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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!

November 2023 SRSC Meeting Minutes

16NOV23, 1800 hours.

Secretary: Need to set up auto emails to remind people of monthly club meetings. Next one is December 21^st. Emails a week out & day of will be coordinated.

New safety shelter work has been going well. State Trails would like to bring the trailer up end of next week (Friday). Tipple Trailhead lot is a no go, needs to be right next to the bathrooms at the Lake Marie trailhead. They’re going to keep the bathrooms open this year. Cameron & Justin pulled the reefer off the front of the trailer. AD Martin is donating windows, doors, and materials to wall off the wood area from the shelter area. 3 windows going in. Need a first aid kit to go in it. Fill the hole from the reefer unit. Need a job box. Cody is about half done with the new wood stove, and he built the last one. Big thanks to him!

Work day this Saturday 11-18-23. Meet at 9:00 am Saturday to work on the hut. Materials will be rounded up Friday so everything’s ready to go Saturday for construction. They’ll install the center wall first, so that folks that come to help without construction skills can simply load firewood into it. Locations: Behind Gateway Fuels (the Shell Station), off Cleveland Road. Tools are welcomed but mostly we need hands. We’ll feed those that help; likely burgers and hot dogs, but TBD.

The other two huts need swept out, and traction tape in the entryways. Ropes that people hang gloves on needs replaced; a cable would work well. Keith will bring stuff on Saturday for this, and plans to head up to knock those jobs out. Also need to install the donation box in the second hut (only one was installed last year before snow hit).

State Trails will be printing maps this year.

Cameron has a promotional OnX Offroad maps code. 1 month free; hit him up if interested.

Scholarship info just came out from WSSA, keep an eye out for that. I’ll send out details soon. If interested reach out to Cameron, as the club has to verify the applicants are participating club members (or the student’s parent parent is, as per WSSA rules).

Treasurer Update: $17451.60 in our accounts. We will have some expenses soon, and some additional money coming in. Planning to donate more to the local SAR teams this winter (who will greatly appreciate it!).

Fundraiser grand opening idea for the new hut. We could likely get food donated towards it, do this once trails are in and we’re out riding. To be discussed further next meeting.

Cameron has been talking with Ray at Elway Powersports about a season kickoff party at the dealership. Bringing in food trucks could be a good way to go to feed people. Proposed December 16^th, need to check in with Ray. Cameron will also check with Brian Lundstedt at TBA to see if he can do another beacon search park like at a prior kickoff we had.  

WyoColo and Albany are the only places with food on the trail system this year. No restaurants in Ryan Park this season (maybe a frozen pizza at 10 Mile, but not a full restaurant).

Parking lot: the Sand Lake area had a gravel quarry active; their permit just ended. There was an expansion on parking in that area (summer parking). This is good news for winter parking, but much to be done on the bureaucratic side. For the parking near the USFS visitor center above Centennial, State Trails would groom to the old waste station site; along Ehlin Road and tie into T trail up top. Importantly, December 7^th at 4pm, the SWORC group is going to discuss the parking situation again. https://wyooutdoorrecreation.wyo.gov/index.php/outdoor-recreation-collaboratives/southeast-wyoming-outdoor-recreation-collaborative-sworc

Centennial USFS Visitor Center will be open this winter 8am -4pm Friday through Monday and they’ll be staffed. Christmas tree permits will be sold in there. Sled permits will be available there too.

Side note; the SWORC group is doing a Roger’s Canyon cleanup. https://wyooutdoorrecreation.wyo.gov/index.php/outdoor-recreation-collaboratives/southeast-wyoming-outdoor-recreation-collaborative-sworc

Wind River youth snowmobile racing starting in December near Pinedale. Additional info on back of November Wrangler.

Fun Days first week of March 2024 in Dubois. WSSA is working on online registration for this.

Sunny wants to do a Holiday Parade float in Laramie this year. Cameron is doing one for 3C Guiding so he’s not able to help day of. Justin willing to provide trailer & generator to run lights: thinking a few sleds parked on a trailer with Christmas lights strewn over them. Theme is Santa’s Toy Shop. Friday December 8^th at 6:30 PM. Meet Thursday the night before to prep; details to follow.

Zach is working on printing banners. We need to continue to round up logos from the business sponsors for these. Related: we also will do a permanent plaque for the new trailer/shelter to thank everyone that helped make it happen.

October 2023 SRSC Meeting Minutes:

October 19th 2023 at 3C Guiding

New Safety Shelter: In early October Wyoming State Trails program asked us what it would take for us to get a safety shelter at Lake Marie. Our officers told them we needed assurance that if we bought a trailer to use that it would be cleared to be used. We didn’t want to have a big outlay of cash to then be told we can’t use a trailer or it would otherwise not work. They checked with WY-DOT and got everything cleared. The trailer will be parked on WY-DOT land, not USFS, and as a trailer it will be towed in & out each season.

