SnowRiderz News

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

A quick reminder that our regular club meeting will be held Tuesday March 8th, @ 6pm at Q4U in Frisco.

Rides:

Thanks to everyone that participated in last month’s Overnight Ride in Creed. We rode the trails from Spring Creek Pass outside of Creede to Bristol Head one day and then rode the other side of the pass on the Lake City Snowmobile club’s trails system the next day. Even though the snow has been lacking recently, we still managed to find good snow and enjoy the vibrant night life of Creede.

We will discuss where March’s ride will be at tomorrow’s meeting.

Avalanche Classes:

Our 2 avalanche safety classes with Tyler’s Backcountry Awareness were also a great success.

Special thanks to Officer Joe Cassleberry for organizing the venue and hosting Brian and Mike for the weekend. It was refreshing to hear a snowmobile specific approach to avalanche safety. Brian emphasized using opportunities like a quick side hill to assess the snow stability. We practiced beacon and probe searches as well as efficient digging techniques. I've gotten great feedback on the class from the other participants.

We hope to have Brian with Tyler’s Backcountry Awareness out again next year for additional classes.

Hope to see you tomorrow night at Q4U.

Rich Holcroft, President
High Country Snowmobile Club

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

Grooming:

Ron made a trip out in the snowcat at the end of last week after it stopped dumping and groomed the entire trail system at Spring Creek. He reported record snow, the cat was getting stuck since the snow was so deep and several sections of the trails looked like we hadn’t been up there all year. Ron was able to spread out and level a lot of snow on the shelf roads so we should be riding up there well into the spring.

We had great conditions at last month’s club ride with over 3 feet of snow off the trails and from what I hear there is another 6-8 feet on top of that base. If you haven’t ridden Spring Creek yet, get out there, enjoy groomed trails and great snow up there!

Rides/Events:

The Colorado Snowmobile Association convention at the Mt Princeton Hot Springs Resort was a great event. We had many High Country Snowmobile Club members attend and enjoy the convention. While the snow was a little thin on the St. Elmo/Tincup Pass side, many of us made it over to Cumberland Pass. The riding up by Cottonwood Pass was even better. Thanks to Scott at Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort for hosting us and the Salida and Buena Vista Snowmobile Clubs for showing us around!

In 2 weekends we are heading down to Creede for our overnight ride. The group is checking in on February 19th and some members will be staying until the 22nd..

Rooms are reserved for club members at the Creede Snowshoe Lodge, 202 E. 8th Street. As of today, there are still a few rooms available but you should definitely call them quickly since the place is small. http://www.creedesnowshoe.com/ 719-658-2315. The rooms are $87.60 a night and make sure to tell them you are with the High Country Snowmobile Club.

Once the Snowshoe Lodge fills up, members can also stay at the Blue Creek Lodge in between Creede and South Fork, http://www.netblueprint.net/BlueCreek/, 1-800-326-6408.

I talked to several members of the Creede Snowmobile club and they said the snow down there has been fantastic this year. With neighboring Wolf Creek receiving 314” of snow, we should be good to go. I will have an updated trail system map along with snow reports from the Creede club, so we’ll be sure to find the deepness.

Avalanche Classes:

Our 2 avalanche safety classes with Tyler’s Backcountry Awareness are coming up the weekend of February 26-28th. Each class is limited to 15 participants and there are already 5 people signed up for each class. To register for a class, go to our web site: http://www.summitsnowmobilers.com/events-calendar.html and click on the class you’d like to attend.

The first class will be held Friday, February 26th with an evening session followed by an on the snow session Saturday the 27. The second class will be held Saturday evening on the 27th followed by an on the snow session on Sunday the 28th.

The cost of the class will be $75 for club members, $100 if not a club member, which goes to help promote avalanche safety across the state. A snowmobiler was killed in an avalanche last week down by Wolf Creek, proving once again, that good avalanche education is something you can never get enough of.

We've got a lot more stuff to discuss, I hope to see you for our monthly club meeting at Q4U, at one of the upcoming avalanche classes or somewhere on the snow this winter!

Thanks, Rich Holcroft,
President - High Country Snowmobile Club

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

A quick reminder that our regular club meeting will be held tomorrow night, @6pm at Q4U in Frisco. Thanks to everyone that either joined the club or that has renewed in time to keep getting these e-mails.

For the new members, club meeting are held the second Tuesday of each month all winter long @ 6pm at Q4U in Frisco. We hope to see you there.

