A bad weekend to scout 61

[BeanMan]

LAST EDITED ON Aug-03-14 AT 09:52PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Aug-03-14 AT 09:38?PM (MST)

Next weekend August 9-10, there will be a major motorcycle race on the Uncompahgre Plateau. It will be mostly on the 61 side ( as I understood talking with riders putting up signage) and on pretty much all the singletrack trails open to motorcycles and some of the atv trails. So if you are planning on scouting Aug 9 be aware that the Basin Trails, Snowshoe Trail, Ute Trail, Massey Branch, Mailbox Branch, Long Canyon, Beaver Pond Trail, Campbell Point and Lower Bench Trails are all part of the event. probably more to the south too. (someone who knows more about it should fill us in) We ran into a bunch of people putting up signage who said there will be hundreds of riders. They were even cutting logs out and moving boulders so that there would be "room to pass". Good grief I thought, that many riders that you would need room to pass on remote trails?

This ought to scare the critters out of these areas for a period of time and make them tougher hiking. Long Canyon and Beaver dam were so cupped out from the riders it made my ankles sore.

Update:
It's limited to only 500 riders so they won't scare the elk too much.

http://www.bookcliffrattlersmc.com/#!race-info/cee5

 

[Gadjet]

Thanks BeanMan,
I guess the good news would be at least this race will take place well before hunting season.

Gadjet

 

[12point]

I wondered what happened to Deep Canyon. Spent 4 mornings and 1 evening on the rim glassing week before muzzle last year and only saw 4 bulls and heard 3 bugles. I figured vehicles had found a way in there. The last archery 61 tag I had I killed my bull in Deep Canyon and there were lots of elk in there.

 

[Zeke]

There really is no race! BeanMan just wants the place to himself for scouting that weekend! LOL
Zeke

 

[BeanMan]

Sheet, Zeke, where I've been hiking in to I've already had it to myself. Except for the bears of course.

I think the biggest impact of the event will be that you simply won't be able to use many of the trails commonly used to get to the places you would start scouting. A lot of those single track trails see very little use and if it weren't for the MC guys they might be real hard to find and be covered with deadfall, the FS just doesn't seem to have the ability to maintain trails so it is up to other people/groups. The moto guys do a good job of keeping them open. I'll give them a weekend for their services.

I need to go look at the low altitude routes into a couple of those canyons anyways.