News Archive, May through June 2003

As promised the minutes from June 5 have been posted in the Archive section.  They can also be accessed directly here.

Please note that our next meeting will be at Valley Street Park, not Tony Roma's.  The park is in decent shape except for the water, so bring waders or boots and be prepared to fish refuse out of the stream.

Today's edition of the Anchorage Daily News was loaded with interesting articles that I have added to our news archive.  I've also posted an article from the Juneau Empire from a couple weeks ago.

The most important article to note is Motorized Alaskans wreaking havoc in Bush, which is an interesting editorial that starts out as a slam on motorized trail users but ends with discussion on trail building for ATVs.

Along those lines, you might also want to read Trail money rerouted to roads and notice that funding for trail building described in the first article has been reduced.

On a lighter note, there is talk of developing the Stampede Road (which by all accounts is a trail at best), please see Comments on Stampede Road invited.  This article caught my attention because a few members of the club are looking at running the Stampede Trail later this year as a historic run.

Another topic worth reading about is snowmachine access in the Denali park.  While snowmachine access issues seem different from ATVs and OHVs, the article Lawmakers object to Denali Plan notes that the newly developed plan makes undesirable interpretation on the access rights guaranteed in ANILCA and is in a position to set a precedent.

Last Thursday the club got together at Tony Roma's again.  This was a lot of discussion about the Meet and Greet, among other topics.  It was a full night of good discussions, and we had a few new faces.  Minutes from the meeting to follow shortly.

During the meeting we also voted in two new members, who have now been added to the webpage, Jeremy Lavender and Dan Waugh.

On May 14 Frosty and I raced out of Anchorage after work to attend a meeting in Sutton.  This was the third meeting of the Sutton Community Council Trail Committee, and an organization started to find solutions to the degrading Eska Falls trail.  I took notes from the meeting, to view them click here.  One of the biggest notes of interest is that the committee put together a report with their findings, and delivered the report to the Sutton Community Council at the council's most recent meeting.  The committee secretary was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the report, I scanned it in so you can view the report by clicking here.

Another set of the meeting minutes have been posted in the Archive Section, and can be accessed directly here.  The turnout at the last meeting was good, with a couple of new faces.  The FRS/GMRS radios have been raffled off, so a new raffle will be started soon.

Also, tonight Ryan and myself attended another meeting with the Sutton Trails Committee.  We learned more about the concerns in regard to the Eska Falls trail and were updated on the committee's progress.  I hope to have a copy of my notes available soon.