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A look back at 2017 and wishing all a Happy New Year for 2018

What's your Association been up to.......

Video from meeting archived on Facebook from our LIVE stream

SFWDA Membership Status

  • Membership overall is up over 10% on a year to year bases.
  • Active club members: 2018 / up 16%
  • Individual members 375 / Premium members 223
  • Clubs 36/ up 12.5%
  • Business members: 62 /up 19.2%

Social Media (Dec. 2017)

  • Facebook Group: 7,006 / up 13%
  • Facebook Page 1,000 Likes + since mid 2017 inception 
  • 500+ followers for Instagram
  • 300 followers on Twitter

Third party awards for BOD Members

  • UFWDA Four-Wheeler of the Year Award:  Flint Holbrook
  • ORBA/SEMA Recognition Award for Outstanding Commitment:  Walter Shafer and Pete Mier

Regional Land Use Updates

Brent Galloway: WindRock – state of park activities

  • Additional cabins to be built on WR land and within the next 2 months online reservation will be available.
  • Building new parking lot next to T2- will be open for special events.  
  • WRP be getting into the concert business.  Spring 2018 will be timeframe of first event.
  • Currently has a Shooting range- shoot your own or rent.
  • A new restaurant on site:  WR Grill   
  • WR Bike Park- leased area for a prof mountain cyclist.   WR is diversifying. 
  • WR ATV Club is involved with trail systems since inception.   Disbanding at end of year.

DBBB Mountain Springs Rd Update:

  • Another hearing schedule on December 6.  We are trying to show 15 years of public use of roads. 
  • Goal to move forward to receive from the court system a Summary Judgement by Feb 2018.

New dialogues about the Blackwater Watershed.

  • Aaron Roddy- Carburetor Hill update:  
  • Early this year Forrest Service has closed it to OHV traffic due to landslide. 
  • Next few years to start process to do a land swap with the Forest Service and County. 

Uwharrie National Forest update: updates by Flint Holbrook and Ray Stanley

  • New District Ranger Michael Spisak  
  • USFS approved Interpretive OHV Trail system developed by Tread Lightly, 4Wheel Parts and Path Less Traveled, Inc.
  • Construction of expansion of Baldwin Lake Trail starting mid-December and will be RTP funding.

Beasley Knob OHV

  • GBR GA RTP grant complete.  The ongoing maintenance continues.
  • Problem area at Nicholson Gap, the potential solution may be re-route.
  • GBR proposed adding camping to Satterfield Station area.
  • Jay Bird discussed new Rock Garden at Beasley Knob.

Tennessee Commissioner’s Council on Greenways and Trails

  • Update provided by Bob Yarbrough: 
  • Things are more positive than in years past.
  • Currently in the planning stage which includes the study and surveys of OHV usage

NFS Region 8 Southern Region Recreations Resource Advisory committee

  • Ray Stanley has seat on committee
  • First meeting was elections, setting up structure and by-laws.

South Carolina Recreation Trail Program

  • Updates provided by Flint Holbrook
  • Rebecca Smith is the point of contact.
  • Trick N Traction looking for RTP grant to provide help to land area.

GA Recreation Trail Program Ken Sutz GA RTP committee

  • Completed a 2year cycle for RTP grant funds.
  • Estimating roughly 2million dollars available for motorized RTP grant funds.
  • Pre-application phase in progress and Phase 2 scheduled to commence April 2018
  • GA NR Projects for 2017
  • Conassuga Ranger district OHV trail Maintenance $70K
  • Bush Head Shoals State ATV Park $1.1M ATV project
         Proposal had public resistance with NEPA issues; the project was not approved.
  • GA DNR Projects for 2018, preliminary $2M to develop OHV trails.

Overview on Land Use:

Adventure Off Road Park:

  • change of ownership in 2017  
  • Committed to hosting Trailfest May 3-6 2018
  • Troy discussed conversations with Shawn and his continued commitment to the AOP.

Big Creek Rocks LLC Uwharrie NC

  • Mapping by Cartotracks/ campsites built / entrance gate and fencing installed / road repaired and shelter pad rocked.

Busted Knuckle Off-Road Park, Stevenson AL

  • Monitor progress of BKOR / hosting SFWDA M&R March 3, 2018

Coalmount TN Southern Gulf Off Road Park:

  • Roger Theurer provided status of construction.
  • TN RTP grant – purchased 1340 acres with an additional RTP grant for Construction
  • Started the project in 2010; $528K construction grant coming in.
  • Will need volunteers to help complete this park.  
  • Will be requesting SFWDA grant to help maintain water issues and road access.
  • Target is to open in end of year 2018.

