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El Dorado Lawsuit and Closings

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012: The California Off-Road Vehicle Association, CORVA, along with representatives from the Rubicon Trail Foundation and Friends of the Rubicon, met with the Forest Supervisor and personnel from the Eldorado National Forest in an attempt to ascertain details related to the probable closure of 42+ OHV routes, pending further environmental review.

Currently, the routes in question are to remain closed due to a ruling in a lawsuit brought against the Eldorado by the Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity. Regardless of seasonal closure status, the routes are ordered to remain closed, and the Forest Service is preparing the public for the most likely scenario of route closures, pending a new court order. The Eldorado has issued a press release found at:http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/eldorado/news-events/?cid=STELPRDB5362068

In the meeting, Forest Service personnel stated; “…there is a high likelihood that these routes, or portions of these routes may be administratively closed for an interim period”. It was clear that the intent of the Forest Service is to do the necessary environmental analysis as quickly but comprehensively as possible as needed, in order to reopen these routes to motorized travel, a time frame between 1 and 2 years.

CORVA encourages the 4WD community to continue working with the Eldorado on adopt-a-trail maintenance programs, and actively engage in the NEPA analysis that is planned for the meadow crossings on these 42+ routes. CORVA will support all the 4WD clubs with NEPA education through the Comments Project to insure that the comments made by our community will lead to the reopening of these trails to motorized travel.

We also encourage the community to work together, plan events outside of the closed routes, and CORVA looks forward to working with all the affected communities. Hunting enthusiasts, miners and rockhounders will all be affected by the likelihood of these closures, and it is our goals to bring these communities closer together to combat those entities bent on removing multiple use from our national forests.

Amy Granat

Rubicon HAM Radio Frequencies

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From Mario:
For all HAMS, here is a listing of repeaters I recently found on line that I think may be
of useful information when playing in the area.
Rubicon HAM Radio Frequencies
Ham Radio Frequencies commonly used in the Rubicon
146.805 -.600 PL123.0
The KA6GWY repeater, covers the west slope of El Dorado County and the Sacramento area.
145.350 (repeater transmitter), odd split to 146.205 (repeater receiver), PL123.0
The Tahoe Basin KA6GWY repeater, linked 24/7 to the 805 ELD repeater, coverage in the Tahoe Basin.
146.805 simplex, no PL
This is the repeater output frequency of the KA6GWY repeater. Nice to have so that you can talk to your friends right in front of you, still listen to the repeater, but not tie it up when simplex will work just fine.
444.9875 +5.00 PL156.7
The Rubicon repeater located near Spider Lake, coverage on all of the Rubicon Trail except east of Barker Meadows OHV trail.
444.9875 +5.00 PL 107.2
Same as RUBI except that when using this PL it links to 805ELD and 805 TAH.
444.9875 simplex, PL107.2
This is the repeater output frequency of the Spider repeater. Nice to have so that you can talk to your friends right in front of you, still listen to the repeater, but not tie it up when simplex will work just fine. Note, PL is used because some users decode PL on their handheld radios.
The Story behind RTF and Ham Radio Use in the Rubicon
On July 7, 2007 a local Jeep club made their annual run on the Rubicon Trail. During that run, on their second day, on the way from Rubicon Springs to the Ellis Creek area, they were running Big Sluice in the uphill direction. In this difficult section, one of the vehicles rolled onto its right side, injuring the passenger. He was complaining of neck pain and chest pain and it was obvious to those nearby that he needed medical help. The club members and others on the trail tried futilely to summon help via CB and cell phone. The range on the CB’s was too short and no cell sites were available.
As the victim’s condition worsened it became clear that he needed to be flown out immediately, and it was decided to send hikers in each direction to try to find help. One was sent towards Rubicon Springs, the other towards Buck Island Lake. Fortunately, a small FOTR volunteer work crew had just finished a trail project at Buck Island Lake. One of those volunteers was a paramedic, but most importantly, he and his wife had access to amateur radio: a license and a radio. They had soon summoned a medical helicopter via amateur radio, secured a helispot at Buck Island, and begun treating the patient.
By the end of the day, board members of the Rubicon Trail Foundation, at the urging of the late Dennis Mayer (then Treasurer of RTF), had begun to discuss bringing widespread year around amateur radio use to the trail. This plan consisted of two phases:
1) By that fall the first RTF amateur radio license class was completed. Since then RTF has sponsored and put on classes to license more than 300 OHV oriented hams. More classes are planned!
2) In the spring of  2008 RTF began to execute a plan to have permanent year around repeater in the Rubicon. Cooperation with a local repeater operator was secured, an agreement was signed between the stakeholders, and construction completed on a repeater vault and the associated equipment by the summer of 2008. This required the assistance of many groups and individuals.