# US Government "Shutdown" on Trail Riding?



## Jolly Badger (Oct 26, 2009)

A question for my fellow Americans - Just wondering if the current "shutdown" of the US government has impacted your trail riding/camping plans this fall?

I live in an area where many of the state parks are actually part of a national forest, and some areas have been closed for camping (even primitive). Some friends of mine just returned from a trip to Shawnee National Forest (southern IL), and Garden of the Gods was also closed with signs posted that there would be a $5000 fine if you entered the area. Not sure who was there to write tickets, but my friends were not eager to find out so they left.

Other areas, like Big South Fork (TN) and Land Between the Lakes (KY) are iffy. Are guests at privately-owned campgrounds in those areas still permitted on the trails, or have the horse trails been closed entirely? 

Have you - or has anyone you know - had to cancel or change travel/camping plans with your horses because of park, campground, or trail closures?

Just curious.


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

My step-daughter had a trip to Mid-West planned and decided not to go. It's a privately owned campground with trails in Hoosier National and when she called to inquire about it they said no riding on the federal land.

We went to Brown County State Park about 10 days ago and their trails are not closed. The lady at the gate said the phone calls were driving her crazy though. LOL


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## 6gun Kid (Feb 26, 2013)

I haven't had any issues on national forest land. But I ride mostly on isolated tracts that are accessible only through private land. However, Tuesday I have a big ride planned and we are planning on using some of the main trails so I will let you know Tuesday night,


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## Clava (Nov 9, 2010)

Why is there a shutdown?


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## clairegillies (Nov 25, 2012)

land is land.. how can you 'close' it?


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## Muriel (Jul 22, 2013)

Clava said:


> Why is there a shutdown?


 
Because our politicians are a joke. They live by different rules than the ordinary folk so when they start a war among them it impacts us peoples, not them -- idiots!


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## Clava (Nov 9, 2010)

Oh, I see.

(I thought the trails had been shutdown, so why are trails affected at all, do you have to pay for them?)


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## Muriel (Jul 22, 2013)

Clava said:


> Oh, I see.
> 
> (I thought the trails had been shutdown, so why are trails affected at all, do you have to pay for them?)


 
No our ninny politicians have shut down all of our federal government (well mostly). So our national parks, forests, museums etc are now closed. All non-essential federal employees were told not to come into work (they won't get paid). Most federal agencies are closed. Many states have parks and museums that remain open. The icing on the cake is the IRS (USA taxing authority) still works, but only the collections part, not the service or refund section. What a joke

Why are the trails shut? Some national parks do charge fees. But many you can access without paying fees. They are all closed because there is no one to ensure they are safe or if someone gets hurt or gets lost, no federal park employees can go out and find or assist them. If it sounds odd to you, just imagine how odd it is to us. People got to the Washington DC capital every day to see the monuments and war exhibits, but those have been blocked off too ... just crazy


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## Clava (Nov 9, 2010)

Muriel said:


> No our ninny politicians have shut down all of our federal government (well mostly). So our national parks, forests, museums etc are now closed. All non-essential federal employees were told not to come into work (they won't get paid). Most federal agencies are closed. Many states have parks and museums that remain open. The icing on the cake is the IRS (USA taxing authority) still works, but only the collections part, not the service or refund section. What a joke
> 
> Why are the trails shut? Some national parks do charge fees. But many you can access without paying fees. They are all closed because there is no one to ensure they are safe or if someone gets hurt or gets lost, no federal park employees can go out and find or assist them.


Thank you for explaining


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## Cat (Jul 26, 2008)

Thankfully while they closed down the campsite near the trails we ride on, the trails themselves are left open. We were just there yesterday. 

I saw on facebook that a whole bunch of people got kicked out of one park after an endurance ride set up to earn money for those exact trails. Everyone got back in from a long hard ride, horses were still cooling off, some people had already kicked back and had a few drinks - and they forced all the rigs to move out that night. Crazy and dangerous.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

We ride a lot on the trails in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area located on the south city limits of town (Sulphur, OK). They put up a sign reading "Trail Closed" or "Road Closed" at every entrance into the Park. They only have 1 or 2 employees working and they are the Park Police. They are only patrolling the perimeter and chasing anybody out that dares to put a foot in the Park. 

Not only does the politics of this make no sense what-so-ever, they have said they will pay all of the non-working Federal employees while they are NOT at work. So, now we are paying them to stay home and not work. Someone tell me how that makes any sense at all.