Grooming:

Ross, Ron and Jared have been grooming at Spring Creek, we have good coverage at Spring Creek and the trails are in good shape. From what I hear the riding up high is good but there are a lot of rocks and stumps out there. Watch out for those lumps in the snow or pay the price in new parts at any of our fine business member, dealerships.

Rides:

For our ride this Sunday, 1/17, the plan is to ride Spring Creek and meet at the trail head from 9 - 9:30 am. We can break up into groups of different abilities and go our own way. We will meet up at the upper end of the groomed trail where it drops off down to the lower road for lunch about noon. Ron plans to run the groomer so the trails should be in great shape. Hope to see you there!
 
The Colorado Snowmobile Association, (CSA) convention will be January 22-24th at the Mt Princeton Hot Springs Resort outside of Buena Vista. The lodging at Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort is not sold out, there are currently 8 cabins left and 10 rooms available. For reservations please call 1 855-258-6710 use promo code: COLSNO. Thanks to Scott Peterson at the Mt Princeton Hot Springs Resort for joining our club as a business member and supporting our grooming program.

The club will be in Creede in February for our overnight ride. We will be checking in February 19th and some members will be staying until the 22nd if the snow is good.  We have reserved all 6 rooms at the Creede Snowshoe Lodge, 202 E. 8th Street for the club. http://www.creedesnowshoe.com/ 719-658-2315, rooms are $87.60 a night. Lodging in town is somewhat limited so I booked all 6 rooms at the Snowshoe, tell them you are with the High Country Snowmobile Club. As of today, they have rooms available but they will sell out quickly!

Once the snowshoe fills, members can stay at the Blue Creek Lodge in between Creede and South Fork, http://www.netblueprint.net/BlueCreek/, 1-800-326-6408. We will be riding the Bristol Head area and probably the Love Lake area depending on the snow.

Avalanche Classes:

We have finalized 2 avalanche safety classes with Tyler’s Backcountry Awareness. Each class is limited to 15 participants. The first class will be held Friday, February 26th with an evening session followed by an on the snow session Saturday the 27. The second class will be held Saturday evening on the 27th followed by an on the snow session on Sunday the 28th.

The cost of the class will be $75, which goes to help promote avalanche safety across the state. To register for a class, go to our web site: http://www.summitsnowmobilers.com/events-calendar.html click on the class you’d like to attend and fill out the online form. Classes are limited to 15 participants each and are being offered on a first come, first served basis. We are opening it up to club members first, then will allow non members to reserve, right up until the classes are full.  

Memberships:

If your friends haven’t joined or renewed their club membership please get after them. We do all this cool stuff plus it is important to have lots of members when we are working with the BLM and Forest service. If there are 400 people complaining about a potential closure or problem it goes a lot further than when just 40 people complain.

Thanks,
Rich Holcroft, President
High Country Snowmobile Club

Hello Summit Snowmobilers,

Welcome back to Winter!

A quick reminder that our regular club meeting will be held the second Tuesday of each month, @ 6pm at Q4U in Frisco. If you look at the calendar that means November’s meeting will be on November 10th. We hope to see you there.

We’ve had a busy summer. We were able to complete our trail marking signage on the trails at Spring Creek as well as trim overhanging branches and fallen trees. Ross is planning to install some posts and snow poles on a few of the open spaces on the lower road but overall the trails are in great shape for grooming. Ross and I removed the covers off the snow cat and we have the mechanic scheduled to give the cat the once over in the next few weeks. It seems the snow has finally started falling, and the club is ready to groom.

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

Happy Holidays!

January Overnight Ride:

I was just notified that the site of our January overnight ride, Electric Mountain Lodge has been sold to a Church group and will not be operating as a snowmobile lodge this winter. They are calling people with reservations, apologizing and re-funding your deposits. I was looking forward to riding there, but don't worry, we will still ride.

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

I know it's the beginning of September and even though it seems as if summer might be making a return, it's time to start thinking about winter!

We are, getting ready to fire up the snowmobile club, prepare for our annual snowmobile season kickoff party, and making sure we are ready to groom our trails once the snow starts to fly. Here's a list of what we have going on.

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

Welcome to March! This winter is really starting to fly by for us. Hopefully this snow will stick around and we can continue to ride into May. We have our overnight ride to the Medicine Bow Lodge in Wyoming coming up this weekend. If you'd like to come, but haven't made reservations yet, please contact the Lodge at 1-800-409-5439 for more information and to check availability. It looks like a solid storm is scheduled to hit Northern Colorado and Wyoming on Friday so we should have fantastic conditions for the weekend's rides.

