Lyle Sandbar shut down?

[ldhr]

I heard a rumor that the Lyle sandbar is effectively closed because the railroad has banned people from crossing the tracks - similar to Doug's West.
Does anyone know the situation?

[andymc4610]

Had not heard, but not surprised, it was a slippery slope. I still am bummed about doug's west, that was my fav.

[pepig]

The crossing of the railroad tracks has always been an illegal offense with a $500-1000 fine if caught.
Ideally, the Lyle sandbar had been accessible only because there had not been enough reportable incidents of illegal crossings or even worse, trains having to stop due to pedestrians standing on the tracks.

These past two years have seen a very big rise in people parking illegally (either on the south side of the highway, or actually dumb enough to block the emergency access road), people being witnessed crossing the tracks by train conductors or other officials, and worst of all, multiple incidents of trains having to stop to avoid running over people standing on the tracks.

It is a situation that the kite community attempted to alleviate via discussions with the Forest Service and Bulington Northern Railroad, but due to the inability to control kiters who will not listen, fisherman, locals using the bar as a swimming beach, and random tourists, the situation was clearly out of control and in the hands of the railroad company.

There have been probably been around 7-8 $1000 tickets now given to violators, and more likely to come. It sucks, but it is what it is.
I am personally counting down the days until the railroad puts up the standard cycone fence, usually a mile long (see example at White Salmon river due to fisherman).

Due to limited support for making Lyle a publicly accessible recreation location, the Columbia Gorge Kiteboarding Assoc has been unable to round up any powerful enough support to make any progress. As well, the geographic location and physical limitations also prevent any possible government or state interest in taking possession or managing this land.
In the case of environmental organizations, Riverkeepers has commented that they would prefer no windsurfers or kiters at the river mouth due to this being a local bird habitat.

Sorry about the lengthy note, but there are a lot of details and background facts that many people are not aware of.

Thank you
Pepi

[isobars]

[pepig]

[ldhr]

Pepi - thanks! I can read between the lines (tracks).
Any idea who issued the tickets? Local law enforcement hiding in the bushes or state police who "just happened to be driving by when you sneaked across the tracks?"

[bdennis]

I got stopped trying to cross. Te guy took my name & license number and said next time it would be $1000. Then I crawled under the railroad bridge and walked out to the beach. Which was super sketchy, I don't plan on doing that again. For me this site is dead. Waves kind of suck there anyway.

[sissybar]

Some Constitutional lawyer in PDX should be jumping at the chance to develop new case law on this.

Columbia River is a national treasure, navigable waterway, subject to State and Federal Public Trust Doctrine. If the railroad believes that they can act as a "de facto" wall between the public and the river for the entire width of Washington and Oregon then they are clearly in violation of the State and Federal Constitution.

If anyone actually gets one of these tickets and Klickitat Co. will not dismiss it then you should call some Constitutional Lawyers to fight it. Who knows maybe we could get some new access points? I would think that there would be pro bono & financial resources to push it along. (or Lewis & Clark professor project).

[Rumsfeld]

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Lyle and Canyon Road and east, west, south and north somewhat." –on the closure of the sandbar and rail road cops.

[cgoudie1]

Pretty sure this has been tried and has failed. In the scope of
my lawyer is bigger than your lawyer, the Railroad has Hulk
like resources. Not that I wouldn't like to sail Mercury Cove again.

-Craig