Now I Have to Scratch the Tonto off the Camp List...

Tonto National Forest has gone the way of greed and arrogance. It not only raised its fees, which I admit were low, but they compounded that by terminating acceptance of the National Forests own senior/golden access cards! Combined it's an increase over last year of nearly 270% for the folks like me. For a month it is a jump from $90 a camp site last year to $240!!!... A little steep from where I come from.

Really it's the continuation of the attempt a few years ago by the vendors operating the majority of Forest service campgrounds (because the forest service is too busy NOT logging or mining) to eliminate the cards. I warned then when everyone celebrated the defeat of that attempt that they'd do this... Nobody listened then, I expect few are now...

The consequence of the ruckus raised over that fight a few years ago is that rather than eliminating the passes and their 50% discount... the vendors have all pretty much just doubled the fees.

Of course as a consequence of that, usage falls off steeply, so the vendors also open late in the spring and lock up, public land, early in the fall when there's not enough "traffic" to pay the profit they demand...

Everyone is all riled about the Bundy's fighting the BLM and Forest Service and their abusive management actions... and calling them and all the other ranchers greedy... while the BLM and the Forest Service continue to take actions which push the common man off the land... raising fees. Reducing services. Closing roads.

... Giving the land to private campground management companies at a fraction of proper and market "rental" rates: the campground management companies pay an avg. "rent" of around 4-5% of revenue... the store we had/have in Colorado the "Rent" is around 15-18% of revenue. But the ranchers, who are the ones who did ALL the water development which allows the deer and other critters to even exist there as well, are the bad guys...

and nobody says a damn thing.

Just one demonstration of the callous disregard of a government and it's bureaucrats gone deaf.

Between that and the people I blundered into here I'm pulling out a day early...

Two fellas, that I suppose could be classically labeled "liberals" regaled me with all that's wrong with Corporations and "Rich" people... Now, this is all done standing in front of the $500,000+ motorhome one of them was "camping" in...

"The corporations and those "Rich" people need to pay their proper share of taxes that they've been avoiding..." says one...

"Corporations Never pay tax" I observed. "The people who buy their products Pay The Taxes." they looked at me like this old cowboy was speaking greek...

Then I had an epiphany of sorts.

"uhhhhhhh... Wait! ... What???"  says I. His Motorhome (like I said, a rig easily north of $500,000) was standing there with Montana plates on it, as was his Toad...

"Didn't you just tell me when I asked what part of Montana you're from, that you aren't from Montana? That you registered your outfit up there..." wait for it... "TO AVOID THE TAXES???"

The fool just stared at me... buuuuut he did get kinda testy when I asked if he could spell Hypocrite... Yeah... I admit it... My diplomacy, more and more__SUCKS.

Behave and think in ways that I don't approve of. I cannot defend my own Freedom unless I defend yours, and that means defending Your Right to hold attitudes and values I personally find offensive. That includes Racism, Sexism, political beliefs... whatever...

... But... I draw the line when your arrogance, stupidity and bald faced hypocrisy attempts to physically impose your nonsense on me and mine. Keep it just words and your "hands" to yourself and we'll have no issues.

I vow... I feel just like that gopher at chucky cheese must. What do they call it? Whack-a-mole? Every time I stick my head up to look around__WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

I have come to see that the gnawing of loneliness is superior to__far too many People... or at least it's less nauseating.   

I think more and more of the Values held by Crazy Horse...

Sooooo... I'm taking my grumpy, broken, intolerant butt down the road a day early to search out some "healing" somewhere's else!

-Brian

Some People's Kids...and Other Stuff...

Got loaded and packed... I still remember how after sitting on the farm for too long...

The only issue with going to a "summer cabin" area near to the front range is that, even in the middle of the week... it's pretty busy.

The first camp I'd been instructed to find was full up... so down the road a few more miles to another forest camp... run by the dreaded "corporation"... where you pay for electric whether you use it or not... yup... I'm a dedicated boondocker...

... buuuuut... with the lil' ones it was figured that having an outhouse and such might be a benefit on their first "outing"...

So... I got a "nice" spot... lashed down the awning in case a wind come up and even collected a few pics... and then went to work sitting in some ease under the awning... sippin a brew...

hmmm... THAT was a foolish thing to do... I shoulda been payin' a bit more attention... ever heard the phrase; "Calm before the storm"?

