Author: Sunny Madden

All comments must be made by Friday, May 10th, 2024

Below you will find a link to the BTNF forest plan revision story map. Please scroll to the very bottom of the story map for the public comment section. It has a map and a separate scroll down bar where you will find four questions to be answered. This is how the Forest Service would like to see public comments submitted. The deadline for this process in May 10th, 2024.

Even if you have only rode in the Bridger Teton once, it is very important to voice your opinion in favor of keeping motorized access as it is. What happens in one forest in Wyoming can greatly impact how other Wyoming forests are managed.

The snowmobile & motorized communities need to give input on what is important to us as users. The more input we have from our side, the better. Of course it is encouraged to have positive comments that will be valuable information for the Forest Plan revision team to incorporate in the assessment document.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0b29baa2acce4bb39311e112389c39a2

Here is also a QR Code to access the website:

6:00 PM at 3C Guiding in Laramie WY

Officers Present: Mitch (secretary), Cameron (president), Sunny (treasurer), Justin (VP),
Heather (social media officer), Keith (business liaison).
We had a BBQ for everyone that came. Burgers, hot dogs, cookies, chips. Thanks to Justin for cooking the food!

Snow Report: Cameron said it was headlight deep fresh up top on Tuesday of this week. The snow has stacked up recently. Beacon check point at Lake Marie is nearly buried. If anyone wants to dig it out to raise it up, please feel free!

Assorted: We’ll need to find a place to store the Lake Marie safety shelter this summer, City of Laramie won’t be okay with keeping it on Cameron’s land in town. Justin may have a place for it. Over in the Sierra’s the Adopt a Highway is available at the main parking area. We’d like to grab that and involve folks in the Saratoga valley. We’ll also need to cut firewood for the Sierra hut next fall too.

Events: April 20th BBQ at Lake Marie. Food at noon. This will be our April meeting too.
AAIRE Avy Level 2 Class: 3C hosting, first weekend in April. Email Cameron at
Cameron@3CGuiding.com if you’re interested and want more information. This will include a Rescue class on day 1, so if you’ve taken a Level 1, you’re all set to take this. There’s space
and it will be a great class!

Avalanche Forecasting: Sheriff Bakken in Carbon County is working with Wyoming Outdoor
Recreation Collaborative and USFS to try to secure a grant (State Recreation Board) to start a Level 2 Avalanche Forecasting Center for the Snowy Range and Sierra Madres. This is a
$500,000 grant to fund a center for 3 years, after which the USFS would take over (similar to how Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center is run). He has requested a letter of support from us. We are happy to support this effort. Heather volunteered to write the letter of support. The deadline is likely April 1 so we’ll get this out quickly.

WSSA Update: WSSA is going to add a calendar on their website to list out all the activities of Wyoming snowmobile clubs. Fun Days was in Dubois this year. Too much snow for groomers to go out, so the “mellow trail ride” ride was interesting and involved breaking trail. Sounded like it was good time. They raised funds for the WSSA Scholarship program, totaling nearly $30,000, and 8 scholarships were given out this year. Next WSSA meeting is this fall. The meeting will be September 14th in Buffalo, WY.
Stemming from the scholarship discussion, Sunny had an idea: discounted SRSC memberships for people that are club members in their hometown but living here currently (e.g., students), to try to increase younger generation participation. Focusing their membership more on getting together and riding may be an attractive way to get them interested: meet fellow riders around their age and ambition level.

State Trails: Looking at increasing the permit fee from $30 to $50. Same price for resident & nonresident. Haven’t had a price increase in ~10 years. 2⁄3 of funds come from nonresidents. This will take legislation to take effect; the club is in support of it. Note that the State will be reinstating the online permit process in about 3 months after a brief hiatus.
Nelson & Quealy huts coming out first week of April. Trail markers coming out that week too and grooming will cease. We’ll want to advertise this on socials to warm visitors.

Parking: April 25th meeting with SWORC & USFS. This is for the Ehlin Road parking area.
There may be an opportunity to seek out a grant from the Recreation funds from the State to help support this.

Cameron’s idea: would like to have local OSV permit sales to include parking guidelines for
Green Rock. Small pamphlet sort of thing to help give people some guidance, since the parking situation up there is chaos. People are getting mixed messages and authorities aren’t taking ownership of enforcement (Sheriff’s office, USFS LEO’s, WY-Highway Patrol, all saying it is the other ones job/jurisdiction). Signage may be more effective at reaching all users? Would need permitted with WY-DOT. This may help most with a consistent message and clarity for all users. Maybe 6 or so signs to cover it, specifically calling our “Winter Parking Rules” or something to that effect.

Treasurer Update: $18786.89 in checking. $252.80 transfer from PayPal in progress from
recent memberships. We need to file our non-profit federal taxes via a 990 form. We have until May 15th of this year.

Secretary Update: 121 members for this season to date. Thank you all for the support.
Carbon County Sheriff Bakken sent us an invitation for an in person thank you for our recent $750 donation to their SAR team. None of us were available to attend but he wanted to be sure we knew they were grateful. Albany County SAR is also very appreciative of the donation and continued support over the years.

