Travelers,
This post is a bit out of order; sorry about that. Corbly Gulch was the first survey I did this season (on June 20) but I have just gotten around to posting my findings and photos.
Corbly Gulch on the Gallatin NF is found on the west side of the Bridger Range, the steep 9000 foot peaks north of Bozeman. I've been visiting Corbly for at least ten years, and have climbed almost to the top of Sacagawea Peak from here, and skied from here across the top of Tom Reese Creek to North Cottonwood Canyon (a fantastic ski mountaineering route).
While the upper part of the Corbly trail #544 accesses some of the wildest country in the Bridgers, the lower trail and the access road have been totally neglected by the Forest Service and allowed to deteriorate to a shameful state. The upper trail, a steep, rocky single-track, is used by extreme motorcyclers, making for tricky walking due to loose rocks. The access road is useable by high-clearance 4WD vehicles only, or by Off Road Vehicles, mountain bikes, hikers and horseback riders. It is so rutted it should be closed, rehabbed and turned into a trail. However, the Gallatin Travel Plan calls for leaving this trail open to motorcycles, and I have no idea what they plan to do with the access road.
Once you get past the fence at the "trailhead," the so called trail is still more of a road, as it is used by large 4WD vehicles and thus has become severely eroded. Part of this so called trail is down right hazardous for hikers or mountain bikers due to large loose rocks and loose dirt. About a mile and a half from the trailhead the single track trail (which is becoming a 2-track due to increasing use by 4 wheel ORVs) splits off left across the creek, and all the jeeps go right (south and east) on a badly eroded user-created road. This road does not show up on any map, but it goes way up a very steep ridge - so steep it's difficult to walk up or down it. It's hard to believe that vehicles use this but they do. I found fresh wheel tracks with new and growing erosion as a result. A major erosion ditch runs right down the road.
This user-created road is the worst sort of example of why travel planning is necessary, why people should not be able to drive wherever they want and why the Forest Service needs to shut down routes like this and make sure they stay closed.

Phil Knight


Extreme erosion on "trail" #544 just beyond the creek crossing


Erosion on the user-created, illegal road above Corbly Gulch



User-create jeep road


New tire tracks scar a beautiful ridge high in the Bridger Mountains. Will travel planning end abuse of public lands like this?

Hello again trail wanderers,
On July 9 I headed into the Madison Range of Montana to check some trails and climb a peak. My destination for the day was Sage Peak, which meant a 20 mile round trip hike! Plus I wanted to see what sort of use the trails in this area are getting from Off Road Vehicles, mountain bikers, hikers and wildlife.
The Cabin Creek Wildlfe Management Area was set aside as part of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Bill in 1983. This law did not protect Cabin Creek and parts of Sage Creek as Wilderness, but instead designated them as a "Wildlife Management Area." It is critical habitat for elk, wolverine, grizzly bear, wolf, moose, lynx and many other Rocky Mountain critters. Unfortunately ORVs are allowed in here, and it has become a major destination for snowmobiles in particular due to wide-open, high basins that get a LOT of snow. It also sees frequent use by 4 wheel ORVs and motorcycles. The new Gallatin NF Travel Plan is supposed to ban 4 whellers from all but one trail (The Oil Well Road), but mtorcyles would be allowed on nearly every trail and snowmobiles would run rampant.
In 2002 I surveyed the trails in this area and found an illegal-user-created ORV route which linked Trail 68, the Oil Well Road, with Trail 206, the Cabin Creek Divide, allowing 4 wheel ORVs to cross the WMA through upper Carrot Basin. The Forest Service was unaware of this route.
My July 9 hike took me from Potomageton Park trailhead up the Minnie Wapiti Trail # 203, which sees very little use of any kind except elk! This trail is closed to all vehicles but snowmobiles and mountain bikes. There were a lot of down logs on the trail and no sign of people, but I did see a number of not-so-mini wapitis, as well as a bull moose. I found trail restriction sign that had been broken in half. Interesting how non-motorized trails receive so little maintenance.
Once on Trail 206 I could see that plenty of 4-wheelers still use this high route along a scenic ridge overlooking Sage Basin. I did find a few areas where repeated ORV traffic has eroded the trail leaving large rocks scattered all over and making walking or biking difficult. The two trails leading across Sage Basin (Trail 203 and Trail 11) are closed to wheeled motorized use, and there was no sign of passage by vehicles. I also saw several more bull elk and a large cow/calf elk herd.
Eventually I neared Sage Peak and decided to head off trail and see how far I could get toward the summit. It was a long steep slog, but the weather was perfect so I kept going and made it by 1:00 PM to the spectacular summit, 10, 684', the highest in the Cabin Creek area. I soaked in the fantastic views before making my way back down and out to the car by 5:30 for the long drive home.

