LEOs on the Rubicon Trail
Posted: January 6, 2014 Filed under: Access | Tags: grant, law enforcement, LTBMU, Placer, Rubicon, TNF Leave a commentLast May, I organized a meeting of different law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over the Rubicon Trail: Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Tahoe National Forest, CA State Parks and Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
What I wanted to avoid was the lack of communication and the inconsistency of enforcement that plagued the El Dorado side of the trail when law enforcement started patrolling there years ago. The goal of the meeting was to do a face to face meeting of the different agencies and officers who would be patrolling the trail. We weren’t trying to solve issues or plan out the 2013 season but just get everyone in the same room.
The Rubicon Trail runs within Placer County and the county recognizes the trail as a public right of way, therefore, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office has jurisdiction on the trail. The Sheriff has put in for and was awarded OHMVR grant money to buy a side-by-side capable of getting anywhere on the Rubicon. The Rubicon will not be the only place the sheriff will use the side-by-side. Any OHV trail within Placer County can be considered the jurisdiction of the Placer County Sheriff.
The Tahoe National Forest has also received OHMVR grant money. They share law enforcement officers with the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. The TNF also has an awesome ‘OHV Recreation Specialist’ that is a pleasure to work with. She and the TNF understand that motorized recreation is a legitimate use of our public lands. She also has access to the TNF’s newly built up Jeep Rubicon to patrol OHV trails within the forest. The Jeep currently lives in the Auburn area but can be requested for use in the Truckee/Tahoe area when needed.
The CA State Parks LEOs have been on the Rubicon Trail for years, but only on the El Dorado side. For 2013, things changed. The park service decided that El Dorado sheriffs and the ENF could handle the west end of the trail (This was before the county removed the ability of the FS to cite for county laws.) and so they moved their operation to the Tahoe side. The plan is to store a side-by-side at the nearby Sugar Pine State park and trailer it to the trailhead to use. They also have an officer who drives the state’s Jeep Rubicon, that is quite capable, and he loves to get it out on the trail. They are working to store equipment at Rubicon Springs so they can patrol on the way in, spend a night or two and then patrol on the way out. Again, the state parks LEO can patrol any OHV trail, so they are not limited to the Rubicon.
The meeting went well and all who attended were glad for the opportunity to put faces to the names of those officers in their sister agencies.
For 2014, I look forward to working with the different LEO agencies to maintain the safety of the OHV trails and public lands on the Tahoe side of the world famous Rubicon Trail.
Placer County – Rubicon Grant
Posted: December 16, 2013 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: LTBMU, Placer, Rubicon, TNF Leave a commentCA State parks has awarded Placer County a grant worth almost $300,000!
Link to a chart of awarded values, Placer County is number 67.
Starting October 15, 2013, Placer County has one year to spend the money and document matching funds through volunteer hours for labor and equipment. The grant funds: signage, rolling dips, filling holes, water bars, material and repairing the single lane of asphalt from the residential area to the staging area.
The wording of grant application can be found at the link below. The actual grant awarded changed mostly in the amount not the scope.
Link to Placer County grant application.
Thirty five different spots along the trail from the boundary with the Basin to the turn at Forest Road 03 have been identified as needing attention. Most are either creating a rolling dips or reestablishing the natural drainage from the trail.
The spots were identified, GPSed, photographed and sent to Placer County. A small group provided transportation while Placer toured the sites to take detailed notes and discuss options and fixes. Once Placer County documents the proposed fixes, they will get sent to the TNF to make sure the FS is good with each fix. This might require a trail visit.
Once all the fixes are decided and approved, the details of how to make each one happen will be documented. Contractors will need to submit bids for the ‘heavy lifting’, materials and transportation costs. This could take until July! At this point, the volunteer leadership will need to step in and work with Placer County to organize the volunteer labor portion of this plan.
The grant is HEAVY with matching funds from volunteers, so we will all need to document any and all maintenance efforts within Placer County.
This will probably be a September project with finishing touches leaking in to October. You might want to keep your calendar clear.
Water Bar Markers
Posted: December 7, 2013 Filed under: Maintenance | Tags: LTBMU, Placer, Rubicon Leave a commentTechnically, they are rolling dips not water bars but for years we’ve referred to them as water bars (WBs). They were installed in 2001 and every year we do maintenance on these WBs, some getting more attention than others. In order to properly document our work or communicate which WB needs work, we needed to number them. They were numbered at one point but with weather and some vandalism, there were more unmarked than marked.
Last week, John Briggs of the North Tahoe Trails Dusters, placed new markers on almost every WB. The Rubicon Trail Foundation provided the materials and John welded them up.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have a camera with him when he was installing them. So, I’ll get pictures next spring of one or two of these actually placed, after the snow melts.
The 'Other' Rubicon 