Golden Mountain Park – Sparta Tn

  • Property is for sale and was reclassified for tax purposes.
  • GMP loss significant monies in recent periods.
  • DR31 & DR32 on GMP calendar, but no firm commitment if property sells.
  • Review findings of Event Planning Committee in the 2018 SFWDA calendar building portion of meeting. SFWDA will continue to monitor progress of any potential investors.

Tread Lightly updates

Al Sweeney:  Master Trainer Regional training projected schedule

  • July in Troy NC
  • November in Greenville SC   
  • Support of UNF Interpretive trail and SFWDA Educational Initiatives
  • Membership discussion on cost, time and requirements for having a Master Training Class with individual clubs in the Southeastern area.

ORBA and UFWDA

  • ORBA association of motorized offroad related businesses formed to promote and preserve off road recreation.
  • One Voice: explanation of the purpose and what is stands for “one voice to our government leaders”

2018 Grant opportunities:

  • Regional Tread Lightly Training  
  • Educational Videos
  • Organizational Support
  • Charity Contributions
  • UNF Mapping Project

2018 Organization support

Charity Contributions

  • Grant request to continue annual commitment to $1K each to TreadLightly, UFWDA, ORBA, and BRC
  • Grant request to donate $2500 each charity Crawling for Reid and 4 wheeling for a Cure

UNF Interpretive Trail System Project

  • Scope: create printable map of 173 miles in UNFTS which includes OHV, hiking, mountain bike, horse back and Kayaking trails.  Key part of Treadlightly interpretive trail project.
  • Start Dec 2017 / projected complete date May 2018
  • Total cost $10,954 / Carolina Beach Jeep Go Topless contributing $5954/4 Wheels Parts $10,000
  • Approved $5K SFWDA grant to help support

We are optimistic for a very successful and prosperous year ahead in 2018.


Hope to see you on the trails soon. 

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California Residents declare a victory for the Off Road Community

California Legislators and Governor Make the Off Highway Vehicle Program (OHMVR) a Permanent Part of the State’s Recreation Plan

   After many months of concentrated effort the California State Assembly just recently passed amended legislation that provides permanent status for reauthorization of the highly successful Off Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation program. The State Senate concurred and the legislation was submitted to the Governor for signature. On October 3, 2017, the Governor signed legislation making the OHMVR program permanent.

BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA - After nearly a year of work with the California Legislature, State parks, Governor Jerry Brown, and stakeholders from across the country, the California OHV program has been extended. In addition, there’s a partner bill that makes the program a permanent part of recreation in California.

S.B. 249 and S.B. 159 are the legislative bills that Governor Jerry Brown signed into law. The California OHV program was introduced in 1971 and is funded by self-imposed user fees and taxes.  The program does not utilize general tax funds to accomplish its goals. The program also has an extensive “Grant Program” that provides funding for education, law enforcement and restoration through state, federal and local communities across the state

Over 80% of OHV opportunities in California are on federal land and facing budget shortfalls at all levels. The OHV program is an integral part of making sure that responsible and meaningful motorized recreation continues in California and provides the necessary funding to help augment those short-falls.

While it may seem that a complicated state like California would never allow OHV use, this proves that a viable, responsible and important program can work its way through a super majority and become stronger. Our original goal was to keep the existing program intact while at the same time make it permanent. With strong collaboration and hard work, we have accomplished these goals and are now looking forward to the future of off road recreation.

For more information, please contact the Off-Road Business Association at www.orba.biz

Fred Wiley
President/CEO
Off Road Business Association
UFWDA Treasure

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SFWDA Presents - Fall Meet n Ride 2nd Annual at Daniel Boone

Join SFWDA on November 4, 2017 for our
Fall Meet n' Ride, Slade, KY. 

OHIO RIVER FOUR WHEELERS and Kentucky Krawlers would like to invite our friends from SFWDA to head north for our second annual Meet & Ride day of wheeling in the Daniel Boone National Forest / Red River Gorge area. We would like to show our appreciation for all the support SFWDA has provided to help develop and promote the Daniel Boone Back Country Byway / DBBB.

There are NO registration or trail package fees for this event.

This may change due to Hollerwood Park opening later this year. We will notify through the Facebook event page. We are working on a free cost event even if Hollerwood Park is open.

