In November, a man riding a dirt bike in the northwestern corner of Cache Valley was stopped by a group of four men, one of whom had a firearm strapped to his chest.
The interaction happened on the path leading into Winter Canyon. It was captured on video, and showed the growing tension over a trail access dispute in the area.
Were the man to ride the Winter Canyon trail today on that same dirt bike, he would be allowed to continue on his way without issue.
Scott Shriber — the armed man in the video — argues that trails crossing his 800-acre Winter Canyon Ranch near Gunsight Peak are private, and were wrongfully added to county maps in 2015.
In May 2024, he and Winter Canyon Ranch sued Cache County, arguing that the county had falsely claimed livestock trails on his property as public roads, and that the county had “permanently altered” his land with a bulldozer.
In response, the county said it only used a bulldozer on the property to clear obstacles the ranch had placed on roads that the public had used “at will and without permission for over a century and a half to access public forestlands.” The roads, according to a counter-claim from the county, should legally remain publicly accessible.
Since then, the county has been joined by Clarkston Mountain Conservation, a nonprofit group advocating for the paths to stay open to the public, in its case against Shriber and Winter Canyon Ranch.
Through an agreement attorneys arrived at after stepping out of the courtroom during an April 23 hearing, the public can once again use motorized vehicles on the disputed trails that connect to public land on Clarkston Mountain — albeit with some limitations.
“We’re trying to sort of work this out on the fly,” Bruce Baird, Shriber’s attorney, said during the hearing. “We tried, and we did a pretty good job in the conference room of beating each other up. I’m the bloodiest one.”
Both sides agreed that as the case progresses, the public can hike, horseback ride or drive motorized vehicles less than 50 inches wide in Winter, Lower Elbow, and New Quigley canyons. In New Quigley, they are encouraged to use just one of three trails, and four-wheelers can only go up Winter Canyon until the path crosses a road constructed by Winter Canyon Ranch.
“The county has agreed that it will prosecute off-trail use,” Baird said during the hearing.
The increased access was announced in front of a courtroom full of dirt bike and ATV enthusiasts. Their off-road vehicles sat in their truck beds and on trailers in Utah’s 1st District Court’s parking lot in Logan.
Members of the public filled the courtroom’s gallery and six seats in the jury box.
“Right now, we are early in this case, and so any order the court enters is only temporary,” said Shaun Peck, the attorney representing Clarkston Mountain Conservation. “ I guess the best you could say is that, whereas Winter Canyon was going to block or impede motorized travel, now they’re open.”
In an email, interim Cache County Attorney Dane Murray said, “I ask that the public respect the terms agreed upon by all the parties and honor the private property rights of Winter Canyon Ranch. Please remain on approved routes while crossing the ranch and ensure no damage occurs when accessing adjacent public lands.”
After the April agreement, the attorneys planned to discuss access to Upper Elbow Canyon and Tom Buttars Spring, which are still closed off to motorized vehicles, at a May 15 hearing, but asked that the hearing be removed from the court’s calendar in a May 8 filing. For now, the public can access the area on foot or horseback.