Comment on snowmobile, snowbike use.

There are a lot of folks interested in riding the groomed trails in my experience and observation. Riders on touring sleds in the Blewett and Colockum groomed trail system out number the folks on long track mountain sleds. Before the advent of lighter weight, more powerful long track sleds snowmobilers were stuck on groomed trails or ungroomed roads and areas with shallow gradients and people still rode sleds.

Actually it would be easier for other users and LE to catch illegal use of snowmachines if they were confined to designated roads and trails because if they strayed everyone would know. Currently you can ride across Wilderness boundaries with impunity because unless you are caught inside the boundary you're fine, if restricted to designated routes and caught even near Wilderness it would be illegal.

I really don't know why SAR would be affected, snowmobiles would still be allowed for those uses just like helicopters in Wilderness areas are now.

There could be lots of trail riders: I just haven't seen them. Regarding enforcement, I have never seen a LEO in the backcountry outside Mount Rainier NP. I could have ridden in the wilderness every time I rode. Only responsible riders can discourage the small minority that ride wilderness now.

I can tell you that my SAR days will be over if I am spending 50-80 days a year in Canada. Like the trail riders you mention, I cannot speak for other volunteers. Snowmobiling and Snowbiking are not cheap and I doubt that many mountain riders would get after it if there was no legal place to ride.

On a personal note, the amount of driving North and back that I will do if shut out of the National Forrest is going to really suck.

Is that what you got from reading that article? I didn't see anything in that article that was about off trail sledding in the alpine. The grants are for trial maintenance and grooming of snow mobile trails. I doubt if snowmobile trail grooming will go away with this new action on the Travel Management Plan, off trail riding might be restricted though and sooner than two years.

To quote the article "The Mount Baker area is the third-most popular recreation area of the state, with its views of the surrounding mountains and valleys, according to the state agency. It also has the longest riding season with ample snow, but funding often runs out early".

Yep. That's what I got out of it and that's where I will be riding! "The longest riding season" doesn't happen on the roads buddy. Glad I won't be seeing you there!

Good luck with your quest, if snowmobiling is going to be restricted to roads, well, the world will have to end

By the way, to all you "road riders" out there, what will happen when this happens to your roads? This picture is taken about a mile from Baker Lake Rd, Dec. 2012, when a huge volunteer effort was put forth to open access back up to Schriebers. Hundreds of fallen trees were cut, excavators donated time...
I didn't see one whiney skier dude driving a Subaru show up to help. What gives??
You then had care-free access in the Spring, and continued to post on this web site about "abhorrent machines"!!
Be careful what you ask for TAYers. That wind event wasn't "budgeted for" if you catch my drift, and none of those dudes, myself included, are going to help you get your vehicle to the TH.

I think that Pinch and others are making good points. I can understand how one might think that snowmobiles may interfere with your "wilderness experience" but the fact is that the snomo is a very large user group. The registration fees go to maintain access to areas that the "greenies" like to access i.e. Glacier Creek Rd, Schrieber Meadows, Salmon la Sac basically most areas that can deposit you into the alpine via road access. Without this user base and their funds, roads will wash out, trees will fall and come winter so will your tears.
The thing is that WE are ALL in this together. It's about the gov't limiting access, little by little. It costs the Forest Service ZERO dollars to let a road decommission itself ( Canyon Creek Rd.) With the budget cuts these days, the touring crowd is fooling themselves to think that by limiting sled access is somehow going to provide better access to skiing terrain. Without a large user base demanding access, the government will just divert those funds to dropping bombs in some other part of the world.
Besides, most of the areas that sledders ride would see very little touring traffic because they require snowmobiles to access the ~10+ miles of road to get in there.
I see a snowmobile being not too different as a car in terms of accessing wilderness areas for skiing. We drive cars on roads through mountains to get us closer to our objectives, how are snowmobiles that different? Why limit access to areas that are seldom visited by a touring folks just because you disagree with the politics. We truly are becoming a very divided country. When will we understand that it is the government that is screwing us all, not the other way around.

Safety is a concern with skiers and sledders alike. Who hasn't here hasn't had a group or another skier drop in on top of them or put themselves in harms way by poor route selection. We are talking about public access. The people need to play!!!

No I do not. Mostly, skiers and sledders play in different spots. The ability to get deep into the mountains on a sled is one of the primary reasons for this. Again, access is the issue. The more access we ALL have the less we will bump into one another.
Skiers and sledders both need to be aware of each other in the few spots they are in contact with each other. Both groups need to secure access points into the areas we already have because they certainly aren't planning on opening up more for us!

"Sustainable Roads" anybody? The FS only has a budget to maintain 25% of existing roads and is currently determining which ones to close.  Sledders are a huge asset in this area because they donate time and equipment to do repairs and maintenance for free. This could be dramatically increased if red tape were removed to streamline this process.

Good luck on snowmobile SAR.  "I don't want you to ride your sled for fun but I need you to get up in the middle of the night and come save me for free."  

Road riding is about as popular as a tayer posting up a skate ski report.  The old time sledders accessed some of the same terrain as riders do today but after the snow settled, not in the perfect ski conditions I experience today.  Yes I ride perfect pristine powder off my sled that makes heli clients envious.

The "access only" sledders are the worst hypocrites.  It takes no skill to sit down sled, park and ski.  Without a track to follow they wouldn't make it out of the parking lot.  But they are the most vocal to take away my freedom because I don't want to ride lame low hanging fruit off the road.  In my neck of the woods access only gets you nowhere close to good skiing. Washington pass is a rare exception where the road actually goes to amazing skiing and parking on the road is a viable option.  

The greatest failure of this legal push from WWA is the fight to take away from another group instead of working towards providing better opportunities for skiers. Look up north for examples.  Huts everywhere.  Illegal to maintain permanent structures in NF here. Even the fire lookouts are illegally located in wilderness and recently came under attack for removal...