[mtngrl]

Article

[sarbar]

I have no qualms about the plan-It's one of the few places closed that I'd love to see reopened (especially with the Doese bridges having been replaced last fall!) If it is done, I will be back there in a heart beat. 2001 summer was my last time......

[Slugman]

I am an environmentalist who usually looks with a suspicious eye at the requests of various "chambers of commerce", but in this case the CoC has it right and the environmentalists are all wet. Build it, already, and let's go hiking! The park is already mostly pristine wilderness, I just don't believe that the tiny number of roads along it's outer edge are a threat to that. This is a major entryway into a remote area, not realistically accessible any other way. Next up: the high Dose bridge! Sar, is that bridge in already? Build that road even faster, then!

[sarbar]

Yep, they airlifted them in this past fall! So the trail in Dose is open....it's the long walking on the road that is the turn off!

[jimmymac]

So when you buy your Forest Pass this year, know that it is going toward a worthy cause: Lawyers. A special thanks is owed to the environmental elitists.

[Brian Curtis]

The Forest Pass money is not used for road repair or legal fees. This actually illustrates one of the advantages of the Forest Pass. The money doesn't go into the general budget so it won't be watered down by things like lawsuits and goes more directly to trail maintenance.

[jimmymac]

Thank goodness! I had heard someplace that net funding for recreation had gone down since the forest pass experiment was initiated. If the funding streams are so distinct, then I guess more money would actually be available. Kind of like the "extra" money the schools were supposed to reap from gambling.

[Brian Curtis]

My post said nothing about the total amount of funding for recreation nor did it imply that more money would be available for trails then before the pass was implimented. You've read several assumptions into my statment that simply aren't there. My original statement stands. The money from the Forest Passes will be not be diluted by any lawsuits over the Dose road. The Forest Pass money is not adequate to pay for all needed trail maintenance and where that additional money comes from or goes to is beyond the scope of my statement. The particular chunk of money from the Forest Passes will be going toward trail maintenance and that is a bit of power that trail users have that would be given up if we went back to taking all the money out of the general FS budget.

[jimmymac]

I believe everything you say to be correct. My point is this: to the extent that average annual funding of trail maintenance from general revenues has dropped, Forest Pass users are taking on a new burden from others. To the extent that total inflation-adjusted trail maintenance spending is less than what it was before the Forest Pass demo, we are effectively subsidizing non-trail maintenance spending -- like fire suppression and litigation.

[hikermike]

Goodness did you 'all get off the subject!

[jimmymac]

Well...yeah. A little, maybe! Actually, I thought we showed good restraint compared to last time. Last time? That was when a backpack selection thread ended in three pages of flagging tape arguing. Brian's a good guy, however. If you're gonna steal a thread, he's a great accomplice.

[hikermike]

Flagging tape is a good subject, I'm all for it! Teasing of sourse, as if we haven't been around this before!

[jimmymac]

I'm waiting for somebody to come out with a .32 caliber flagging tape applicator, manufactured by kids, in a Third World sweat shop. The image of the resulting NWHikers thread boggles my mind!

[G C Thomas]

All I know is . . . yipeeeeeeeeee. . . . I love this trail. And I don't particularly like getting to it via constance pass. I read the article in todays Penisula Daily News, but I did not catch a time frame in the article.

[mtngrl]

Yes, regardless of the pros and cons, it would be great to cut out the current five miles of road-hiking to get to the trailhead.