Tucker County Trails

Roger has a new trail flagged off dobbin house trail that goes to the actual old dobbin house site. getting on it requires a little bike-over-hand climb right now, but you can see the flagging if you look up at one spot on dobbin house trail. (or you can get on it from the clearing near one of the runoff ponds near the intersection of brads/dobbin house trails on the old strip mine. There is also the old yellow trail up there that was abandoned in the early 90s maybe?  

more images here! 

The new walk behind powered dumper has arrived in Davis. Trail work made easier! Found by Roger, delivered by Jason, photo'd by Matt, and most importantly, paid for by TCT!!  

More photos here...click me, click me!

more to come soon! 

Some Tour de Lilly pics added to the gallery also.. thanks for the shots Vic!

01/13/2009 

As the U.S. Senate returned to work this week in Washington it didn't take long to get the new legislation moving that will expand West Virginia's wilderness areas from four to seven in short order.  

The proposal calls for expansions of the existing Wilderness Areas at Otter Creek and Cranberry, and adds Roaring Plains and Spice Run.   Roughly the measure would add about 37-thousand more acres to the areas designated for Wilderness Protection.

Advocates for this designation are hailing the idea as the protection for these tracts of high forestland in the Monongahela National Forest.   However, my question when this debate began still has no answer.  Protection from what?

Congress will most assuredly approve the bill.  The land to become Wilderness is in no present danger.   There are no calls for timbering, mining, development or gas exploration on those properties.   It's true those activities are allowed under the National Forest multi-use mission in some places.

However, the areas in the pending bill in Washington are already protected from that sort of thing.   These lands are Prescription 6.2.   That's federal government jargon for, "No timbering, drilling, mining or development allowed."  To continue the translation, it also means, "No four-wheelers, trucks, cars, airplanes, busses or any other semblance of civilization by the general public is allowed here."    Authorized vehicles are allowed, such as the DNR or forest service trucks.  Equipment commissioned to perform maintenance such as brush hog mowers on a wildlife clearing is also allowed under 6.2. 

But the areas aren't even accessible to the general public by vehicle today.  You can park and walk into these vast tracts in the high mountains.  You can also ride your mountain bike.   Cancel that idea if when the Wilderness designation takes effect.   The rules say no-wheeled vehicles in a Wilderness area of any kind.  That means just what is says...no wheels of any kind...not even a wheelbarrow.   Leave the mountain bike at home.

You may also want to leave some of your friends at home if you do decide to take a hike in these areas once the so-called highest level of protection is in place.   Groups of more than ten are disallowed on the area.  

Wilderness advocates love to tout tremendous opportunities Wilderness areas offer to enhance hunting and fishing.   What they don't tell you is once the Wilderness is established, the DNR's ability to manage the lands for game and fish are done.   Equipment is disallowed from entering the areas to create wildlife clearings or perform stream protection and enhancement.  The distance and size of the areas make work with hand tools pointless to create any meaningful diversity of habitat.

During a tour of one of these areas last year, a noted state forester noted the size and age of timber on some of the lands proposed for wilderness.  The tall, straight cherry trees were well past time for harvest and on the downhill slide toward a slow death.    He noted other ailments among the flora such as beech bark scale disease infecting young beech saplings in the forest.   The only way to control the spread and improve the forest health was a select timber harvest.   Sadly, that won't happen even without the Wilderness designation.

Liming efforts to restore some acid laden trout streams will be impacted on some of the areas.  So much for enhanced fishing. 

Not surprisingly, many politicians were quick to jump on board when the idea of wilderness expansion was created.   What's not to love when the idea is packaged as a way to keep out the urban sprawl and "keep wild places wild" as advocates cleverly claim?   Who among us could oppose such a thing?  A deeper look into the issue and some reasonable thought might produce better decisions, but Washington has notoriously precious little of those commodities.

The creation of additional wilderness is it will make many feel warm inside, perceiving they will have done something to save the planet and a gorgeous part of West Virginia.

The reality of the designation will be even more limited access to public lands, a natural denigration of the forest over time, and a reduction in wildlife numbers in areas where mast producing species are choked out by natural selection.    It doesn't sound like salvation to me, particularly when there was not under a threat in the first place. 

Chris Lawrence© 2009 West Virginia MetroNews Network

Eight Aldredge Academy students worked alongside counselors and TCT volunteers to refine and "dress-up" a new trail connector between Rock Shox Trail and the CVI Fishing Pier this past Saturday.  A grand total of 58.5 hours of trail work was performed to compliment the many hours already invested by CVI staff who had previously laid out and roughed in the single-track trail.This trail is the second trail to be constructed on CVI's property using sustainable trail building techniques.  All participants were feuled during the trail day by nut butters.   Both peanut and almond butters seem to work well for high energy trail maintenance.  Choice combinations included jelly as well as banana slices.with the afforementioned butter spread.  All volunteers were pleased with both the cusine and the first class trail that resulted.

Fourteen volunteers participated in the first annual National Trails Day event sponsored by Canaan Valley State Park.The volunteers contributed more than 40 hours of service including the construction of a short trail reroute and the draining of several problem spots. 

 Tuesday - May 16, 2006 Tucker County Trails had a great evening picking up garbage at 3 persistent eyesores along Camp 70 road outside of Davis.  The work was made possible by the donation of a trailer and trash bags by the WV DEP.  These sites have often been cause for visitors to reconsider any sort of recreational jaunt out beyond the Anita Barton bridge.  10 volunteers donated their evening to loading the WV DEP trailer and filling two-dozen garbage bags. Many thanks to all who participated - especially Chico for the Red Tail Ale, Sandy for representing with baby, and Roger for reminding us not to fill the trashbags up too far.  And, of course, thanks to Macky for being, well...................Macky.  All told, this pickup netted about 2 tons.  Great job!   

 TCT now has a web presence. It is truly a new age of TCT, because, in addition to the Web presence, we also have this blog presence, a list server, and the ability to add content that you, yes you, can post to the members. This is a great day, and a great day for the trails of Tucker County. If you have any questions about the site, adding content, or just want want to help TCT usher in the nineties, please do so either through the email address info@tuckercountytrails.org or through this blog. Welcome to the blogosphere.... my friends and colleagues, gb