Two officers were brainstorming how to pay for this, and both thought they’d be happy to donate cash from their own businesses to support the cause and get some advertising. They realized others may feel the same way, and reached out to several businesses and many stepped forward to help out with cash donations, purchasing, trailer tires, materials to build it out as a shelter, and transporting it. Huge thanks to Frontier Cycles, Borderline Powersports, Front Range Powersports, A.D. Martin, Fremont Electric, Albany Lodge, 3C Guiding, Madden Contract Pumping, HyAltitude Contracting, Elway Powersports, and Elite Oil Field Services.

Special thanks to Elite for buying the trailer and committing to transporting it. The club will reimburse them for the purchase price less their donation. They’ve also brought it to Laramie from Cheyenne, and replaced the tires.

This past Saturday club members gathered in town then went up the mountain with trailers to load & haul firewood to town for the new shelter. Since the new shelter is going to be located on a Scenic Byway we can’t cut wood on site: it will be loaded up in town with a season’s worth then hauled in place ready to go. Thanks to everyone that came out & lended a hand loading, hauling, cutting and splitting.

Next up for the new trailer is to turn it into a safety shelter. We need to build interior walls, add an entry door, add a fireplace (Cody Schlager is building another bomber wood burner for us!), add benches and windows. We would also like to include 307-Aware signage, a donation box, and first aid kit. There’s a little more firewood prep left to do as well. Saturday November 18th is reserved for this work, 10am, meet at 3C Guiding shop.

Nelson and Quealy shelters: a little maintenance is needed. Refresh supplies. Add grip tape in the entry of one. Damaged window in another. These two safety shelters had wood cutting events already this fall. Thanks for all the help to those that pitched in their time & muscle!

Parking Lot update: Several Centennial local businesses are excited about the idea. No news from USFS at this time.

Treasurer Update: $11,007 in our account. $400 came in from the Denver Snow Show as memberships and donations.

Assorted:

Wyoming State Snowmobile Association website is set up to enable people to join clubs throughout the state.

There’s a push to shut down substantial public access to public BLM lands in the Sweetwater County area. Our neighbors out west need your support! More details in attachments.

General reminder about our Facebook “group” page: paid business members are free to advertise, no other advertisements allowed. We try to keep track of this but if you suspect a problem speak up.

Future Meetings:

Next Meeting: November 16th, 2023 at 6:00 PM. 3C Guiding shop in Laramie or on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81761499579 Meeting ID: 817 6149 9579

All monthly meetings are the 3rd Thursday of the month at 6PM. Same Zoom link as above.

Snowy Range Snowmobile Club

March 2023 Meeting Minutes

Started at: 6:05 PM 

Adjourned at: 6:49 PM. 

Attendance (in person/online): 13 in person. 6 online.

Membership Update: 124 total. Still working through differentiating the types and tabulating everyone. I have all new members in our contacts but working on the list for WSSA.

Spring BBQ: Lake Marie BBQ on April 1st, 2023. Meet at 9:00 AM at the 3C Guide shop. We can go for a morning ride, then meet at Lake Marie around noon for food. Come out, eat food (we’ll provide this) and ride sleds. Planning this will ensure it DUMPS snow! I’ll email this out separately. Keith is willing to haul stuff in for this with his tracked SxS the day before.

Assorted: Couple people have had issues with getting the beacon check sign to work. Batteries getting low? We need to get the signs out before they start opening the road. We may want to start pulling them at the BBQ on the 1st of April. 

Keith proposed buying an “Owl” device for our meetings: to help audio for those joining online. Meeting Owl 3 is $1049 (ouch!). Sunny & Justin have something similar we could use at future meetings.

For cutting wood in the fall, could we split the group between both sites [Nelson & Quealy] if there’s good turn out? Would save time. 

April Meeting? Tentatively have a BBQ for it. Shannon from WSSA will compile the ideas from the scholarship applicants about boosting memberships. We can go over this stuff at our April meeting.

We could update the Club’s logo? Maybe do a logo contest? WSSA had no luck trying this idea. Otherwise we can pay someone to do this. A new member works in this world, we could see if they’d be interested.

Apple Watches & Phones, be aware of the new “Crash Alert” system. Albany County SAR has had a few call outs for false alarms with these. Please make sure you’ve got the latest update (reduced sensitivity) and better yet turn it off while you’re out riding. If your watch triggers a crash alert SAR [all volunteers] has to deploy to check it out even if you’re fine.

