[Joey]

Reiter Forest is state land south of US Hwy 2 and west of Index. I spotted the following at http://cherryvalleyriders.org/currentNews.pdf (these good people are horse folks) "DNR held a recreation planning meeting for the Reiter Foothills area (off Highway 2 between Sultan and Index) Feb 12 in Monroe. They are starting the planning process to assess current uses and trails and to plan for future recreation facilities and trails in this area. The meeting was very well attended but it appeared to me that the majority of attendees were motorized vehicle users. The non-motorized users need to get their input into this process if they want trails in this area. DNR handed out information on the planning project, maps of the areas as well as forms for input and comments and committee application forms which are due back by FEB 29th. For more information DNR says to visit the Recreation section of the website www.dnr.wa.gov For more information contact Candace Johnson 919 North Township Sedro-Woolley, WA 98284 360-854-2803 reiterfoothills@dnr.wa.gov" ----------------- Here's some more info: http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/amp_rec_reiter_plan.pdf I thought this might interest some nw-hikers since there is potential here for relatively low elevation hiking. The top of the Index Town Wall is in this area, but I am not sure if that is part of the state-owned land.

[Jimbo]

Joey you beet me to this post. This area is a multi used area and has been for a long time. I was unable to attend that meeting in person but have been via email and phone. This is a great thing to get involved with if you hike, Mnt. bike or use some kinda off road rig up there. I've been playing there for over 25 years and found out after calling was that it's a large area. Goes down to or past the back side of Wallace falls per Sedro Wooley DNR. The user groups and privet citizens have kept it clean and for the most part in check. I've been up there the last 4 weeks and it's been clean of garbage for the most part till a week ago ? One thing that has been an issue from the user groups, OFF ROADERS is that there's no backing buy LAW. This has changed I think. As I was unloading last Saturday morning on the upper part (2) Sheriffs on Dual Spot Bikes came buy and checked ALL machines to make sure they had up to date tags. Then off they went to the lower part, I found out from other off road folks that they had been writing many tickets for out dated tags I came down to the lower part mid day and they were still writing tickets. The first weekend of May is come 1 come all for the spring clean up and free BBQ put on buy the Jeep clubs and Everett Power Sport's. Even though it's mostly OFF ROAD folk I have talked to hiking family's as well there. The clean up starts at 09:00 and runs till noon then a FREE BBQ is put on and it's good times.. If you have kids that need community serve points they can do that to. Any way thank Joey, I'll scan something in later today. Hope to see some of you there. Jimbo.

[Jeepasaurusrex]

Are they going to start ticketing horse riders for out of date tags?

[Jimbo]

Never know. https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=178292#178292

[Jimbo]

Have a read.

[Joey]

Here is the map DNR sent me of the Reiter Forest. Big area. Hope they get a better map together. Section lines would be nice. http://mysite.verizon.net/jelfelt/hiking/reiter_planning_basemap_jan10_08.pdf I checked the Snohomish County GIS for that area, but it doesn't seem to have an ownership layer. Reiter is a neat area. If you know where to go, it gives hiking access to the top of the Upper Index Town Wall (gotta cross Deer Creek somehow). It is also the approach for the challenging scramble up Ragged Ridge (or at least to the lakes). Kinda sad that SnoCo had to gate the road above Deer Flats in order to protect their spiffy new radio tower from nere-do-wells. Adds 1+ mile each way to the already difficult Ragged Ridge trip.

[Jeepasaurusrex]

Good pic of Robin in the Sausage.

[Sore Feet]

I'm liking this. Potentially clean access to Isabel, protection for the town wall. Ensuring public access to a couple really really hard to get to waterfalls that I have yet to find.

[Joey]

Here is a copy of an email I received from DNR ------------------------------------------ The map isn’t on the dnr website yet. I will try and have the base map that I forwarded to you added to the website. We don’t have a lot of documents regarding the DNR recreation planning at Reiter Foothills yet, but there is some general information there. The link is: http://www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/Topics/RecreationPlanning/Pages/amp_recreation_planning.aspx I hope that helps, David Way <reiterfoothills@dnr.wa.gov> Reiter Foothills Recreation Manager

[Schroder]

DNR is having another meeting on this. The complete article is here.

[Scrooge]

From the article

[Backpacker Joe]

Come on Scroogey. ORV is a FOUR letter word in the hiking environment.

[Scrooge]

I know some appropriate four letter words, BPJ, but this is supposed to be a family friendly site.

[Hulksmash]

Ever get the feeling that land managers treat out door recreationists as some foreign invader like milfoil, zebra muscles or english ivy.

[Dave Workman]