill and the other ranchers over the next few years as the project goes forward. It's been my contention all the way along that grazing and recreation are NOT mutually exclusive uses - it's my hope that this project can amply demonstrate my point.

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Tick, tock, tick, tock - we wait, wait, wait for the NEPA decision. Molasses moves more quickly. I mean - we can't really do much this time of year, anyway, but still...

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We move forward with working on funding for the project. Right now we're working on grants that will help pay for Segment 2, as well as grants that will help us rehabilitate the Talbot Creek Trail. More news on this as it becomes available.

Tele-Turner on the team!

2009-11-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

I had a great meeting yesterday with Lee Turner, an avid mountain biker and telemark skier who brings a wealth of trail savvy to the table. The guy is a walking trail resource! He's offered to support our trail designers in flagging the route, and will be joining JBR Environmental in helping us with the necessary biological surveys for NEPA approval. Not only that, but he'll be supporting me in writing the EA's (environmental assessments) for the balance of the project. What a tremendous guy to have on the team!

For those of you who've ridden MTBs in the Reno area, Lee and his fellow Poe-Dunks have done a tremendous job with trail advocacy and trail construction on Peavine Mountain. That is phenomenal close-in riding for Reno denizens and is a tremendous resource for motorized and non-motorized users alike. Lee has a lot of experience working with IMBA crews, with the agencies, and with volunteer teams and, with his fellow Poe-Dunks, has a track record of getting good stuff done efficiently.

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Gar Abbas, district ranger for the USFS Ruby Mountains Ranger District, invited me to present at the All Employee Days meeting for the Humboldt-Toyabe National Forest in Reno on Wednesday. The project was extremely well-received and I think everybody was impressed with the coalition we've been able to build. It'll be nice, going forward, to have the rest of the folks from the HTNF behind us.

So, what are we waiting for?!?!?

2009-11-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

Getting impatient? Me too. But these things just take time.

Right now we're waiting for the folks from the Forest Service to complete the work required of them by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA was passed back in 1969 in response to negative consequences to the environment from offshore oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel, among other things. While it was certainly well-intentioned, NEPA's effect was to bury the agencies in paperwork and slow recreational development to a crawl.

NEPA requires that all government agencies conduct studies of any potential environmental impacts of proposed actions on public lands. Makes sense, as far as it goes. The challenge comes when you realize the numbers of studies thus required - for everything from moving a fenceline to putting out a drinking trough to building a gold mine to building a trail. Every, single thing done on public land requires a NEPA analysis of some level... Every. Single. Thing. You could just about mow down every tree in every national forest in the country just to keep up with the paper it generates.

I can categorically state that I could never work for the government after watching what these people have to go through to get anything done. I'd strangle people. I really would.

Anyway, the folks from the USFS tell me that we're very close to having it all done. They want to make sure that every T is crossed and every I dotted, which is an attitude I can appreciate. It just takes SO LONG....

Anyway, once the NEPA is done for this first part of the project we can get up there and start doing prep work for the trail construction. Stay tuned and hope the good weather holds!

Great meeting, great input from Elko County Commissioners

2009-11-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

AND - we have a new member on the design team!

Long-time Lamoille denizen and Ruby Mountain explorer Sharon Reynolds has offered her GIS talents in support of the project. Up until now, we've done the majority of the work in consumer-grade GIS software... but at some point we were going to need to get real about our maps and satellite imagery so that the pros designing and building the trail had the tools they need. Sharon stepped up and told us that she was our girl - and heck, she was suggesting all kinds of amazingly useful stuff that hadn't even occurred to us. Great to have a GIS pro on board!

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We were on the agenda this morning for the Elko County Commissioners to give them an update on the project - and, frankly, to dispel some misinformation I think they may have been getting about what we're up to. They were appreciative AND they came with some great questions and suggestions that are going to help us make the project stronger.

