My apologies guys, while this is my first post here, I felt some input was due.
We ran down to E-town and headed up Hanging Tree on Saturday. We again rose the ire of the owner's help at the gate. He came out with both (metaphorical) guns blazing. I was able to talk him down and actually left on good terms. He ended up offering to have us park on the property. My recommendation is to park just outside the gate. There is plenty of room and there is no controversy. The owner of the adjacent property also stopped by while we were unloading and offered to have us park on his land the next plot over. Super nice guy.
The trail, as with the entire valley, is very dry. Dryer then I have ever seen it. We walked up everything. Still a ton of fun.
Hello again. You are correct, kinda. I only offered you parking on Tom’s land after getting a text from him authorizing me to allow parking for a fee. He and I have discussed this before, and this is the first time he said it was ok.
With that aside, this has been the driest this part of the Sanpitch range has seen since the mid 70's. If things go as normal, even if next year is above normal year precip, it won’t be seen for another couple years. XL Canyon has a few springs, and most of them are dried up. The springs in Rock and Dry Canyons are dried up. Same with Main Canyon, Coal Canyon, and I an uncertain about Pete’s Canyon.
Sounds par for the course. I parked on the east side of the gate on the side of the road, much to the ire of the owners help. We discussed it when he stopped us and basically admitted that he couldn't do anything to stop that. Even though he tried. Moving forward though, I'll be parking on the side of the road just west of maverik where it is ~500 yds wide (LOL) and there are weeds coming up through the cracks.
I have never tried to stop anyone from parking on the east side of the gate (with exception for the wedge property). I told you what I have been told by the county regarding the roads, which I have found to be incorrect. In general when both sides are fenced it is fence to fence, as I recently found out. There is one exception further east on the road, there you will find on the south side of the road a wedge shaped piece of property, about 6 acres in size, that is private. I have installed t-posts for signs, however, until Tom returns no signs will be put up. It is urged that no one park there as it is currently used by both county and a local business for turn-arounds and periodically parking equipment. That’s all I know of that piece.
Parking where you are talking about should not be a problem. Though I am baffled as I have shown people of a place that is much closer to the trail than parking in town, it’s free and public (BLM), yet it seems off-roaders and rock crawler groups avoid it. Ok, park in town then, if you want.
For those of us not in the know, can someone summarize the situation with this land owner? Is hanging tree on private property? Is access to hanging tree via private property?
I'd still like to do this trail and want to do it "properly" and respectfully.
Thanks
The trail is mostly on BLM land. When you go through the main gate, stay on the main road that goes to the right. That is the county road. Follow that to the next gate. That gate isn’t much of a gate, it’s been shot and run over a few times. It is livestock management only. It is private property on both sides of the road still, for 2,010'. When you get to the point the road climbs out of the gulch onto the south side of the gulch, watch on your left hand side for a t-post with a sign and ribbons. That is where the BLM land begins.
I'm local and have no idea what is going on out there. The gates were supposed to be a compromise, ie make sure the gates are closed, don't mess with equipment and the like and access was supposed to be guaranteed. The owners help may not know what he's actually supposed to enforce. He lives in a trailer right at the mouth of dry canyon during the summers. Those roads and trails (like Hanging tree until up on top) are public right of way. It's probably best to just park outside of the gate from now on.
Oh come on. You know me. And you know I’m willing to discuss this with those inquiring. Am I always polite? Well, depends on the attitudes and situation. I know what Tom wants, we have discussed that several times. I am here to do the work he cannot do because he’s a very busy man. That you should already know about him. I have lived in the trailer since March of 2017, minus a stretch this last winter where everything imaginable went wrong- heater went out; Moroni Gas refused to deliver (for 3 weeks) propane I purchased; the sheep got past the fencing and helped themselves to the straw bales around both trailers (about 42 bales) and medical issues. I nearly lost both of my legs this spring. They were infected to the point that if the infection wasn’t controlled, there was a good chance of getting them amputated. I spent a little while in IHC in Mt. Pleasant over that. Ever have dead tissue peeled from your legs, without anything to kill the pain? BTDT. Went through that three times a week for two months. Ouch doesn’t even touch it. And I’m not diabetic, either.
From what I could gather from the employee, he has had run-ins with some individuals so he is super aggressive about the situation as a default. He was fine after we talked. He wanted us to understand that the road was a public easement but the property was private and he didn't want people parking on the private land. Now whether this is his issue or the owners is not known. Regardless of the provocations or misunderstandings, the bottom line is the property is private and we have to respectful of that.
On a side note, I told him they should put a pay box up and charge to park/camp. We pay every time we park in Moab. I don't see this as any different. It's his land, I am happy to drop ten bucks if that will help smooth relations and keep the trail from becoming an issue with bigger consequences.
On a second side note, Ben stopped on the way back up the road to the trucks and helped one of his sheep back over the fence. So we have one in the positive karma column.
Just go with a positive attitude, and have a positive interaction with the guy. The more that happens the more the situation will cool off.
Yes. I not only apologized to you then for me being a dick, I’ll apologize again right now. Something that people don’t get, well
some people that is, is when there are signs saying no trespassing, well, it means...no trespassing. And signs disappear or get shot up because people disagree. Since I have been here as of March of 2017, I have been called out for a fight twice; lied to about consent from a family that doesn’t even exist; state health called on me because someone is offended about my crapper; a local rock crawler tried to run over me at least once; someone took it upon themselves to leave the Dry Canyon main gate open a few times, I missed class once and got to church late another time after chasing 120+ head of sheep back to where they belong; campers coming in and parking (in one case hunting as well) and either thought it was BLM land or that one fellas grandpa owned all of it (until we called his grandpa); My portable propane tanks (a 100 pounder, 2-20 pounder and 2-30 pounders) opened up and the propane, all 45 gallons of propane drained out; kicked out of several local businesses, kicked out of a class, and repeatedly chastised by a variety of individuals for doing exactly what I am supposed to do. Something about going to the bowling alley for dinner, seeing a couple of the rock crawler families there eating, and then to be repeatedly called “the short fat ****” and then some line about being a “wanna be cripple”, by, coincidentally, the same family that I “looked the other way” when they camped on Tom’s property since they claimed they were picking up all this litter and they were truly sorry and all this. And yes, Tom does indeed have a leash on me. Trust me.
I've been thinking about the parking situation for a while now, and there is a parking lot on Snow College's West campus. It's right at the edge of town, and it's empty on weekends. Week days it's about half full with employees of a company that rents building space from Snow. I'm sure if you parked in the back of the lot you wouldn't see any issues and you could drive to the trail head. 400 West 100 North.
Before doing that I suggest that you talk to Derek about it. He’s the college chief of police. His number is (435)340-1311. Last I knew it’s not allowed, but if the off-road and rock crawler groups treat him better than they have me, he might let you park there.
Something that few people know of is the efforts I have made in trying to get parking lined up to make accessing the Hanging Tree trail easier. I am not open about my work. I have been working on this since 2016. Ephraim fights me on it, I'm not from here so it's none of my business (thank you Margie!); same with the county. The commissioners are not really cooperative on this; road and bridge is being difficult; the count sheriff, he has some really good deputies, but the sheriff and I, the only things we agree on is the sun rises each morning (but if you give him a chance, he'll disagree with me on that as well).
Along with all of that, I already have 4 years of experience mapping historic roads for the USFS in Colorado as part of a program to accommodate the RS2477 rule. And I received several awards for my work. If anything public access if important to me. And to Tom as well. In this case with Tom, we just need to get people to respect him as property owner.
