Slate River winter travel under microscope

Working group hopes to keep everyone happy

Next winter, the Slate River drainage might look something like Washington Gulch, at least through the eyes of recreational users. Right now, Slate River Road is free of recreational restrictions.

But a rising number of snowmobiles using the drainage and parking issues on the county’s road are leading to congestion that has all of the area’s user groups a little on edge.
According to USFS Gunnison District engineering technician Garth Gantt, the U.S. Forest Service is happy to see the newly released summer travel plan finished. He doesn’t think a winter travel plan will be on tap for a couple of years.
Under the current plan, the four drainages that lead directly out of Crested Butte have different designated uses, with Kebler being mostly traveled by snowmobiles on one extreme and Gothic Road, which is closed to motorized winter use, at the other end. In between is mixed use, and that is where the county has run into trouble in the past.
Two years ago Washington Gulch was the battleground where user groups vied for positioning. Ultimately a Washington Gulch Working Group was formed to get all sides to sit down and find a solution to the conflict. It worked then and the commissioners were eager to apply the model to the Slate River conflict.
The conversation about finding an amicable solution in the Slate River drainage got its start in March, when noticeably more snowmobiles were being left at the trailhead overnight, creating access problems for some Nicholson Lake homeowners and administrative issues for the Crested Butte Land Trust.
The Town of Crested Butte holds the conservation easement on the Kikel Parcel, managed by the Crested Butte Land Trust. That property was purchased in part with funding from the Great Outdoors Colorado program, which restricts motorized use.
Town parks and recreation director Jake Jones told the Gunnison County commissioners on Tuesday, “It’s not just a matter of open space values. It really is written into the [conservation easement] that motorized use is prohibited on those parcels on either side of the road.”
Jones said the two issues the town is having with the confusion at the trailhead are the overnight snowmobile parking and the road itself, which can be hard to find when the landscape is covered in snow.
The Forest Service cannot restrict snowmobile access. Gantt doesn’t think this would be a good solution anyway, since in his experience the people riding snowmobiles into the Slate River drainage are largely backcountry skiers who use the sleds as a means to an end.
“We’re going to be going with the existing forest plan for the foreseeable future and that has the Slate River drainage open to snowmobile use but closed to commercial uses, meaning we don’t permit any guided tours in that area,” he told the Gunnison Board of County Commissioners at the Tuesday, July 6 meeting.
County director of public works Marlene Crosby is concerned about finding snowmobiles and trailers along the road with the blade of a plow after a heavy snowstorm. She is maintaining her position that there be no snowmobiles in the plowed part of Slate River Road, which is a county road.
In an email, Nordic Council director Keith Bauer told the commissioners that his organization does not want overnight parking at the Slate River trailhead. Their concern is that if the county starts allowing overnight parking of snowmobiles, that would only increase snowmobile use in the drainage.
One point of view heard at Tuesday’s meeting that was absent from the meeting in March was that of the hybrid user group, who use snowmobiles to get to the best backcountry skiing.
Hybrid user and Crested Butte resident Knox Frank said, “Knowing some of the groups that utilize that area, I can see that there would be interest in helping with this process. I know that the hybrid use there is high quality and I don’t think anyone is interested in this being the first discussion of many that leads to limited use in that area. It is in our best interest to maintain this and there could be some form of cooperation worked out.”
Frank’s was the first name on a contact list made up of representatives from each user group who stepped up to meet with all of the user groups to work out a solution to the potential conflict before next winter.
Part of the solution will likely be more markers lining the road to keep snowmobilers on the right path, and signs at the trailhead to keep motorized vehicles off of the Kikel Parcel. Beyond that, the working group will have a chance to decide. Commissioner Jim Starr asked to be part of the group, which will get to work soon.