A shooter told me the railroad had purchased the land around the horsehoe on the north side of I-80 in weber canyon and will close it on Sept 1.  I didn't have much faith in the rumor... sorta sounded like it's been going around for a while.

But just in case I went shooting there tonight (chance to break in my brand spanking new match grade 1911). Someone had collected nearly all of the garbage from the entire area.  At least a dozen or so of those big orange bags the highway department uses to clean up roadways were stacked up wating for someone to pick themk up.

The place looked great! But that has me worried about tomorrow.  I'll drive by on my way back from a client's in mountain green and report what I see.

Hopefully it's just someone's eagle scout project.

I've seen boy scouts up there several times trying to clean things up, and I usually bring a bag and try to pitch in a little too, picking up my trash, and whatever else I can fit in the bag.

As for the place being closed down, its happened before. There use to be a sign that basically said "No shooting, no fishing, no tresspassing" on the railway trestle. At one point there were also some large boulders moved across the road to prevent vehicles from driving in. The land there is mostly in the railroad right-of-way IE the railroad already owns it. I have had Weber and Morgan county sheriffs stop by and just basically check to make sure everyone was being safe, and then drive back out. I've never been asked to leave.

I think the new rumor has something to do with the UHP and Weber/Morgan county Sheriffs cracking down on illegal parking along the freeway between Riverdale and Morgan. There is a notice posted at Sportsmans Wearhouse, and there was an article in the paper a while ago. If you look carefully, all the ladders the DWR installed in the last few years, for fishermen to get over the fence, have been removed along that stretch of freeway.

Basically, the paintballers made a mess along the river and freeway down near Uintah, and the UHP made the decision to just keep everyone out, fishermen paintballers, hunters.... seeing as to how everyone has been parking there illegally since the freeway was built back in the 60's, they are "only enforcing the law".

Supposedly they are going to make and mark "access points" but I havnt seen anything like that yet. There is a grace period until, IIRC, Oct 1st, after that you'll be written a ticket for leaving the freeway for non-emergency reasons.

All in all, its a crappy deal for us fishermen and hunters.

Hmm interesting, hopefully they don't offically close. Its a nice place to go and plink without having to pay anything. I was shocked at the mess people had made back there, and I planed on bringing trash bags next time I went up there and pick up some of the mess...apparently someone beat me to it.

As far as the parking on the freeway that really stinks people ruined it for everyone. I used to paintball there all the time and did more than my fair share of clean up to keep the place nice. You wouldn't believe how fast everyone trashed the place.

As far as the traffic hazard, I was always sure to wait a loooong time for a good clearing in traffic to get back on but I have seen way to many just pop out onto the freeway with LOTS of traffic coming...it definately made it dangerous. It really is the dumb paintballers that ruined it(I say this being an avid paintballer). I also enjoyed fishing down there, every now and then you could get onto to some nice fishing. I never understood why the ladders started disappearing...thanks for the info there Wes.

Life will continue I guess.  

Just an update... I shot there twice this past week.  No signs of closure.  Just the usual "major malfunction" idiocy you see when Darwin Award nominees show up to shoot.

Just last night one idiot decided he had to shoot east instead of north or west.  That pretty much closed the whole thing down until he was done (unless you wanted to set up in front of his muzzle). I asked him to move so the rest of us could shoot, but he refused.

One moron decided he was going to shoot anyway.  He set up so he was firing across the other guy.  Both parties were in front of the others muzzle... not more than 30 degrees from each lane of fire. Three others and I hid in a nook waiting for them to kill each other or run out of ammo - I wasn't sure which would happen first.

I think I'll just go to Kaysville from now on... at least in the evening.