Clear cut plans at McLean

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dirtyboy
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Clear cut plans at McLean

Post by dirtyboy »

Has anyone seen lines of orange flags and lines of blue flags North West of the McLean Creek Road and Fisher Trail W. junction? :confused: You can see a line of orange flags from McLean Creek road.

I talked to Spray Lakes Saw Mills today and they told me that a row of orange flags is the border of where they plan to "harvest". The row of blue flags is where they plan to put in a road to get the harvest out of there. They said that they plan to harvest this area "next year" (after September).

If you know the trails Cow Pie, Ewok Village, Hoth and maybe Moose Ridge you know the trails the we could expect to lose. :banghead:

Anyway, I am now on the Stakeholder list for this area. They took down my name, address and they said that I would hear from them before they "harvested". Hopefully we can work with them to save these trails and still allow their harvest.

These trails are the main trails to get from the Fisher staging area to the Widowmaker and the West side of McLean. Without these trails, we would have to ride on McLean Creek road to get to our destination which is illegal. For any of you that were on the Oct. 16 ride we did Hoth on the way back. If you were on the Oct. 9 ride we did Cow Pie on the way to the Widomaker and the Jimmy trail.

If you see the lines of orange or blue ribbons where you ride (McLean, Waiparous, other areas) now you know what it means.
Last edited by dirtyboy on Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by cladoo »

I saw those flags when I drove up to the middle staging area, now I know. I hope we can save the trails!
Claude

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Post by MotorEd »

I hope we can save the trails!
Totally agree....Ewok Village has to be one of the coolest trails out at Mclean...almost like riding out on the west coast.

:canada:

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thumper-darryl
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Trails

Post by thumper-darryl »

If you are riding in Mclean you may also notice white ribbon on some of the single track. This has been done by a couple of bike guys who are co-ordinating with Spray lakes. Trails marked in white will be left, or rebuilt after the area is logged. A great action by Spray lakes to work with us. So take some white ribbon and mark single track trails you use.
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GPS Mapping & Land Use...

Post by redrider »

I ride McLean most of the time and dislike the idea of losing riding area there. It'spromising to hear that those planning to Harvest are warm to preserving our trails.

Can anyone pass along GPS routes/tracks for loading to my Garmin 60C so I can ride what you are calling Hoth, Ewok and Cow Pie. I have probably ridden these trails just didn't know their names.

Has anyone filled out the Alberta Forest Usage Survey by Cambridge Strategies? Interesteing survey, not sure where it will lead but I have signed up to have the results sent to me. In my opinion the survey is really geared to get the participant to reflect on what's really important about our forests but you are given a chance to comment at the end. I commented that my family and I truly value our motorsport riding areas and that this helps to maintain a strong family unit which is under stress today. I also mentioned that legitmate and responsible recreational land use groups like the RMDRA should be mandatorily consulted on all land use issues/changes. Hey we have to have goals don't we?

Thanx
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Post by dirtyboy »

The trails all have signs on them with the names. Right at the NW corner of McLean Creek Road and Fisher Trail West (both on map) is the entrance to Cow Pie. Go up the hill and you'll find the trail. I don't have any specific maps of these trails.

Here is the approximate GPS co-ordinate for the Cow Pie trail head. 11 U 0669102 UTM 563 1520

Create a waypoint with these co-ordinates and then select goto. :D

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Clear cut plans

Post by redrider »

Great Thanx Dirtyboy
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Post by Brent »

