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Washington State Closed to snowmobiling?

R

rx-hi

Pro
Joined
Dec 30, 2003
Messages
135
Location
Central Washington, Yakima
News tonight had a warning issued for sledders in Washington State. Forest service roads will not be opened to sleds untill grooming begins possibly Dec. 15, if snowfall allows. Roads are to be posted as to no wheeled vehicles allowed. This posting means sleds are OK. Penalty is $6000. 00 fine individual. 10000.00 for a group and up to 6 months in Jail. The forest service issued the warning due to signs of snowmobile activitey. Imagine that, early snow fall 4 to 5 ft. and you cant ride. In all the years of riding in Washington I have never heard of this before. If the roads are open to ORV does'nt that include sleds? Does'nt make sense to me , how about you?
 

Strange. We've been riding. We alway ride before grooming kicks in. Where did you get the information?
 
KNDO news Yakima. They are going to run it again at 11pm. The reporter who did the article talked to me when I called the station to see if what I heard was correct. She said it was issued by the forrest service and they can be contacted, I will try tommorrow and post the number to the forrest service.
 
So our sno-park permit's that are valid in November, and that we PAID for, are no good? I call Bullshit on someone at the forest service, some area's are rarely/never groomed, due to funding, time, etc. But they are still open for riding as long as it's not wilderness.
 
I have been talking to Leif at the FS here in Skagit Valley and he was the one that opened the Schreibers meadow trail by taking downt he closed signs. It is time for a revolution if they try to stop me from riding!!!


Update, just talked to the MBNFS people and they said that each National Forest has it's own set of rules. Our trails are open. But, that reporter might be talking about Gifford Pinchot NF. I doubt it was Wenatchee NF but you might call.


T
 
Called the forrest service for national forrest. Forrest service roads in their jurisdiction are closed to snowmobiles until they are posted as closed to wheeled vehicle travel ( snow berm). They explained that forrest service roads are only open to street legal vehicles (snowmobile not street legal). However sate, private, and railroad land fall under Wa. DNR. they consider snowmobiles as orv's. and their roads would be open to them. The contact from DNR was out of office today so I will call back tommorrow to make sure this is the case. So if you are on state land (DNR) you should be ok to sled. But you may want to check your area. For central washington forrest service roads include Rimrock lake, little naches-greenwater,nile, I think the blues in south east corner also. So check your areas! Does anyone know about Cle elam area state or fed?
 
In Chelan County, up the Entiat river we've already been on our first search and rescue. Three sleders boondocking hit some stumps and spent the night out until we got to them and rode them out. Looks like about a four mile walk back into where the sleds are, just not enough snow yet.
 
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