-Phil Knight (Restless)


Broken trail sign on the Minnie Wapiti Trail


Travel restriction sign above Sage Basin in Trail #11


ORV damage on the Cabin Creek Divide trail #206


View from summit of Sage Peak


Taylor Peaks (Madison Range) from Sage Peak

Hello travelers,
On July 1 I ventured forth to see what the Gallatin National Forest had done at Bear Canyon, a popular trailhead near Bozeman. Bear Canyon has been an epicenter of ORV damage for many years, and noisy, obnoxious ORV riders have frequently disrupted the lives of the people in the neighborhood near the trailhead. Bear Canyon has some of the most easily eroded soils on the entire Gallatin Forest.
In the Gallatin Travel Plan, the Forest Service decided to keep Bear Canyon open to ORVs, as a sort of sacrifice zone. Meanwhile, they were to close the main Bear Canyon trail, which was eroding into Bear Creek, to wheeled vehicles until they could rebuild the trails to a suitable standard for ORVs. Needless to say I was skeptical that they would even bother with a closure.
Miracle of miracles, they have done it! What I found is they have stuck a big rock in the ground at the opening in the main gate, effectively blocking anything but foot traffic or a mountain bike. At the first creek crossing they have built a bridge which is easily crossable on foot but totally unfriendly to wheeled vehicles. Further into the canyon, they have completely blocked the old road/trail with logs and debris for over a mile, and built a new single-track trail on the east side of the creek. This new trail is passable only to foot traffic, though a skilled mountain biker could do it (there were no bike tracks). It would take a major contruction project to widen this trail to where a four wheel ATV or snowmobile could use it. Great work Forest Service!!
Further on up the trail, I walked a few miles of the Bear Lakes Loop Trail #440. This trail is as bad as ever, if not worse. It is still accessible to ORVs coming in from Goose Creek, and is severely eroded. I counted 27 old rubber water bars that were once supposed to check trail erosion. Only 1 or 2 were the least bit functional.
Water was pooled up in mud holes on this trail, despite a very dry summer, causing ORV riders to go around and further the damage. I saw frogs in many of these mud holes, which dove into the mud holes when I startled them. They would be doomed to get crushed should an ORV come along.
I am pleased to see the new foot trail and closure of the old route, and hope the foot trail is all the new construction that happens at Bear Canyon. It's time this beautiful canyon got a break. Bringing the Bear Lakes Loop up to standard would be a huge project and very expensive, but if the Forest Service wants to allow ORVs to keep using Bear Canyon it has to be done.
Stay tuned for more survey info, and get out there and see what is going on. -Phil Knight

New travel restriction sign at Bear Canyon Trailhead


Obliterated ORV route in Bear Canyon



Boulder blocking motor vehicle access to Bear Canyon trail


New hiker-only bridge over Bear Creek

Hello quiet travelers,
Phil Knight here. Welcome to Gallatin Trails, wherein I will post observations, photos and other data from the trails and roads of Montana's Gallatin National Forest. The purpose of this blog is to share the information we bring back from the field and to monitor the implementation of the Gallatin's Travel Plan as it is applied on the ground by the Forest Service.
I've been keeping track, with the help of many other people, of the condition of the trail network on the Gallatin since at least 1991. I started keeping organized notes and photos in 2000.
My big concern, which is shared by people across the country, is the growing negative impact of motorized recreation. Proliferating use of off road vehicles fort "recreation" has wreaked havoc on our public lands for far too long. Even here, where there is a huge trail and road network and a lot of wild country and Wilderness, ORVs have caused untold damage. The impacts of these machines has forced the Forest Service to recogize them as one of four major threats to our public land, and to develop travel plans for each segment of public lands, thus attempting to regulate what type of travel is allowed where. The Gallatin was one of the first forests in the nation to release its final travel plan, which they are now starting to actually implement.
This blog will help you understand how the Forest Service creates and implements these plans, whether they are effective at controlling motorized recreation and other forms of travel (like mountain biking), and how you can influence travel plans in your area and elsewhere.
Bookmark this site, and get out on the trails with your camera!

-Phil Knight

With my wife Alaina in Yellowstone



The spectacular Hyalite Peaks in the Gallatin National Forest