Is it any wonder we have people riding where they shouldn't? Is it any wonder environmental damage is taking place? Have you tried to find ATV information on a government website? There is little or none available. How do the land management agencies expect us to stay on the trail when we can't find the trails to stay on?!?!
With few exceptions the only ATV information you will find on a Forest Service website is a reference to their travel management map. And in some cases a link to the ATV & Hunting brochure. That's it. No trail system maps, no general information, no links where you can find the information.
Here is a recent example... We wanted to check out the Arco/Challis area where the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department is working on a trail system like the Piaute Trail in Utah. I looked on the Forest Service, BLM and Parks & Rec websites for information. There was none to be found. I called Parks & Rec headquarters and was referred to the Idaho Falls office. The gentleman I spoke with had attended the Trailhead Kickoff day the middle of June, but that was his first time in the area.
He was able to give me a couple names and phone numbers that might lead me to a hand drawn map of the trails. I ended up calling Lost River Honda in Arco (I went to Honda's website to look for the name and number, but the only reason I new there was a dealer was from word of mouth from some one who attended the Kickoff event) and they had copies of the hand drawn map. They also said the Chevron station next to them had some in case they were closed. This is not an unusual situation either, that is what is so disappointing.
When we arrived in Arco we stopped at the gas station to fill up and to pick up a map. The map we got was a Challis National Forest travel map. While it was free (normally $5), it did not have any markings or indications of which roads/trails were part of the loop. Okayyyy.... The hotel had a 'brochure' that had a couple of the loops on it and gave the most general ideas of where to go.
Lost River Honda opens early on Saturday so we stopped in to talk with Merlin (the owner I believe). He had a two-page map that included some of the terrain feature names and combined with the Forest Service map we had an idea of where to go. In fairness to the area, they are in the process of making this project happen and until things are complete, the maps are temporary and unofficial.
We made it around the Howe loop on Saturday, mainly by following the marker ribbons from the Trailhead Celebration ride. Saturday evening I sat down at my laptop and using a couple different mapping programs I put together our own ride for Sunday and uploaded it to my GPS. That worked much better!
If you are exploring a new area I think you would be wise to 'go gadget'. Buy a good GPS that you can load topo maps into, buy the associated mapping program for the GPS, and then learn how to use them. I was able to select a couple of different routes then load them on the GPS. We used one route on the way in; a second was for the loop in the middle and a third to take us back to Arco a different way.
Maybe the moral of my rambling is: If you can't find the maps, make your own! In the mean time any time you talk with a land manager, ask them for more ATV opportunities on the web.
When ATVIdaho.info first arrived on the web, our plan was to include trail information, some public and some by subscription. Why by subscription? The programming time/costs and hosting costs add up quickly, making the idea a costly one. We are still looking at implementing the subscription idea and hope that the time and money we put into it will be well received.
