Dorset Caves

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Please read and listen.

IMPORTANT ANNOUCEMENT!! Please read!

Regarding the Dorset Caves Trail access:

As many of you know already, there is a gate at the bottom of the trail restricting access to the Dorset Caves Trail. For now, we are asking that this gate be respected and remain closed while we work in partnership with a few organized clubs in the Northeast Association of 4wd Clubs and Tread Lightly! to present the Town of Dorset with a long term plan for both ethical and sustainable access.

We have received many messages and calls willing to help the organized cleanup effort, and we appreciate it immensely- however, one of the issues we are up against is the amount of vehicles on the trail to begin with, so a huge public cleanup effort is not in the short term plan. This outpouring of support would have been greatly appreciated before it got to this critical stage, when overuse and unethical practices created an issue where the trail was closed to traffic. The cleanup will be handled in stages, with traffic to the site kept regulated. For now, if you would like to help, please consider joining Tread Lightly! if you haven’t already done so, and take the short online 101 awareness course about outdoor ethics (link at the bottom of this message).

Unfortunately, many people that had strong opinions about what “responsible access” to this trail was a few months ago, when all the warnings that a conflict was on the horizon, have been conspicuously silent.

We are keeping a list of people who would like to be involved and we will absolutely reach out to you when the time comes. As I mentioned, in the short term we need to keep access closed while a plan is formulated and funds are procured for the efforts.

I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT go to visit the Dorset Caves, even on foot. We need less traffic there, not more. Several locks have been cut off the gate recently, and the property owner has made modifications to keep that from happening again. Even more recently, someone has created a new path around the gate which will be closed back off. This is completely unacceptable behavior and erodes our position as motorized recreational enthusiasts with the town as well as the adjacent property owners. It is also completely against the principles of Tread Lightly! and the polar opposite of the responsible behavior we need to model if we want access to be allowed. Regardless of your feelings on the legality of the current gate or the lockout, if you want this trail to reopen in any capacity, we need it to remain closed.

Additionally, this is not and never has been an approved camping site. This is another issue that has been brought to our attention as something that needs to be adhered to in the future.

The Town of Dorset, property owners, neighbors and the outdoor recreational community need to work together as a united front in order to keep this historic treasure open to the public. We are respectfully asking for anyone who sees this message to give us time to figure this out with the appropriate parties involved. One of the items in our tentative long term plan is cleaning up the graffiti at the site, some of which has been there for decades.

Respect the land, preserve your right to ride.

Thank you for your time.

Ron Harrington II
Owner, Head Guide
Ridgeback Guide Service
Tread Lightly! Tread Trainer/Ambassador

TL! Online Awareness Course:
Is posted in the comments, Thank you