Another WMA access rant- access blocked to thousands of acres of Chestatee

[JustUs4All]

Enough. Please address the issue and not the person.

 

[Killer Kyle]

Although I don't know which or if any persons are at fault, and I do not know whether the public should be granted this easement or not, I can without doubt say that one needing look any further than the GON homepage to see that this sort of thing is not an isolated incident, and should be reviewed by the state. Even if Ripple is incorrect, which he may be, we should not dismiss the possibility that he could be correct, and a governmental process should be coenced in order to hear a final ruling. As it is, none of us know whether the landowner is in the right or in the wrong. The USFS will have to be the deciding factor, and it's not worth us squabbling over until a process has been put in place. For reference:


www.gon.com/news/private-gate-was-cutting-off-zahnd-wma-access

Has anyone here actually spoken to anyone or any office to get this thing looked at? And please for the love of God, lets all clean up the behavior on this thread. This was and is one of the friendliest subforums for both regular users and users passing by. Let's keep it that way.

 

[greg_n_clayton]

The family owns property that has a USFS road that accesses USFS lands. There are 2 gates that stay open. One on private, the other belongs to the Gman. Ours is only locked when nobody will be around for a few days. The Gman has a lock in our chain for their access should they desire through it. It seems you all are seeing what has been going on around here for a long time !! The blocking and gating roads regularly !! The guy is doing the Gman a favor blocking the road and you will not get them to budge !! Sorry guys !! I bet I could show yall 50 gates/berms blocking miles and miles of roads, that have been put in place in the last 5-6 years !!

 

[gobbleinwoods]

The family owns property that has a USFS road that accesses USFS lands. There are 2 gates that stay open. One on private, the other belongs to the Gman. Ours is only locked when nobody will be around for a few days. The Gman has a lock in our chain for their access should they desire through it. It seems you all are seeing what has been going on around here for a long time !! The blocking and gating roads regularly !! The guy is doing the Gman a favor blocking the road and you will not get them to budge !! Sorry guys !! I bet I could show yall 50 gates/berms blocking miles and miles of roads, that have been put in place in the last 5-6 years !!

Bam there it is. I have run into several of these new gates and have tried to find another route into publicly owned land. It is not always easy. My wish is that the bear find these people's land and tear up some thing that has special meaning to them.

 

[ripplerider]

If you will read my original post you will see that I NEVER said that it was a Forest Service road, only that they maintained it and the public had been using it for a very long time. I'm not a lawyer and I dont pretend to know the ins-and-outs of easement law. I think Greg hit the nail on the head with his post. I think the Forest Service is relieved to not have to take care of this little road anymore and theyre not worried about us little peons not getting to hunt that area anymore. Its a Wilderness area so theres no chance of any timber sales going on in there. Yes, you can still come in from the top but good luck getting one out before it spoils on any of the earlier hunts. I had to submerge a 6-point in a branch to keep it fresh on a mid-November hunt back when you could still bring them out the bottom.

I'm sorry I reacted the way I did. This place is really special to me though it's not really any better hunting than other areas on Chestatee. It was a favorite haunt of some friends who mentored me when I was first learning to hunt the mountains. My nephew grew up hearing tales of hunts I and my hunting pals from White County went on and I was really looking forward to showing him the area. The new gate was a shock to me and I posted about it as soon as I got home expecting other mountain hunters to be as dismayed as I was. I never meant for this to blow up like it did and I apologize for my part of it.

I'm beginning to believe that the Forest Service is no friend of hunters. Greg if I understood your post youre saying that the F.S. chose to lock your gate even when you didnt, right?

 

[Duff]

I'm beginning to believe that the Forest Service is no friend of hunters. Greg if I understood your post youre saying that the F.S. chose to lock your gate even when you didnt, right?

Now you're seeing the light.


It has been many years since I used that road, but I hate to see it close for the ones that did use it.

 

[tree cutter 08]

I will agree. There is one spot in particular, not gated but the Hassel and confrontation that comes with hunting that spot takes the fun out of it. I just have quit hunting it. You have to park close to a few houses, on nf and they can't stand it. Of course one of them is a move in and not sure of the other. You know, when you buy a place with public land around it, you better be willing to accept it for what it is or don't buy it. We passed on a beautiful place that borderd nf land. We really want it but after lots of thoughts, I just didn't want to deal with folks parked at the end of the driveway in front of the house. I'm pretty sure if we bought it and got together with the other land owners we could have had a gate put up and would have stuck, but I'm not going to do this blocking of access for public. The above land mentioned in this thread was bought with the intention of closing it off to start with. He told me he was going to close the road to keep people out. Maybe he had the legal power to do so. Me, I wouldn't have bought the land to start with because it had a road going through it that was considered public road for years.

 

[ripplerider]

Did he explain why he was going to close it? Is he against hunting? Do you think it would do any good to approach him about crossing the land with written permission? Theres not really anywhere to park except the road to the Pinnacle, Piney Mtn. etc. and thats quite a haul. Did you ever hunt Tollgate? Sorry for all the questions.