I have rolls of white ribbon which was donated to our club by Dobi. I spoke with SLS directly and they supplied me with a clear cut plan for Mclean Creek which will start sometime in the end of July (weather permitting). I agreed with the SLS rep that it would be better for us if SLS started their cuts on the east side of Mclean Creek road because of our XC race which will be all on the west side of the road. He agreed to this, but we will see what happens. If you see orange ribbon, that ribbon marks the outskirts of the cut block area, with the knot tied to the inside of the cut block. The pink with black stripe ribbon marks the centre of an access road. At our last meeting I had the clear cut maps and made copies and noticed they were all taken by the end of the meeting. Hanging white ribbon on the east side of the road is my mission for now. I know of 3 trails (at least) that I want saved. By looking at the map and understanding the area it will be pretty straight forward on how to white ribbon our trails. Anyone with great knowledge of the single track at Mclean should PM me and we can get started with hanging white ribbon.
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white ribboning last night

Post by Brent »

there were four of us out last night to get a start at the white ribboning at mclean. Darren, Josh, Billie and myself ribboned off a section of "Hazard County" we are just getting a little bit at a time. every ride we are picking up a little more. if we get enough guys together, we could split into 2 or 3 groups and get most of it in one evening. how about next week wednesday at 5:30 pm @ the Fisher East turnout (otherwise known as the half way staging area) I will bring about 10 rolls of white, if enough people come we need to get more. the only place to pick it up is from the surveying store up on 32nd and edmonton trail NE. cargo pants or a fanny pack are key for grabbing ribbon. see you out there.
oh yeah, and a good tire for a gnarly hill climb session after.

NOTE: I will not be able to ride on the 7th because I broke my toe and there is also a club meeting that night as well. I won't be riding for a week or two.
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Post by dirtyboy »

This just in from WR_Dave.

Interesting to say the least.
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Bragg Creek logging

Post by thumper-darryl »

These logging plans have been aproved years ago, but now the schedules have been moved up some due to the spruce beetle and pine beetle problem. Logging or fire are the only solution to the bug problem, and I think fire is NOT the way we want to go. Spray lake has made the commitment to retain trails marked with white ribbon, so we need to keep up this project and keep up the dialogue with Spray lake. This group protesting the logging are out of touch with reality.
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Post by dirtyboy »

Thanks for putting some perspective on the issue, thumper-darryl.

Has anyone bought some white flagging to flag their favourite McLean trails?

The white flagging is available at survey stores like Butler Survey and is cheaper than buying flagging at Canadian Tire.

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Post by Brent »

Some things to comcider if you are going out to hang white ribbon:
1. remember, this is for guys on foot, walking through 2 feet of snow, so the ribbon must be visible for them not the dirt bike riders. Do not flag like you would flag for a race. Raise the ribbon up high and make it hang 2 feet down so it flaps in the wind.
2. There has to be lots of ribbon, each ribbon should be visible from the other, so roughly 50 feet or even closer if the trail is tight and winding. Also, the snow will be covering the trail so the ribbon will be their only guide to where the trail is. Where the ribboned trail comes across the outsides of the cutblock, the ribboning must be most prominant. The cutblock will be ribboned with orange and the roads in pink with black striped. These intersections need to be heavily ribboned. If you look carefully at the map, a lot of trails just pass through corners of cutblocks so it's not like you need to ribbon off the entire trail.
3. Do not ribbon the trailhead or end of trail as this might encourage others to come ride ie; trucks or quads, sometimes these guys carry chainsaws and feel motivated to make the trail accessible for them.
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Post by Brent »

There were 12 guys out last night to hang white ribbon through 4 upcoming cutblocks at mclean. We ribboned off at least 10 trails. Spray Lakes has been really good with providing us with info and then recognizing our ribboned trails....we just have to make sure we get out there and have them ribboned. Thanks to all the guys that showed up last night, great effort!
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Post by Brent »

I was riding at Mclean this last weekend and rode through a recent cutblock on the west side of Valley Trail...I am impressed, they left some trees up around the white ribboned trail and cleared most of the fallen ones, there are a couple of stragglers, but thats ok, it's better when there are more obstacles. Normaly, the logging outfitter would have gone straight through with the harrows and turned it all up, thanks to SLS.

24 more cutblocks to go, I guess thats why we are still riding at Mclean.
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