We have enlisted volunteers from several local clubs to assist as Trail Boss,Mid-gunner, and Tail-gunners, for several trail combination packages, from Mild to Extreme. We will have something for everyone. Experience some of the trails you've heard about in this area: DBBB, Carburetor Hill, HairPin, WidowMaker,
and others. We have added extra trails this year, that were not open last year.

The Slade / Natural Bridge area is about 165 miles north of Knoxville, TN at Exit 33 off the Burt T. Combs Mountain Parkway.

We are eager to help you enjoy the trails we call HOME.
The following pages list registration instructions, hotel, camping & RV accommodations and local restaurants that will be open to make your weekend enjoyable.

Registration & Rules to Ride:

You MUST go through the SFWDA event site to register (RSVP) for this event.
Space will be limited this year to 150 vehicles. We had 138 last year.
Non-registered arrivals may be be added to groups if space allows.
Once you complete registration at SFWDA website, PRINT A HARD COPY OF YOUR REGISTRATION FORM AND BRING IT TO THE EVENT. YOU WILL NEED THIS FORM FOR THE INTAKE &TECHNICAL INSPECTION PROCESS.

We will offer 4 difficulty levels of trail riding this year:

  • EASY - Stock All Terrain Tires (31in.) - Green Sticker
  • MEDIUM - (33in. minimum tire) - Blue Sticker (Locker could be useful)
  • DIFFICULT - (35in. minimum tire)- Red Sticker (Minimum one locker)
  • EXTREME - (38in. minimum tire) - Orange Sticker (Front & Rear locker required)


You may go down in tires size if you like to join an easier group, however you may not go up in difficulty level with a smaller tire size.
This is to insure we keep rigs moving on the trails during the day, since other group will be using the same trails.

Due to the terrific turnout last year, we will begin the Intake / Tech Inspection Process at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Get in line early to ensure your spot in the group you'd like to ride with. Groups will depart the campground beginning at 8:30 - 9:00.

EACH rig must carry a First Aid Kit. You will not be put into a group if you don't have these items onboard.

Your rig MUST have one recovery point on vehicle.

A CB radio and full size spare tire are strongly suggested.

Each vehicle will bring a lunch meal & drinks to enjoy during a break on the trail.

Regardless of what difficulty level of ride you choose, at times you will be traveling on Kentucky county roads. You may not carry or consume any illegal drugs or alcohol when trail riding. Adult beverages around the campfire in the evening are welcome.

Our goal is for everyone to have a safe & fantastic experience.

Hotel / Cabin / Lodge Rentals

Li'l Abner Motel & Cottages
1000 Natural Bridge Rd
(606) 663-5384
http://www.lilabnermotel.com/

Natural Bridge State Resort Park, Slade KY
2135 Natural Bridge Road, Slade, KY, 40376
(606) 663-2214
http://parks.ky.gov/parks/resortparks/natural-bridge/
Black Bear Lodge Motel & Cabin Rental
781 Natural Bridge Rd, Slade, KY, 40376
606-663-0000
http://www.sceniccabin.com/
 

Camping / camper / RV

Natural Bridge Campground
90 L & E Railroad Pl. Slade, KY 40376
606-663-9352
http://www.naturalbridgecampground.com/

This campground is the spot where all activities will start from and has sufficient space to accommodate all camping guests for this event.

Restaurants

At the Slade exit

Miguel's Pizza & Rock Climbing
1890 Natural Bridge Rd, Slade, KY 40376-9019 (606) 663-1975

Subway
Mountain Parkway Slade exit 33, Slade, KY

Red River Rockhouse Gastropub
4000 KY-11, Campton, KY 41301 (606) 668-6656

Sandstone Arches Restaurant
2135 Natural Bridge Rd, Slade, KY 40376-9026 (502) 564-2172

Hill Top Pizza
1341 Natural Bridge Rd, Slade, KY 40376-9014

FROGGY BOTTOM DINER
1341 Natural Bridge Rd, Slade, KY 40376 (606) 663-3710


Where & When

Natural Bridge Campground
90 L & E Railroad Pl
Slade, KY 40376

Start:
Saturday, November 4, 2017 at 8:00 AM

End:
Saturday, November 4, 2017 at 5:00 PM

Time Zone: Eastern Time

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The CREEKBED CRAWL is new for Dixie Run 31! Finally a competition for everyone...

Trail 16 (Creekbed) Multiples Classes * Framed Vehicles Only * Trophies * Prizes

The CREEKBED CRAWL is all new for Dixie Run 31!  Finally a competition for everyone...