March Events:
• Snowies Weekend -March 7-9th.
• Monthly club meeting on the 11th at Q4U in Frisco, 6pm.
• Monthly day - Location TBD at Tuesday's meeting.

This winter is proving to be the real deal. We have had a tremendous amount of snow since January's club member update. As promised we had a very eventful January. We had a great time on the January club ride at Rabbit Ears. We enjoyed over 4 feet of fresh snow on our way out to Buff Pass from the Ears. Probably the most epic snow for a club ride ever. 

There was a strong turnout for this year's snowmobile Safety Seminar in Frisco. Thanks to Mike at Silverthorne Powersports for putting the event together and to the Summit County Search and Rescue for the presentations. On the 25th of January, we helped out with our annual Wounded Warriors event. This year White Mountain Tours hosted the group.

Spring Creek Trail System

Grooming Status: Groomed
Snowfall: None in the past 48 hours
Last Report: 1/1/2014 10:30 PM

The whole trail system was groomed on Dec 12. The upper and lower shelf roads still have snow on them (12/29), please go light on the gas. There is a new connector trail further in towards the hill climbing area (which connects the upper and lower road). There is a very little section on it that has just been cat tracked packed, but is passable. The club sled has been in the shop which is why we haven't groomed the trail, but will soon. On Dec 24 we received some good snow and on 12/31. Thinking about grooming this week.

Link to Colorado Snowmobile Trail Map

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

This is my last High Country Snowmobile Club update for 2013. I'd like to start off by thanking both the business and family members of the club for their support this past year. The countless hours of volunteer time our members have invested along with their paid memberships have helped make 2013 a banner year for the club.

FROM: COLORADO SNOWMOBILE ASSOCIATION

The new forest plan for the San Juan National Forest significantly impacts your motorized usage & CSA's concerns are:

1. Several important riding areas, such as Molas Pass and the Sharkstooth areas, with long histories of snowmobile usage are identified as currently closed despite on-going usage. This is illegal. If the areas are to be closed these impacts must be analyzed and not just have the area identified as already closed in the plan.

2. The Plan designates an additional 83% of the Forest as unsuitable for summer motorized usage and states that routes in these newly unsuitable areas would not be considered for incorporation into the travel system and would be prioritized for decommissioning. This change incorporates unsuitability standards for all wildlife habitat, despite numerous previous decisions that motorized usage of these areas was permissible, such as the Wolverine, Lynx and Grouse. This sets a dangerous precedent for future winter planning.

3. Suitability area boundaries are designed to reduce user conflicts but at no point does the plan discuss the nature of the conflicts or how closing an additional 83% of the Forest will mitigate these concerns. NVUM analysis clearly identifies current management boundaries are highly effective at providing a quality recreational experience to all users.

4. Economic analysis of recreational spending is facially incorrect and incorrectly asserts conclusions are based on NVUM data, which is simply not accurate at all. NVUM analysis asserts all recreational users spend on average $59 per day, while the SJ/TR plan asserts this is $30 per day. The FEIS spending profiles for particular user groups are even more erroneous, as follows.

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

I'd like to welcome our new club members who joined at last month's kick off party. We had a great turn out considering it was dumping. Thanks to the generous donations from club business members, and outside sponsors, we were able to raise $2,000 for the club's grooming program.

It seems winter is finally upon us and with all this recent snow, the riding is fantastic. Hope you have a chance to get out there this weekend and tear it up. If you do go, please check out the current avalanche forecast @ https://avalanche.state.co.us/pub_bc_avo.php?zone_id=2

We have the monthly club meeting coming up next Tuesday December 10th at 6pm in Frisco at Q4U. Hope to see you all there, we will have several things to discuss including our event schedule:

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

Hope everyone had a nice summer and in case you haven't seen the latest weather forecast, Snow is coming!

There are a few things starting to come together for this winter that I wanted to make you aware of.

First off, the club's board has agreed to start up the regular club meeting beginning in October. As you may be aware, the meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of each month at 6pm, @ Q4U in Frisco. This month's meeting will be on Tuesday the 8th of October, hope to see you there.

Other snowmobile events, the Colorado Snowmobile Expo is being held Saturday and Sunday October 12th and 13th in Denver. New this year, the location will be held at the National Western Complex. Think more parking, more room for the swap meet. I'll be there to attend the quarterly CSA meeting on Saturday.

