By all accounts, the $10 that Christian “Moe” Rison charged to cross-country skiers to spend the night in the old First Creek Ski Cabin near Berthoud Pass was a bargain price.
That is, unless you consider that Rison didn’t own the cabin, the cabin was on Arapaho National Forest land and it was built and owned by the federal government.
Although Rison had moved all his belongings into the cabin, he didn’t have squatter’s rights. In fact, on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Denver, he was charged with occupying or using a residence on national forest lands.
“The cabin is officially U.S. government property and is marked as such,” a crime report says.
A court document says people have been filing complaints about “that guy” living in the First Creek Ski Cabin and that he had actually put his own lock on the cabin’s door.
The cabin is available without charge to back-country skiers, but Rison moved his belongings in and stayed there months on end, according to a court report.
It wasn’t even the first time that Rison has gotten into trouble for claiming that cabin as his own.
In April 2014, the forest service received a complaint that a guy named “Moe” had been living in the cabin for six months and had been charging campers $10 a night to stay with him.
Rison was cited then with occupying federal property and possession of marijuana paraphernalia.
Rison has prior convictions for cultivating marijuana, according to Colorado court records.
