[olderthanIusedtobe]

I was born in Oregon and spent most of my growing up years on the Washington side of the Columbia River about an hour east of Portland. Cut my teeth hiking in the Gorge and a little bit around Mt. Hood, so hiking in Oregon is near and dear to my heart even though the vast majority of my hiking now is in Washington from I-90 northward. One thing to consider is that Oregon has a lot less miles of trail in alpine areas compared to Washington. A lot less. This proposal would be taking away quite a bit of those miles from many hikers. Kinda sucks for them. The article doesn't get into specifics. Doesn't mention how many permits might be held for walk ups each day. Doesn't talk about what number the quotas will be set at, either. The devil is in the details I guess. Much of the Sierras are subject to a quota system (although only for overnight users, not day hikers). I've been able to get walk up permits for wherever I've wanted to go in the Sierras on several different occasions. Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this than I should. But then think about the lottery for the Enchantments, Wonderland Trail, St. Helens summit...maybe a few others? Those all get gobbled up instantaneously. If you don't apply at the beginning of the year and happen to get lucky enough to have your name drawn, it's not an option for you for an entire year. Those are just a few places, and here in Washington we have many, many other choices (plus you can still day hike the 'Chants and sections of the Wonderland). But spontaneity is out the window, and you have no clue what the weather is going to be like during a given window of time during the summer when you are filling out an application in late winter or early spring. I just imagine this completely sucks for people living in Bend. They have all kinds of options for nearby day hiking currently, and most of them might be taken away from them. Not cool.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Also, I can understand if PCT thru hikers are exempted from the quota, but that's not an insignificant number of hikers passing thru. Seems a bit nonsensical if this is all about easing crowding in an area, but 1000-1500 hikers are exempted from consideration? What about section hikers? Do you have to be attempting the entire PCT to be exempt? And who would be policing that?

[Malachai Constant]

When we did Oregon the rule was you were exempt if you entered the wilderness area from the PCT rather than a road end. The PCT hikers go through Oregon pretty fas as they are doing 20-30 mi per day by the time they get there.

[Ski]

[Schroder]

The proposed action plan is here

[contour5]

I'm pretty sure that this program will be so expensive to implement that there will be no money left over for trail maintenance. They'll have to shut down most of the trails just to keep the program running. Before long, they'll be down to just one trail; and then the program will devolve into a sort of crowd control exercise, with baton wielding enforcers prodding and kicking the untrailworthy along a rutted, feces lined, garbage-strewn path. And people will pay large sums of ones and zeros for the privilege, applying years in advance, and waiting patiently for their turn on the trail. At trail's end, the hikers will be pushed over a huge cliff, scooped up by giant earth-moving equipment and deposited into an enormous vat for rendering down into a range of elastomeric resurfacing compounds. Not much we can do about it. Our leaders are already shutting down general access, reserving previously public land for their own private enjoyment. We're letting them do it. Apparently this is what we want. Interesting times!

[Just_Some_Hiker]

[KekistaniProphet]

yes please more people move to the PNW! There is no way anyone wouldn't want more people in the area unless they are just an ass####! Overpopulation isn't a real thing!

[boot up]

I was sort of willing to grit my teeth and not complain, until I saw the precedent of adding fees on top of fees. Now in addition to my state park pass, NF trails pass, Natl park pass, sno park pass, I will have to pay a per-use fee???? That sucks for folks on a limited fixed income, which I now find myself to be included in that bucket of people. It is true that the real alpine trail options are limited in Central Oregon. As much as I enjoy the lowland mtn biking opportunities (that are NOT great for hiking anyway), it would be nice to be able to get up into the mountains for the short season they are open. (a nice late afternoon hike, close-in to town, quickly got me to 6000 feet elevation and snow last week). Central Oregon is already severely limiting parking at trailheads. A "large" parking area might park 15 cars, many are just a slightly wide spot beside a road. Iron mountain is THE major wildflower hike for this area and its big parking was roughly 15 cars. Lake access is the same situation and they post a lot of "no parking" signs, enforced with a large fine, just outside the parking areas. Once you get on the trails, it really isn't that many people, because of the limited parking. Of course people are spoiled around here and figure seeing a few people during the day is "a crowd". The main exception would be the Green lakes trail, and the Sisters "climber"/trail runner route which is similar to Mt Si on a busy day. I have yet to hike there, being intimidated by the cars lining the main road, outside of the access road to get to the trailhead. I prefer to limit gas eating longer drives to hikes and try to be greener, but yes, if you are willing to drive a bit there are options. I certainly won't say what they are.

[Schroder]

Not only the fees but the possibility of reservations or lotteries to get a permit for a day hike

[teperilloux]

I live in Portland. This is not a serious proposal, as the enforcement costs alone would be problematic. Any fees collected would most likely go to reserve America. Instead, I believe they are aiming for pie in the sky and will end up somewhere in the middle. Personally, I think only certain trailheads and overnight camping permits are a reasonable middle ground. Although, in my experience, they need to build more trails. We have slightly less population here and a LOT fewer trails than Washington, especially alpine, where everyone wants to go.