This open house was a lot less formal than last year's but was good to talk with people from the forest service and other clubs. There were members from hi-lows, motherload, hi-landers, and us. There were 2 people from motorcycle clubs, polka-dots and AMA district 36. There was also 1 snowmobiler and 3 or 4 from a horseback association.
The current EDNF staff is open to OHV but none actually participate save for a couple on the Amador side. They are all happy to have jeep clubs involved because our patrols and reports are their big sources of fund matching. (Our first snow run with 57 people might be their biggest single day fund match to date) That said, they aren't jumping out of their way to get trails re-opened.
One issue I see is the none of the people making decisions, doing that paperwork, or signing the checks has any direct involvement with OHV. A hinderance to this is FS staff not wanting to risk damage to FS vehicles and the mountain of paperwork required if they get stuck and have to call for help. To this end, I will be inviting the forest service officially onto our beginner runs and intro trainings at Prairie City this year. For the Prairie City run I hope to get a few FS staffers with 4x4s to come on their day off. When we do our packsaddle pass beginner exploration runs however I am anticipating having Kyle or other staff in a FS Jeep actually come along with us. The goal being to give them a work excuse to be part of something, give them support to try trails they would otherwise skip in favor of pavement, and increase their confidence off road (and hopefully get one of them hooked on the hobby).
Any other ideas to get FS staffers out on the trails with us?
