|
By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
5-28-2009 The Eastern Sierra Transit Authority, the local public transportation people, are expanding into the backcountry. ESTA has just entered into a partnership with the Forest Service to begin offering the Red’s Meadow/Devil’s Postpile shuttle service beginning operation June 12. ESTA will also offer services from the Village at Mammoth all the way to Red’s Meadow, filling in a four-mile gap allowing people to ride from town all the way to the meadow.
Executive Director John Helm said Wednesday that ESTA is very excited to expand in the region and provide more services. The agreement between the two will require ESTA to “lease eight new buses and hire 12 or so drivers and a supervisor.”
Helm said the Forest Service first approached ESTA in the fall of 2008 and negotiations are completed.
Jon Regelbrugge, district ranger for the Mammoth and Mono Lake ranger districts, told the Mammoth Times in April 2009, “(ESTA) can manage and provide better service to the public.” Regelbrugge added, “That’s why we are going in that direction. It’s a benefit to the Inyo National Forest, but also to the recreationists who use the transportation systems.”
Matt Peterson, an Inyo National Forest recreation planner, said that the Forest Service approached ESTA because of its track record of efficiency, its added route from the Village to Red’s Meadow, and for the added potential of obtaining grants to keep the shuttle service sustained.  The Eastern Sierra Transit Authority will be taking over the Red’s Meadow/Devil’s Postpile shuttle service. The road opens June 5, with shuttle service to start June 12. Devil’s Postpile is one of the world’s finest examples of columnar basalt, similar to that of Devil’s Tower, Wyo. Photo courtesy National Park Service
“Another reason we approached ESTA is that we wanted to support the region, and they are a benefit to the community that we want to help sustain,” Peterson added.
Helm said the shuttle service will be a welcome additional revenue stream, and a historically successful one. He said the shuttle service is unique in that it has remained fully funded by passenger fares alone.
The Inyo National Forest has run the shuttle service since 1980 when the number of cars entering the Red’s Meadow Valley exceeded available parking spaces.
Helm explained that the partnership is for a year, but both ESTA and the Forest Service have expressed their desire to look at a long-term agreement.
The funding for the project is complicated and one of the reasons why the initial agreement is for just one year. Helm explained there are “several things in play” financially.
He said that ESTA is assisting in applying for a grant for capital for the buses, but said that it would be a several-year process.
Peterson added that the Forest Service has received a separate grant that it will give to ESTA to help it cover the start-up costs of the bus leasing and basic maintenance.
Regelbrugge said that ESTA will have a better chance at obtaining the grants, as it is a public service, than the concessionaires that have run the shuttle in the past.
The road to Devil’s Postpile will open June 6, with the shuttle service starting June 12. The Forest Service requires all visitors to pay a fee in order to enter Red’s Meadow Valley, be it by shuttle or personal vehicle. Personal vehicles and passengers that do not have a camping reservation in the meadow are not allowed during the shuttle’s operation, 7 a.m.-7:30 p.m. daily. The ride takes approximately 20-30 minutes down a steep, windy road.
The price is $7 for adults, $4 for children aged 3-15, and a $20 cap per car. Well behaved dogs on a leash and wearing a muzzle are allowed on the shuttle at the driver’s discretion.
Devil’s Postpile is a rare geological formation, considered one of the finest examples of columnar basalt on the planet.
For more information, call the Mammoth Lakes Ranger Station at 924-5500, or ESTA at 872-1901.
|