In club news, we have been approved by the Forest Service for an additional 3 miles of trail grooming at Spring Creek. This winter we will be allowed to groom further out and below Elliot Ridge and cut down thru the meadows and old logging roads to connect to the lower road. This will allow snowmobilers to have an easier access off the ridge in low light or white out conditions. It also lets us make a Figure 8 out of our groomed trails so we can use the snowcat's fuel more efficiently.

We will be planning on a trail work day or two for October. We need to trim a lot of branches on the new trails and perhaps do some other tree maintenance depending on who attends, (USFS?). Ross and I have already made a big dent on the tree and stump removal, but there is always more to do. At this point I have tentatively scheduled one work day for Sunday, October 20th, so get it on your schedule.

At the club meeting we will also be planning for our kickoff party and fundraiser for the 2014 snowmobile season, hope to see you there.

Rich Holcroft

President, High Country Snowmobile Club

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

Thanks to every that came out to last weekend's kick off party and thanks again to our wonderful sponsors. At the party we signed up several new members and were able to raise over $900 for the grooming program!

Welcome to our new members, here's one of our regular updates.

Our next club meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 8th at Q4U in Frisco at 6pm. We should have lots to talk about since we have a lot going on.

In grooming news, we should have our check for the Bombardier BR-275 next week. Unfortunately the other club we are purchasing the cat from won't get their check quite as fast. I have been in contact with the Arrowhead club to see if they might be able to have their cat delivered a little earlier than their check. I should know more by the meeting.

Ross and Ron went up to the trailhead earlier this week and dropped off the sled, drag and the snow poles for the trails. We are working out some kinks with the set up of the drag but hope to be off and running with this set up until the cat gets here.

We are scheduled to hold our first club snowmobile ride on January 20th. For other events, we are hosting the wounded warriors from Fort Carson at the Louis Lodge in Breckenridge, on top of Cty Rd. 450. The ride will be on Saturday January 5th. We will take them out on the trails of the Golden Horseshoe to Georgia Pass. We are looking for volunteers and anyone with an extra sled that the warriors could ride. Please reply to this e-mail if you are interested.

Snow Safety News!

Mike at Silverthorne Powersports is hosting his annual Snowmobile Safety Seminar on Friday January 18th at 6:30 to 8:00 pm. at the Summit County Senior Center in Frisco. The event will have a avalanche safety workshop provided by Summit County Search and Rescue in one room and a vendor presentations in another. We plan to attend and provide refreshments for participants and hopefully get some new members.

Other rides:

The CSA convention will be held at South fork, CO on January 25-27, 2013. Lots of great riding in the area and The San Juan's have been getting very good snow recently. There is still time to register if you are interested. Information on the event can be found on the CSA web site, www.snowmobilecolo.com. I will be staying at the Ute Bluff Lodge if you get thirsty.

CSA's sponsored Pink Ribbon Ride will be at Grand Lake on March 8th and 9th 2013. The ride is a great fund raiser for the Pink Ribbon Riders, a group which donates money directly to men and women with breast cancer. Information can be found at http://www.pinkribbonriders.com/wp/snow-run-tour-usa/.

Hope to see you at the next club meeting on the 8th. Have a great holiday season and a safe new year!

Rich Holcroft

President,

High Country Snowmobile Club

Hello High Country Snowmobilers,

Hope you are all having a chance to get out in some of this fresh snow we've been getting.

Here is your reminder that the club meeting is Tomorrow, Tuesday February 12th, 6pm at Q4U in Frisco.

For grooming news, we have some great news. We took delivery of our new snowcat Saturday morning. After fixing a flat tire, and plowing out the driveway and a parking spot for our fuel trailer, we were able to get out and start grooming Spring Creek. Tim was able to groom the lower road on Saturday and the upper road Sunday evening. It only took 2 years of paperwork and 8 months of waiting for our grant check, but now we are officially a grooming club!

Thanks to JP Trucking for the deal on the hauling from the Montrose area and delivery to Spring Creek. Thanks also to Tim, Ron and Bruce for coming out helping with the unloading of the cat, Pat for the fuel tank & trailer and Ben for helping with the installation of the signs along the wilderness boundary. We had a busy weekend but are now up and running with our groomer!

Our February club ride is scheduled for Sunday the 17th. Next month we have our annual overnight weekend ride in the Steamboat Lake Area. we will be staying at the Hahns Peak Roadhouse the weekend of March 15th thru the 17th.

I've got a lot of other items to cover at the meeting tomorrow night, the quarterly CSA meeting, the Pink Ribbon Ride in March and more.

Hope to see you all tomorrow night at Q4U.

