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(two_k2003) wrote in
om:

Hi -
Does anyone happen to know when New York State Parks began to
charge money for people wanting to use kayaks?

My wife and I went to Taghkanic Lake State Park this weekend with our
boats.

I assume that you mean Taughannock State Park. The spelling you used is
interesting however. According to the park web site:

The name "Taughannock" originates either from that of the Delaware Indian
chief Taughannock or as the Delaware word taghkanic ("great fall in the
woods").

In any case, I live about 10 miles from the park and paddle on Cayuga lake
several times a week.

We paid the $7 to get in, and no one told us (until we were
down at the lake) that they charged $15 bucks PER BOAT just to put in,
and we'd have to adorn our kayaks with a numbered decal (about the
size of a Euro license plate). Otherwise we would be ticketed.

We nearly fell over. The State hits you up for $30 bucks just to put
two boats in the water (and they don't tell you that at the door).

NY State doesn't require any sort of registration or decals for kayaks or
canoes so all this is news to me. I just got off the phone with someone
from the Taughannock Park office and she told me that they do *not* charge a
launch fee for canoes and kayaks out of the park. I'm sure they'd be very
interested to know if someone you encountered at the park took $30 from you.

Granted, they said that as long as we had the decal on the boat, we
could use it for the rest of the year at that location. However, we
later came to find out that each park region (of which there are many)
has a differnt license tag -which required yet another registration.
Another $30 bucks.

I know that Lake George has a annual boat registration fee but it's $12.50
for boats up to 21' long

The money wasn't worth it - as we don't usually go to there.
I think this is a excessive. We're not taxing any of the resources
of the park (ie: we're not taking up the lifeguards time, not taking
fish from the lake, polluting the water like the jetski's do, etc). We
just want to park, put in (no boat launch there, just from shore next
to the beach),

They most certainly do have a boat launch ramp there. It's a popular launch
point for power boaters to fish one of the best areas on the lake for lake
trout, brown trout, landlocked salmon, and smallmouth bass (I've seen the
area featured twice on Saturday morning fishings shows for the smallmouth
bass).

and get out of everyone's hair. They don't tax
bicyclists, do they?

Could someone please shed some light on the justification of this fee?
Part of what attracted me to this past time was the idea that it was
relatively free from costs like this.

Was it always like this or is this a trend?

Is my frustration at this situation unreasonable?

Hey, I'm all for the upkeep of our parks and I don't mind the $7 cover
charge at all. But how they apply their other fees - relative to all
the different kinds of activities/traffic in the park, seems a bit
unbalanced.

All NY State parks require a day use fee. Since there are five of them
within a half hour drive from where I live (and four of those are less than
10 miles away) I get an Empire pass every year ($59 a year) that gives me
access to all of the New York State parks. From what I've seen of
Taughannock State park, it is well maintained and features the 215' high
Taughannock Falls, the highest vertical drop waterfall in the eastern U.S.

Is it this bad in other states?

Any insight and/or opinions are appreciated.

Cayuga Lake is 40 miles long and there are numerous launch points where one
can launch freely along the eastern and western shorelines as well as many
places out of the inlet to the lake in Ithaca. As I said, I paddle on the
lake several times a week and know a lot of other people that do as well and
have never heard any of them complaining about having to pay to paddle on
the lake.