Clearing the canyon

Campsites, trash heaps and abandoned cars dot the Carson River Canyon. Shell casings cover the ground by an old mill wall less than three miles from a public rifle range.

The Carson City Parks Department is working on a plan for those five miles along the Carson River that the V&T Railway will cross. It will limit people's access, officials say, but will also help preserve the canyon.

The department plans to build a trail that hikers, bicyclists and possibly off-road vehicle riders can use, but it will also close off most of the area to cars.

City Open Space Manager Juan Guzman, who is working on the plan, called the V&T "a blessing in disguise."

While it will be harder for people to see the beauty of the "national park kind of site," he said, it will reduce the amount of trash and graffiti as well as number of people who live along the river.

"After 14 years of driving this thing, there are some real benefits to cutting off access," said Gary Luce, environmental engineer for the V&T project.

It isn't clear when railroad construction through the canyon will start, but Guzman said he hopes to get some of the money to buy the private land for open space from a park fund in about a month. The state commission that manages the V&T would then buy from the city the land it needs for the project.

There are a few miles done on the 18-mile railroad that will run from Virginia City to Carson City, and a section that will bring it across Highway 50 and into Carson City will go out to bid in the fall. The section that will bring it through the canyon and near the Carson City depot will go out to bid after that is done.

The project will cost at least $55 million and is scheduled to be done around 2011.

Jeff Moser, who runs www.BikeCarson.com, said closing the canyon to cars will be good for that area as well as for hikers and bicyclists. The canyon, however, needs to be closed to off-road vehicles, too.

"Motorized vehicles tend to tear up the trail, causing erosion problems," he said in an e-mail. "They are way more likely to dump trash, too. I rode dirt bikes for a decade and saw so much destruction on public lands."

But some people who drive through the canyon said it isn't fair to shut out drivers who aren't doing anything wrong.

Glen Forcier said he and two other men are living temporarily by the river, but they all have full-time jobs, pay taxes and keep their camp site clean.

It's too expensive for them to stay in a hotel, he said, and it's impossible to live on city streets.

"We get roused every day in the city," he said. "We only get roused about once a month here."

Also, the road through the canyon is the only route from the south side of the city to the east side of the river, and cutting off access to cars will cause traffic problems, said Pat Schmid of the Pine Nut Mountains Trail Association.

"I don not think a foot path/bike path mitigates this problem," Schmid said in an e-mail.

Those who drive cars, however, wouldn't be the only people excluded. There would also be times during the year when the only way to get through the canyon besides

the train would be by boat.

Banks are steep in some parts , so the trail in those places will have to be built close to the river. When the water gets high during parts of the spring and summer, then, the water will flood the trail.

But Ken Dorr, the V&T project engineer, said fact that the railroad will go through the canyon has been public information for 10 years, and he doesn't know why people would start complaining now.

"We've had public hearings up the ying-yang," he said.

- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.