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## Jolly Badger (Oct 26, 2009)

Muriel said:


> No our ninny politicians have shut down all of our federal government (well mostly). So our national parks, forests, museums etc are now closed. All non-essential federal employees were told not to come into work (they won't get paid). Most federal agencies are closed. Many states have parks and museums that remain open. The icing on the cake is the IRS (USA taxing authority) still works, but only the collections part, not the service or refund section. What a joke
> 
> Why are the trails shut? Some national parks do charge fees. But many you can access without paying fees. They are all closed because there is no one to ensure they are safe or if someone gets hurt or gets lost, no federal park employees can go out and find or assist them. If it sounds odd to you, just imagine how odd it is to us. People got to the Washington DC capital every day to see the monuments and war exhibits, but those have been blocked off too ... just crazy


Apparently the government has such a high opinion of itself that it thinks the American people are not capable of walking on a path in the woods without "help." 

There really isn't much to stop people from hiking/riding the trails, but I think anything that involves "facilities and services" is closed. That includes points of interest where there is a concession stand or restroom, or camping (even if it's just a primitive setup). And, in some areas, you cannot access trails or trailheads without first entering the park or going through some kind of access gate, so they simply close and lock the gates.


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## Clava (Nov 9, 2010)

To an outsider it does indeed sound a bit crazy, I live in a National Park now but it could not be closed. We only have our public rights of way closed when there are serious health issues such as foot and mouth.


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## Painted Horse (Dec 29, 2006)

The National Parks in the state were closed. ( Arches, Bryce, Capital Reef, Canyon lands and Zions) The state of Utah stepped up and is paying to keep them open. For Utah it is a $100 million economic loss for the month of October to be closed. So they are open now.

Never saw any problems with riding during the shut down. We still park in primitive areas and ride across the mountains.

Now if I had tried to get a permit to host a "For Profit" event o public lands, I would have had problems. Since the administrative offices are all closed and getting the permit or processing one would have come to a complete halt.

The rangers are always asking trick questions to see if somebody is getting paid or earning a fee to lead a group on a ride. The answer no matter how the question is asked is always " Nope we are just friends out enjoying a ride" If the BLM or Forest Service thinks there is any organization or any money changing hands. They want some of it.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

There is no excuse to close a national forest. Campgrounds? Yes. But the trails? Not a chance. Enter at your own risk signs MIGHT be appropriate. The House offered full funding to the National Park Service, and has offered full funding for the government for 6 weeks to negotiate, but that doesn't fit the DC agenda of maximizing the pain.

But funding or not, there is no justification for closing the trails in the National Forests. I spent many years hiking on them without a cell phone or any rescue service. That is always my assumption when I enter public land - if I enter, I need to find a way to exit.


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## QOS (Dec 8, 2008)

Ebenezer Park in Jasper, Texas on Lake Sam Rayburn is closed. My cousin has reservations for this coming weekend (I couldn't get reservations - they were packed!) but do not know if they will be going. If this goofy madness of idiotic government officials playing chicken will end she is going. The trails are open as there are private homes back there. I will go up Saturday for a day ride if possible.


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## phantomhorse13 (Feb 18, 2011)

The endurance ride we were at the first weekend of the month was supposed to take place in a national forest in New York state. The ride manager was notified at 8pm Thursday night that she could not use the trails. Luckily for us, she was able to re-route and re-mark over 30 miles of trail for us on Friday, so the rides went on for Saturday and Sunday.

The next ride we plan to attend, this one in Virginia, is also almost entirely on National Park land. Management has already made arrangements to use trails on privately owned property if the park trails are still closed.

The whole thing is insane.


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## RhinestoneCowgirl03 (Jul 4, 2012)

You know what's funny? MOST of the government is still running. They only shut down the parts that would hurt the average American most. AND in DC, they shut down the parks and whatnot for those old vets, but allowed a bunch of illegal immigrants entry so they could protest something. WTF. AND in....Yellowstone, I think it was, a bus of elderly tourists (many not from the US) WERE HELD AT GUNPOINT in the park and could not even stop the bus to go to the bathroom. It's sick. If the gov't just stayed the heck out of our lives, that'd be great.


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## RhinestoneCowgirl03 (Jul 4, 2012)

Clava said:


> To an outsider it does indeed sound a bit crazy, I live in a National Park now but it could not be closed. We only have our public rights of way closed when there are serious health issues such as foot and mouth.


If the US government continues to carry on like a bunch of spend-crazy bafoons I might just hop across the pond. I'm visiting Scotland this spring....maybe I just won't come back lol.


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## jamesqf (Oct 5, 2009)

No real effect on trails hereabouts, but when you consider that most of the "trails" are things like old logging roads (or roads that are rights-of-way dating back to pioneer days), and that there is way more National Forest/BLM land hereabouts than private land, there is no possible way they could be closed off.

The RV-type campgrounds are closed, but most would be closing for winter about now, anyway. Really, the only effect on me has been that I can't get a firewood cutting permit. But since there's no one out there to enforce the permits...


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## its lbs not miles (Sep 1, 2011)

Cherie said:


> Not only does the politics of this make no sense what-so-ever, they have said they will pay all of the non-working Federal employees while they are NOT at work. So, now we are paying them to stay home and not work. Someone tell me how that makes any sense at all.


