Drivers damaging groomed snow trails on Sawtooth National Forest

KIMBERLY, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The U.S. Forest Service is warning about the dangers of driving across snow trails in the Sawtooth National Forest. It’s not just a safety issue, it’s also illegal.

“We’ve had multiple instances of people driving on groomed snowmobile trails,” says Sawtooth Patrol Captain, Jade Sumsion.

Patrol Captain Sumsion says rangers have found eight vehicles stuck on those trails recently. These “groomed trails” are meant for snowmobiling during the winter and the snow on them can’t handle the weight of a normal vehicle, which can cause them to get stuck.

Sumsion says it can also create safety issues for people out enjoying the trails.

“Snow mobiles can go at a pretty good rate of speed, only to find those tracks in the road and then having snowmobiles could possibly flip over and cause injury,” says Sumsion.

“Please stay off those routes because they can appear to look firm but most cases, cars and trucks with their weight will sink in and get stuck,” says Area Ranger, Kirk Flannigan.

According to Flannigan, getting a vehicle unstuck can lead to costly towing fees for the driver and could potentially turn into a deadly situation.

“If they run out of gas and no one can find them what could happen is they might have to spend a night, the cold can set in and then it becomes a search and rescue issue,” adds Sumsion.

If a groomed trail is damaged by a vehicle, the driver will get a citation and may have to pay the cost to repair them.

“Those groomers are quite a bit an hour and so it depends on how long it takes them to rehab that particular spot,” says Sumsion.

To avoid these trails, the sawtooth national forest does have maps to show what roads are legal to drive on.

“That map covers all the way from the Burley area to up North Stanley, so it covers a lot of national forest,” says Flannigan.

Those maps are free to pick-up at any national forest office, or you can find a link to them by clicking here.

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