Rich Holcroft
President,
High Country Snowmobile Club

The permit is to provide a system of groomed snowmobile trails for public use. authorized activities include summer trail maintenance, winter trail maintenance, grooming and sign route installation and maintenance.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife awards the club a $45,000 grant for the purchase of a snowcat for trail grooming.

The club scored the highest out of all the other grant applicants. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Snowmobile Sub-Committe recommended funding in excess of our original grant which will allow us to purchase a higher quality snowmobile trail groomer.

The grant has received final approval for funding and should be funded by early November. The club's grooming committee has been diligently searching for a snowcat and hopes to make it's final selection soon.

Special Use Permit Approved for Grooming at Spring Creek!

The Dillon Ranger district is finalizing the permit process allowing us to begin grooming 15 miles of trail in the Spring Creek Area.

We have been notified that the Dillon Ranger District has installed new signs marking the boundary of the Eagles Nest Wilderness area adjacent to Elliot Ridge.

These additional signs were located by GPS and should mark the exact boundary of the wilderness area. Please respect the wilderness boundary and encourage all other snowmobilers to do the same!

Hello Summit County Snowmobilers,

It's been a little over 2 months since my last e-mail. Since then I have been in touch with Ken Waugh and Paul Semmer of the Dillon Ranger District. I really don't think those guys like snowmobilers. They told me in a packed town hall in Blue River: Too bad, we don't have the money or staff to keep snowmobile trails open, so we are closing them all.

The Forest Service has just released their final version of the plan. Web version here.

Highlights for snowmobilers? Well if you like driving to Spring Creek or Montezuma to ride powder, you are in luck. If you like riding the trails in the Swan drainage, you are in luck. Everyone else, you're not going to be very happy next winter.

The prefered alternative when we were commenting was Alt G, it closed several smaller open motorized areas but kept open some motorized areas to ride near the towns. Areas like McCoullough Gulch, below Porcupine Gulch on Tenderfoot, Pennsylvania Creek, and the valleys ofthe Swan off Tiger Road all had open motorized areas. Miners Creek was also open among several others. We commented to keep those areas open but they did not listen. The comments from the Town of Breckenridge and other various non motorized users seemed to carry more weight.

Effective in 45 days, the only open motorized areas for snowmobiles (areas where you can ride off a trail) are out of Montezuma, on Green Mountain Res. or up Spring Creek. The kick in the pants of this plan is the change of designation in Alt GM of several areas from open motorized to motorized restricted. The restricted label means you have to stay on designated winter trails. Why is this the best part of the plan? They did not desinate any winter trails!
Check it out on the Alt GM winter map, open motorized is green, restricted is purple, non-motorized is tan. Only the roads in red are the designated winter routes.

This means, Miners Creek is closed. Porcupine Gulch is closed. Pennsylvania Gulch is closed. Not just the Horseshoe Basin at the top, the entire jeep road from Coronet to Indiana Gulch, including all of Boreas Pass is closed. The entire Ten Mile Range is closed, (both sides, McCullough and Mayflower.) Yea, sure, but they can't enforce it you say? If it is not a designated trail, any forest service person or sheriff who catches you coming out of a trail can and will write you a ticket.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2010
Contact: Lara Cottingham
(202) 503-6067 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

WASHINGTON—After an intense public review and consensus building process, late last night Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced H.R. 6280 – The Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Preservation Act – which would designate nearly 166,000 acres of public land in Summit and Eagle Counties within Colorado's second congressional district as wilderness and special protection areas.

"Colorado's wild places are the heart of our state's character and our state's natural beauty is itself a precious resource that we must preserve," said Polis. "These areas are essential to our economy and our environment, and through this legislation we can ensure that our beautiful areas continue to provide habitat for our diverse wildlife, opportunities to enjoy and appreciate the great outdoors, and jobs for local economies. After working extensively with stakeholders and examining the areas in question trail-by-trail, I am proud to introduce this legislation that has gained support and backing from the community."

The legislation incorporates further discussions with area water providers, the Colorado National Guard, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the recreation community and conservationists to ensure that the legislation meets the long-term needs of these stakeholders. The next step in the legislative process is for the bill to be referred to the House Natural Resources Committee for review.

More info @ http://www.polis.house.gov/wilderness/

Congressman, Jared Polis
2nd District, Colorado | 501 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515 | (202) 225-2161

The Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Protection Act seeks to add new designated wilderness areas in the White River National Forest within Summit and Eagle Counties to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Designated areas would hold the highest level of land protection, with public access and usage still available, but certain types of development and activities prohibited.