I'd have to see that confirmed. None of our "furloughed" people are getting paid. I don't know of anyone who's not being allowed to come in getting paid.
Now back in 95 when they did this (it wasn't to this scale though) they did give back pay to everyone who had been "out of work", but they're not holding out much hope of that this time around.

Our politicians are more concerned with what they can get out of being in office vs fulfilling the meaning of politics. i.e. for or of the citizens
Everyone is more concerned with special interest, large corporations (i.e. big money), getting reelected and not working with each other. Please someone take us back to the days of Nelson Rockefeller when the "ultras" where the extreme minority in DC and moderates ran the government.
Let's see, the debt was less 400 billion, the middle class was prospering and doing well and politicians had to vote on whether or not they could get a raise (it was part of the public record) vs getting an automatic one EVERY year.

I think we should all just have a "tea party" :lol::lol::lol:
Of course the funniest (and ironic) part of all this is the original Tea Party participants (you might have heard of them....they dumped a lot of tea off a ship in Boston harbor back in Dec 1773) were the ultra liberals of there day (as were many of the Founding Fathers) and the group who started this shutdown (and named themselves after that 1773 Boston group) are ultra conservatives.


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## goneriding (Jun 6, 2011)

We ended up camping at a state horse camp last weekend, had a blast. There was an endurance ride going on. The original plan was to camp at a place called Hungerford but it was closed. I was told people were pulling in everywhere along the main road including the day area and camping, forestry came by but did nothing, cool.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

White Mtn. National forest closed here. Columbus day weekend is one of the biggest tourist weekends in the area. State taking a big hit on the tourism that supports it.

I'm kinda partial to some of the reactions to the closings...

Video | NBC 10 Philadelphia


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

My daughter is in the Navy Reserve, just out of training and boot. She hasn't had to report for her duty, isn't getting paid.


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## Jolly Badger (Oct 26, 2009)

its lbs not miles said:


> Our politicians are more concerned with what they can get out of being in office vs fulfilling the meaning of politics. i.e. for or of the citizens
> Everyone is more concerned with special interest, large corporations (i.e. big money), getting reelected and not working with each other.


Agreed. We the People voted for them to be leaders. 

_We_ "hired" _them_. 

_We_ chose _them _to make the decisions to help our country.

Basically, _they're_ supposed to be working for _us_. 

It just doesn't seem like it these days. :-|


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## QOS (Dec 8, 2008)

I spoke to my cousin a while a go. She spoke to our park lady at Ebenezer, Loretta. Loretta was in Missouri visiting family when they had the shutdown. She is back at the park in her RV because she lives on site but the gate into the campgrounds is locked. The trails are open though. Loretta said boats were backed up from the other side of the dam to the Ebenezer side (quiet a ways!) because of the shut down. Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction of the lake so all boat ramps are owned by the government. Yoo Haaaa.... NOT.


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## Northernstar (Jul 23, 2011)

Our home/property sits right in the center of the Nat'l Forest - all trails adjoining are open to hiking/camping/bridle (unless marked foot path only)...Here in N MI, the National Parks that _require fees_ are the ones marked as closed, such as the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore - there was an article recently stating that many people from all over the country had traveled (as they often do!) to Sleeping Bear, and decided to proceed on foot anyway....little was done I believe, as they were peaceful hikers and it is a vast area.


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## 6gun Kid (Feb 26, 2013)

Rode for 3 hours, never saw a sign or a soul, the gate was locked but it usually is and we just rode around it. I take that back, we did run into some one.... A bowhunter taking a nap.... So no, so far the shutdown has not affected my trail riding...








Leaving








on the trail #1








on the trail #2.
Sorry thats all the pics I dont see my daughter but once in a blue moon so all we usually do is talk and catch up.


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## ForeverSunRider (Jun 27, 2013)

Hasn't affected me. Our trail riding parks are all state-owned so they're still up and running. It'd be a real shame if they weren't. I'd go stir-crazy.


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## avjudge (Feb 1, 2011)

RhinestoneCowgirl03 said:


> If the US government continues to carry on like a bunch of spend-crazy bafoons I might just hop across the pond. I'm visiting Scotland this spring....maybe I just won't come back lol.


From Wikipedia, which references the _2011 Index of Economic Freedom_ by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal:

Tax burden / Gov't expenditure as % of GDP 
United Kingdom: 38.9 / 47.3
United States: 26.9 / 38.9

So Scotland (as part of the UK) has 10% _higher_ spending. Of course, I believe they get sane health care out of that.


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## jamesqf (Oct 5, 2009)

avjudge said:


> So Scotland (as part of the UK) has 10% _higher_ spending.


Not to turn this into a political discussion or anything, but how much of the Scottish/British spending is deficit spending? It's not that I really want higher taxes, you understand, but I think the bigger problem is that the US keeps on spending borrowed money, instead of living within its income.


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