Is anybody interested in a little old school rock crawl competition?

 SFWDA and Southern Jeeps with 2 outstanding sponsors; Motobilt and B. Lee's Offroad will be hosting this all new competitive timed event on Trail 16 (The Creek Bed Trail) on Friday at 2 PM at Dixie Run 31. 

This competition will be for framed vehicles, Tube Buggies and extreme rigs can enter the Shootout on Saturday. There will be 2 classes , 37” tire and under and 38” tire and over.

 Trophies are being donated by Motobilt for 1st through 3rd in each class and B. Lees Offroad is sponsoring the event and donating prizes to the class winners. B. Lees is also donating a lot of stuff to the Raffle Saturday night too, so go check out the Creek bed Crawl Sponsor at Bleesoffroad.com and Check out Motobilt.com.

Use #DixieRun31 #CreekbedCrawl, #bleesoffroad and #motobilt to share your pictures and videos of the event

The course will not be extremely difficult but will be technical and will test your maneuverability and attention to what the best line is. Don't hit the cones , don't stop and definitely don't back up and you could be the winner of this event.

Rock Crawl Rules

1) Points are most important, time is only to decide tie breakers. If some one gets a perfect score in 4:59 and someone completes the course in 3 minutes but they have one point penalty , the perfect score is first place regardless of time.

2) The course time limit is 5 Minutes. Failure to exit the course in 5 minutes is considered a DNF. (Remember points are most important but you still need to finish.)

3) Lowest score wins. +10 points for hitting a cone +5 points for backing up +5 points for stopping more than 3 seconds ( If you stop for more than 3 seconds and then back up you get both penalties, so if you think you need to back up you probably should go ahead ) DNF for spotter touching the vehicle at any time while it's moving -10 for bonus gates -10 for spotter riding in the vehicle the whole time

 To enter just come to Trail 16 (the Creekbed) and look for the banners. 

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"Premium Members Experience" A Vendor Sponsored Trail Ride at Dixie Run returns

Our SFWDA Premium Members that were selected to participate in this special event in 2016


  "Premium Members Experience"

  In case you're not familiar this is a basically a win your way in trail ride exclusively for Premium SFWDA Members. Now, since we're approaching almost 300 Premium individuals we have to narrow that group down for the ride. That's where it gets fun and allows everyone to join in to WIN your chance to be on this ride. 

   Why is it so special you may ask. For starters you will be among fellow advocates which strongly believe in the core mission of SFWDA but better yet you can ride with top industry representatives who travel the country from event to event and have some amazing stories to share. They also firmly believe our core SFWDA mission.  Expect to see some cool rigs, and hang with some cool folks. After the ride our sponsors have some special prizes in store which you could win. Lunch will be served and it's all taken care of for you. Oh, wait, did I forget to mention there is a set of BFG - Tires, a WARN Winch, Tools, and Accessories, as well as a custom shirt for each participant to be raffled. 

* See Complete Contest Rules & Details Below

#BFGoodrich #driverenough #WARN #GoPrepared #Rancho #4WDParts #Clemson4WD #Rancho #SPIDERWEBSHADE #ShadeBrigade #DixieRun31 #SFWDA

These top sponsors believe in our core mission and strive to support our goals. 
Select prizes will be awarded to random participants from these sponsors during the ride at Dixie Run 31. 

  First off huge thanks all Sponsors on this special experience.  Remember to support these top brands to show your alliance with each. Their amazing support for fuels our core mission. This ride was originally their idea. They wanted us all to know they fully support us and our goal here within SFWDA. 

The Details

  The ride is scheduled to begin on Friday, September 22, at 10 AM.

  We will depart from the staging area across from bunkhouse and embark on a 2-3 hour estimated journey through some highlights of the park. This is a guided ride and it will require minimum basic safety requirements and proper OHV equipment to participate. After the ride we will together enjoy a catered lunch provided by our sponsors. After lunch our sponsors will raffle away an amazing collection of top prizes, and only to those selected for the DR31 - Premium Experience.  

This is a very special opportunity you definitely want to try and be a part of. 

So, now here's how you qualify:

  1. Active Member - Must be an active SFWDA Premium Member (You can still register & upgrade online for that) 

  2. Facebook Challenge - You must submit a short story (just a couple sentences) about what it means to be an active and Premium SFWDA Member along with a recent photo image of your 4x4 trail rig that you would like to drive on this trail ride. Post directly to our SFWDA Facebook DR31 Event Page then tag each of our sponsors in the post.