Yeah... So my daughter and her little ones finally arrived after some trouble getting out of Denver... and we went to setting up their tent. That took all of 15 minutes.

At that point she went to hauling food and such into the trailer that needed to go in the fridge... now... there's this thing called ~ boys ~.They're little critters designed to torture test anything and everything within their ability to reach, touch, drag, push, pull or poke...

Those critters could jack up the proverbial Concrete Slab with a rubber hammer... And I believe are genetically predisposed to do just that...

So... with the momma in the rig putting food away... and the keys laying in her Yukon...

Can you see it coming???

Uh Huh... CLICK!!!

Yeah... There we are, 70 miles from a lock smith... an OnStar system to which they aren't subscribed... and MOST of their food and ever'thing else locked up in the car. There was a time I could get into a car/truck faster with a piece of wire or a pocket knife than I could with a key.

These "newer" cars have been worked over to just about make that impossible... so the next 45 minutes were spent organizing rendezvous between people in Denver with People who have not yet left Fort Collins to meet part way between to pass spare keys along...

Well... that's taken care of... and no sparks or smoke... so all's good... right?

Oh Hell... YOU KNOW BETTER! :)

Keriann and I were sitting there... waiting on her key to show up with her mother when she asked... "is that the wind in the trees?"

I looked off toward the sound of the "wind" and said... "hmmm... there's not that many trees left around here to make much of the sound of wind in the trees..."

"Is that rain coming?" she asked...

"Hmmm... could be..." It sounded a little like a freight train coming across the mountain... then it came over the ridge behind us and... WHAM!

Yeah... not so much rain as...

 She said that's big hail! I said; Nah... just pea size... she snooped around for a bit and said; BIG PEAS DAD!!!

Yeah... so... frozen peas on steroids are sorta hard on equipment...

*RV Roof vents blown out... again*

 Both of the fifth wheels' roof vents... that we just replaced a year or two ago... from a hail storm got blown out again...

*An RV Awning modified to let the light in*

And the awning got turned into to a rather poor skylight... :-/

I knew the awning was aging... but hoped it would last a few more months... I've got higher priority things than multi-hundred dollar RV awnings... what can I say?

I know... We'll live without an awning for a bit! ;)

So... the key showed up... hyper powered midget humans got put to bed... finally...

...and the sun rose this morning on a camp that survived...

*Sunrise after the storm*

Today... while they all play... I'm thinking seriously of taking the little car... and running on back down to the flat lands... and collecting up another pair of roof vents. I'm not real sure how well those garbage bags I wrapped up the shattered vents with will hold up over time...

Just Duckin' and Runnin'
Brian

Working Up an Internet Sweat and... What's the Wrong With This Picture?

Whew! What a day! Spent 6 or 8 hours doing a major... and delicate... reshuffle/reorganization of a large chunk of the Goin' RV Boondocking website that I've been putting off for a long time...

... 'cause if I screwed it up... a couple years of work could go POOF!

Well, late in the afternoon I got 'er done and with no POOF! either. So, if I'm right, the navigation to a bunch of pages should be quite a bit cleaner and make more sense... hopefully translating into my wages recovering a lil' bit! ;)

So... late in the day I needed to try to get my crossed eyes straightened out so we thought we'd take a short drive up a road we'd not wandered up yet.

Just south of us is a spot on the map called Tom's Place. A couple houses and a lil' Pub/cafe/general store...

From that spot there's a road that leads back into the Sierras to a place called Rock Creek Lake.

*Rock Creek Lake*

We'll be bumping north in a day or two I think... and we'd almost not gone up this way before we left... Sure glad something possessed us to turn up there. Running up Rock Creek road from Tom's Place takes you up as pretty a mountain valley as there is.

I'm no tree expert, but that sure looks like a Sequoia don't it? Anybody know for sure? It's what I'm thinking they are... only smaller on this drier, colder side of the mountains... Still a lil' bit more firewood than I could get hauled in one load though! :)

It was still just a sliver under 70 down near camp... as the altitude climbed it dropped off enough I cranked up the furnace in the truck so I could leave the windows open and smell the high country.

 

A lil' side note: The word is that Tioga pass should be open by the middle of the month. I'm hoping to be able to ride up over the top into Yosemite... that'd be my first time up that road, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The only downer part of yesterday's drive was seeing how many USFS campgrounds there are up there that have the poorer end of the country pretty much priced out of using Our Own Campgrounds.

