Most versions of my plans for my October Road – Camping trip involve at least some “dispersed camping” in National Forests and visiting National Forest sites. While I am not planning leaving until October 14th, I know spiteful a Democratic president can be over the temporary lapse of appropriations, forcing closures of many developed recreation sites, including in some cases gating back-country roads, not because they cost the government much money, but to put political pressure on Republicans to adopt a budget they don’t agree with.

Not sure if this is going to be an issue this year, but I could see both sides dragging out their appropriation fight well into October and it might require me to reconsider my plans. One option would be to visit more state forests in the Southern Tier of New York State along with doing the Pennsylvania Pine Creek Rail Trail, another would be to head north, and do a trip to the Tug Hill Plateau and North Country / Massena.

I did camp in back country in the Finger Lakes National Forest during the shutdown in 2013, but it’s not clear if that was explicitly permitted or prohibited. The recreation sites were gated at the National Forest, but it’s rather hard to close off back-country roads that aren’t maintained by the forest service. State parks remained fully open, and while during the week I saw a Schuyler County Deputy and the NYSDEC Officer patrolling the roads to make up for the lack of working forest service rangers, they never stopped or said anything about camping during the government shutdown.

It’s not certain what will happen this year, but I should consider my alternatives.