Actually this can't burn my ass, since fires are not allowed there.  Yes I'm talking about the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness Area in the Adirondacks, New York.

For at least three years now, no one is allowed to build a camp fire in the Eastern High Peaks region.

Why?

So people will not cut down trees.

Wait a minute! Is it not already against the law to cut down trees in the NYS Forest Preserve?

It sure is!

They also claim it is to keep people from over using some of the more popular camping areas in the interior.

I'll give them that.  Some of the areas have been overrun in recent years, but with the permit system and enforcing an X amount of campers per designated campsite rules, the areas are starting to recover nicely.

Do you know what else is going on there?

They are considering banning hiking above 3500 feet between September and May.  They are already doing that in Vermont from what I here.

What a crock!

I did not spend hundreds of dollars on all the decent equipment to go backpacking and hiking in higher elevations, only to be told I can't go!  
I take all those recommended items and safety percautions.  
Since they haven't started pulling this new crap yet, they have assisstant rangers stationed at the most popular trail heads, trying to scare everyone with stories of impending doom if you venture forth.
I miss the days of Ranger Pete Fish.  He had some class.

Do you know what else they (DEC) did?  This is insult added to injury.

While camping at an area known as the South Meadows, the only place that I know of in the Eastern High Peaks region that you can go car camping for free, my brother and I wanted to grill some hot dogs.  Can't do it where we were camping, because we might cut down some green trees for our camp fire, to prove to the world what great lumberjackasses we could be, (Believe it or not, there are people who have done this!  Hence, the no campfire rule.)  We decided to go use the grills that were put in place at the Cascade Lakes Day Use Area.  They were just down the road.  We could use the Peak One, and boil them, but we could do that at home.  Besides, I hate boiled hotdogs.

We get to the Day Use Area, and what do we find?
NO F***ING GRILLS OR FIREPLACES!!!

We asked some locals who were having a picnic with their own transportable grill, what happened to the fireplaces and grills.  They said they were taken out by the state last September.  I asked why, and the reply was,  "Because people were enjoying themselves."

In the NYS Constitution, there are articles that pertain to the NYS Forest preserve.  This land is constitutionally protected.  In the introduction to the portion that pertains to the wilderness areas, there is a phrase that states,  "The land shall be untremmeled by Man..."

Do you know what tremmel means?

Some might think it is a word similar to trample.

It is not.  It means retsrained or restricted.

With all these rules, now and pending, they are tremmeling the f*** out of the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness.

It is unconstitutional, but that has never stopped the state before.

I would like to also pitch a bitch about Indian Falls, also in the High Peaks, but I'll save that for later.

The Bilster

Ever notice that this is a perfect example of not enforcing existing laws, but adding new ones to do the same thing?

 Sounds like what happens every time they enact any new stupid f-ing gun laws.  They don't do a freaking thing but make things tougher on the law abiding, honest people and the stupid sh!t for brains don't follow the laws or care anyway![soapbox]            

Two comments:

1.  it couldn't [u]possibly[/u] be the fault of public education that people can't/won't follow simple instructions.. [;D]  

2.  you could always move to the Northwest!  My snowshoe trip in Jan. [b]started[/b] at 3700 ft.  Of course, I would suggest that you find a job here [i]before[/i] you actually move here.  (voice of experience!)

I am generally not in favor of campfires unless you absolutely need one for survival.  There is far too great a potential for them to get away from you to justify them.

Let me qualify the statement:  I am a veteran long distance hiker with additional experience in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the winter.   I generally look on campsite preparations as a matter of utmost practicality.  If I don't need to do something and doing it needlessly complicates my routine, I don't bother.  campfires fit nicely into this niche.  I don't need them and they create a responsibility for me to either stay up until they burn down enough to take out with a reasonable amount of water, or to carry a whole pile of water to put them out thoroughly when I want to go to bed.   So it's too friggin' much trouble.

I did enjoy a campfire one night in Maine.  A group of us had just hiked out of Stratton and one of us had scored a couple fresh venison steaks his local buddy had gotten from a whitetail he had mown down with his truck.  We started a small fire in a firepit and grilled those steaks up nicely.  We had a stream handy so that made putting out the fire relatively simple.

My cooking needs are generally met by boiling water.  A couple cups for hot cider and another couple cups for dinner.  I'm experimenting with an alcohol stove to shed the weight of pressurized white gas stoves.

What burns my ass in the northeast is the campaigsn by city yuppies to create a vast Northern Forest preserve encompassing the adirondacks, the Green Mountains, the White Mountains and the whole of western Maine as well as a greenway up the connectocut river valley in Mass, through the hills to the east of the Connecticut River in NH up to the White Mountain National Forest.  They want to stop ALL development and homebuilding in these regions, curtail or eliminate all logging and buy up conservation easements on everyone's property.

Fucking idiots would doom every person living in these regions to eternal poverty.

There seems to be alot of tree huggers in the Adirondacks. I guess that's better than having the entire region developed and turned into one giant strip mall. It's still a very beautiful area, and I think it's supposed to be the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi.