[clink clank]

Soon we will all be clanking around in full armor and getting reduced insurance rates because of it. As far as trail passes go, I say "google- 's" to the pesky things, and like Aunt Nelly when she's extended her stayed a year too long, "Good riddance when you finally leave town. "

[GrayGhost]

There's another kind?

[sarbar]

[sarbar]

My point was you get a YEARS worth of enjoyment for $30! And what better thing to do but to load up the family in the truck and head out for the day or the night for that $30 fee. Heck, at least in the ONF and the MBNF they don't charge backpacking fees!! One trip last year in the ONP cost me an dmy group over $30 in backcountry fees!!!!! So $30 is pure bargain. You know what? The wilderness isn't a right, it is a luxury that it has been preserved for us!

[forest gnome]

Exactly, and the usfs aint doing NOTHING to preserve the forest. point taken on security in your earlier comments,quark. YEAH THE USFS HELD MEETINGS ECT... AND THEN PROCEDES TO IGNORE ALL INPUT AND NEGATIVE RESPONSE. I think there are a lot of good points made here!! again, what do I get for my 30.00$???????? Good idea to volenteer.

[Alan Bauer]

When the fee started out I could feel the pull of "but taxes should pay for it so I won't wanna pay". ...but realistically, I could list off so many things that it sure as heck seems should be easily handled for the bundle I have to $$$ up every six months for property taxes...and I sure don't see my results there, and I know what happens if I refuse to pay that nonsense. Schools, roads, and why is my county tax $ only benefiting Fall City it seems every year by having the county tell us we need sewers to "develope and improve our lives". I honestly feel very sorry when I see my tax bill knowing of all the elderly that are having to pay huge money for education...and do they see education in the sense of direct benefit as a parent of a young child might? Of course not...nor do many of you who have no kids. If I see those things and have the underlying feelings that people should "pay if they use it", then I certainly can't have an issue with paying to use the trails to help keep them afloat as well. Entirely different things? Of course they are...but the underlying reasoning behind tax money not being used in all the right places = the same argument. I can't stand hearing people complain about possible tolls on a new Narrows Bridge...move to where you work then. I am not saddened for people who cry over ferry costs---pay up if you use it, or move closer to your work....or to your play. Should I complain that I expect help from the gov't when I decide to take on a project that requires me to drive 14,000 miles to accomplish it? No, it is my choice, and I have to be responcisicisicisicible to pay for the choice.

[Brian Curtis]

[Whiner]

Wah wah wah wah wah.... $30. Take 5 trips from Seattle to Stevens Pass and you'll spend several times that in gas. Buy 5 freeze dried dinners and you've dropped $30. Purchase a gigantic vehicle to drive up easy gravel roads for $30,000, then complain about $30. Buy yuppie hiking sticks for $80 then gripe about trail pass. Drink Madison Ave koolaid and eat macho candy bars that are $1.10 a piece, then yammer about trail pass. Purchase a camera that stores 4,000 images and a high-end computer that will store 'em and bitch about $30. Mail order a $370 jacket made for Himalayan or Danali expeditions when an umbrella will do, then jump up and down about $30. Eat greasy burgers after, and donuts before, and fancy packaged meats and cheeses during your hike, spending $20/day for food and fret about a trailor park pass. Seems like y'all are focussing on something minor instead of looking at the big picture. Just park 1/4 mile from the trailhead and get some more exercise ya lazy bums! Or do some maintenance. Or buy the frickin' pass! Man, what a bunch of lame-0's.

[MtnGoat]

"It's not that difficult; you just need to get involved." I am involved. I spend 25-35% of every single workday working for the federal govt. That's pretty darned involved, right off the bat. I expect the basic courtesy of having the fed pay for federal lands, which they demand to administrate, for the ever so basic act of parking at a trailhead, for my hours of support every single working day. I don't have yuppie hiking sticks, I have $5 poles from a barrel in the back of the shop-n-save. I didn't pay 30k for a vehicle to drive an easy gravel road, I waited 10 years and bought one for $10k, and you may see it on an easy gravel road, but you won't see it on the *many* it travels that are far from easy. I don't have a fancy ass digicam, I use a point and shoot 35mm that's worth about $10. But none of this is the point. The point is I already paid my flippin' fee, every day, and the what I do with the rest is *NONE OF THEIR CONCERN*, or yours! Even if someone does do what you describe, that's their right, their choice, and they already paid their freight. If it's your deal to gripe about people's own choices on what to spend their money on, and then make excuses for the fed's decision to *not* fully support what they've taken the responsibility to manage..... and then nickel and dime people one more time for what they should be covering that those people have *ALREADY PAID FOR*, that's your buisness, but I'm not going along with it. We each pay tens of thousands of freakin' dollars to cover legitimate federal expenditures, and what we do with what is left over is *not* anyone's buisness but ours, especially when the fed is *not* paying what it *should* be paying to maintain what it insists on managing.

[Gordy Comer]

It's not about the $30. The forest belongs to everyone and we shouldn't have to pay to walk in it. The are things that our taxes should pay for, in my opinion. They include emergency services, libraries, schools, roads, and the like. I very much object to the takeover of our gov't by the privilaged few who orchestrate massive reductions in these services and large tax refunds for the wealthiest, all in the name of reducing gov't waste. We are now paying for the use of our public libraries in Seattle in the form of reduced hours. Next will there be a user fee to check out a book? What harm would there be in say, 50 cents a book? Not everyone uses the library, after all. How about $50 to call 911? Not everyone needs this help. We should pay well for these services and our schools because they benefit us all, they make our society a better place. I wouldn't have had the $30 as a young man and then not gone hiking, I was dirt poor. I will not pay it now, so I guess I'll continue hiking the extra 1/4 mile. By the way, I do trail maintainance on most hikes but no one can make me. See you (sneaking onto the publicly owned) trail!

[quarkk]

[forest gnome]

GO MTN. GOAT GO!!! perhaps the usfs will stop building roads for logging companys to clearcut and destroy the forest. or maybee they will start doing some road maint. or maybee they will start listening to all the user groups/public input ect....ect....ect........ it is not about the 30$ DIPSHITS... THAT AMMOUNT FOR PARKING?? f*** THAT. OH,and I will do some research, on where the $ goes,and two days volenteer next season.

[Stefan]

I believe the future cost of one Joint Strike Fighter will pay for all the trail maintenance for all the trails in the western United States for five years. I think about 20%-30% of all your tax dollars is also spent on interest annually. I think that's about $250-$300 Billion. Don't quote me on this--and I'm too lazy to look on the internet. Guess what? The these annual interest payments are going to rise! Guaranteed with the Bush tax cuts. What this means is more programs to be cut in the future.......

[MCaver]

It's all part of the plan to bankrupt the federal government so that programs have to be cut.

[MCaver]