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Vantage Porta-Johns


unklehuck

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Well, they're finally gone.

Went out to the coulee Friday morning, arriving just in time to see a nice man dragging the porta-johns away on a trailer-never to return. He cited inability to get anyone to maintain them after hypodermic needles started appering enmass as one of the main reasons for their removal.

Boy are those camp grounds gonna be nasty after Sasquatch!

Edited by unklehuck
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The removal of the toilets is a good thing. Nobody used them for the last six months due to their state. Overflowing with terds and garbage. Now we just need to figure out how to get permanent pit toilets installed.

 

If you think about it, on any given weekend from May thru October there's 50 - 100 people camped out there. Sometimes probably more. Two permanent pit toilets would make sense.

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This is a problem that needs to be fixed. If your concerned about this, please email.

vantagepoop@gmail.com

 

We are getting together as many people as possible to address this issue. We've been talking with the Access Fund about this issue and the WDFW but so far nothing.

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This IS an issue that I hope we can fix.

 

Outhouses and porta-potties, however, always draw vandalism and they require ongoing maintenance. Landowners of all shapes and sizes don't like them. I wonder if there is a possibility of cobbling together funding from a variety of sources - and this might include climbers groups, an area-specific fundraiser, and maybe even the Gorge people - and putting aside a trust fund so that Fish and WIldlife doesn't worry they will end up having to pay for it?

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I don't think that is the answer, Catbird. State Parks have long been underfunded and right now they are closing them all across the state. The one climbing area that was purchased specifically as a climbing area and then turned into a state park, Peshastin Pinnacles, has never been open in the prime climbing season there (winter and early Spring before the Leavenworth area crags become where you want to go) and it was closed in the Winter in large part because they didn't have the funding for a ranger in the off season when other parks in the area were also closed.

 

You are right that, in theory, a park would seem to provide the appropriate ownership and management opportunities and, yes, the State Parks can run an OK campground if you like that sort of thing. However, all we want is for the place to be open to climbing within any constraints imposed by raptor issues or whatever, clean toilets, and some kind of arrangement where the management from the Gorge will help mitigate the impact of their customers' use of the place.

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Yes, true. The ownership needs to be transfered to BLM, State Park, or County to work well. I hate to mention it, but Smith is really a shinning example of how a high-traffic crag should be operated. Yes, it is expensive, and yes there are a lot of rules at Smith. However the crag is clean and a lot people pack in there ever weekend without leaving behind a huge mess. I still like free and wild places, but if you've got to share a crag with a 100 strangers, I'm favor of a small fee to keep the place clean.

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We should recute some boy scouts to build some pit toilets for there eagal scout thingy, then make a fund to manage them... Oh and sub contract a waste management company to clean them using the funds made to pay the waste company haha.

 

I have a pretty solid connection with a couple local troops... (former eagle scout myself xD)

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I've been pooing at vantage since circa 92. back then it was under rocks and not a big deal. Now you could use a park with showers and the ifrastuctre to back it up (rangers,shuffle board courts, etc).Since that is not going to happen, why not poo in a bag where you camp then haul it out to a Smith like outhouse located above M&M wall? Sure, Sabbath fans will still poo on the rocks but climbers could carry their poo with pride...

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Sadly enough the problem is just not concert goers it is also some climbers and the ever persistent rednecks. I first climbed at the Coulee in '95 and back then all was sweet as few people climbed out there. I no longer go as it is a gigantic shit pit of broken glass, garbage, shell casings, and human waste everywhere.

 

What needs to be done is to allow only day access and use concrete barricades or fences to block all access to the camping area. That will keep out the riff raff and hopefully reverse the severe environmental damage done to the area.

 

I have spoken with a biologist at DFW a number of times and he says the barricade solution is at the top of their list. There is a state park over near the bridge off of I90 that has a great campsite.

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