Fyi, I was riding this past weekend (Sept 30th) and discovered a road building/logging contractor working their way down the center of the TSF inventoried trail "stick-in-the-nose" from firefox ridge into the jordan creek basin. As you probably know, this highly used trail is located near the Jordan Creak staging area and is/was the main artery that connected into the firefox, fox creek and trask trail complexes. Appears ODF is concentrating OHV users to use the Roger's road as the primary connector, and as you know the upper section was clear cut last year.
I certainly understand the need for wood, revenue and forest management, but also know some consideration is required for recreation use. Given all the logging activity this past couple years and the elimination of hundreds of secondary trails in the process, not to mentioned a crowd favorite "mad dog pumpkin patch", it’s difficult to understand the TSF management mentality for eliminating primary inventoried trail systems.
Post edited by: dvwalker, at: 2007/10/05 12:59
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Re:Stick-n-the-nose TSF trail eliminated
Date: 2007/10/05 19:12
By: dvwalker
Status: User
Fresh Boarder
Posts: 2
Here's the reply I received from the TSF OHV manager; in summary 4WD groups + 1, M/C groups - 1.
From: "ZELLER Clyde C" <CZELLER@ODF.STATE.OR.US> Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 08:56:53 -0700 Subject: RE: Tillamook State Forest - SITN
Hi Dale, sorry I could not respond earlier. I just got back from a months vacation and am playing catch up on my 400+ e mails. Anyway regarding Stick In the Nose (SITN) planing process for the Fire Mole timber sale that is currently using the old road grade you know as SITN was a long drawn out affair that went back and forth and included a range of options. One idea was to not use the existing trail and building an entirely new road to access the timber. Another idea was to only use a portion or the trail as road and build a parallel road. Another idea was to use the existing trail and building an entirely new trail. The wrangling was a long process that looked at the terrain, slope, and the costs of building a new road versus the value of the timber.
With that said the end result is that SITN will be developed as a temporary road to about halfway down the trail to where the flat bench is. Project work on the sale will rehabilitate the entire road and trail portions into a 76” wide 4WD trail that runs from top to bottom. Work includes installation of around 100 rolling dips, 76” wide trail filters, culvert installation, and a significant reroute of the trail below the bench area to bypass a failing log puncheon culvert. The reroute will protect the stream and avoid having to install a bridge when the log culvert fails (this winter perhaps). The sale will also stage 500 yards of rock in the bench area for future use on the trail for maintenance. This is a huge savings as the single most expensive thing we do to retain trail integrity is pay for rock to be staged and installed on the trails. The sale also buffers several unique trials sections in the bench area and preserves them for future trials events. Purple Bug Stump Trail will be cleared of slash and retained as a M/C trail also. In my view the end result will be a revamped, upgraded trail from top to bottom that is open to all OHV users. Yes it will not be the same and I know this all to well as I implemented the original upgrades (rolling dips, culverts, filters, grading, etc.) that help protect this fun and challenging trail. SITN is a critical up down link between the Jordan Creek valley and the ridge top and keeping is as a trail was first and foremost in my planning efforts. I think that it is important to remember that this timber was going to be harvested one way or the other. I believe the planning work that preceded the sale was thoughtful and thorough and in my view was the best compromise for both recreation and timber revenue for the counties. I also think that conversion of narrow width 4WD use will benefit this user group as they will now have a loop trail to go with Rogers Road.
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