Warren Russell was looking for quantitative numbers on projected trail usage. That's a very valid question and once we figure out a way to answer it, it'll significantly help our fundraising efforts down the line. We've already started tossing around ideas... perhaps to do some sort of survey next year at the Ruby Crest trailhead in Lamoille Canyon. Those of you who have opinion survey experience are invited to chime in. Demar Dahl was very interested in our pursuit of horse-drawn trail construction techniques, and offered some equipment he had back at the ranch for our usage. How cool is that? We have a lot more to learn in this regard but if we can make that work it'll be a real win not only for this project, but for other potential projects down the road.

All in all it was a very positive meeting - three members of the Friends of the Trail were there in support, and it was great to have them at my back. A good day for the project.

Pictures!

2009-11-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

To heck with all these words - here are some pictures!

These are from Greg Mazu's blog - he is one of the trail designers working on the project, and laid out the absolutely exceptional route on the first segment (Lamoille Canyon to Talbot Canyon). He did the original layout in a December 2007 blizzard - amazing work, especially considering the ruggedness of the terrain.

Here's his blog.

And here's Greg up skiing with me near the first segment route - he's a quality guy in all respects.

While we're sharing pictures, here's Bill Wolf, a good friend who's managing the project for Great Basin Institute, having lunch on a GREAT ski day up above the first trail segment:

Secret-Lamoille Trail compared w/Ruby Crest Trail

2009-11-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

During the scoping process for the Secret-Lamoille Trail project, one of the very few folks who spoke out against us asked "Why do we need another trail? We already have the Ruby Crest Trail!" Well, to my mind, there are several reasons:

1. The Ruby Crest Trail is internationally known for its scenic beauty and for the amazing backcountry experience it provides to users. And, because it's internationally known, it's starting to get more and more traffic. When I was a kid, it was rare to see anybody on that trail past Lamoille Lake, two miles in from the Lamoille Canyon trailhead. When I was in college you'd see folks camped at Liberty Lake. And then Favre Lake. And then North Furlong.

These days it's a rare trip that you don't run into other people along the length of the trail. That's not a bad thing - they've universally been pretty cool folks. But that experience tells me that the demand is there for more trails of that length, beauty and remoteness here in the Rubies. The reconstructed Secret-Lamoille Trail will give those folks an opportunity to visit a completely different part of the range while enjoying the kind of rugged Ruby Mountain experience for which we're rightly known.

2. The Ruby Crest Trail provides an alpine mountain experience. It crosses 10,000' passes, wanders around jewel-like alpine lakes, lets visitors see bristlecones and marmots and mountain bluebirds in their natural habitats. What it DOESN'T provide is a lengthy window for would-be visitors, nor does it provide much of an opportunity to enjoy lower- altitude plant and animal communities. You can't reliably get a horse over those passes before July 4th unless you're willing to tear up a lot of ground (I'm not, and neither is anybody with any sense in his head.) And once the snow flies you're done for the year.

The Secret-Lamoille Trail is a different animal altogether. Its high point of 8300' is lower than the 9000' Ruby Crest Trail trailhead in Lamoille Canyon. It will be open significantly earlier in the year, and portions of it near the Secret Pass trailhead will be suitable for year-round use in dry years. It wanders through lower-altitude plant and animal communities - pinyons and mahoganies and serviceberries and such - and in that respect beautifully complements the mountain experience provided by the Ruby Crest Trail.

3. For the most part, the Ruby Crest Trail is a Point A to Point B experience. That's not a bad thing - in fact, that's one of the nice things about committing to the trail, you know you're going to be there for a while.

The Secret-Lamoille Trail can certainly be a Point A to Point B experience, as well. The finished trail will be 50 miles long or so. BUT, when you start looking at maps, you can see a lot of other recreational opportunities made real by this trail - loop dayhikes and one- day horseback rides. Overnight out-and-backs to mountain lakes. Shorter multi-night trips than what you can easily do on the Ruby Crest Trail. The Secret-Lamoille Trail opens up a LOT of country and crosses a LOT of other trails - its reconstruction creates a multiplier effect that increases recreational options far more than what a Point A to Point B project would provide.

