Originally Posted by
Lemond1985
I remember during the late 80's, Mt. Diablo State Park was going to start charging an entrance fee for bicycles. So a bunch of us riders wrote letters to our state reps, telling them how unjustified this fee was ... and we won! I think that was probably the only time in my life that I got an elected official to listen to me, so it stands out in my mind as an example of successfully "fighting city hall", so to speak.
To this day, I don't believe there's an entrance fee for bikes, but it's been at least 10 years since I've been back there. Congrats on your victory. Sweet, isn't it?
It was early 90's and for a short time they sold a bicycle MDSP pass. It wasn't long before someone pointed out that they didn't have the authority to charge for bikes without doing something legal like having a vote from county supervisors or something, so they dropped the whole idea. This all happened before I was a regular Diablo rider but I read about it in the paper, and I talked to the ranger who had to coordinate refunding the money to people who had purchased the passes.
Cycling on Mount Diablo has been free since the beginning of time.