Evans Creek OHV is now CLOSED to full size rigs!!

[H3slate]

Evans Creek OHV park located NW of Mt. Rainier is now closed to full size rigs. You will find no signs stating this, or anything announced by the Forest Service. When you get to Evans Creek you will be greeted by large boulders blocking access to the 311 trail and metal pylons preventing access to even the forest service roads for vehicles over 72" in width.

This has been a sad discovery for Scarsman and me, as Evans Creek was our favorite wheeling spot. We have been there a handful of times over the past two years and fallen in love with the difficult trails and spectacular views of Mt. Rainier. After discovering this while at Evans Creek this last weekend we tried to find the paper trail stating that this had happened and why. We found very little to explain why this happened. There was a trail map that states the max. 72" width for vehicles and a thread on a forum talking about the possibility of this happening from a year ago.

What boggles the mind is that we have wheeled those trails, even ones we were told we would never make it, and have come out with no trail damage on our rigs and we do no damage to the trails. So the question we have is who are they protecting the trails for?? The wheelers who tread lightly and low and slow is the creedo for wheeling. Or are they protecting it for the jeeps and toyotas who hammer down and use the skinny pedal to bounce through the trails damaging their vehicles and the trails?? To add insult to injury, while driving through the campground we saw that someone thought it was cool to do donuts in the parking lot because there was some snow on the ground. This created ruts and visible damage to a recently repaired and upgraded parking facility and campground.

We left Evans with only the memories of previous wheeling trips and the heart ache that we have been locked out of a place we cherish.

 

[3Hummers]

Terrible news. Time to take the fender flares off? I guess the logic process was something along the lines of protecting the trail so that your kids and grandkids couldn't use it either.

 

[BW_Hummer H3]

That must suck for yall. Is there enough room to drive around the poles?

 

[H3slate]

That must suck for yall. Is there enough room to drive around the poles?

Nope, what you can't see in the pic is another pole blocking the rest of the road. Of course the Honda that was tooling around up there had no problem getting through so they could get stuck in the snow. :shame:

Even if you could get through one of these to get to a trail, you would be greeted by another one at the other end of the trail.

These improvements were apart of the "Putting America back to work" act.

 

[Big2dabank]

You should have used your winch and a snatch block to spread each one of the poles a part a little farther. Then you can tell them you fit through the poles so you must be legit.

 

[H3slate]

You should have used your winch and a snatch block to spread each one of the poles a part a little farther. Then you can tell them you fit through the poles so you must be legit.

The thought definitely crossed our minds. :shifty:

 

[BW_Hummer H3]

Once again this blows. Also you spell "Evans" in the title wrong.

 

[kmug]

That sucks! I never even got a chance to go there.

 

[alrock]

I hate these arbitrary decisions where a vehicle 72" in width causes damage, yet ATVs, motorcycles and smaller vehicles don't cause damage. I'm sure someone had a "logical" decision somewhere

 

[M22KLARS]

:gaah: This is bull****!

 

[Portager]

I called Evans Creek OHV and talked to them and they said the trails were originally designed for 72" wide vehicles but last year they negotiated a compromise at 80" and the barriers are actually set at 80" wide and the maps will be corrected this winter. The original 72” limit would have blocked the Jeep JK models which are 73.7” wide for the 2 door and 73.9” for the 4 door. This leaves the 85.5” wide H3/H3T over the limit, but what is the width with the mirrors molded in? Somebody should measure it, is you could get 3” on each side then you might make it with a good spotter. They claim they held public hearings over the past several years.

 

[alrock]

I believe the H2 is 81.2" wide, the H3 is 74.7", at least by factory spec. Maybe wider with the mirrors but so is the JK.

 

[Scarsman]

I called Evans Creek OHV and talked to them and they said the trails were originally designed for 72" wide vehicles but last year they negotiated a compromise at 80" and the barriers are actually set at 80" wide and the maps will be corrected this winter. The original 72” limit would have blocked the Jeep JK models which are 73.7” wide for the 2 door and 73.9” for the 4 door. This leaves the 85.5” wide H3/H3T over the limit, but what is the width with the mirrors molded in? Somebody should measure it, is you could get 3” on each side then you might make it with a good spotter. They claim they held public hearings over the past several years.

I haven't had time to look much for info yet. I am sure they did have meetings. I realize H3slate and I are newcomers to the park, and that is probably why we had not heard anything of it before. However, one would think that with several of those wood poster boards they have all over the area with the smokey bear posters and pack-it-in-pack-it-out signs they would have at least one information poster somewhere. Especially now that they are enforcing these rules, one would think that they would actually have them posted on site somewhere! Talking to some other guys out there, there are apparently rumors that they are going to be ticketing anything over 35" tires. Nothing posted though, so how will anyone know?

 

[SGT-Wright]

Doesn't a bigger tire leave less damage on the ground

 

[Hummjay]

That sucks! I never even got a chance to go there.

I never got to go either. :gaah: Dang it! Evans was next on my list, along with Naches. :sigh:

 

[H3slate]

That sucks! I never even got a chance to go there.

I never got to go either. :gaah: Dang it! Evans was next on my list, along with Naches. :sigh:

It was too tight for the H2, but we could possibly do a run with just H3's. As long as our mirrors don't get in the way we should still fit through.

 

[Hummjay]

Really? That would be fantastic if we could still fit through the gate. Evans is such a neat trail. I have all the pics from Evans that you and Robert posted on here. Why, they're some of my favorites, some of my besk desktop backgrounds haha! . Count me in. Maybe we could get a group together for a run next Spring! :thumbs: