Placer County is out!

Regarding maintenance of the Rubicon Trail, Placer County has taken the position that they are not responsible. They are out.

The first question that comes to mind is, then who is responsible?

Well, it falls to the property owner, who is the US Forest Service.

Thankfully, El Dorado County has stepped up and is working on paperwork that would give them the authority to perform maintenance on the Rubicon through the Tahoe National Forest and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

This would give one ‘government agency’ control over the entire trail. This was the dream of Del Albright when he first formed FOTR and started the drive to save the Rubicon Trail.

El Dorado County, specifically, Vickie Sanders, has been knocking it out of the park regarding maintenance since before the Clean-Up and Abatement order. Although some my not like what has been done, if it wasn’t done, the trail would have been closed years ago due to water quality issues.

Vickie has brought in millions of dollars in grant funds to harden the Rubicon Trail, prevent erosion and thus keep the trail open. Unfortunately, the way the grant cycle works, she won’t have funding for Tahoe side work until the end of the summer.

RTF has decided to step up and hire a contractor to start in on the rebuilding of the rolling dips within the LTBMU. El Dorado will do the paperwork and engineering, LTBMU will approve all work done and RTF will pay for it.

It is not know what level of volunteer work will be needed during this initial phase. Most of the work will be done with heavy equipment.

Getting back to Placer County, they still recognize the public ‘right to pass’, which I think (hope) will keep the Rubicon Trail open year round. If the FS had taken over control of every aspect of the trail, there would be a seasonal closure probably from Nov 16th through May 31st.

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Rubicon Ronin

Not yet Spring

Okay, so it is officially spring but you wouldn’t know it by looking around Tahoe.

I snapped a few pictures of the Jeep trailer I left at my cabin at Tahoe.

Yeah, that’s it under the mound of snow in the back.

I’m pretty sure it will be okay as there was never that much snow on it. Only about five feet.

Spring is coming. Time to dig out our rigs (and trailers) and get them ready for the trail. Remember the trails will be very wet for a long time. Tread Lightly!

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Rubicon Ronin

LTBMU to hold open house

My apologies. I learned of this five days ago and sent emails to a few clubs but I failed to post it here.

The Lake Tahoe Hi-Lo’s will be attending in full force. There is a special meeting scheduled for 5pm to specifically discuss Rubicon Trail issues.

If you can’t make the meeting, please email your thoughts and concerns regarding current OHV issues in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit’ grant application should be available on the Ca State Parks website.

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Forest Service hosts open house for OHV grant application
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will host an open house to provide information and seek public input on the annual California Department of Parks and Recreation, Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Division grant application. The OHMVR application requests funding for trail maintenance, and
operation of facilities for off-highway vehicle (OHV) access in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The open house will take place on Thursday, March 28, 2019, at the Forest Service office in South Lake Tahoe, 35 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150. There will be no formal presentation, instead the public may arrive between 4 – 7 p.m. and visit informational stations, talk with staff and ask questions. The 60-day grant application comment period began Tuesday, March 5 and ends Monday, May 6.

For requests for reasonable accommodation access to the facility or proceedings, contact Adrian Escobedo at 530-543-2758 or email aescobedo02@fs.fed.us.

For more information on the application, grant process or how to comment, contact Jacob Quinn at 530-543-2609 or email jmquinn@fs.fed.us.

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Again, my apologies for not getting this posted in a timely manner. In the future I will make a better effort to get out anything that could effect our Tahoe area OHV trails.

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Rubicon Ronin