CB Dispersed Camping

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cottonmountaineering
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Re: CB Dispersed Camping

Post by cottonmountaineering »

ker0uac wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:29 am
jmanner wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:36 am Amazon boxes don’t give you cholera. Whataboutism isn’t going to keep the forest or the urban waterways in the front range clean of human waste.

But this is WHY we have government regulations, because prior to the regulations people couldn’t be bothered to clean up after themselves and the local, regional environment suffered greatly.
ker0uac wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:37 am I am against most regulations, one of the reasons being it always ends up unfairly benefiting one group versus another. Case in point: Gunnison county implemented lots of temporary restriction last summer that pissed off some powerful people. Now those same powerful people are trying to "buy" officials to defend their interests: https://www.hcn.org/issues/53.1/south-e ... y-hit-back
Cholera? That disease that has been pretty much eradicated in the developed countries? I'd say hyperbole and fearmongering aren't going to help either.

You think regulations have forced people to clean up after themselves? In my 36 years in this planet, if anything, all I have seen is the situation get worse. My issue with regulations is that it allows profit-seeking development that impact the environment greatly while curbing the use by those who are just casually using the space. Is the trash left behind by weekend skiers who crowd the mountain communities in the winter hauled all the way back to Denver? Where does the sewage from the hotels/resorts that occupy every single corner of Breck end up?

It seems to me that if you choose to live according to society standards, that is, flying places, staying in hotels, buying crap, living in cities, driving to work every day, your carbon footprint is grandfathered. The issue with carbon footprint only exists for those who refuse to live like that. If I quit driving or flying, can I then poop in the backcountry just our ancestors did? If I quit buying bottled water or bottled soda or bottled energy drinks, can I then poop in the backcountry like our ancestors did? If I stop using plastic straws and plastic bags, can I then poop in the backcountry like our ancestors did? It's all just too hypocritical for my taste.
i used to live in oregon and they have a lot more red tape for accessing public lands, ex cascade volcano pass. i'm not sure where the money went and the permit systems were a hassle. hope that doesn't happen in CO
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madbuck
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Re: CB Dispersed Camping

Post by madbuck »

SchralpTheGnar wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 9:23 am If you’re heading up to the area to disperse camp and those spots are full, what are the backup options in the area?

I’ve never bothered with disperses camping with the family, we don’t go camping unless we have a reservation at a campground and those are getting harder to get than red rocks tickets.
Good question, I wonder as well. My backup plan last time was to try Brush Crk, backtrack to Cement Creek (although would also be as tough), and then tuck tail back to Taylor Park or Gunnison.
Sometimes I check out availability of private campgrounds as a possible backup, which I generally avoid although sometimes have been pleasantly surprised.
And always, when in an area, I keep an eye out for potential future spots and note how it looks on a weekend.

I dread* (in a relative sense within this topic) things ever getting so tough that we end up in a hotel (the ultimate backup) and I spend the weekend as Angry Dad (also in a relative sense).

I'm also going to avoid the 'whataboutism' for the larger context, as it is valid and useful to solve individual problems circumscribed within a more limited realm. In the case of camping, as you brought up with scarce availability of reservations, one change I'd like to see is more flexible cancellation when feasible. For CO State Parks, for example, canceling within 2 weeks costs the first night. If plans change, or if someone reserves it but finds something better, there's no incentive to canceling a single night. So there are unused spots. I also understand some parks are harder than others to update the reservations regularly, so I'll step back to suggest that, given increased usage and improved technology, they should work at metrics for decreasing unused spots/increasing total usage of available spots, and decreasing the cancellation window required to maintain those objectives.
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Chicago Transplant
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Re: CB Dispersed Camping

Post by Chicago Transplant »

madbuck wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 11:25 am
SchralpTheGnar wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 9:23 am If you’re heading up to the area to disperse camp and those spots are full, what are the backup options in the area?

I’ve never bothered with disperses camping with the family, we don’t go camping unless we have a reservation at a campground and those are getting harder to get than red rocks tickets.
Good question, I wonder as well. My backup plan last time was to try Brush Crk, backtrack to Cement Creek (although would also be as tough), and then tuck tail back to Taylor Park or Gunnison.
Sometimes I check out availability of private campgrounds as a possible backup, which I generally avoid although sometimes have been pleasantly surprised.
And always, when in an area, I keep an eye out for potential future spots and note how it looks on a weekend.
If you look at their map, the Kebler Pass dispersed zone pretty much ends a little past the Lake Irwin cut off, seems to be before the actual pass to me. You could try farther up that road to the west of the actual pass. The dispersed zone goes to just about Ohio Pass, but over the pass may have some options? I can't remember what opportunities are like on Ohio Creek that close to the pass, but Kebler has a few areas near the Beckwiths or Horse Ranch Park that I have seen people camped in when I drive over that only seem to fill up in fall color/hunting (so far).
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JQDivide
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Re: CB Dispersed Camping

Post by JQDivide »

I spent a lot of time in CB last year.... it was a s**t show with the dispersed campers.

One weekend... if there was a spot to park a car on those roads, a car was there, if not two.
It was more crowded than I have ever seen it.

The mess that was left behind in some spot was pretty bad.

Granted, a lot of what happened last year was due to COVID and EVERY other possible activity was cancelled, so people went outside. It was a mess all over the state.

I talked to a CB resident and she talked about the trash they were picking up and water tests they were doing in the drainages. It's been a long time problem, but was amplified last summer.

Washington Gulch road already had the Dispersed sites numbered last year.

I think we'll start seeing this in more and more places.

Joel
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