4. The Ruby Crest Trail is a wilderness trail. That's a GREAT thing for folks looking for a wilderness experience. However, people who ride mountain bikes can't ride in wilderness. Ever. And they like trails, too.

Much of the Secret-Lamoille Trail is non-wilderness, which means that it'll be available for mountain bikers to use. It will be the FIRST trail constructed specifically for use by mountain bikes in Elko County. That means it will be more enjoyable, more sustainable, and more user-friendly for mountain bikes than the very few riding options available here. Not only that, but bringing mountain bikers into the local trail fold means that there'll be more people out there willing to work to build and maintain the trail for the long run. It is my heartfelt wish and goal to get mountain bikers, horsemen and hikers together on trail teams to build and maintain this trail. Only by learning about what other groups want and need can potential trail conflicts be averted.

And - those who WANT a wilderness experience are served by this trail as well. Much of the trail's second segment, between Conrad Canyon and Soldier Canyon, is wilderness. And it is REMOTE. It goes through beautiful country that hasn't been publicly accessible for decades. It crosses trails that lead into some of the Rubies' least-traveled alpine areas. You don't HAVE to take "the (trail) less traveled-by", but it's there if that's the experience you're looking for.

I guess the bottom line for me is not "why do we need this trail," but rather "how did we ever get along without it?"

How to post a comment

2009-11-05T08:03:00.001-08:00

I have had a couple of people tell me they've been having difficulty signing in. Sorry about that!

I've changed the settings so that people can comment anonymously. You don't have to sign in to ask questions, make comments, etc. It gives you the option of giving your name, but you don't have to if you'd rather not.

Hope that helps!

Secret-Lamoille Trail Project Maps

2009-11-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

These are the working maps of the project. Keep in mind that trail design work is still underway on the 2nd and 3rd segments - we'd like to use existing trail as much as humanly possible to minimize construction costs. Our designer is spending a lot of time on the ground figuring out what's there already and how to link it all together - there are a lot of old trails already up there that have been closed to public access for years.

The really fun part comes when you start looking at some of the backcountry options that this trail opens up when combined with some of the old trails already up there. Some of those trails need maintenance work, obviously - since there's been no access maintenance has been on the back burner. But with access open there are some fun possibilities available.

Here are a few ideas, some suitable for dayhikes/after work rides, some suitable for backcountry overnights. Non-wilderness routes are bolded and open to mountain bikes. Wilderness routes are open to hikers and horsemen only. Keep in mind that the trail to Verdi Lake is NOT currently in good shape for MTBs - it's open, but it won't be suitable without some work. By rebuilding some switchbacks above Talbot Creek, though, the trail would be quite enjoyable to the 8500' mark.

From Lamoille Canyon trailhead:

Overlook/spring - 9 miles RT

MTB loop - 27 miles RT

Verdi Lake - 14.18 miles one way

Thorpe Canyon - 18.34 miles one way

Soldier Canyon trailhead - 31 miles one way

From Soldier Canyon trailhead:

Ridge overlook - 8.08 miles RT

Cold Lakes - 8.77 miles one way

Robinson Lake/Cold Creek loop - 11.81 mile loop

Ross Creek loop - 15.57 mile loop

Secret Pass trailhead - 17.5 miles one way

Secret-Lamoille Trail Project Overview

2009-11-04T13:41:00.001-08:00

This is the published overview of the Secret-Lamoille Trail Reconstruction Project. It gives the project's history, an overview of what is entailed with each project segment, and a project timeline.

Welcome to the Ruby Mountain Trails blog!

2009-11-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

If you're interested in trails in the Ruby Mountains of Northeastern Nevada, this is your blog. If you're interested in helping to get MORE trails in the Rubies, this is REALLY your blog!

We've established this blog to help friends of the Secret-Lamoille Trail Reconstruction Project stay in touch, keep updated about volunteer opportunities, and let their friends know where to go to get more information. And, since most of us are regular users of the Ruby Mountain trail system already, it's a place to share ideas about destinations with other folks who might be interested in visiting our version of Paradise.

Welcome - more will be forthcoming shortly.