A recent article in the newspaper highlighted a problem hunters were having over in the Cle Elum area. Forest Service roads that were damaged last spring during the severe flooding were closed to vehicle traffic. I've seen the pictures, and it is questionable as to whether some of them could have been quickly and easily repaired, but let's assume this wasn't an option.
So on one section of road, there is an open culvert. Hunters camp on the bottom side of the culvert area and have for years. They hunt farther up the road on the other side of the culvert. Some of the hunters drove their vehicles for 60-80 minutes around to get to the other side of the culvert, they thought legally, and parked them. In the morning they walked across the culvert, and went hunting. In the afternoon they came back, parked, and walked back to their camp. All seems reasonable, right?
Except that the road on the other side of the culvert is 'closed' for about 1.5 miles up to the point of the next road intersection. (Apparently there had been a sign, but the Forest Service acknowledges it went missing.) Nothing is wrong with the road, but the Forest Service closed it because they didn't want people driving down and then trying to cross the culvert.
BUZZZZZZZZ - WRONG ANSWER! Apparently the Forest Service has dumped a bunch of rock to stop vehicles from accessing from the lower side. So it seems to me they need to do the same from the upper side, at the culvert, not 1.5 miles farther up. And given the limited damage at the culvert, why didn't they just make the repair, permanent or temporary, and not cause an issue to begin with?
And what was the threatened fine to the hunters that parked on the upper side of the culvert? $5,000! Yowza!
One wonders if the Forest Service actually wants people in the Forest.... (Don't get me started on this topic!)
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