It's one of my what, Two Dozen Hot Buttons? :) I'll give you fair warning... leave now if you don't want to read about U.S. Forest Service Mis-management...

For those of you who stayed... Here goes... ;)

You know, the Dept. of Agriculture has at least two agencies under it; The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

The BLM, in our experience generally has equal or better built campgrounds which the BLM operates directly, and generally charges $5.

The U.S. Forest Service at this point has given about 60% of the Campgrounds which WE OWN and are its Chartered Management RESPONSIBILITY to Private corporations for management.

Here on the Inyo National Forest, all the Corporate managed USFS Campgrounds are $20+-!

We stayed in Tuttle Creek BLM for $5($2.50 golden age/access)... there was a USFS concession managed camp a mile or so up the road, $20.

Here at Crowley Lake BLM... $5 bucks($2.50 golden age/access)... just down the road in Rock Creek the USFS camps are ALL $20.

Same camp hosts...Same outhouses. Same Tables. Same dumpsters. Same water access. Same Same Same...

Except... one is managed by those responsible for it while the others are pawned off to a corporation that makes no investment. (read the concession prospectus. Much of the work they do for repairs/improvements comes off their permit fees!)

Now... here's the real rub. The closest I can find (they keep the numbers well obfuscated) the permit fee for the Campground concessionaires generally comes to somewhere about 6% or so of the "Take"... (I wish our storefront rent back in Colorado was only 6%!!!)

So... The BLM charges $5... and the BLM gets $5 (and maintains it's campgrounds far better on the whole in our experience) .... The Concessionaire charges $20... and the USFS gets around...$1.20

What is wrong with this picture? Do you see a problem there?

If the BLM can do its job, and do it WELL, on that five dollars, why can't the USFS? They are part of the same Dept of Agriculture. What is the issue here if it is not some sort of corruption? Since the USFS has so many more campgrounds, I would think the economy of scale of their larger operation would make the USFS's job easier.

Oh wait... The Tonto National Forest in Arizona does just that! They manage their campgrounds Themselves... for $6! When we were at Cholla camp on Lake Roosevelt last year they'd just completed solar heated shower buildings and new dump stations! ... so why can't the REST of the National Forests learn to do their jobs?

Remember a couple of years ago when the USFS tried to eliminate the Golden age/Access cards for the benefit of the concessionaires? It raised such a stink they backed away from that foolishness quick time. Well, old timers... it's time to think of somebody else, not just us who have the benefit of the discount those cards afford us.

Think of a young, hard working, blue collar couple with a couple kids, rent, and doctors bills, and all, contending best they can with $3.75 gas, food inflation etc... they get ten days vacation and want to take the kids camping...

Ten days = $200 to stay in one of OUR campgrounds! or, if they can find a BLM... $50 bucks... A whole lot of people are simply priced out of the camps... all for corporate profits and bureaucratic laziness. It's just wrong Dad!

And yes, I said Lazy. What is it that the USFS is doing that they don't have the time to manage what They Were Hired to Manage? Why don't they have time for it... while the BLM does? ... at 75% less cost to the public?

I mean, the U.S.F.S is busy pushing ranchers off their grazing permits.(resulting in damage to the land from the LACK of grazing. They sure aren't busy putting out logging contracts... they've eliminated the greatest majority of logging in the country (made obvious by the rapidly worsening health of badly overgrown forests).

... and now I see that I'm not alone in my criticism...

private-operators-forest-service-recreation-sites-spurs-lawsuit

forest-service-sued-over-concessionaire-recreation-fees

citizens sue us forest-service

Maybe a few million letters to the right congressmen might make a few changes happen?

If the BLM, as well as the Corps of Engineers can get the work done as they are chartered to do, at a public cost that is affordable for the working man, Why can't the U.S. Forest Service?

Don't you think it's time for a change? Maybe we should just cut our costs... Eliminate the U.S. Forest Service, and transfer responsibility for those lands to the Bureau of Land Management? They sure seem to be able to do the job a lot better... Just sayin'

Until there is a change;  If the fees charged are more in line with those properly collected by the BLM I'll use a camp... otherwise, I'll be using concession managed campgrounds as a last resort and then only for an overnight. I'd urge others to do the same.

There... all vented :)
Brian