 

[greg_n_clayton]

If you will read my original post you will see that I NEVER said that it was a Forest Service road, only that they maintained it and the public had been using it for a very long time. I'm not a lawyer and I dont pretend to know the ins-and-outs of easement law. I think Greg hit the nail on the head with his post. I think the Forest Service is relieved to not have to take care of this little road anymore and theyre not worried about us little peons not getting to hunt that area anymore. Its a Wilderness area so theres no chance of any timber sales going on in there. Yes, you can still come in from the top but good luck getting one out before it spoils on any of the earlier hunts. I had to submerge a 6-point in a branch to keep it fresh on a mid-November hunt back when you could still bring them out the bottom.

I'm sorry I reacted the way I did. This place is really special to me though it's not really any better hunting than other areas on Chestatee. It was a favorite haunt of some friends who mentored me when I was first learning to hunt the mountains. My nephew grew up hearing tales of hunts I and my hunting pals from White County went on and I was really looking forward to showing him the area. The new gate was a shock to me and I posted about it as soon as I got home expecting other mountain hunters to be as dismayed as I was. I never meant for this to blow up like it did and I apologize for my part of it.

I'm beginning to believe that the Forest Service is no friend of hunters. Greg if I understood your post youre saying that the F.S. chose to lock your gate even when you didnt, right?

No sir. Their lock is there so they gain access iffin our gate is locked. Their gate, at their property line remains open.....so far !!

 

[tree cutter 08]

I think he hunts but not sure how big of hunter. Go by introduce yourself and see what happens. He's a nice guy, use to go to church with him years ago. I couldn't really understand myself why he closed it but I see why to. Coming in that way is definitely better than coming in through the other end or through white oak. Think he's building a house back there also.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

Think he's building a house back there also.

another reason for a locked gate, and no public access

thieves are everywhere, why invite them in to your place

 

[The mtn man]

I've been in that access a bunch of times, it's right near my grand parents, we had issues years ago with people telling us we couldn't go in there, that was 20 years ago.

 

[Killer Kyle]

Has anybody even bothered to consult the "Hiking Trails of Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests" booklet available for purchase and produced by the very USFS itself? Well guess what? I did. And guess what? It is described in detail there. Guess what else? The USFS gives us explicit directions to that very trail and that very trailhead. It never even mentions directions to access from the top? Anybody out there care to take a stab at answering that one? While you are at it, go ahead and tell me why it also is in The Highroad Guide to the Georgia Mountains produced by the GA Conservancy. Just curious.

 

[Killer Kyle]

Well, well, well....Aint this a gem?!

www.fs.usda.gov/detail/conf/home/?cid=STELPRD3841734

And this one:
www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/conf/home/?cid=STELPRD3805160&width=full

And this little gem too:
www.whitecountychamber.org/list/member/logan-turnpike-trail-cleveland-2893

Evidently the county government thinks it is OK to hike there. They even list it on their website as an attraction. Why is the county directing people there if it is blocked by private property?Fancy, ain't it? Sounds like we got ourselves a battle mounting, ain't we?

 

[NE GA Pappy]

Well, well, well....Ain't this a gem?

www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsintern...000&ttype=search&pname=Chattahoochee - Search

I guess so. What is it?

 

[Killer Kyle]

My link to the USFS page didn't work, so here it is:

www.fs.usda.gov/detail/conf/home/?cid=STELPRD3841734

 

[bfriendly]

So this one hasn't ended yet........I am curious to see how this one pans out. I can see both sides of the argument here. But being in real Estate, I know there is a thing about easements that gets fuzzy...........An easement can develop simply by people creating it. Traverse enough on it, it becomes visible, then obvious and "possibly"an unrecorded easement now exists.
Without knowing all the facts, I am thinking its possible someone bought the land "Thinking" they would close this easement. Yet, a judge might just think differently. I like the idea of going to a judge to see what can be done, or if anything was done in the past.

Someone should go to the Tax Assessor's office and look at the plat map..........it should tell you alot.

BTW-just because you buy a chunk of land does not give you the right to close an easement in use if it exists........

 

[livinoutdoors]

CensoredCensoredCensoredCensored, why doesnt somebody just contact the land owner and see whats goin on? This whole thing might could be figured out with a couple of friendly well spoken ( not me) outdoorsmen!

 

[bfriendly]

BTW-not to get off topic, but Allatoona is also dealing with Closed gates...........If they were not cutting timber a few weeks back, you would not have been able to drive "Through" a landowners property as the gates would be closed. "Reasonable" access being denied, even though the access was there for many many years.

Now, If I could go via Boat, this would be an ideal situation. But you are not allowed to have Firearms on the CORPS property.................What to do

 

[Duff]

Very interesting. Good stuff Kyle