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#19602 - 04/18/06 01:22 PM
New park fee irks horseback riders
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Kevin
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From today's (04/18/2006) Poughkeepsie Journal...
New park fee irks horseback riders
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Tuesday, April 18, 2006
New park fee irks horseback riders
$20 ticket added at Minnewaska he
By Dan Shapley
Poughkeepsie Journal
GARDINER — Horseback riders are calling a new fee at Minnewaska State Park Preserve unfair.
The state is defending the fee as a means to cover the cost of maintaining trails for horses.
Riders at Minnewaska must pay a $20 annual fee starting this month. The permit also will give access to Highland Lakes and Goosepond Mountain state parks, and probably Sterling Forest, all in Orange County. The state is completing a trail plan at Sterling Forest.
About 300 horseback riders use those parks each year, including about 200 at Minnewaska, according to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
At Minnewaska, the fee is in addition to a per-car fee charged to all visitors. The $6 parking fee rises to $7 in June, when the lake opens for swimming.
Certain park visitors are also charged extra fees. Boaters must pay $25 per boat for an eight-month season pass, and rock climbers must pay $7 per person per visit.
Impedes the sport
Diane Schoonmaker, who has taught people to ride horses in Accord for 35 years, sees the fee as another impediment to horseback riding in the Hudson Valley. Minnewaska is among only a handful of places open to riders, she said.
"I've lived here my whole life. I used to be able to ride for an entire day cutting from farm to farm. You can't do that anymore. It's really nice to have Minnewaska to go to for a day," Schoonmaker, the president of the Ulster County Horse Council said. "Twenty dollars doesn't seem like a lot, but why us?"
The park's 16,400 acres feature steep Shawangunk Ridge cliffs, clear sky lakes and stunning waterfalls. It is criss-crossed with hiking trails and carriage roads suitable for biking and horse-back riding.
Thousands visit the park every year to hike, picnic, rock climb, mountain bike, swim and ride horses.
Horse riders are the only users that will face additional fees in 2006.
Maintaining trails for horses requires extra work, from pruning low-lying branches to cleaning up after the horses, said Wendy Gibson, spokeswoman for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The $20 fee was established to account for that cost. Riders should expect improvements to the hitching posts and other amenities in the future too, she said.
The fee is not intended to cover the additional costs associated with expanding the park, which grew by 2,500 acres in March and is poised to grow by another 4,000 acres.
"There was money in the budget for stewardship of new parks and expanding parks," Gibson said. "This wasn't done because of the expansion."
Riders are miffed they were singled out for a fee increase.
"I feel that it's very, very unfair," said Linda Meyer, a Town of Shawangunk resident who rides her horse at Minnewaska. "It does not apply to hikers and bikers and swimmers and so forth. Here I am one person on my horse. It's not so much that we object to paying more."
Dan Shapley can be reached at dshapley@poughkeepsiejournal.com
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WOW a whole 20 bucks... To me, if you are complaining about $20 and you own a horse, you may want to rethink your choice of animals... I am sure there would be a huge line of climbers queing up to by a yearly pass for $20...
Lets see, a car of four climbers go to Peterskill, it costs $28 total. If they go four times in one year, it costs them $112... Some horse folks come along with thier four horses and one truck, it will cost them $27 the first time... They can still go to Minne, and a few other parks that we cannot climb in, for 12 more times before they equal what four climbers going to Peterskill four times have to pay...
Granted they all have to pay the $7/'vehicle entry fee like everyone else, but if boater's have to pay over an above the $7, and not everyone that swims there has to pay, but to use the MDSA swim beach I pay an annual membership, for them to pay $20 a year for a special permit is still a bargain... After all they say, take that with a grain of salt, but the monies will be used to support horse activities. So hey, if you have special needs for your user community, in today's world, suck it up! Things are going to a pay to play enviroment...
Catch you later...
Kevin
PS...I thought the day fee for Peterskill climbing was more then $7....
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#19603 - 04/18/06 02:15 PM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: Kevin]
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quanto_the_mad
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Wasn't PK only $5 last season?
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#19604 - 04/18/06 02:26 PM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: quanto_the_mad]
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Kevin
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I know, I cannot remember is it more or less...
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#19605 - 04/18/06 04:41 PM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: Kevin]
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pedestrian
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It was $6 just to park and hike this weekend. Apparently it's $7 to climb. And these people are saying they're the only ones hit with a fee increase? Eh whatev.
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#19606 - 04/18/06 06:19 PM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: pedestrian]
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andrew
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Most climbers don't shit all over the trails either. I *hate* horse trails out west because of that. Hopefully they take better care of things back east.
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#19607 - 04/18/06 06:39 PM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: andrew]
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timh
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"Most climbers don't shit all over the trails either. I *hate* horse trails out west because of that. Hopefully they take better care of things back east. "
No they don't. Have had numerous encounters with equstrians who think the world revolves around them. Was working on a trail maintence project in Maryland putting water bars on a totally trashed trail when here comes the cavalry. After riding through our work (and ruining most of it), one of the lofty mounted cavaliers said
"We really appreciate you building these trails for us." This dispite the fact that the trail in question was clearly marked a not suitable for horses. (MTB technical single track)
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#19608 - 04/19/06 11:28 AM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: Kevin]
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stimpy
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Eff em.....and the horse they rode in on.
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#19609 - 04/19/06 11:45 AM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: timh]
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Kent
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Most climbers don't shit all over the trails either.
Several years ago, on a hot sunny spring day, a guy who was on the periphery of my climbing party, walked about twenty feet from where the rest of us were gathered at the bottom of a climb, and dropped trow behind a mountain laurel and laid down a roiling pungent coiler, while still engaging people in conversation. This same guy has more recently been an outspoken Savetheridge supporter and advocate for Gardiner's zoning law, writing to the local paper on numerous occasions. I doubt he recognizes the incongruity of this.
Have had numerous encounters with equstrians who think the world revolves around them.
The "world revolving around them" perspective is not confined to equestrians.
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Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. ~G.K. Chesterton
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#19610 - 04/19/06 12:21 PM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: Kent]
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alicex4
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That's the beauty of this thread response, the irony.
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#19611 - 04/19/06 12:23 PM
Re: New park fee irks horseback riders
[Re: alicex4]
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Kent
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Agreed.
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Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. ~G.K. Chesterton
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