June 16th: An Important Date For National Forest Access
First, what happens on June 16th?
A lot of Forest Service gates in this area open for highway vehicles that will help us get to trailheads, and most motorized trails open for the year. Some examples are the lower portion of Storm Castle Rd, Big Bear Lake Rd #6969, and Buck Ridge. Trails include #452 Lick-Wildhorse, Garnet Mountain, Chicken-F, and Bangtail Divide. Normally, a majority of these roads would be dry and lead to dry trails, but this year is not a normal year. Check for reports, check with Custer Gallatin National Forest, and plan to stay below 8500’ until more snow melts.The remaining seasonal closures lift on July 16th. You can find all the details on the Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUM) or several mapping apps.
There are a couple of temporal closures that also apply to non-motorized travel. The Bear Lakes area is one that goes through July 16th, for the sake of knee-deep mud and wildlife. Porcupine area, near Big Sky, is closed for Elk calving until June 16th. Time share trails begin now as well, summed up best in this table by Outside Bozeman. If you want to ride the ‘M’, Foothills, Middle Cottonwood, Emerald Lake, or Hyalite Lake, check the table first. Luckily, if you end up at a trailhead on the wrong day, you won’t have to travel far to get to another option that is open.
SWMMBA doesn't have the same capacity to produce trail reports as we did last year, so please help us by sending a message or updating Trailforks with the conditions you find and we will try to spread the word or respond to maintenance issues.
Also, we wouldn’t be able to clear the amount of trails we do without the generous support of our Dirt Heroes,
if you love trails without trees down on them, please consider becoming a donor today!
Next, in order to talk e-bikes, we have to throw a few more acronyms at you (because, why not?), so let’s get those out of the way.
USFS = United States Forest Service
BLM = Bureau of Land Management
NPS = National Park Service
BOR = Bureau of Reclamation
FWS = US Fish and Wildlife Service, not to be confused with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks
MVUM = Motor Vehicle Use Map, describes where motorized vehicles can travel on public lands
Here’s a brief lesson in the Executive Branch of the US Federal Government. Now’s the time to break out those Schoolhouse Rock videos you watched in elementary school. Here goes: BLM, BOR, NPS, and FWS are all part of the Department of the Interior, while the USFS is part of the Department of Agriculture.
The Department of the Interior is headed by the Secretary of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture is headed by the Secretary of, you guessed it, Agriculture. Both Secretary positions report directly to the President of the United States. As a result of this separation in reporting structure between the Interior Department and the Department of Agriculture, the USFS and the BLM, BOR, and FWS have slightly different regulatory hurdles they need to jump over to make a “change” in management.
The news item here is that Forest USFS e-bike directives are now solidified. BLM, NPS, FWS, and BOR have already updated their policies on e-bikes during the last 2 years. All agencies now recognize the 3 class categories of e-bikes.
The short of it is that NPS, FWS and BOR were able to allow trail openings to e-bikes in larger chunks, rather than trail by trail, and have mostly done so. These land managers tend not to have tons of bike trails, but now most of their bike trails are open to e-bike use.
BLM and USFS, on the other hand, have more complicated rules for land management and travel management than the other agencies and manage much more in terms of recreational infrastructure on their lands. It would be bureaucratically impossible for them to just flip a switch and allow e-bikes on all non-motorized areas and trails. Now, both agencies have clear language to reference and the directive to consider e-bikes when they update management plans, but no changes are made until a site-specific process is carried out.
The MVUM will be updated with a separate category for e-bikes when they make those changes. For now, check out fun trails that we share with dirt bikers such as those we mentioned in the June 16th opening, Pipestone (Ringing Rocks?), Corbly, Ross Pass, or Buffalo Horn. Checkout Trailforks for updated access and dates of opening and closing of trails to eBikes (they are motorized vehicles, so lots of options opening up on the 16th).
Feel free to send us policy questions at adam@southwestmontanamba.org or trail reports/questions to trails@southwestmontanamba.org