Broader Wyoming Related: Bridger-Teton forest travel management plan is in progress.
They’ve got a website & want public comments submitted there. This will have a large impact on snowmobiling on the B-T forest. More info to follow separately with links.

We’re having a BBQ on the hill this Sunday, at the Lake Marie safety shelter at noon. Hope you can make it! It’s been snowing most of the week, should be a great weekend. 

Be careful out there. There was a local fatality last Friday, and a skier died Sunday in central Colorado (he was the 3rd person down the slope, no sign of instability until it was too late). 

Please find the February meeting minutes attached and quoted below. Meeting Minutes:

SRSC Meeting Minutes: February 2024. 18:00-19:00, located at 3C Guiding (and Zoom)

Attendance: Mitch (secretary), Cameron (president), Justin (VP), Sunny (treasurer), Heather (social media officer), Corey (WSSA District 1 rep). 18 people in total in person, a few more on Zoom.

Events: BBQ at Lake Marie safety shelter this Sunday, February 18^th. We’ll provide food. Donations welcomed. We’ll be able to sign folks up for membership on site. Food will be ready around noon.

Next meeting is the 3^rd Thursday of March.

WSSA Fun Days, weekend of March 1^st in Dubois. They are finally getting some snow on Togwotee, should be a good time!

Treasurer Update: $18831.90, plus $445.82 in Paypal from recent memberships (transfer in progress).

We’ll need to file our 990-N postcard for federal 501(c)3 reporting with the IRS soon for 2023.

Secretary Update: Member count of 101.

Assorted:

Hooks for safety shelter at Lake Marie? Planning on a cage over the stove with hooks to hang gear, but need it off the mountain to build & install. In the mean time some folks have put up a rope.

Safety shelter went in the Madres, off of WY-70 near Haskins Creek last month. Not sure of firewood situation.

Time for our annual donation to search and rescue organizations in our area. $750 each to Carbon and Albany SAR. All were in favor.

WSSA Scholarship: We will donate $1000 for that. $250 of that will go to the Access fund. All were in favor.

Parking Lot

SWORC Meeting February 15th: USFS (including Frank, forest supervisor), WY-DOT. Cameron, Sunny, Heather, David, Corey were representing the motorized crowd. State Trails was there too (Josh). There is a need for a survey asking if people would use new parking lots to gauge usage/determine need. Need to work with the SWORC group to create the survey: they’ll want input on the questions. Heather will work with Brynn (SWORC meeting facilitator) to help figure the logistics out. We believe people will use the parking lots, but some data would be more convincing.

The non-motorized crowd doesn’t necessarily understand why we need improved parking near Greenrock. They had concerns about people riding the ditch or generally not using additional lots. Next meeting will be in April. There were also concerns about avalanches at Centennial Ridge with a trail on the road bed (Ehlin Road) and how that may impact other users. The idea is a trial lot (no serious dirt work) at the old RV dump station across from the USFS Visitor Center. Another concern is folks using Barber Lake Road after parking at the lower lot; fair point and this will need to be addressed via signage.

Aaron Voos (USFS) asked something to the effect of: Why do we want improved parking? Is there a consistent reason? Our response has been consistent: Safety is the #1 reason. There are people all over the highway near Greenrock, including children, its slick, it gets narrow, vehicles & trailers have been damaged, the whooped out ditch is very unpleasant to ride, snowplows struggle to get through, emergency access is sketchy. Albany County SAR struggles to find parking up top unless we deploy at night or weekdays.

Rico Vercoe from the UW Hobb’s school has been working with his students to study how many people go up there, there could be good usage data with them that may inform access decisions and motivate improvements to this challenging situation.

One key aspect is that this will be parking for all forest users, it will benefit many, not just snowmobilers. This should help garner broad support.

Next meeting will be in April.

Avalanche Information:

Cameron hosting a Level 2 avy course in April. Yes. Should be listed on the 3C Guiding page soon. The plan is to do a Companion Rescue class first then the Level 2 class: Friday through Sunday. April 12^th-14^th or the weekend prior. DJ Osbourne will be leading it. Up to 18 people. $695 per person for both Rescue & Level 2.

Fatal avalanche in Carbon County in the Sierra Madres on Friday, February 9^th 2024. East facing slope around 10,200’. Deep slab that propogated very wide: up to 8’ deep and >2000’ wide. Two riders caught, one buried and killed. Be careful out there! Sincere condolences to the family and friends. Cameron proposed donating $500 to the victim’s family through the existing GoFundMe page. None were opposed, the motion passed. If members are interested in donating themselves, please visit:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/jacob-fluty or https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/qov631

In case you haven’t heard, there’s now a website for avalanche observations in our area: https://ewyoavalanche.org/

                You can submit observations, (even if you aren’t a total snow geek), and they’ll be helpful for others to get a handle on the stability (or lack thereof) in our local mountains. Check it out, submit observations, especially if you see signs of instability or recent avalanches!