One of the things we love about Echo Ridge is the fact that something for everyone is packed into small area. A lot of us love to ski with our Dog Friends and Echo Ridge is one of the areas to allow dogs on some of the groomed trails. The sport of "Skijoring" is growing in popularity in our area and we have had requests for events, lessons or contests. Nothing makes some people more happy than the sight of their pet running with them through a winter wonderland.
Before the most recent expansion of the trail system, "Nowhere to Hide" was considered a snowmobile trail, but we occasionally groomed it and it received only minimal motorized traffic. This was a popular alternative to the more strenuous "Zoom" trail for people with dogs. With our expansion Nowhere to Hide was turned into a skier only trail. It has become a key link in a skate skiing loop around the perimeter of the area. The new snowmobile trail "Somewhere to Ride" is a much more strenuous ski than its predecessor, and we are seeing an steady increase in snowmobile traffic on that trail.
Some have suggested opening "Nowhere to Hide" up to dogs. This would not preclude its role as a link in our skating loop. We groom this trail with our heavier machine which results in a very firm platform. However little doggie footprints have a way of marring the clean skating platform and digging up the perfect classic tracks.
As a throwback, "wooly" three-pin touring kind of guy, I say "go for it". There will stil be over 15 miles of skier only trails at Echo Ridge for the purists. But being public land, naturally the Forest Service stewards of Echo Ridge have to weigh the public opinion of all the users. So what do you think? More trails for dogs?
5 comments:
I LOVE SKIING WITH MY DOGS AND APPRECIATE THE FACT THAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO ACCESS THE ZOOM TRAIL. HOWEVER, IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE A COUPLE MORE OPTIONS WITHOUT HAVING TO MAKE THE SOMETIMES CHALLENGING JOURNEY TO THE OUTBACK. I STILL HAVN'T BEEN ON ANY OF THE OTHER TRAILS AS I INCORPORATE THE DAILY DOG WALK WITH SKIING. A NICE LOOP TRAIL WOULD BE NICE. SEEMS LIKE THERE IS PLENTY OF ROOM FROM AT LEAST ONE MORE DOG FRIENDLY TRAIL.
ZOOM is great for our dog. We skied at Zoom with our dog one week ago. If you add more dog trail options, that will be fine with me. Our dog is a one year old, and last week was his first time on the trail. He loved it. We used to have two huskies and did a lot of skijoring in Alaska, but our little Ricki is a Pomeranian Chihuaha mix. I miss the pull of our huskies, but still loads of enjoyment last time out. Thanks for a great job on the trails.
I love dogs but people need to clean up after them.
I used to like dogs more but I've seen too many of their traces (prints and leavings!) on the groomed skier-only trails. They do mess up the trails, same as walkers and snowshoers do. It's harder to train dogs to walk on the sides, so their prints tend to be all over the trail, marring the ski platform. I appreciate that it would be nice to have a loop trip, however, and if enough dog owners get together maybe a new dog trail can be made out of one of the many leftover logging roads near the Echo Ridge road.
Hi fellow skiers, with all respect due to dog lovers and owners, I also don't like seeing the platform and tracks marred by doggie prints and leavings either. It's very hard to train your dogs not to walk in the middle, and with all the effort the FS and the Club has gone through to make and service the trails, and the short time they are available for us to use, I think its best to keep as much mileage as possible available as prime ski terrain. There must be a lot of other snowy places to walk or ski with dogs when the snow does arrive. (I hate to think of what dog doo does to the bottom of the groomers.....)
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