  3. Be sure to include # hash tags! 
    #BFGoodrich #driverenough #WARN #GoPrepared #4WDParts #Clemson4Wheel #Rancho #SPIDERWEBSHADE #ShadeBrigade #DixieRun31 #SFWDA

  4. Spread the word - Share your posting to your timeline and in as many groups and as many pages as you can to generate the most likes and shares possible.

 

* Representatives from our sponsors will ultimately be selecting the group of 20 lucky winners.

The competition begins now and will end September 1st.  Winners will be announced immediately thereafter. 

 

Huge thanks to our sponsors and all of our Premium Members. 

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Stones River Jeep Club enjoying time with friends and family at their Annual Club Picnic

   Looks like a great time on the lake with the SRJC folks. They all celebrated their time together. SFWDA contributed some door prizes, and one lucky person even won a Dixie Run 31 Pass.

 Check out SRJC in Middle Tennessee if your interested, the logo above links to their club page. 

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NAXJA Southeast Chapter - Cherokee Crawl Event contributes $800 to SFWDA

  The NAXJA Southeast Chapter which hosts the Annual Cherokee Crawl event this year up in Harlan KY at Black Mountain OHV Park had another successful event this summer back on the first weekend of July. Be sure to join them next year in Harlan.

To learn more visit their forum today; http://naxja.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=364

NAXJA Cherokee Crawl    
July 1-2, 2017   Black Mountain OHV Park; Harlan, KY 

 It was voted before the event that NAXJA would be making a donation to SFWDA. Well we are very proud to announce that we received a check in the amount of $800 which has been earmarked for our Education Video Series.

Dirk DeYoung
NAXJA Southeast Chapter Treasurer
NAXJA National Director

- Presenting their $800 Contribution to SFWDA President; Ray Stanley

The Educational video series is now into its third season and is at the core of our mission. Funds like this fuel our non profit association and make it possible to reach more folks and continue the fight. Thank you to the NAXJA Southeast Chapter for your contribution, it is already being put to good work. In fact the first video episode on season 3 is ready to be released any day now so stand by to watch the very newest addition to this great series.  

Thanks again Dirk and everyone at the NAXJA! 

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OHV community submits joint letter to our Department of the Interior, Secretary Zinke

  With cooperation from ORBA and the SEMA group among other OHV organizations we have been working on a draft letter to be submitted out our newly appointed Secretary for the Department of the Interior, Honorable Ryan Zinke.  

 The goal here being that with so many newly appointed representatives within our government we may have greater success in expressing our concerns within our OHV communities. 

  The letter in whole is attached below (click to view).  In essence the letters intent is to bring to light the huge economic impact stimulated from the out doors recreation community, and more importantly the motorized recreation component we're very familiar with. "As our nation’s largest landlord of federal lands, you have a unique opportunity to make these lands available to the American public in ways never done before in our country’s history." It was noted in our draft that in A 2012 study on outdoor recreation found that it contributed more than $646 billion to the national economy.  Forty percent of that amount, more than $258 billion is directly attributable to motorized recreation. 

View Document Draft in it's entirety here. 

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Our Trailfest Excursion Rides have some amazing new destinations routed for 2017!

Guided Excursion Rides are included with admission to the event. 

  How about a visit on top of a rare Natural Bridge, or drive through a very historic institution they call “The University of the South”, or maybe better yet a cave so cool it's a true National Monument and where artifacts have been found dating back to some of the earliest human occurrences in North America. That's just the half of it! We also have a spectacular "Waterfalls Tour" route too!

Thanks our new SFWDA Vice President Kevin Woods for mapping this route out in advance for us. Full details coming soon but here is a sneak peek at what you can expect. The goal was to highlight some of the beauty and charm this great area has to offer for folks attending Trailfest. Let us show you around a few highlights of the area.

These guided SFWDA Excursion Rides are intended for folks with street legal rigs and/or daily drivers who still love the experience of the comradery, getting outdoors, and enjoying nature, but don't need to hit the black diamond trails to have a good time. Whether it's in the dirt, or on the parkway, its all about getting out exploring and enjoying nature.

Be sure to register online now so your ready to book your guided ride when the slots open up. This is going to be beautiful! https://www.sfwda.org/trailfest/

Edited 3/30 - Sign Up's are now open. Go to the Guided Rides Sign Up Page to join us before all spots are filled. 

 #SFWDA #Trailfest2017

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