Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991 TAG: 9104010209
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Some people covet this rambling chunk of the Jefferson National Forest - 53 percent of Craig County - as an ideal spot to whisk along shale ridges on an all-terrain vehicle.
Others believe it is best preserved for those who attach a backpack to their shoulders and stride into the quiet solitude of wilderness.
You can do the latter, park your vehicle along Sweet Springs Turnpike, the wagon road George Washington used to cross Potts Mountain, and hike into the 5,700-acre Barbours Creek Wilderness Area.
What you can't do is legally ride an all-terrain vehicle, one of those fat-tired, three or four-wheelers that you sit astride like a motorcycle. They aren't licensed for public roads and they aren't legal in the forest.
That's the way it should be, some forest users believe.
"I'm all for multiuse, but I see the ATVs as abuse of the forest," said Bob Peckman, president of the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club.
The Jefferson National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, however, calls for increasing the number of off-road vehicle trails, in answer to what forest officials say is a growing number of requests from trail bike and ATV owners.
One such owner is James Baker of Vinton, who would like a place to ride his Honda ATV on national forest property.
"I don't see that as interfering with other use," he said.
The New Castle Ranger District has been evaluating three potential trail bike-ATV trail sites: Bald Mountain-Barbours Creek; Broad Run and Patterson Creek.
"If we can identify a place where such use can be done with minimum impact to the resource - it [the plan] doesn't say no impact, it says minimum - then it is hard to ignore doing it," said Robert Boardwine the district ranger.
A 14-mile trail system along the eastern edge of Patterson Mountain in Botetourt County has been receiving attention longer than the other two proposals, both in Craig County.
The Patterson Creek trail would be a series of ridge loops running off a main route carved along old logging roads, Boardwine said. The cost would be approximately $10,500, about half the other two.
From the beginning, forest officials have spotlighted this as the first choice for the district, but it has been opposed by bowhunters who like to watch for deer that travel down mountain draws to feed and drink in the creek bottom. The hunters haven't been appeased by the forest's agreement to close the trail during spring and fall hunting seasons.
Several adjoining landowners also have opposed the trail.
The Bald Mountain-Barbours Creek proposal is a 12-mile system on the lower slopes of Bald Mountain near Barbours Creek. The fact that Barbours Creek is a popular trout stream and the Barbours Creek Wilderness Area is just across the road has brought opposition, Boardwine said.
The Broad Run alternative is nearest to the Roanoke Valley - less than 20 miles - and that likely is where many of the people attracted to ATV and trail bike systems reside, said Boardwine. Even so, the 17 1/2-mile trail has received the most opposition, some even from ATV owners.
The Broad Run proposal calls for two segments connected by road crossings, and riders don't like that idea, Boardwine said. Also opposed are the members of the nearby Mountain View Church and several landowners.
This alternative has the highest price tag, $22,750, but Boardwine said the cost could be substantially less because the majority of the development and maintenance of this system, as well as the others, would fall to the users.
"They have already expressed very much that they are more than willing to do that," Boardwine said. "We have received several letters from trail riding clubs outside this immediate area: Eastern Virginia, North Carolina. They have offered to come and help."
Last week was the deadline for public comments on the three trail alternatives or the fourth alternative, which is no trail at all, but Boardwine said his office, near New Castle, remains open to suggestions. He expects to announce his decision in about two months.
It isn't going to make everyone happy, he said.
"It could be appealed either way."
by CNB