The Ramey v. Boslough case is over. 

Boslough won because he was able to prove that Barking Dog Trail was a private wagon track that had originally been built on private property by a mining company.   The court ruled that he had the right to close it and reclaim his land.

The court's decision is here:  Ramey v Boslough

The court also ordered Ramey to reimburse costs:  Ramey v Boslough costs order

Ramey's case was based on claims of evidence that never materialized.  He had no witnesses or documents to substantiate his complaint, and his case rested on web postings that turned out not to be true.  His expert witness was shown not to have the credentials she claimed.  This is a huge setback for shared access advocates because it creates a precident that county governments are beginning to follow.  Because of the outcome of this case, Boulder County, Colorado, is now taking the position that roads across private property are privately owned, regardless of when they were built.  Had Barking Dog Trail actually been an RS 2477 public highway, the precident would have gone the other way.  Among other things:

  1.  It would have established the ability to use RS 2477 to sue landowners and keep them tied up in court for years.

  2.  It would have established the ability of off-road clubs to "ungate" a gated private property with no legal consequence.*

Instead it set precidents that favor landowners:

  1.  Roads on private property are now presumed by many counties to be private unless they can be proven to be RS 2477 roads.

  2.  Landowers will be awarded litigation costs if a road can't be proven to be an RS 2477 highway.

*In the summer of 2000, a group of four-wheelers consisting of members of the Mile-Hi Jeep Club, Trailridge Runners 4WD Club, and the Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition (COHVCO) formed a "Barking Dog Shovel Brigade" (inspired by the celebrated Jarbidge Shovel Brigade that "ungated" a RS 2477 road in Nevada that same year).   Boulder County chose not to prosecute because they were unwilling to spend resources required for the historical research required to prove that Barking Dog was not an RS 2477 public highway.  The precident, had it been allowed to stand, would have been a solid defense against any trespassing charge when crossing private property.   Unless the county could prove that the "trespasser" is not on an RS 2477 public road, no trespassing charge would stick. If the defendants had not had the wealth or persistence to defend the lawsuit and prove the road was private, this road would now be public.   This outcome has led to a change in the way many county governments approach RS 2477 roads.  Many county convernments are now choosing to avoid litigation expenses by taking the side of private landowners because of this case.

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Publish Date: 9/10/2007
Judge puts foot down on trail/road controversy

By Douglas Crowl
The Daily Times-Call


Mark Boslough bristles at the mention of Barking Dog Road.

“It’s Barking Dog Trail,” he said, correcting the name of the route that begins on his land and has been the subject of debate and legal wrangling for years.

Now he has a final court ruling to prove that the road is a trail.

Last week, a Boulder County District Court judge ended a five-year legal battle by ruling that Barking Dog is a private trail, not a public road.

Barking Dog Trail, above Lyons on Colo. Highway 7, around mile marker 24, first became a point of contention in the 1990s when increased off-road vehicle activity on the route lead Boslough to block it off.

“All the time my family has owned property up there, since the 1960s, it was a single-track hiking trail,” Boslough said, adding that it only became a road when people started driving on it.

Though the trail is private, Boslough said, hikers were always allowed on it and still are.

Local four-wheelers cried foul at the private closure, claiming the road was public per Revised Statute 2477, an 1866 law that makes some private routes public roads if they were originally built across public land.

Longmont resident John Ramey, who owns a little more than half interest of an old gold mine off Barking Dog, sued Boslough, claiming the route was a road across public land before Boslough’s family took ownership of the property.

In 2005, a federal court judge ruled on a portion of the lawsuit involving the federal government in favor of Boslough’s claim.

It then was bumped down to district court and extended to include Boulder County and a handful of other landowners connected to Barking Dog.

“It took five years and over $200,000 to find out that you cannot be heard,” Ramey said about the judgment.

He said he wanted Barking Dog to be declared a public road so he could better access his mine site, which hasn’t been in operation since the late 1930s.

But everyone in a vehicle also has the right to drive on the road, Ramey said.

“That road has been there for over 100 years,” he said.

Ramey, 85, said he could prove the road was there before the land was private through a local historian, but a Boulder County district court decided he had no real proof, according to court documents.

“This lawsuit was dismissed by summary judgment,” Boslough said. “It meant there was no dispute of fact. Ramey did not provide any proof. I didn’t expect any other outcome. It was a matter of waiting for the very slow gears of justice to turn.”

Ramey said he can’t afford to appeal the case.


Longmont Times-Call

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