Rush Lake--- Important new information for 2011 season

[Marty Lowe]

does anyone know why the owner does not want us on the upper road? Marty can you hook us up?

He is going to let it turn into pasture, he is working on getting his property appraised under the "Greenbelt" appraisal system.
It gives a land owner a big discount on property tax, a certain amount has to be used for agriculture or pasture, to fit into this designation.
His fencing is pitiful and I don't understand how he expects anyone is to know where his property is
I'll contact him again soon for more information, and see if we have options.

[Josh Shirley]

I am not a lawyer but I am pretty sure the UWA has eminent domain powers.

Prescriptive easement, maybe?

The only way he can fight a prescriptive easement is to be hostile and not let anyone pass.
I don't expect him to let anyone pass over the top road because he probably understands that.
If I was in his situation, I would fence off the road, dig a ditch, pile dirt in the road, and generally block passage to show the county/court there is no easement.
(Had to deal with this exact situation in my neighborhood when a neighbor decided to cut everyone off and remove an easement.)
They acted almost exactly the same way, on advice from their attorney.

Just my opinion. I think the situation is a little more serious than "be cool and everything will be good."

Hopefully, seriously hopefully I am over-reacting / over-thinking the situation.

Josh

[Marty Lowe]

I'm having a hard time finding the words to the question I want to ask,,,,
Us crossing his land is to get to another piece of private property,
Isn't the easement you refer to, to get access to public property?

According to the maps, anytime we travel south of main east west trail to the lake,
we are on private property, when the water is high,
it looks as if the only option to get to the Wilson property, that we have permission to use,
is to somehow cross the Hunsaker property.

What are UWA members feelings about starting a workaround for the east side?
It may take a membership/fee/key type of thing.

[Josh Shirley]

What about establishing a new path to the beach from the north side with permission from land owners?

[Josh Shirley]

This excerpt from a website does a decent job to explain prescriptive easements.
Although Utah has a 20 year time frame not 10 years.

Question: Several years ago my mother bought a home in the Heber-Overgaard area in the White Mountains. My mother owned this home as Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship (JTWROS) with me. My mother has passed away, and I am now the sole owner of the home. On my last visit to the home a neighboring property owner told me that he had the right to drive over a dirt road in the backyard of my mother's property. I have searched the County Recorder's records, and there is no recorded easement to this neighboring property owner. I want to fence off the backyard. The neighboring property owner says that, if I attempt to prevent his use of this dirt road, he will take me to court because he has used this dirt road for many years. Do I have any right to keep this neighboring property owner from using this dirt road?

Answer: In general, if the neighboring property owner has been continually using this dirt road for more than ten years without your mother's permission, this neighboring property owner may have a prescriptive easement to use this dirt road. You should check your mother's title insurance policy issued when she bought the home. Although this title insurance policy probably does not cover this non-recorded prescriptive easement, if it did furnish coverage, you as the surviving joint tenant should have a claim under this title insurance policy. Otherwise, you should contact a real estate attorney to see if there is any basis to oppose your neighboring property owner's claim for a prescriptive easement.

Just to be clear I am not for filing law suits or anything like that, but I have a feeling we are bringing a knife to a gun fight.

[RickHeninger]

I am going to chat with the BLM to ask them what they are doing to ensure access for Windsurfers and Kiteboarders that we've used for over 30 years.

It's a public lake. Let them be the jerks. I will call my BLM contact tomorrow. We won't act until we all have agreement amongst those of us piping in here.

[Marty Lowe]

From the comments from the crowd that was there yesterday,
it seems that parking at the corrals is a viable option until the water goes down.
I will agree that I had absolutely no issue with parking there.
I'll contact the land owners, just to keep them in the loop,
but is it really worth stirring up any private property issues for 100 yards?

[DaveHubbel]

I have not been to rush in ages, but I went all the time from 88-93 and I may get out there this year. I am not sure where the corrals are or current access is. Could someone spell it out for me or mark it on one of the maps or is it obvious once you get there? I don't want to step on the wrong toes.
Thanks, Dave

[brian.doubek]

I have not been to rush in ages, but I went all the time from 88-93 and I may get out there this year. I am not sure where the corrals are or current access is. Could someone spell it out for me or mark it on one of the maps or is it obvious once you get there? I don't want to step on the wrong toes.
Thanks, Dave

red is the old access we used back in the day(there are houses blocking this now)
Blue is the Access route we have been using until this week.
Green is the currently acceptable access and launch.

[DaveHubbel]

Thanks Brian!

[Josh Shirley]

Turns out there is a easement (subservient) to the triangle property or the beach through the red colored road. But it has been blocked off by the new homeowner.
They will grant access to the triangle shaped property owner if and when he decides to visit.

[brian.doubek]

The owner of the parcel we want to access is Michael W Wilson. Have you talked to him Marty? Let's offer him free kite-boarding lessons in exchange for access to the land via the red road(kidding...sort of). Maybe the BLM would let him make a new road around the houses on BLM land in order to access his beachfront lot.

It cracks me up that the name of the developer building on the foothills of South Mountain is named Apocalypse Properties. I wonder if they are building bomb shelters up there?

[Marty Lowe]

Wilson is not an issue, we have his permission to use the triangle property.
I talked to Ryan Wilson again yesterday.
He is going to talk to his dad about a new access through his property,
but is about 90% suer there will be no new access through the property.

The only to get to Wilson property, when the water is high,
is through Hunsaker property.
(Wilson has the easement through Hunsaker property, for Wilson only)
He has not answered my last few calls,
I get the feeling he has reversed his thinking about letting us have access.
His fence (so called fence) was cut by someone, I think it pisssed him off.

Josh is looking into Stockton helping us
Rick is looking into BLM help.
I'm just the voice between UWA and Hunsaker and Wilson.
That isn't going so well,,,,huh

[Marty Lowe]

After kiting yesterday at Rush.
We walked the Hunsaker's unfenced boundary line.
We have some options, and a plan.
I believe we can get back to the favored launch quite easily.
I'll keep UWA posted.....

[Marty Lowe]

After a discussion with landowner, Hunsaker,
We can drive over the barbed wire that is laying at the corner of his property,
(between the wood stake, big bush)
and drive on the east edge of his property to our old favorite spot.
We have permission to remove the old wire to make it easier to drive across.
He has marked the south side of his property for us to better tell his property line.
The trail has a good start from windriders traveling there today, You should find your way easily.