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Reality is the virus was spread last fall and has now spread to a point that those who will have a reaction probably did or won’t have one and a virus takes a normal course regardless of travel bans and other orders like “Shelter in Place” if you look at the New York numbers a majority infected reported they were staying home and sheltering and this means the virus spread through the air. The other high numbers of infection are old folks homes and confined spaces. It’s best for people to get out in the sun and enjoy public lands for health, it doesn’t make any sense to lock down rural counties anymore knowing the orders were wrong to begin with. This country has never done this extent of a largely political lock-down of the economies and shut down of the schools. It’s time to reverse these ideas safely and quickly and recover as much as possible.
Unfortunately trying to discourage travel by closing everything hasn’t stopped the influx of people to our area. Slowed it down for sure, but there are still people camped everywhere, out of town hikers galore, out of state plates all over, tourists taking pictures, people illegally fishing and sprinter vans a-plenty parked in ”closed” lots overnight to rest (which is also camping to most people) .
The point of these campground closures and short term rental bans was to keep us safer but with the inevitable and increasing flow of people who are coming regardless, we just aren’t markedly safer being closed and just about every business is dying on the vine. Many are making a valiant effort but let’s be honest here, it’s a disaster. Even now there are enough visitors to where we aren’t really safe but there aren’t enough visitors to make the economy go. Talk about a rock and a hard place!
I was absolutely and enthusiastically in favor of delaying the fishing opener to avoid what would have been a disaster at the time. And I stand by that even though I personally took a gut punch financially. Almost a month after lobbying for that however, I am disheartened to say that the total disregard for the travel restrictions coupled with insanely piss poor enforcement has me incredibly frustrated. Fish & Wildlife Wardens & CHP are the only enforcement I’ve seen with any regularity and they aren’t enforcing campground closures. USFS law enforcement and County Sheriffs have been embarrassingly inept at making their presence known and enforcing the closures in many areas….even surpassingly popular ones.
As I see it there are only two legitimate options moving forward, actually stop people from coming here to insure that we’re actually safe, or open up our businesses & facilities with appropriate precautions. If the overall health of our communities is really at the heart of this, in a few weeks one of those two things will happen. Sadly I fear neither will happen based on what I’ve seen so far from our leaders.
With fishing season just around the corner and unlikely to be postponed again, and the snow melting off the trails in the backcountry in a hurry, the locust are coming…LOTS of them… whether we’re open or not, whether we like it or not and whether they’re “allowed to” or not….its happening. It is absolutely ludicrous for the state, federal or local authorities to allow these folks to come here without us being able reap the economic benefits….we still face the public health risks regardless…the least we can do is safely and carefully separate visitors from some of their money to pay our bills.
Or they can shut down the dang highway if they truly want to keep us all safe from the virus….but our officials need to pick a lane.
I for one, and one of many, will not submit to liberal virus fear panic. The northern counties are now open and are doing regular business and this is state approved. These are the rural GOP counties with very few Covid cases just like the Eastern Sierra. There is no reason to fear the virus anymore as there is a 99% chance it will not infect or kill a normal healthy person, the virus is not what was reported early on by false models and endless guesses. It’s time to put aside fear of the virus and start the economic recovery. That recovery beings the end of May,
Does anyone know if Pine Creek Rd. is open?
Are you asking if the actual road is open? Or the campgrounds up Pine Creek Road? Or the climbing areas? Or the the hiking trails?
Liberty
How many times do you have to hear this ?
It WASN’T Governor Newsom that “closed down ” the fishing season..
Governor Newsom left it up to DFW,and THEY acted on what the people living in Inyo and Mono Counties wanted.
THEIR elected local and county officials listened to US,the vast majority of residents that DID NOT want an influx of thousands of SoCal tourists coming up here with no place to stay,ignoring safety guidelines and doing as they please.
If you think for a minute all the local business’ are going to bow down to SoCal and open everything up,your in for a big disappointment…..maybe take-out and curb-side service,but that’s it.. don’t think the taverns in Mammoth Lakes,or anywhere else are going to be filled to capacity with drunks telling fish stories and taking smart phones photos of themselves..
Large loud families of 20 or more aren’t going to be packing the restaurants for a hardy breakfast.
The campgrounds,the ones that are open,not going to be the same as before,not the usual wall to wall tourists camping,walking around,etc.
You see,up here we’re not Michigan or those other states or counties “demanding” things open up 100%…we’re not going to arm ourselves with toy guns and storm the capitol building.
When things open up,trust me,it’s going to be a whole new ballgame than before.
Rules to obey,distancing,masks,etc.
If you don’t like that or can’t accept that,don’t come here.
All of the public land agencies staff should be out scrambling to have everything open by late May for the delayed June first fishing season being open then and time is running short to get the campgrounds open and prepared. Same for all the closed businesses, regardless of What Lord Pompador in Sac thinks or declares. May 31 or sooner should be the final day of closure of the local economies as the state is going broke to the tune of billions and local areas will be millions. There’s a train wreck coming and time is of the essence to reduce damage.
Down side of closed campgrounds, is that people are just camping anywhere. I was running on a trail, and there were people camped with a huge pile of wood. Way to start a forest fire…You should see the amount of people camping on the East Walker. If things were open, they could be dispersed more.
Everything needs to be open and people need to be clean. Period. You people need to be outside in the sun and fresh air and get over your fear media has buried in you. This madness needs to stop. Playing politics, destroying people’s lives. Everyone on here saying things should stay closed is I’m SURE receiving money. I have not, but a penny. Tuolumne county has not one single death. This is absolutely political. Why didn’t obama shut down for Ebola? Yeah, think about it
Because Ebola wasn’t an airborne virus.
Think about it.
I dont agree that campers shop ahead, they shop in the stores of their destination and personally I dont want summer crowds in Vons right now. I also dont like seeing how many campers are camping at parks etc because the campgrounds are closed. Cant that be stopped?
Greg Lippencott
Thing is,how do you close a campground down to some,and open it up to others?..
Can’t be done.
You can’t have a campground open,but keep the restrooms closed.
If they’re going to do that,trying to keep it safer,they should just close down the campground to everyone.
Good point. I never considered tenters would use trench warfare to circumvent locked restrooms. Of course, when I was in the Marine Corps in the mid 60’s we often dug trenches when we were “camping”.
Squirrel
A kudos to the Inyo Board of Supervisors for changing the name of the county campground just west of Lone Pine to Portuguese Joe Campground.
Some people have a need to be a crusader, they need to leave a legacy.
Seems to me, the campgrounds should be opening soon, especially for self contained units that do not require the use of restrooms or any other common use facilities. New Shady rest has a substantial amount of space between sites that will not violate the 6 foot space separation requirement. Most campers prepare their meals and typically purchase most provisions before traveling to camp. It would be a nice to be able to use the campgrounds before the fishing opener on June 1, before the campgrounds are overwhelmed with use.
Sounds doable but can self contained units be allowed and tent campers be disallowed?
The reason for self contained units. They will not need to use common facilities, thereby reducing the need to have staff constantly clean and disinfect those areas. Are you willing to trust your health, and possibly your life to non-sanitised common areas? Self-contained units will not need restrooms or water faucets to camp. Not attempting to exclude them, I don’t think is is safe at this time. Tinnier, if I were a tent camper, i don’t know if I would feel safe.
Understood, however, I don’t believe there would be a shortage of tent camping visitors who would be willing to compromise their health and lives and use a common bathroom
My initial concern was tent campers digging holes (BEST case scenario) inside of a developed campgrounds and pooping like that if the common bathrooms were locked.
I also don’t know if I’d feel safe using common area bathroom.
The trouble is, everybody is just as good at rationalizing why they should be allowed to do whatever they want because they are in some way special and especially trustworthy, unlike all those other people, the exception to the rule, not to mention above average and deserving of special consideration.