Friday, May 25, 2007

Memorial Day plans

I'm taking my wife and son out for our first family camping trip since before Tony was born--which makes it the little beastie's first camping trip ever. If Tony takes to the experience--which we fully expect, given the love of the outdoors that he's already displaying at 21 months--it'll be the first trip of many for us all together.

We'll drive down a dirt road, find a likely looking patch of national forest, and pitch our tent. I'll bring the dogs, folding chairs, a cigar, a bottle of rum and a few limes and we'll relax. I'll grill up burgers over a fire and we'll watch the stars come out. We may do some target shooting--before breaking into the rum, of course. It's all free-form, low-cost fun, available for the doing without asking anybody permission.

That's an increasingly rare commodity.

Of course, we can't completely escape the modern world. I have to be careful about the camping spot I pick, to avoid fire restrictions that just went into effect on most of the federal land around us. Those restrictions put a crimp not just on the fire over which I plan to cook dinner, but also on the cigar I'll enjoy afterwards. I've ignored Forest Service restrictions before, on many occasions, but not with the family in tow--it's just something I don't need to worry about. So we'll drive a little further to evade the red tape.

But that red tape becomes a little more tangled every year. The Red Rock Ranger District already requires hikers, mountain bikers and other users of the outdoors to get a pass to park on national forest land. Like a lot of locals, I defy this rule and tear-up the few citations I receive for doing so (the "notice of non-compliance" is not enforceable in court). But I always have a moment's hesitation when I think about heading out for a hike in the Sedona area, because I'd rather avoid a confrontation if I can help it.

That's not all. One of my favorite backpacking destination, the Fossil Creek area, has been effectively closed to the public for the duration while the Forest Service decommissions an old--and picturesque--hydro-electric power plant. The feds have long wanted to shut down the Flume Trail which leads to the creek, and I expect that will remain shut even after the larger area is reopened.

And there are hints of worse on the horizon. As I wrote several days ago, administrators at the Ironwood Forest National Monument in southern Arizona are talking about completely banning target shooting from the 129,000 acres they manage on behalf of... well... clearly, not the public.

Overall, government managers of what are supposed to be the public lands are increasingly acting as if that land is their private property. They treat access to the land as a privilege to be doled out only to those who duck their heads and tug their forelocks.

And let's not even get into the growing legal crimp suffered by the alcohol, tobacco and firearms I so enjoy.

So, as I sit around my campfire, sipping rum and smoking a cigar, I'll be wondering just what rules Tony will have to break to enjoy the same experience when he's my age.

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