ACTION ALERT: Doran Dr./ Oddessa Cyn Gate Keeper bypass closed off

[Desert Jewel]

It would help if someone near Calico could snap a few pictures of the closure.

Thanks

Tam

I might take a drive out there before my club meeting tonight and take some pic's...I'm kinda curious to see it myself

[Shadly1]

shadley1, we all git what yer sayin' but rollin' over the obsticles is not gonn a be good for us. The whole respect thing is in play there. I would like to see something legitamite that says the trail (by-pass) is closed, or open, because if some crazy kids just stacked some rocks to mess with us that would suck... but until we get some official word otherwise we have to call it closed.

as for my post about FJ's and H3's and people paving the trail... I am just having sum fun there, I know they are capable rigs and good people...

Naw, I wouldn't break the rules to ride Doran. Besides, I'd probably be with you guys. It would be nice to know that this closure was allowed and approved and all that. Even if it was on private property, an easement needs to be officially terminated in an agreement between the county and the BLM. I highly doubt that happened.

"Blocking access to someone who has an easement is a trespass upon the right of easement and creates a cause of action for civil suit. For example, putting up a fence across a long-used public path through private property may be a trespass and a court may order the obstacle removed." -Wiki

[JeepGal]

From what Ive read and what Ive seen, the bypass itself (the curvy portion through the small sand hills) is on regional park property, the road that runs along the ridge is County.

The problem is that there is more then one way into Calico Regional Park. Heck, if you think about it, the Gatekeeper is a barricade of sorts that wont let you easily get from Doran Canyon to Calico Regional Park. And again, if you go up Odessa and back around to Doran, you can enter the park that way as well. I worry if we are able to move the barricade nearer to the campground, then the road that leads from the campground to the GateKeeper would then get used. Barricades/gates (like the forest service uses) would help, but because of the terrain being pretty flat, people will just go around them. Its going to take some creative thinking to come up with a way to get this accomplished.

Ultimately, what needs to happen, is Calico Regional Park needs to be fenced off. I dont think thats going to happen.

Tam

[Shadly1]

By placing the barricade where they did, they left access to Doran Bypass open from their property and blocked it from public land. In essence, they are charging an entrance fee to a vast majority of street legal vehicles to access public use land. Heavily modified vehicles can still use Gatekeeper. Odessa is not a viable alternative because of the distance involved. The barricade will actually force non-heavily modified vehicles to trespass into the campground if they are coming down the canyon.

Jeez, I don't know what the solution is but it's going to take a lot more contact and communication and most definitely a lot more camping and trail riding.

[Roger]

I'm not really clear where the closure is exactly. It doesn't block the road we took to get to the MJR IDTT camping area does it?

[sarah]

Julie drove out there early this evening and took some photos and video. She said she'd post the details after her VV4W club meeting tonite. Stay tuned!

[dirtman13]

Julie drove out there early this evening and took some photos and video. She said she'd post the details after her VV4W club meeting tonite. Stay tuned!

Julie, did you test out the new rig on Gatekeeper?

[Desert Jewel]

Julie, did you test out the new rig on Gatekeeper?

I did drive over and check it out, took pics. It was very tempting!!

[Shadly1]

I'm not really clear where the closure is exactly. It doesn't block the road we took to get to the MJR IDTT camping area does it?

No. If you took that road to where we camped, you would see the closure on your left on your way in. It's about halfway between the campsite and Ghost Town Road.

[Desert Jewel]

The Doran bypass is blocked at two of the entrances. There are three ways up to the bypass from what I could see. The original "winding" way we usually take, and two more to the left of that. The first one to the left used to have a signal pole blocking it off. No way to tell how old the pole is, as it is laying sideways now because this is how people are getting thru. The other entrance is to the left of that and has boulders in front of it. The original way we use has a set of huge boulders in front of it and then another set of boulders about 30 feet north of it. I walked the entire way up and it seems to have been washed out, or bull-dozed somehow because it was a lot wider path way then what it used to be. There was not one sign anywhere stating the bypass was closed.

At the top, there are still the signs posted "No OHV beyond this point in Calico". They have a huge barrier around their entrance of built up dirt. Looked somewhat new...I don't remember it being that high before.

I did go over to the Gatekeeper to check it out. It did seem to have more rocks piled in it then normal, but still it's old self waiting to eat the next rig. I did notice there were two mine openings on the right side that I never realized were there before. I think they used to have boulders blocking them off, but not sure.

When I hit the highway, I saw a ranger sitting on the side of the road so I stopped to talk to him. He was with Calico. I asked him about the blockage and if he knew who did it. He brought out a map and I showed him where I was talking about. He said Calico did not do it, that it was not Calico property...it is BLM land. He was not in favor of the off-roading community and not very friendly to talk to. However, he did give me the map of the trails and area that has important phone numbers on it. I will get the map to Sarah so she can get it posted up.

The phone numbers:
San Bernardino County Land Use Services OHV Enforcement
North Desert Complaint Line 760-843-4337
County-wide Complaint Line 800-722-3181

One thing I find difficult to understand was that Calico does allow camping to OHV'ers. I am not familiar with inside the campground, but do they not allow those campers to travel thru the campground to the trails where they are stating we are crossing over??

One more interesting thing. At the VV4W club meeting tonight it was said that the Daily Press did have a write up in about the closure and that it was closed off by Calico. I searched the archives for the Daily Press and couldn't find a thing about this.

Pictures & video to be posted in a new post.

[Desert Jewel]

Doran bypass main blockage:




Sign at top of Doran bypass posted by Calico stating "No OHV beyond this point" with the mounds of dirt blocking entrance to the campground:




View from the "No OHV sign" at the bypass trail going up the ledge:


View from the "No OHV sign" at the bypass trail going down to the blocked area:


Going down Doran bypass toward blocked area - see new trail bypass to go around blocked area on the right:




New road going around blocked area:


View of bypass blocked from going down:






View of new road to left of bypass going up from the BLM side:


View of Gatekeeper and the mines on the right side:




Videos will be in the next post.

[Desert Jewel]

Videos...it was very windy and walking the trail in flip-flops was not an easy thing to do!

[Shadly1]

Great recon, Julie!

It's nice to see that it's an obviously unwelcome addition by all the new paths created. I have to ask... is this real? Is this an official closure? It just looks like a half-assed attempt to inconvenience a few people. I mean, come on! Putting up rocks to prevent access by rock crawlers?

Signs, steel poles, railroad ties... these are effective barriers.

[Roger]

Julie,

Thanks for your posting, great work! But were you really wearing flip flops out hiking?? I hope you were watching your steps very carefully! See any snakes?

[Schmo]

Great recon, Julie!

It's nice to see that it's an obviously unwelcome addition by all the new paths created. I have to ask... is this real? Is this an official closure? It just looks like a half-assed attempt to inconvenience a few people. I mean, come on! Putting up rocks to prevent access by rock crawlers?

Signs, steel poles, railroad ties... these are effective barriers.

I was wondering the same thing . . . what's to stop some treehugger (wait no trees in Calico) . . . um . . . ok . . . tortoise habitat activist . . . or even hardcore wheelers that want the whole trail to themselves, from moving some rocks around. If none of the powers that be are aware of the closure, perhaps it should just disappear :dunno: Usually signs are the first things to go up, followed by barriers, when it's official.