I took my daughters over to Fish Lake last weekend for a camping/fishing trip. I've camped and fished this area for 20 years. Last summer the Forrest Service decided to gate and close off the North side of the lake and close down the FS Rd. I drove up to the gate on Friday and read the notice they had posted. It said that the Cascade Hide Away resort didn't want the public to go through their property and that the FS did not have a easement. Also, the garbage and road being so close to the shoreline was not in the enviromental right for roads. Also the road did not have a adequet turnaround at the gated side by the resort. After reading this I said this is a bunch of crap. For one thing, when does the Forrest Service give up their easement rights to a road?......This road is on the maps and goes through the resort and has for many years. Has anyone seen the government give up their easement rights? If they did then someone should get their ass kicked out of the FS. The part about a turnaround is bunk too. It would take me 30 mins with a dozer to make a adequet turnaround at the end of the road. The part about the road being too close to the shoreline is crap too. I can give you dozens of roads that go along the shoreline of lakes. As you can tell I'm ticked about this whole thing. I'm so tired of going to my favorite areas and finding a gate or road blocked off. When will it end?.....Does a normal citizen have any recourse?....or do we let the enviromentalists in the BLM and Forrest Service run our public lands without a say?.....

Actually Kent I think it you are to look into easments you will find that most FS easments are for FS access purposes not for public access I say most because there are some that I believe are specificly for public access.

I agree that it is a shame that our favorite places continue to get shut down day after day. I would say this is a reason to write a few letters to the hide away resort owners.

I dare to say though I will bet if you call them and ask as to why they do not want folks going through their property you will find it is because of the garbage. AS well I am sure they figure they can pick up more business that way..

It's because they went from being a standard resort to renting the spots by the month. They put up a fence for security... and that fence probably fenced off the road.

Thanks, I just returned from camping at Fish Lake for the week and caught a ton of fish. The guys camping next to me said they had heard the resort was selling off the waterfront lots, so that's too bad. It sucks that it's such a hassle to launch a cartopper now. You either have to walk it down the gated road or slide it down a steep bank or pay $5 bucks to launch at one of the resorts. I sometimes wonder at the though process that goes into some of the decisions the FS makes. They could have placed the gate another 200 ft. down the road and at least made it accessible for cartoppers. I was surprised at the small number of people camping in the area for a Memorial Weekend, so the word must be out. I talked to many in the area and all were upset with the road being gated. The FS took equipment in and tilly humped the road in several areas. This makes no sense what so ever! It's gated at both ends and makes a nice walking/biking road now. You can still get through fine, but why waste the time and money? They are still chopper logging the ridge above the resort and going from 6am-4pm all day long. I know timber is way up, but with the fuel costs it must be costing a ton of money to be flying that big chopper all day. I drove up on the ridge on Sat. and saw the boundry of the timber sale. There is a good logging road on the edge of it, but looks like it's all going to fly out. If they are still allowing camping at the Hide Away resort I would not go there durring the week unless you don't mind a helicopter overhead all day. The Cove is right across the lake, so it's not as bad, but I'm sure it's loud there too. It woke me up several mornings when the big chopper fired up and started the day at 6 something and I was at the other end of the lake.

$5 isnt that much

I know a lot of folks are angry about the gate but I really don't see what the big deal is. Just park your car and walk. Its only like a mile of road to begin with. It does mean you have to fork out 5 bucks to launch, which is unfortunate. But I'd rather have the road closed to driving anyway. Now you can fish from the bank without cars driving by all the time and there is hardly any trash. You can still fish, still camp, still do everything, but without all the people and the garbage. They did us a favor as far as I'm concerned.

Are we talking about the same resort on Fish Lake. I believe it was privately owned and there is a fishing dock and a boat ramp. People rented campsites. Inside the lodge they displayed two large mounted Brown trout.
I just don't remember the resort name anymore.