Elsie Lake Accessibility

(Sorry if the grammar is not perfect... after years of deafness and LD challenges are am still learning a lot)

As some of you who visit this site regularly know a great man, Tom McTevia and his female passenger passed away in a tragic ATV accident this last spring 2015. I have known Tom for some time but it was during the winter of 2015 that we became friends. On a trip aboard his ATV at the end of this last winter Tom wanted to show me the inaccessible accessible restroom at Elsie Lake, unfortunately we discovered there was still too much snow at that time to get to the lake.

Rocks blocking access to the restroom

On June 13^th I drove up to view this restroom and the camping area around Elsie Lake as Tom had wanted. The restroom itself is actually accessible due to the fact it meets the ADA guidelines but unfortunately due to the Forest Service effort to protect it from vandalism they placed rocks around it, which makes it in-accessible to those who use wheelchairs. In the supplied pictures one of which shows the rocks in front of the restroom no rock is any further apart then 2’, which is well under the required 36” for a wheelchair to fit

through. So of course the logical fix is to move one of the rocks over to create the space needed for a wheelchair to get through. If vandalism is a concern then one can place a rock sixty inches back to create a curved path. This allows a wheelchair to get through but makes it difficult for anything larger to get through.

Another issue we hope that can be resolve is access to the southeast beach area. Again rocks have been placed in front of the path to this beach. The good news is there is another beach that is not blocked off that also works as a primitive launch into the lake. Still it would be good if persons using wheelchairs could get to both beaches.

There are 6 campsites around the lake that are considered accessible when the area is not wet and muddy. The road going to this lake has been greatly improved via road upgrades and a new bridge that allows regular passenger cars to drive up to this lake. However I would not drive a car up to this lake until the dry season when snow has been gone for a while, and the slide area which the road goes through is clearw. And a note of caution to those driving a car up to the lake… it is likely the under side of your car will hit the ground when going over some of the bumps on this road.

We will be contacting the Forest Service about these two issue and since this organization has always been accommodating of persons with disAbilities we are sure these issues will be resolved shortly… we will post a follow up once these issues have been fixed.

Elsie Lake is an amazing place to camp, fish, and boat on, and it is our hope that our efforts will make this site accessible as Tom had wanted.

For more information about Elsie Lake and for road conditions visit (http://bit.ly/1LMRGvV).