It’s Ptarmigan Mountain for gosh sakes. There are no “real” roads up there. After all, when the Bureau of Land Management deeded acreages to Korean War Vets in the 50s, it did not plan a community. Those original owners were left to fare for themselves. They had to build a structure on the land, and then figure how to get to it. So, neighbors cooperated to dig roads through each other’s properties to get up the hill, then entered into formal or informal agreements to maintain the roads. Many are too steep to navigate in the winter, and Summit County will not take them over because none meet any semblance of County specifications. In many cases, owners leave snowmobiles at the bottom of the hill in the winter in a cut-out where they park their vehicles at night and the snowmobiles during the day. Not the best way to get home, perhaps, but it works.
So, when four Ptarmigan homeowners got together and applied to the County in 1998 to improve their road – at a shared cost of $90,000 – they were not too concerned where the road went. In fact, they went over the private land of at least two of the homeowners per their mutual agreement. However, they never anticipated that the County would then come back to add more improvements to that road. You see, the County wants to make the road more navigable for even more people, and those original partners estimate that will bring 40 more cars a day over their road – and their private land. So, you can see, perhaps, why they object to the improvements. Oh yes, once the new road is built, maintenance will still be left to the current homeowners. So, they plan to put a chain across the road they built.
Doing battle with any governmental agency is no fun. But these folks say they are in it for the long haul. So, it remains to be seen whether you and I will be able to simply go sightseeing on Barking Dog Road in the future. The views are some of the best in the County.
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