My Insane Diatribe Against the Adventure Pass

I bought an adventure pass once. It was in Big Bear, we were staying at a cabin up there and I wanted to do a hike that was a few hundred yards down the road from the cabin. Being a good upstanding citizen, I drove a mile or to out my way to visitor center, paid my $5 and drove back to the trail head, hiked for an hour or two and that was that. That was the last time I bought an adventure pass. A short time later, at an event we had at the job (it was a geology show) there was a wild eyed activist who had rented a table at the show to rail against the adventure pass. I talked to him. He told me, what I later found out to be true, there was no actual penalty for not buying at Adventure Pass. He showed me his "notice of non-compliance" I looked at it carefully there was no fine, no notice to appear, nothing just a sort of vague statement to "don't do it again." I asked the wild haired activist (yes, he had wild eyes and wild hair) what purpose, in his opinion, did the Adventure Pass serve? He said, "It serves the purpose of creating a bloated government bureaucracy!" Well, I don't know if I buy into that, but I did resolve not to buy adventure passes anymore. Whats the point of obeying a law that no one bothers to enforce? It doesn't exist to remedy an unsafe condition like sppeding or running a red light. It exists to generate money..period. About a month later, I was hiking in Colby Canyon, parked on Angeles Crest Highway and I got one of these notices of noncompliance. I completely ignored it, nothing ever happened. There are no forest rangers staging a raid on my house, at least not that I'm aware of. Keep in mind this was all in the program's infancy, I've parked on Angeles Crest, probably a hundred times since that first notice and have never gotten another notice.
I guess that's my biggest argument against the adventure pass, that its never enforced. It feels like being taken advantage of. Its like, "yeah we don't really care if you pay or not, but if you're silly enough to pay us we'll take your money." I think the problem is this, to seriously enforce the fee , you would have to hire more rangers thereby eating up funds generated by the program. I was going to do a detailed list of points and point out that we don't know what the funds are being used for, but the Forest Service does, it seems, keep detailed records of how the fee money is being used on their website. But here's the thing, the Forest Service is not what you think it is. The Forest Service is not like the National Park Service and is not there to protect the natural environment. The Forest Service exists to manage logging contracts and land leases with timber companies and usually at a loss to the taxpayer. In A Walk In the Woods author Bill Bryson dedicates a few pages to how the Forest Service uses its funds. Mostly the Forest Service exists to build roads to the trees so loggers can cut them down. This is a government agency, funded by your tax dollars. Do you pay $5 every time you call the police or the Fire Dept.? No, thats because that 20% of your paycheck that disappears before you get it, pays for all that.
Did you know that the Adventure Pass exists only in Southern California and parts of Oregon? Thats because its an experimental system. Its called the "Recreation Fee Demonstration Program" it exists to research whether or not people will pay to recreate on public lands. Clearly since it's inception in 1994 the program has not taken hold across the country and now exists as a sort of donation program.
Jeff and I got into a debate about this the other night and he says I'm a freeloader, but this isn't so. When I camp on a Forest Service site I pay my fees. When I go fishing I get a license. If I go to a visitor center, I might even through a few bucks in the box as a donation, but I just don't see the use of a fee on top of a tax. I haven't seen any tangible results from the program. I've been hiking in the San Gabriels since I was 5 years old and I've yet to see new bathrooms, more rangers, or less graffiti on any of the trails I frequent. Nor would I want to. I ask very little of the forest. I ask for a trail and peace and quiet. Thats it. I piss in the woods and if I want to drink from the water I bring a water filter. And I pack out all my trash and usually trash I find on the trail. I don't want to see more urbanization of the forest. I don't want to make it easier for tenderfeet to go deeper into the forest, mostly they are just loud and what I'm trying to get away from in the first place. And guess what, if new tax legislation was proposed to help protect our forests from logging, hire more rangers and maintain trail systems...guess who's the first guy writing his congressmen.

Here's a few things that will confund you further about the Adventure Pass:

If you hike at Chantry Flats, on the weekend there is a Ranger there encouraging you to buy an adventure pass. On the weekdays its a ghost town. Whats the difference? I'm still technically in need of an adventure pass right???

You can Hike to Mt. Wilson from Sierra Madre or Altadena and not need an Adventure Pass, but if you hike it from Chantry Flats you technically need one. Three quarters of the way up its all one trail. In fact I could hike from Sierra Madre into Chantry flats if I was so inclined.

If you venture into the Azusa Canyon area, they actually have signs posted that you do not need an Adventure Pass on weekdays. Why? If the purpose of the program is to collect funds, shouldn't they be trying to get as much as possible?

The Chantry Flats trail head was closed for three years, where were the funds to get it back open? The Henniniger Flats trail is still closed due to landslide, where are the fees at work for that? Mismanaged, thats where.

My Facts here are not irrefutable and I'm sure Jeff is salivating waiting to post his rebuttal, but I don't care , I just don't like the program, its poorly run and not enforced. I feel my taxes and other fees pay for any impact that I might have on the forest. So I will continue with my small bit of civil disobedience.

I reserve the right to edit this post as I think of more shit to say...