Trailridge Runners

On April 7, 2005, the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO) issued a press release announcing the "Stay the Trail" campaign  to  promote "responsible" off-road vehicle (ORV) use.  Ironically, COHVCO has been a leading promoter of  irresponsible ORV use.  Only one week earlier, the Mile-Hi Jeep Club, a member of COHVCO, had it's membership in Tread Lightly! revoked for trespassing, vandalism, and harassment of private landowners.

Over the years, off-road clubs have evolved from recreation groups to political groups.   As they have become political, they have adopted a strong anti-environmental and anti-property-rights outlook.  Frustrated by restrictions on their “right” to motorized recreation, they have begun to use illegal means of getting what they want.  Their methods have included covert sign removal, unauthorized road construction, sign defacing, and overt vigilante “shovel brigades”.  The Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO), the Mile-Hi Jeep Club, and Trailridge Runners 4WD Club have all encouraged or engaged in such activities.  The leadership of COHVCO has aggressively encouraged the use of “civil disobedience”, which has lead to the upsurge of lawlessness among off-road recreationists in Colorado.

John C. Martin is a past president and Chairman of the board of COHVCO.  He supports the use of what he calls “civil disobedience”.  In June of 2000, he not-so-subtly suggested that BLM signs should be destroyed as a “public service”.   Using words that suggest he thinks public lands belong only to off-road recreationists, he writes:

Once I mentioned to a few folks that we should help the federal land managers manage our lands as economically as possible.  If someone found a sign that had been removed or damaged and wanted to get it back to the agency, I would be happy to return it for them.  To avoid the accusation or the long story, there needs to be a mechanism to return these signs anonymously.  This is a service someone should supply.  I can do that.

Yesterday, around noon, someone dropped off one of those metal signs that explain that there should be not motor vehicles beyond it.  The sign has been forcibly removed, the mounting holes were torn, and the sign had been folded nearly in half.  The person who brought it to me had “found it in a wash.”  As a public service, I returned it to the local BLM.

One would expect the owner of lost or damaged property to be happy to see its return.  Surprise, Surprise.  They were not.  The questions about where it came from and who damaged it were quick to come.  Being a concerned citizen, and totally innocent of wrongdoing, the conversation did not go the way the agency folks were headed.  It went something like this:  “Hold on.  This is your sign and someone found it.  I am doing you folks a service by returning it to you.  You don’t understand, I want a reward.  You should be happy to get your property back.  I’m not the criminal, neither was the person who found it and wanted me to return it to you.

After that, with somewhat of a confused look on agency faces, the tone of the conversation changed.  They asked me if I could tell them where it came from, I said no.  I did tell them that any of their property given to me would be returned as soon as I had a chance.  They said there was no reward for returning it.  I told them that getting property back to its rightful owner was reward enough.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

John C. Martin, COHVCO, June 2000

In the July, 1999  issue of the COHVCO newsletter, John C. Martin praised a fellow member who said “…the next time he saw a sign that took away his rights, he would remove it.”  Martin also asks in print, “Do I ride in closed areas?”  His answer: “If a sign explains why a road or trail is closed and it makes sense, I will always obey it.”  Otherwise, “…I have decided that civil disobedience is my right.”

It should not have been a surprise that on June 25, 2000, the Barking Dog Shovel Brigade ripped down dozens of signs that said “motorized vehicles prohibited” and did not give a reason other than “private property”.  This attitude also explains why on Sept. 7, 2000, hundreds of off-roaders ignored signs and converged on Caribou Flat in an orgy of destruction that became known as the “mudfest”.   It could be argued that, if the signs did not have an explanation, this group was merely exercising its right of “civil disobedience” as encouraged by John C. Martin in the COHVCO newsletter.

Mile-Hi Jeep Club's position on private property

Vernon Brandt and Greg Mackey are officers and prominent members of the Mile-Hi Jeep Club. They call our creek "Barking Dog Road" and say it is an R.S. 2477 "public highway" . Vernon Brandt is currently raising money to rent heavy construction equipment so they can bulldoze our creek and create a motorized playground.

• Mile-Hi Jeep Club road-building plans
• Fund raising progress for turning our creek into a Jeep road
• More Mile-Hi Jeep Club road-building plans
• R.S. 2477 Congressional briefing, part 1 of 2 (large pdf file, please be patient)
• R.S. 2477 Congressional briefing, part 2 of 2 (large pdf file, please be patient)
• R.S. 2477 Letter to Congress

Tread Lightly!?

Tread Lightly! is an organization that tries improve the public image of the motorized recreation industry by convincing off-road clubs to adopt a responsible recreation policy.  Their recommendations are

Travel only where permitted. Respect private property. Educate yourself. Avoid streams and meadows. Drive responsibly

However, many clubs consider these rules to be too restrictive.  The leaders of the Mile-Hi Jeep Club have rufused to accept these principles, which limit their oportunities mud bogging and other fun.  They even display their blatant disregard for the Tread Lighltly code of behavior on the cover of their newsletter.

The Mile-Hi Jeep Club glorifies mud bogging and other
discrespectful, irresponsible off-road practices on their web site.

June 15, 2003:  Want access? Walk

RS 2477 has indeed created conflict between "rich weasel" out-of-state owners and locals who want access. But it has also created conflict between "Monster Jeep" clubs and landowners who want to protect their family's heritage.

Many owners simply want to preserve traditional, low-impact access (also known as "walking") across their property, and are sincerely motivated by a desire to save the environment, history and rural character of their birthright, while maintaining access for the community.

Activists from the Mile Hi Jeep Club and other extreme recreation groups have already played the class warfare card in an attempt to turn opinion against my family. We blocked their vehicles from our Boulder County property in 1999.

We no longer live in Colorado, but we still aren't rich. The giant vehicles that people drove through our meadows cost more money than we paid for our land. All we have there is an old cabin (which we finally electrified after 40 years), a used trailer, and some mining equipment that was vandalized when it was parked near the trail.

We encourage access along our stream by ordinary people.

But the elite who can afford super-modified vehicles and threaten RS 2477 lawsuits can go elsewhere.

June 22, 2003:  Access should be for all

Re: "Want access? Walk," The Open Forum, June 15.

Letter-writer Mark Boslough is mixing fact and fiction. He will make up whatever sounds good to cover his closure of a public road (County Road 87).

I represent Mile Hi Jeep Club. We have never driven through his meadows or messed with any equipment of his. We and other recreationists sought access to a road that has been traveled since 1900. (There is a court case from 1903 showing this fact.) Just because he has land alongside a road, he thinks that makes it his road.

Mile Hi isn't a bunch of "extreme recreationists." The majority of the people in the club (120-plus members) drive near-stock vehicles and like to get together and enjoy family activities. We spend hundreds of hours a year working with the Forest Service to clean and repair roads and trails. We help pay for Forest Service people to do projects.

Generally speaking, we practice "tread lightly" rules, help others both on and off the trails, and only push when we have been pushed into a corner. Very few of us drive "super-modified" rigs.

Just to set the record straight, we did not file a lawsuit against Mr. Boslough. We did give money to help the landowner above Boslough to regain access to his land. We're for equal access for all - not just hikers.

The Mile-Hi Jeep Club's web site shows Greg Mackey enjoying some "family activities"
in his "near-stock" CJ5 with with spring-over-axle conversion and 38" tires
(hope the kiddies are wearing their seat belts).

The sign says "CR 87 closed by Boulder County Commissioners".  The hearing was
on December 12, 2000, as is documented in the public record.