That little extra bit is good to hear, Mike.
We had a good turnout as Mike stated. Alec, Matt C, Matt C, Mr. WJ, Wes, Max, Chris, and myself ( I think thats everyone). Besides us, there was another guy and his family, and two other locals.
The rangers had posted maps of the several counties in the district with all the roads and areas labeled.
In terms of our immediate interests, it was nice to see that Potts Mountain Jeep trail is not a target of any scrutiny or proposed changes. It is supposed to be open by April 1st for the season.
We expressed our interest in Potts and doing what we can to assist the USFS to maintain it and keep it open. Fortunately for the 4wd world that 'road' in particular gets a lot of help from Southwest 4WD Association.
We were told that the USFS is in the process of receiving a grant from the .gov and plans on installing a parking lot at the head of the trail from the bottom (Barbours Creek side) so that there aren't issues with trailering rigs/legality issues with rigs driving from the Pines Campground. They are supposed to get the funding this summer in July and would like to plan on having the lot under construction in the fall of this year (tentatively).
The meeting was informal and we could interact with the USFS personnel as we wished. They asked us which other areas we frequent, and we talked some about Mountain Lake. The USFS seems to be limited in their work up around Mtn Lake (Bailey's Gap) due to private land, Giles County, and the Conservancy. As Mike said it appears they are proposing seasonal closures for portions, which would be too bad for some excursions in the snow. Hopefully they will keep that open. They pour a lot of money into the entrances to the roads/trail up there, gravel and cleaning out culverts and whatnot.
We indicated our interest as a club to help assist them in maintenance and cleanups, basically free/volunteer labor. We expressed our first interests to be Potts, which they more or less were happy to hear but said they do already receive help with that. For us, we don't really venture out locally too much so we asked about any more 'trail-worthy' roads that they might know of that we could check out. An area called hogback was recommended to us, and is a trail that Mike has talked about before. It appears to be about an hour away from us in BBurg,
http://goo.gl/maps/Dhj0v .
A few of us signed up at the front desk to receive some information about helping them out. We definitely need to be proactive about this and get out there and help them.
What I would suggest is that we, as a club, decide on a weekend (saturday) this spring (April is probably best or first week in May), and let the USFS know that we are available to help and to see what we can help with. We can probably try to stick around Montgomery or Giles County if we ask. It's clear that the USFS has plenty to keep up with, plenty of goals, many similar interests as us, and would greatly appreciate the club helping them out. Things like a 'road' cleanup are likely, or if they have some other projects going on in which we can serve as manual labor.
Also if anyone has any ideas of projects, or forest roads they know of which could use a cleanup, we can let them know and get a dialogue going regarding plans. They seemed very flexible on any ideas we also have.
That's about it.
Regarding Bobcat/Brush mountain, the forest ranger there hadn't spoken to any of the landowners up there in over 2 years. Basically the trail crosses so many small portions of private land we would need to contact every single one and get permission. According to the ranger, some were adamant about keeping people off while I believe 1 of 6 was fine with people being on it- but they're not in contact with any of them currently. I personally feel as though bobcat could be a good value for the club as a local trail especially for those less built, but it would require some dedication and determination to investigate more. Unfortunately that appears a losing battle.
