The entire Busy isn't tight. In fact I don't remember much of it being tight at all. If someone wants to destroy their own rig it's their problem but destroying the trail is a different thing.
Also making new rules will solve nothing if nobody is out there to enforce them. Is someone going to be out there?
Most of the main section of the busy is quite tight with a very spots to literally squeeze through for us larger rigs. The section that's been renamed the "easywild" is almost as long and not nearly so tight, so the long trail was split in two. The section with the restriction IS very tight.
A point here, what you and I may call tight, the DNR says is unacceptable. If we can climb a root ball, slide along the trunk or bounce off something, that's just tight. If you must rub a tree or affect the root structure of a tree, that's not acceptable by DNR standards. I think a LOT of you are missing the point. What you call fitting through and what the DNR accepts as fitting through, are simply not the same.
Yes and no on the enforcement Binder. Do we have cops on every highway enforcing every speeding ticket and at every stop light ticketing people who run red lights?
There are two people with enforcement ability, and Nancy is off fighting fires for a good part of the summer. That leaves the DNR cop who has thousands of acres to cover and no off road vehicle - I believe he drives and explorer. I do believe there is a move to get a DNR enforcement office on a quad or most likely a bike to keep on eye on the trails. The emphasis is to look for people intentionally damaging trails or breaking rules, such as making bypasses. People have been winching huge stumps out of the way that have intentionally been put in place to prevent access to bypasses. These are the EASY bypasses. These are the ones were the bypass has become worse than the trail. When you start taking some ownership of the trails by coming out to work parties and getting involved, you take that kind of action a little more personally since it was your labor that went to fixing the bypass in the first place.
If they get the funding they've requested for the enforcement office and the trail bike, you can expect a lot more enforcment of the rules. If that doesn't get passed then it'll probably be Nancy dealing with people who are stuck and broken on the trail because the went where the didn't belong.
She does frequently walk the trails to keep an eye on conditions and if she sees someone other causing problems you're likely to get fined. That's part of her job.
We need to self-police as has been said many time, many places. If you got a rig on your group that doesn't fit, or isn't capable, too big OR too small. Park it, give them a ride and all have fun, then go run another trail more suited to their rig.
We've got a wide range of vehicles in our club from a pretty much stock CJ on 31s and a small lift and a stock Dodge Dakota, to a few very well built rigs, 8 of which are locked front and rear and all run 35" tires or larger with winches. We've parked guys before and told that to hop in and hang on tight. I let one of my guys drive my rig for half of the trail on 197 at Evan's Creek because his wasn't suited to the ride. He busted a window out but other than that, it was all good!
Breaking a vehicle is irrelevant to a point. And that is that removing the damaged vehicle, espeically on a trail like the Busy is VERY difficult and in itself can cause extensive damage to the trail. Pulling a rig that's not under its own power through the busy is just a giant mess waiting to happen. We've seen many such stories on this board.
but I want to clarify. This is only 1 section of 1 trail and we are getting to make a brand new trail (revamping the Rainier Vista) to replace the lost mileage of hardcore trail. That trail and the rock crawl area at the end of the 9 road will NOT have any maximum sizes, in fact, we're probably going to get complaints from the smaller rigs that they can use that trail anymore because they're not big enough.
