maybe for good I hope you enjoyed it while you could!! Natural Bridge Station , VA (June 5, 2009)...The USDA Forest Service placed an emergency road closure on 4.5 miles of Peavine Road (Forest Road 318) in Amherst County. Locked gates were placed near the top of Bear Tolley Road (Forest Road 36E) and the intersection of Peavine and Pera Road (State Route 610) and will remain locked until further notice. The closure begins Monday, June 8. The road has been open to the public routinely from April 1 to the first week in January each year. The period of closure is normally a time roads can avoid damage from vehicles during the typical freeze and thaw patterns, but illegal motoring around the gates and through the woods created year-round access. Numerous attempts to block this access failed. This year the road sustained extensive damage due to the wet spring, mud bogging and cross-country travel. Damage to the road, due to illegal activities, is not new as the Forest Service made numerous repairs in the past, only to see problems reoccur. No estimates of the cost to repair the road have been made. "Not only is the damage to the environment extensive, but the road is unsafe to travel," said Glenwood and Pedlar District Ranger Annie Downing after a recent visit to the site. "Numerous large mud holes are in the road and are so deep that people are cutting trees to drive around them, thereby creating new roads." Illegal cross-country travel has destroyed vegetation in adjacent wildlife openings and closed timber access roads. Sedimentation from the mud bogs can be seen spilling down slope and towards streams after a vehicle passes. Downing has no timeframe to re-open the road. "Repairing Peavine Road is not a high priority at this time," Downing added. "I have several hundred miles of roads that are open at least part of the year to the public and I have to prioritize where to spend my road maintenance funds, such as on roads that access residences, recreation areas, and other high use portions of the National Forest. Considering the historical abuse of this road and the poor location in wet clay-based soils, any repairs would be unsustainable."
This is bullshit. This is what the government does with our hard earned tax money. Who do I write about this?
I was up there a couple of weeks ago and saw the new signs and new gate. That's a real buzz kill. This road was part of a great ride from Montebello to Big Island. Dual Sport riders should be put on the endangered species list due to loss of habitat. Of course you could take the cashaw creek trail and avoid this gate, it would only cost $125. I imagine there is nothing that can be done about this. No one in the forest service cares about motorcycle access.