San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Hiking famed Lost Coast Trail to cost $12
Backpackers will soon have to pay a modest fee to hike the popular Lost Coast Trail in rural Northern California — the first time that the federal agency managing the trail has imposed such a charge.
The fee requirement, announced Wednesday, will take effect in six months. There’s currently a flat $6 reservation fee to book an overnight trip on the trail via the federal booking website Recreation.gov. Beginning Nov. 8, there will also be a fee of $12 per hiker attached to the booking.
The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the trail and limits the number of backpackers allowed on it to prevent overcrowding, said the fee is necessary to maintain the 57mile trail, which skirts the Pacific Ocean at the foot of the steep King Range in Humboldt County and sees thousands of backpackers each year. Most visitors spend two or three nights traversing the popular 25mile northern section, which hugs the surf and passes a historic lighthouse, a harbor seal colony, two treacherous intertidal zones and a black sand beach.
Proceeds from the new fee will stay within the King Range National Conservation Area and pay for: at least three backcountry trail maintenance crews per year; staff to open the visitor center in Whitethorn on Saturdays during summer months; additional rangers near trailheads; and support for the local fire departments tasked with responding to the handful of emergency searches and rescues that crop up each year.
According to the agency’s 2023 King Range business plan document, imposing a hiker fee could free up availability on the trail by discouraging trip leaders from snatching up more permits than they need and, perhaps, incentivizing people who can’t make their trips to cancel their permit reservations
by refunding their fees.
The BLM has been tinkering with how it grants
overnight Lost Coast Trail permits since adding them to Recreation.gov several years ago. Last year, the agency moved away from opening permits for a calendar year all at once, which caused a booking frenzy.
The new fee won’t apply to children under 17 years old or to tribal gatherings or ceremonial uses, according to the agency.
In the same announcement Wednesday, the BLM said it plans to impose a new $15 per-night campsite fee at Steiner Flat campground in Trinity County as well as a $60 per night fee at the lower Ohl Olsen group campsite in the Chappie/Shasta OffHighway Vehicle Recreation Area near Shasta Lake.