# Bailey Put in change and landowner issues!



## deepsouthpaddler (Apr 14, 2004)

Just got off the phone with the guy that runs the rawhide fishing property at the Bailey put in. 

The town of bailey, the owner of the fly fishing property and the folks that run the property, are in the process of developing an improved kayak put in at McGraw Park in Bailey. McGraw park is the put in we used for bailey fest last year, and is behind the feedstore and ATF liquor store that you pass on the right to go to the old put in downstream. This year they will complete a new parking lot on public land and will install public bathrooms. Last year they put in some rock steps to get down to the river. The owner of the commonly used put in property just downstream of the culverts wants boaters to stop using his property to put in, and start using the McGraw park put in. The owner is willing to let us use his property this year as we transition to the new Park put in, but starting next year, they will not allow kayakers to park on their road or put in on their land. I think we as a community should start voluntarily using the new put in now, and leave the old put in alone out of courtesy. Bailey is a popular run and in my mind a public put in with parking and public bathrooms is a better overall solution than an ad hoc put in on private property with some land ownwer conflicts. The good news is that we will have a recognized public put in, the bad news is that we pissed off the landonwers and shot ourselves in the foot in the process. 

The current owner bought the property that is commonly used as the bailey put in from the farmers union 4-5 years ago. The owner thought he would allow kayak access on his property and see how things turned out. Over the years there have been several indicents that cumulatively pissed the owners off to the point that they don't want to have kayakers putting in on their land anymore. 

Trash and urination on the ground at the put in were cited as one issue. Kayakers modifying the banks to improve kayak put in spots where they had done bank stabilization work was another issue cited. A kayaker took a crap in the dirt at the put in last year and didn't clean it up and that really pissed them off. Perhaps the final straw was a large group of kayakers on this past mother's day weekend. The owner was up to fish the property. A large group of kayakers floated by as they were fishing. Most kayakers went to the other side of the river to give the fishermen some space. One kayaker saw a boof rock and busted out a boof fairly close the fisherman and landed in the spot in the river that they were trying to fish in. Multiple boaters after the first hit the boof rock all splashing down in close proximity to the fisherman. The owner's comment was that there are 1000 rocks upstream and a million rocks downstream, why in the hell would these guys have to boof the one rock next to them and scare off the fish? They also wondered why the kayakers didn't follow the standard river ettiquite of being quiet and giving the fishermen a wide berth when passing. 

As I talked to the guy that runs the place, its obvious that he is friendly, open minded, and willing to work with boaters. He even offered to help do river improvements upstream of the culverts if we run into problems with the upper put in. He was very fair, and I feel like he is totally justified in his concerns. If I let someone use my land, and they crapped on my driveway, pissed on my lawn, left trash around, and didn't show me some respect on common ground I would be pissed too. We are very lucky that we have a reasonable access spot upstream and that this issue didn't shut down access to bailey. I apologized for the boating community at large and acknowledged that these kind of issues are unacceptable. The reality is that a few bad apples are spoiling the bunch for all of us.

After talking to this guy I was royally pissed. Colorado boaters have enough problems with pissy landowners. Now we have gone and made a mess with what I consider to be pretty friendly and accomodating landowners. Some folks just don't get it, and you are in danger of screwing it up for all of us. 

From here on out, please observe the following to keep bailey access and public relations going to ensure that we can paddle it in the future.

1) Use McGraw Park put in. Its behind the feed lot store with some parking both upstream and downtream of the store. Do not park in the feed lot store spaces. The feed lot store guy is angry at the world and will likely hassle you. Kindly tell him you are parking on public land at the park and that this put in is OK for kayakers to use. Ignore him if he persists. Resist the urge to tell him off (its difficult, I know).

2) Give fisherman along the rawhide property some respect. Be quiet and courteuous. Float on the other side of the river from them. Don't talk to them unless they talk to you, they don't want you to scare the fish. A nod or a smile is good enough. Lastly, don't boof on their fishing hole, there are tons of boofs downstream.

3) Use the put in and take out bathrooms. If you have to urinate while on the river, do so in the river, not on the banks. Don't leave #2 in a pile. Take care of your shit!

4) Don't litter anywhere on the run. Get some karma points and pick up trash if you see it. 

5) If you are with boaters who don't know or observe these basic points, give them a heads up. We are only as stong as our weakest link.

So there you have it. We just lost a good put in because as a community we couldn't keep our shit together. Thats just sad. We got lucky this time because we have other put in options. Next time we might not be so lucky. Please do your best to improve these types of situations in the future.


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## jmack (Jun 3, 2004)

Maybe a sign at the put-in with some basic guidelines would be appropriate. It seems like common sense, but some kayakers don't understand that fishermen don't like it when the fish get scared away. It would truly suck if we lost access to this run because people did not know that they just need to quietly float by any fishermen they see.


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## bobbuilds (May 12, 2007)

Really? I am flabergasted.... I just don't see how?


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## bobbuilds (May 12, 2007)

give me one example where a group of kayakers would do something so uncessary it would...



just kidding...


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## Phillips (Feb 19, 2004)

Thanks Ian. Look forward to using the new access. Yes I've met the current Landowner. Very fair and reasonable IMHO.

