Have You Ever Seen A Forest Ranger In The Backwoods?

[Martell]

Had a ranger check our permit at Shi Shi Beach. Met a ranger several years ago up by Paradise Park doing trail maintenance. I feel like there could be others that I am not remembering.

Grannyhiker, I know the threads you are talking about on Barry- those are really funny.

[Billc]

Twice. The last time was in '74 at upper Twin Lake in the Bull of the Woods. Nice college kid with a huge pack. We had a short chat and he went on his rounds.

The other was in the Mink lake basin in '69. This sort of counts as two. We met a forest ranger and talked about fishing and have a nice day, that sort of thing. In the same place there was also a State Cop/ Game Officer. He was packing with a donkey or mule and was a pain. He met us in our camp and checked our lic. and such and then left. The next day Steve and I tried out some other lakes and our wives stayed in camp. The cop came back to camp and found the ladies with no fishing lic. and our extra poles in camp and wanted to give them a ticket. Never mind that were not fishing. It must have been quiet up there for him. The last we saw of him was the next day, he came into camp asking if we had seen his pack animal, it had gotten loose the night before. We had not and didn't offer to help look either, he needed something to do. Can't say I can blame the animal, if I was with that guy I would run too.

Bill

[Aimless]

Since the early 1970s I have been asked for my wilderness permit only once, on the east side of the Mt Jefferson wilderness, by a forest ranger who had been travelling x-country over from the west side. That was in about 1998 (?).

In 2003 I met a young woman at the edge of Jefferson Park who wore some Forest Service insignia, but she was some kind of intern and didn't ask to see my permit. She asked me if I was a PCT thru-hiker, which flattered me. I was actually doing a 200 mile section hike at the time, so I probably looked more like a thru-hiker than the usual weekender.

Aside from these meetings, none that I recall. National Parks are somewhat different than National Forests in this regard, and I've met more Park Rangers on those trails.

[Paul]

Only once, and this was in the El Dorado forest in CA well above Barrett lake.

[rochelliepat]

Hi everyone, first time post.
I am a "Wilderness Steward" for the Mt Adams Ranger District. We volunteer mostly on the weekends. It's a small group (about 12 people) some help the climbing rangers at So Climb and others go into Trapper Creek Wilderness, Adams Wilderness and Indian Heaven Wilderness. We are out there but usually only in pairs or small groups on the weekends and about a month or so in each area.

I learned about it through friends I met while doing trail work with Washington Trails Association. I am sure they are always willing to bring on more volunteers if anyone is interested. Here is the contact info; Mt. Adams Ranger District, 2455 Hwy 141, Trout Lake, WA 98650, (509) 395-3400, TTY: (360) 891-5003.

I wanted to mention, I have not heard of any similar programs in other districts so that may be why we don’t see many Rangers out there volunteer or otherwise. But then again I haven’t called around to ask.

[Waffle Stomper]

Grassy Knoll
McNeil Pt
Middle Salmon River

[Don Nelsen]

I've encountered regular rangers (as opposed to "volunteers") only five times on trails in the past forty five years: At the 12,200' level on the Mt. Whitney trail in August of '00; on the Mt. San Jacinto Trail west of Palm Springs in '03; at Green lakes in the Three Sisters area in August of '95; about half-way up Mt. St Helens in '06; and at the wilderness area boundary on the the trail to North Lake (the Columbia Gorge area) in (about) '90. All of them were there to make sure I had the proper permits!!! None of these encounters improved my opinion of the "services" provided by the forest service though the individuals involved were polite (except for the one on MSH and San Jacinto) and personal - to a degree. I had the required permits (except at San Jacinto) but the rangers all had an "attitude" IMO. I ran by the ranger station on the Mt. San Jacinto Trail and the guy actually came out of his little cabin and chased me for awhile and yelled at me to stop! I had already climbed over 8,000' vertical but he &%^*ed me off so I made him run for a while before I stopped and let him accost me. I filled out his silly little form with erronious info and went on my way.

[Jane]

Rochelliepat: "I wanted to mention, I have not heard of any similar programs in other districts so that may be why we don’t see many Rangers out there volunteer or otherwise. But then again I haven’t called around to ask."

Welcome, and thank you for your post and stewardship! I recall meeting volunteers on the Indian Heaven trails a few years ago. Mt. Hood also has wilderness stewards, here is info on their training and program: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mthood/voluntee ... gram.shtml .
A recent meeting of a ranger was at Bonney Meadows , she was from the Barlow/Dufur district.

Don, Don, Don....now that's not setting a good example huh?

[Don Nelsen]

Don, Don, Don....now that's not setting a good example huh?

Well, I suppose - but there is a lot more to the story: IMO, counting people going by a given point only gives them a justification to establish a number to arbitrarily determine how many should access an area. A runner has virtually no impact in passing through and thus should not be counted the same as a slower hiker/backpacker/overnight camper yet is counted just the same. I used to run/hike/climb St. Helens sometimes as much as three or four times a week in as little as three hours total round trip but now must deal with the permit system which has virtually eliminated my access. (except for this coming Thursday - thanks to Jamito.) My two cents.

dn

(Edit) Don't miss my point: More and more people want access to the mountains and trails but instead of access, we get restrictions, limits, fees - and few new trails - certainly not in keeping with the increase in demand. If more folks want to climb St Helens, for instance, why not establish a new route or two - and expand the parking area, improve the road access and facilities? Personally, I will never "run out of" places to go and new things to do but I consider what has been going on to be mismanagement - and its aggravating.

[BCJ]

BCJ, you saw a ranger on St. Helens hiding behind a rock? What were they doing... waiting for unsuspecting climbers to go by without a permit attached to their pack flapping in the breeze?

That is exactly what he was doing. He was hiding behind a rock right at the 4800' level where the permit sign is and was waiting for climbers to come down. My buddy and his wife were about 90 minutes behind me (she had a sort of panic attack about the grade going down after she kicked our butts on the way up) so I laid down on a smooth rock about 20' from the ranger and watched him check permits. It was kind of comical the way he would pop out from behind the rock and startle people. He only busted one guy. The ranger was very friendly and chatted between checks. He said that a bear was seen a few days before at about the 5500' level just east of Monitor Ridge and was clearly visible to climbers...that would have been cool to see.