Posted by Joe Cimoch on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 at 8:58AM :
(Nice picture on the Elko Daily site - Link below)Thanks for the update Ken!
Cited driver returns to Jarbidge
By JEFFRY MULLINS, Free Press Editor
JARBIDGE - South Canyon Road was in good enough shape Saturday for high-clearance vehicles to drive all the way to the trailhead at Snowslide Gulch.
The vehicles had to take a detour near the end, however, where the road is completely washed out by the stream.
Among those driving its entire length was John Eickhof of Wendell, Idaho, whose earlier trip up the road resulted in a U.S. Forest Service citation for "resource damage."
Elkoans from the Shovel Brigade stopped their vehicles at the washout about a quarter-mile short of the trailhead and walked the rest of the way.
The visit was scheduled to check out the Forest Service's work on emptying the sewage vault under the trailhead's outhouse, but an "emergency meeting" also was called because of Eickhof's citation.
Elko attorney Grant Gerber, who has represented the Shovel Brigade for a token fee in the past, has agreed to defend the Idaho man as he fights the ticket.
"It seems like a dangerous precedent to me," said Shovel Brigade President Demar Dahl. "And I'd also like to find out who made the decision that it was worthy of a citation.
"If there really was a resource destroyed, what does that mean for a deer hunter who shoots a deer and has to go off of the beaten path to load it in his pickup?" Dahl asked. "What does that mean for the rancher who hauls salt out to his cows?
"But as I stand here and look at all this beauty, I also think that it's a worthy thing to try to keep that road open for those people who can't walk up here like we just did," he added.
Gerber said he was impressed with the condition of the road.
"Old people, little kids - we had an 18-month-old up here," he said of the group.
"It's a good road," Gerber said. "We're pleased that it's open. We're glad that the Forest Service has finally admitted in the press that it's open.
"I intend to keep driving up here."
"We are not saying the road is closed," Jarbidge District Ranger Bill Van Bruggen told The Associated Press last week. "The road technically is 'open in disrepair.'"
Eickhof, whose Northwest Theater Equipment company services movie theaters around the region, brought the same 1952 Dodge Power Wagon to the canyon Saturday that he had driven up the road before. His neighbor, Dan Garrett, drove a '52 M37 Power Wagon.
"We don't tear nothing up, we just go in there slow and easy," Garrett said.
"They're rugged," Eickhof said of the Dodge vehicles.
Eickhof declined to comment on the incident that resulted in his citation because legal action is pending in the case.
At the trailhead, the sewage vault was opened and inspected by Dahl; Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko; and O.Q. "Chris" Johnson.
Brigade members were surprised to see an official-looking sign posted on the locked restroom that said "For U.S. Forest Service personnel use only." Gerber had brought his own similar handwritten sign.
About two dozen people made it to the Snowslide Gulch trailhead. After posing for a photo, the group headed back down the road to the Jarbidge campground and picnic area being purchased by the Private Lands Conservancy.
Standing near the campground's restroom and water pump, Gerber told the group what happened this summer:
"The Forest Service put out a bid to tear out that outhouse, to tear out the well, and all of the camping stuff here. And we threatened to sue 'em and they backed off, at least shortly.
"And so, we're buying this campground. We've raised over $30,000; we have close to $30,000 left we have to raise."
No Forest Service personnel were observed at either Snowslide Gulch or the Jarbidge campground.
At a barbecue that followed at the Outdoor Inn in Jarbidge, Carpenter said he was pleased with the day's events.
"I'm glad to see that the road is open, and we're able to get up there," he said.
"You know, it would be very simple to repair it just enough so that people could get up there easy. That's what we want.
"Hopefully we'll be able to do that next year."
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