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Not sure how much weight comments from a guy who lives 950 miles from the border will have, if any, but they at least know how I feel.

If I'm half that distance away my opinions should have twice the weight, eh?  ;D

We shouldn't have a say is what most of us living south of that line would expect but no. I've talked with the last two supers and the impression I've developed over the years is they really do care what we think. After all, we're the people that use it most so it makes sense. Kinda like American political donations at the moment.

Designated campsites, routes wouldn't really affect anyone's trips and those it might wouldn't much care and the more I think about dots on a map, the less feasible that becomes to designate by. Although I do expect Chrismar to add some dots eventually (such is life) I can't imagine an all out effort to verify and legalize all the dots.

The problem I see with it is one of perception. Right now there's an exterior boundary. It's a sacred sort of a thing. There's places where if you go beyond it you find clear-cut. Within that boundary you can go anywhere you want but telling people where they can and cannot go within that, well - seems a lot of people would have a huge problem with that simply on principle alone.

The aging dam is something to think about. I know Pickerel, Rawn, Batch ... fairly well. A possibly eventual six foot drop? I could live with that but would rather not. before my first trip they had recently banned motors and took a log or two out so the Pickerel river was pretty ugly. Damn ugly, scary ugly. Over the years it's become one of my favorite 20 minute stretches times two. Had my second closest moose sighting ever there this year. Probably twenty feet. We scared each other. The hair on his neck was standing up and he probably heard my heart pound. My cameras were not out since Pickerel was still a little dicey that morning plus I had a schedule to keep but I'll have that picture in my head for the rest of my life. It's filed right alongside the one with the mud banks, scary ugly dead trees and the temporary alder thickets that followed.

A lot depends on wether your vision is short or long term. Short is easy and I see the development of multi use trails and such as short term in this case so I don't think I varied much from the preferred options on those. If I did I erred on the side of caution and restraint.  Having paddled the same stretch of French probably nearly 100 times, I really know nothing about it beyond it's level was lowered to create a beech for the campground once upon a time. If they can increase revenue w/o messing up the thrill I share with others - more power to em.