Kent


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## freexbiker (Jul 18, 2005)

Thanks for what you do Ian. Sounds like the new access will be good as long as there isn't a big flat water oxbow for everybody to portage around.


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## caspermike (Mar 9, 2007)

sucks that a few can ruin it for the rest. Hopefully everything works out for the best and thanks for the update Ian. as for boofing in a fishing hole? was this banks?


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## NathanH. (Mar 17, 2010)

Seems like we as a boater community have pushed a really nice and boater friendly landowner around (one of the few left) and he's giving the community a last chance to make things work for both parties involved, the guys going well out of his way to make sure we're accommodated so we should do the same for him.


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## stubby (Oct 13, 2003)

Ian, thanks for your PR and good representation of us as boaters. Glad we still have access and hope that we can all continue to be good ambassadors


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## RiverWrangler (Oct 14, 2003)

Seriously - pooping at the put-in? WTF.


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## deepsouthpaddler (Apr 14, 2004)

I saw some of the work they are doing at the new put in tonight. It looks good. They are building a parking lot downstream of the liquor store and are moving the current fence 50ft downstream to do so. They have a two bathroom building already constructed. They put a small bridge across a micro creek side tributary and did some flagstone work for some paths. 

Thinking it will all work out pretty well in the end. If you see the guys up there working, tell them thanks.

Only downside is that there is a small ledge drop between the new put in and the culverts that has a ton of rocks in the landing. Definitely need to find the clean line there.


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## JCKeck1 (Oct 28, 2003)

There used to be a fence upstream of the culverts, but i haven't putin up there in years. Is it no more?
Joe


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## BDPADDLE (Apr 19, 2007)

Wow! Unbelievable. Between this post and the Gore post, I'm pretty fired up!!! Ian thanks for keeping us in the loop and everything else you do for this great run! I have been using McGraw Park since I learned about it at BaileyFest without incident. I love it! I saw no reason to use the private land access point and I guess I can't anymore, thanks Bad Apples.

When we were there Saturday of Mother's Day weekend we had a nice chat with a couple that sit on the McGraw Park board. They told us the reason the bathrooms were closed was vandalism last fall. I better not find out it was boaters or we will have a special Bailey party for you.

I'm feeling really helpless right now. How do we educate folks, especially the IDIOTS? Ideas? I'm just really frustrated... idiot!

Thanks again Ian!!!


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## BDPADDLE (Apr 19, 2007)

Ian- The cleanest line I've found is about 10' right of center, but I still hit rocks about 50% of the time. Cheers.


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## ~Bank (Jul 31, 2010)

Being a fisherman myself...I ran Supermax 4 times yesterday and did two full laps...While staying as far away from the fisherman as possible. I did however bum a smoke from a fisherman that was fishing at the takeout bridge. We all trespassed at 1st falls. Caspermike, I suggest you get my name correct it has no s. I'm very excited to see ya soon; Hopefully I have about eight beers in me the first time we meet.


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## cmack (Oct 15, 2006)

Since Baileyfest, we have run Bailey a bunch and haven't even used the old put in. The new one is so much better anyway with plenty of parking, and the paddle down to the culverts takes a negligible amount of time. It was really nice having those bathrooms at Baileyfest, the people responsible for the vandalism are douches. Hopefully they sort that situation out so we can all take our pre-creeking shit that so many of us look forward to. 

Also... not intended to hijack or anything... but since Brian and Mike clearly DESIRE to kick each others asses, caveman style, perhaps we can get Pine Valley Ranch to let us construct a ring this year at BFest and we can have them duke it out however the mob sees fit. Instead of burgers and brats this year, perhaps we can just smoke turkey legs and in true medieval fashion we can heckle and throw them at the gladiators. I know the Ranger, perhaps I can pull some strings. Just sayin... I think this could be a good time, no?


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## deepstroke (Apr 3, 2005)

Who is a streamkeeper that can update the AW page? And who can update Eddyflower? We got to spread word to the out of towners. Maybe a post on boatertalk titled, ''Don't come to Colorado and shit at the put-in!'' would help.


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## deepsouthpaddler (Apr 14, 2004)

No fence upstream of the culverts as of now... Looks like there is barbed wire well above the culverts, that could have been a lower fence in the past.

Ken, updated eddyflower and AW pages is a good idea. I'll follow up.

After thinking about this some more... I think that the landowners have had the vision to move the takeout to the park for several years. I don't blame them, its a good idea. I think its pretty cool of them to facilitate the move and not leave us hanging. In hindsight, I think that they were moving to get this done before the secret crapper and the badass boofer. Permits, work, funding etc takes a long time to get worked out.


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## Miller Time (Apr 3, 2009)

Who couldn't take 10 minutes to turn off at the gas station for a bathroom? I'm sure we've all had to shit in a bad situation but why risk access to your favorite sport over laziness. 

Thx to Ian for the continued damage control. Let's hope we don't ruin his reputation. We don't have many boaters out there dedicated to river access as we should.


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## ChasetheWater (Apr 19, 2011)

Woah Mack that's an awesome idea... I love smoked turkey legs and a good ol' fashion brawl!


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