Widow Maker slid sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 AM today (3/16/23). Expect an active weekend up there & be careful. 

Cameron proposed joining the SE WY OHV club. They have a bunch of members that run tracked SxS and ride the Range.

The Colorado Blizzards club does a lot in our area. They’re having a ride in the Range sometime in April. They have a website: http://www.coloradoblizzards.com/ But seem to be more active on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoBlizzards 

They have more group rides than we do, you might consider joining them in addition to us. Perhaps we can coordinate joint events in the future? New officer position: event coordinator?

Business Matter:

We do not have a valid tax ID for the club. Paypal is now withholding all funds that come to us as memberships (donations are excepted) until we provide a valid tax ID number. We need to re-establish our non-profit status for this to be resolved. Currently, $2625 is being held and ultimately 24% of that will be sent to the IRS as backup withholding if we don’t address this.

At the federal level we need to be a non-profit organization to avoid having dues paid through online services like Paypal or Venmo charged as income and taxed as such. 

Sunny said she can work on this; how’s it going, and can we be of help? Hasn’t had a chance to dig into yet, Mitch is willing to help.

WSSA Update: Fun Days 2023 was in Alpine. 9 scholarships were awarded for the ‘22/’23 season. For next year, approximately $19,000 was raised for the fund at Fun Days auction, and $7,000 was raised for the ACCESS Wyoming program. 

$16558 generated by the raffle ticket sales, and half ($8292) went back to clubs that sold the tickets. 

Elections went through, and a new secretary was voted in. Sunny will work with them to ensure a smooth transition.

Next WSSA Meeting: Saratoga September 16th will be the Fall meeting for WSSA. 

Some folks at Fun Days spent the night on the mountain, and reiterated the importance of being prepared. InReach, radios, extra base layers, fire starters, etc. etc. 

Future WSSA Fun Days: 

2024 in Dubois first weekend in March and 2025 in Rock Springs.

Hill Climb Championship is coming up next weekend in Jackson. This is a big fundraiser for snowmobiling in Wyoming.

State Trails Update:

Job Opportunity: State Trails has been having a hard time getting down here with the roads. They’re looking for people that would be interested in working for State Trails Program in our region & based here. 

State Trails is restructuring: Jordy is going to handle the trails systems for the whole state (instead of just the West) while Josh moves to more paperwork/admin side. They’ve been having issues hiring and retention, and have restructured hierarchy in the Program to provide better opportunities for people to advance their careers within the Program. Please reach out to State Trails for specifics and/or if you’re interested in working with them.

Look for another snowmobile permit fee increase in 2025 due to the increased fuel costs, equipment, etc. 

State Trails has a pamphlet on their site for economic impact in Wyoming. I’ll try to locate it and share it. No luck, just a highly detailed report: https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/program-information-trails

Treasurer Update: Were donations made to ACSSAR and Carbon County SAR? Yes. After those payments and other expenses (WSSA ACCESS Wyoming & scholarship donations, and WSSA membership fees for our members), we have $9953.74 in checking, and we’ve got $2625 held in PayPal jail. 

Parking Update: Cameron filmed on his drive up during a “slow” weekend to illustrate how many people are on the mountain. Josh has had counters up on the mtn this season to get user numbers. This is good data for parking update support.

State Trails reinforced what our USFS Liaison officer gave us for a parking lot update in February. Things are looking good on this front but continued support of the parking lot improvements directed at the USFS would be a good move.

Grooming Update: Huts will be going out April 3rd. Grooming ends April 1st. Straight from State Trails. 

Next Meeting: April 20th at 6:00 PM. 

Topics: 

The WSSA scholarship topic was something along the lines of “how to get more young riders involved with clubs to advocate for snowmobiling”. Shannon (WSSA) summarizes the submitted essays as a sort of free research. We’ll talk about those ideas. 

We need to decide when to hold elections.

Touch base on non-profit status.

Snowy Range Snowmobile Club

6:00 PM at 3C Guiding shop

Membership Update: 

72 total members as of 2/21/23. 28 single memberships, 26 families, 8 associate businesses, 10 premium businesses. 

Beacon Check Stations:

All beacon check signs are in. Let us know if you notice any of them not working or needing attention. 

The Lake Marie beacon checkpoint needs raised up after these heavier storms. The snow level is rising up on it, will be buried if not addressed.

Safety shelters:

State Trails moved the Quealy safety shelter to try to level it out and raise it as the snowpack gets deeper. Keep stocking with firewood if you drop by. Shoot us a message if they need fire starter or matches.

