If you were hoping to hit the lakes this Fourth of July, your trip may not be smooth sailing.

There's a new system for getting a pass to get on Saguaro Lake, Canyon Lake, or any Tonto National Forest watery getaway.

If you don't pick up a pass here in town before you head out, your day on the water could dry up.

"Most people are dumb," Jen Losey said, "and they just want to have what they want right now, so I think it would be a very good idea to have it here."

"Here" is the entrance to Saguaro Lake and when an upset Losey says "it," she means a ticket to boat, swim, tube, do anything that puts you and your family in and on the cool blue waters of the Tonto National Forest.

Now for the first time in nine years, you can't buy that ticket at the lakes or rivers.

"It's a problem for me," Losey said. "I am kind of annoyed, actually."

The Forest Service's Art Wirtz said many Tonto visitors haven't heard that the tickets, or passes as they're called, are now being sold away from the water.

"Right now we have over 200 vendors," Wirtz said. "We'll probably eventually approach 300 vendors in the Valley."

But the closest of those pass-pushing places is about a 25-mile round trip away from the shore.

"I'd like to see them have it here at the post here or something," said Valley visitor Bob Roscoe. "Sell permits right here."

Roscoe said he was looking forward to a couple cool hours on Saguaro's Butcher Jones Beach.

"We're probably going to go someplace else," he said.

"We try to catch them before they get out here and don't have a pass with them," Wirtz said

The Forest Service launched an eight-month information campaign about where to buy the passes. There's even an AM station dedicated to the new system, but many still don't know about the new rules.

Robert Schmidt is the last hope of many passless people. On holidays and weekends, he sets up shop selling passes at the overflow parking area.