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August Update

Corral Canyon
The cost of camping at Corral Canyon is going up. The Cleveland National Forest is raising rates for camping across the forest and will include our campgrounds. Federal law says that agencies can charge for camping and parking, but they must provide some services. The most obvious service is having restrooms. Right now you can park at Bobcat, Corral Canyon, Four Corners and Pine Valley trail head for $5 a day with an Adventure Pass. Bobcat and Corral Canyon campgrounds will be going up to $15 per day (and night). Four Corners and Pine Valley trail head will remain at $5 per day. What is interesting to note is that if you park where there is no restroom, there is no fee or pass required to park. The most used place where free parking takes place is along Corral Canyon Road where the Kernan Cycle trail crosses. If you drive or ride your off-road vehicle to Corral Canyon and keep going in the area, you also won’t need any pass. Forest users may park for free along forest routes, but please be sure to find a wide spot and park so others can easily pass.

ISDRA Dunes
The BLM is looking at raising camping fees for the dunes now. They are starting by updating their business plan. The BLM produced a business plan for the dunes in 2003, updated it in 2013 and are updating it again to be released in the near future. The important parts of the plan look at how much money comes in and how much needs to be spent. Money coming in comes from three sources: federal appropriations, State Parks grants and fees. Money being spent in the dunes includes law enforcement, emergency medical, hauling out trash, maintaining restrooms, maintaining signs around the Pierson’s milk vetch critical habitat, visitor services and ground operations. Us old timers remember going out to the desert when there were no services at all and we were fine. Times have changed and all that stuff really needs to be funded. I believe they are proposing increasing fees by $10 per week and $30 per annual pass. When the business plan is released, we will take a careful look at it and assess whether raising the fees is justified.

Safety
State Parks hosted their third OHV Safety Summit (this time in San Diego). There were people from State Parks as well as other agencies and a lot of OHV advocates. I was honored to meet and talk to motocross star Rick Johnson. There was a presentation from state parks that mentioned economics and other info. They said there are 631,000 OHVs registered in California with 360,000 inactive vehicles. They said that OHV in California contributes $246 million in state sales tax revenue and produces about $10 billion in economic activity. Around the entire nation, outdoor recreation creates $862 billion in economic activity.

There was a presentation by Chase Pili, Utah OHV Program Manager. So far, around 300,000 people have taken the Utah OHV safety training course and they are pleased with compliance and the reduction in bad behavior. California will be joining Utah, Oregon and Arizona in creating a mandatory safety training program. We expect training to take about 40 minutes online and completed training will go in a database that law enforcement will have access to. We expect training to cover topics including off-road etiquette, safe operation, environmental protection and applicable laws. It will likely take three years to bring this program live.

OHV Commission Meeting
The day after the safety summit, an OHV commission meeting was held. An important presentation about Hungry Valley was made. Hungry Valley experienced a wildfire in June and is closed until further notice. The presenter talked about the fire damage and showed maps and pictures. After the presentation was public comment. I got up and said that while the fire caused damage, no trails were damaged from the fire. Yes, the vegetation and some structures were damaged, but no actual trails were damaged. I mentioned that some years ago there was a fire in Corral Canyon in the Cleveland National Forest and soon after, the forest brought volunteers in to help install low fences on either side of the trails. This allowed the forest to open the trails and the area much sooner than if they had to wait for the plants to grow back. For those of us who don’t understand this, OHV area managers are required to protect the land around the trails from people driving/riding off route. It is very tempting to go all over when there is no vegetation stopping you. Off route travel may prevent vegetation from returning naturally. California State Parks’ Great Basin District is coordinating a volunteer day to help Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area recover from the Post Fire so the park can reopen to OHV enthusiasts. The volunteer day is scheduled for Saturday, September 28, 2024, from 9am to 1pm followed by a lunch for the volunteers. Some of the projects we would like to accomplish with volunteers are installing a peeler post fence along Powerline Road, planting grass seeds and Valley Oak trees in the burn area at the southern end of the park, making improvements to the 4×4 course, and painting restrooms in the campgrounds that suffered smoke damage. Please join park staff and volunteers at this special event to reopen Hungry Valley SVRA.

Lost Lizard Fun Run November 9
Our big event, The Lost Lizard Fun Run, is fast approaching and many people use it as their first desert trip of the year. Signup is now open online and people are registering. When you signup online, you save a few bucks and have it easy when you get to the event. You give us your name and we hand you a bag with your entry in it. Please go to https://sdorc.org/fun-run-2024/ and sign up. It is a really fun event many people look forward to. This year we are looking to mix it up by having six checkpoints where at the last one you can trade in some cards for new ones. Our checkpoints will be hosted by Zebra 4X4, Tierra Del Sol 4 wheel drive club, San Diego 4 Wheelers, San Diego Jeep Club, Schoonies/MIT and JeepHERs.

Remember, SDORC is a membership organization and you can join us online at https://sdorc.org/join-sdorc/. We meet in person every month on the first Tuesday at Ranch House Restaurant at 6:30. Please consider helping the organization working to protect rights and access for all off-roaders.

Ed Stovin, President
San Diego Off-Road Coalition