Important Mt. Evans Info - FS is run by thieves

[thoth]

http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/mount_evans_fee_caught_in_impasse/C94/L94/

Pass this along to anyone in Colorado you know. I'm hoping hikers/mountaineers/climbers in this state get a better understanding of who our Forest Service is really run by before were only left with class one hike up regulated peaks.

[mconnell]

[cftbq]

This is so cool. I love it when government agencies get in each others' way.
What concerns me for the moment is that the FS continues to say that you can't stop at the summit without being ticketed. Practically, what we need in the short run is lots and lots of people getting "pink passes" to that they can't possibly "monitor" all of them. I'd like to be able to drive to the top, hike the Sawtooth over to Bierstadt and back, and drive home.

[ColoradoScott]

Didn't our forefathers secede from England for taxation w/o representation? Deja vu! Long live the wilderness w/o the bureaucrats

[Aaron Johnson]

Fabulous!

I have always opposed the fee system because of this very reason. It is so easy to decieve the public about the validity of any given fee program.

I have seen one of the first fee systems come and go. The fee for access to Yankee Boy Basin (for climbing Mount Sneffels and neighboring peaks) was repealed due to very hot and contentious opposition from the public, including the locals. Similar questions were raised concerning the use of the collected funds.

I had been led to believe the FS was using the fee money to protect Mount Evans and provide the amenities most folks would use during their visit (I'm talking folks that never get far from their car in this wild and wooly environment that is so alien compared to the comforts of the big city). I was impressed with the facilities that had been established at the Bristlecone Pine area, but troubled that other facilities at other places had not been improved. The ever present porta-pots was a sign things weren't better, along with trash receptacles that had not been emptied. Then, with my visit last year (we climbed Bierstadt's East Ridge route from the highway), I noticed the facility at the Bristlecone Area had been dismantled (anyone know the specifics concerning this?). Now I see this article, which compels me to question what the FS was doing with all of that extra money they weren't supposed to be collecting! Hmmmm.....Oh well, I suppose we taxpayers shouldn't be surprised at this sort of thing whenever pork barrel projects are involved.

The fee program as a whole continues to grow less popular as more of the public encounters it and its unsavory dirt-beneath-the-carpet aspects. The fee program is run by opportunists going after a quick buck off of a commodity all of us have already paid for. As more people realize this, the more we will see this type of thing happen. All I can say is, it's about damn time.

[Poor Climber]

Two things.

1. I was under the impression, that money you pay to the FS does not go to the FS, it goes to a general fund.

2. How far away from the summit does one have to park to not get ticketed? Can you park anywhere on the side of the road??