Does anyone know how we’re doing on fire starter at Nelson Safety Shelter? Zach dropped a bunch of stuff off there after the previous club meeting (thanks!).

Business Matter:

We do not have a valid tax ID for the club. Paypal is now withholding 24% of all funds that come to us as income tax backup withholding. We need to re-establish our non-profit status for this to be resolved. Currently, $300 is being held and will ultimately be sent to the IRS.

At the federal level we need to be a non-profit organization to avoid having dues paid through online services like Paypal or Venmo sent in as income tax. 

Sunny said she can work on this.

Spring BBQ: Lake Marie BBQ on April 1st, 2023. Come out, eat food and ride sleds. Planning this will ensure it DUMPS snow!

WSSA Update: 

-Fun days is coming up! First weekend in March.

-Can join most clubs in the state through the new WSSA website.

-They’re working on a change to the ROP’s & Bylaws to allow people to join multiple clubs in the state with only paying the WSSA fee once.

-Everyone that’s a paid/current member, let us know if you’re not receiving the WSSA Wrangler in the mail. 

-Scholarship fund with WSSA, what should we donate? 75% goes to scholarship, 25% goes to the ACCESS Program. Last year we donated $1000. 

-WSSA website has links to State Trails maps. 

Treasurer Update: 

$10450.23 in checking. 

$500 each to be donated to Albany County SAR and Carbon County SAR.

We should be mindful of the costs associated with another safety shelter on the Range and keep some funds reserved.

USFS Liaison Update: 

State Trails is grooming 1000 miles total per week in the Snowies. Actively working with the Brush Creek Ranger District to get a permanent safety shelter at Quealy and then open up the existing mobile shelter to move elsewhere on the mountain (Lake Marie, possibly). 

All the “ologists” at USFS are staffed, so USFS can move forward on the parking lot evaluation. There’s a gravel pit with an active permit in the proposed lot location through summer 2023. Once that’s wrapped up, can move forward. The trail to link the new lot will be planned in cooperation with the SE WY Outdoor Recreation Collaborative.Proximity to Little Laramie trail system is considered. The Snowmobile lot going in, may motivate the plowing of the Little Laramie trailhead lot, as the plan is to have the new lot be only for OSV users. Currently, non motorized recreationists are parking along the highway across from the Little Laramie lot, not much room there. State Trails may be willing to get that plowed, to keep access available to all & keep non-sledders in their own parking area to minimize potential for user conflicts.

USFS & UWyo are doing some parking surveys on both sides of the Range to get area use numbers. So if you see some college kids at Greenrock taking notes feel free to chat with them. 

The lower lot across the street from the USFS visitor center on WY-130 is still being considered. This would be a great thing for Centennial businesses as people could sled right into town. The SE WY Outdoor Recreation Collaborative will have input on this. There are some concerns about snow cover in this area.

Assorted:

There’s a guy in Centennial that is continuing to film people as they drive through town. While this is odd, please remember to drive safely through town and obey the speed limit. Occasionally WY Highway Patrol will have a speed trap setup. 

Discussions between our club members and riders on the mountain indicated there’s positive feedback about an additional safety shelter and an actual parking lot. Some of these people follow us on Facebook, but had no idea there was an actual snowmobile Club with dues to pay that is working to make those things happen. Cameron will work on a quick PSA for our Facebook audience to clarify the situation.

SRSC coozie’s could be some good marketing. Can send them to members and hand them out at Snow Shows (Denver, Hay Days). They’re less than $1 each if we order over 100 at a time. Mitch will send Cory our logo and Cory will work on this.

We will have our first highway cleanup of the summer on Sunday, June 3rd. We will meet at 8:00am at the West Laramie McDonald’s parking lot. We will drive up from there to the Green Rock parking lot and clean up our 2 mile section of the highway. Safety vests and garbage bags will be provided. The more people we have, the quicker the cleanup will go!

If you have any questions, please let us know! We hope to see you all there!

May Meeting: Our May meeting will be next Thursday, May 17th at the Fire Station #3 in West Laramie, 2374 W Jefferson St starting at 6:30pm. At this meeting we our main focus is to see what interest there would be in starting a UTV/ATV/Motorcycle group. With more and more roads and areas being closed to motorized users, we want to create a organized group to help fight this. The main goal will be access, not dues or pot lucks! Everyone is welcome!

This Months meeting will be this Thursday (4/20) @ 7:00 PM as normal we will be at the Holiday Inn. We will discuss plans for next season and summer planning. Possible ATV club start up, sponsorship for Beacon Check Stations for next year and WSSA Fun Days update.

All are welcome to attend we will have a drawing for gift certificates from our sponsors. Two will be given to those in attendance and two will be drawn for all members.