Twisty Roads Rally Group is anguished to report that The Road Not Taken cannot be presented this year, due to U.S. Forest Service permit issues which came to light Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, we met with Siuslaw National Forest Service administrators, who were exceptionally helpful in explaining the issue and its ramifications, and in working with us to explore alternatives. We regret that no alternative could be successfully implemented for the 2011 event.

As a brief description of the permit issue, our road use permit request is null, void, pointless. USFS regulations changed, about ten years ago, so that USFS is no longer authorized to issue special use permits for traveling USFS roads: the roads are open to lawful public travel, which includes TRNT, so special use permit is neither required nor possible, and our in-process permit request is invalid and unnecessary. That is great news. That request is for traveling USFS roads, as all previous TRNT permits have been. However, special use permit is now required for checkpoints (and was supposed to be required for every TRNT since 2002). That is catastrophic news--because a request for special use permit needs at least six months lead time for processing. The existing request is of no value because it does not include the information required for checkpoints (the information must then be reviewed and analyzed by environmental scientists).

In other words, as of Tuesday, July 5, we are now at least six months away from having special use permit for TRNT.

To be clear, this permit issue actually has existed for a decade, but its relevance to TRNT has been overlooked until it came to light Tuesday. U.S.F.S must rigidly follow its regulations, and cannot deliberately "overlook" the issue one more time for the sake of this year's event. The Siuslaw National Forest relationship with TRNT has always been absolutely wonderful, and they were eager to assist in developing alternatives to allow this year's event to succeed.

Twisty Roads Rally Group has a very nice event, potentially the best TRNT ever, just about ready to present--but it won't be presented this year. We regret this extended delay.

We surely will have more information on this TRNT web site within a few days. We regret the disruption to the season calendar and your plans. (Damned sorry, in fact.)

Bob Wakehouse
Twisty Roads Rally Group