Gonna cost 20$ to thru-hike the Smokies in 2013

[moldy]

I talked on the phone today with the GSMNP public affairs office about 2013 thru hiking. They have not worked out the details on how it will work. For thru-hikers it will cost 20 dollars for your back country permit. Thats the one that was free and available at the Fontana dam box as well as all park visitors centers and the outfitter in Hot Springs for SOBO's. They have not worked out just how you will be paying the 20 bucks or if the permit will be date specific. They did go on to say that thru-hikers will be allowed to stay in any AT shelter or campground without reservations just like it is now.

[swjohnsey]

How generous of them.

[Tipi Walter]

Maybe this is the door to charging every AT backpacker $5 per night from Georgia to Maine.

[Nutbrown]

With the amount of trash left behind during thru season, maybe a small charge should be put in place. We're already spending $4000 or more for a thru, what's an extra $20 going to do?

[Lone Wolf]

$20 is nothing in the big picture

[CrumbSnatcher]

i'd gladly pay the 20.00 bucks

[Tipi Walter]

i'd gladly pay the 20.00 bucks

Can anyone say Acquiescence?

[Lone Wolf]

Can anyone say Acquiescence?

you sure do spend a lot of time on here whinin' with a computer that uses electricity generated by burning coal. you need to go out in the wood

[CrumbSnatcher]

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[swjohnsey]

"First they came for the . . . "

[yellowsirocco]

"First they came for the . . . "

freeloaders who don't do trail maintenance and feel entitled everything for free.

Hopefully most of the fee will go to the SMHC for trail maintenance or hell even buying them some beer. At least give Ox a beer, he is the man.

[Tipi Walter]

you sure do spend a lot of time on here whinin' with a computer that uses electricity generated by burning coal. you need to go out in the wood

We're all sucking in mercury. So you're okay with a 5 dollar nightly fee on all of the AT if the tent police decide it's right? Or just 20 bucks for the Park?

[Tipi Walter]

freeloaders who don't do trail maintenance and feel entitled everything for free.

Hopefully most of the fee will go to the SMHC for trail maintenance or hell even buying them some beer. At least give Ox a beer, he is the man.

We pay for it. It's called taxes, otherwise every road would be a toll road. And there are plenty of places to go bushwack-backpacking without trails. That's all my buddy Hootyhoo does---off trail trips. Does he feel entitled? Naw, he earns his bag nights.

[swjohnsey]

freeloaders who don't do trail maintenance and feel entitled everything for free.

Hopefully most of the fee will go to the SMHC for trail maintenance or hell even buying them some beer. At least give Ox a beer, he is the man.

None of the fee will go for trail maintenance. I always figured that fat check I send to the IRS every year bought me somethin'. How much trail maintenance have you done?

[peakbagger]

In the WMNF the government insitituted a parking fee and for a couple of years a lot of work got done to improve trailhead parking and funded trailwork. Unfortunately during the next few budget cycles, the extra money was subtracted from the regular budget and the there was no net revenue. Then the lawsuit against parking fees was won out west and now the WMNF has to either do major upgrades to each trailhead or pull the parking permit required signs. The USFS is basically only requiring permits at very popular trailheads, mostly the one that AMC guests use to access the huts and were already somewhat upgraded.

If the federal budget is going to be cut expect a lot more user fees.

[Tipi Walter]

In the WMNF the government insitituted a parking fee and for a couple of years a lot of work got done to improve trailhead parking and funded trailwork. Unfortunately during the next few budget cycles, the extra money was subtracted from the regular budget and the there was no net revenue. Then the lawsuit against parking fees was won out west and now the WMNF has to either do major upgrades to each trailhead or pull the parking permit required signs. The USFS is basically only requiring permits at very popular trailheads, mostly the one that AMC guests use to access the huts and were already somewhat upgraded.

If the federal budget is going to be cut expect a lot more user fees.

If so I only hope that every car entering the GSMNP pays a $20 entrance fee. Especially since it's the most air-polluted park in the country.

[quilteresq]

I don't object in theory. But the fact is the with privies outlawed in Smoky Mt. National Park, it's the worst camping conditions and the only place where you are required to camp near the shelters. One journal I read stated that a couple was ordered by the ranger to pitch their tent ON a pile of (thankfully composted) horse manure. When it poured that night, their tent was not only in the lowest spot in the area, all that manure got onto their tent wet! One of the reasons I'm hammocking. That an it's darned hard to find a flat camping spot in the Whites.

[Jeff]

I believe Stratton Pond Shelter in Vermont has for many years been the first "pay" shelter for northbounders. Now with these new rules in the Smokies, it's a bargin. A one-time $5 covers all shelters along the AT in Vermont !!!!!

[Spokes]

I talked on the phone today with the GSMNP public affairs office about 2013 thru hiking. They have not worked out the details on how it will work. For thru-hikers it will cost 20 dollars for your back country permit...

Wonder if it will require us having to stand in line?

Let's hope the bureaucrats don't mandate filling out a dozen forms (in triplicate), then having them notorized before proceeding.

[Tipi Walter]

I don't object in theory. But the fact is the with privies outlawed in Smoky Mt. National Park, it's the worst camping conditions and the only place where you are required to camp near the shelters. One journal I read stated that a couple was ordered by the ranger to pitch their tent ON a pile of (thankfully composted) horse manure. When it poured that night, their tent was not only in the lowest spot in the area, all that manure got onto their tent wet! One of the reasons I'm hammocking. That an it's darned hard to find a flat camping spot in the Whites.

Here's my quandary---there are 500,000 acres in the Smokies. Of these, there are around 100 backcountry sites so let's be generous and say each site is 2 acres. So, those 200 acres are the only allowed out of five hundred thousand? People will counter, "But this way the Park focuses the worst damage in a small area." But I believe 500,000 acres of free-roaming sites will disperse every backpacker well without the need for reservations. Mt Rogers backcountry gets thousands of backpackers a year and there's wide open camping permitted.

And the AT is I guess a linear National Park and gets hundreds of thousands of backpackers per year and yet for the most part there's no designated camping spots.