[pct-l] Orange

Tue Feb 17 13:51:12 CST 2009

By your not wearing orange you aren't hurting anyone else.  So the idea that the govt would "make" you wear it...  Ok, I won't go that route, but, wearing orange is a hugely great idea, in my opinion as a hunter.

It's not a bad idea to find out what the seasons are in the areas you are hiking through and to wear orange, at least have an orange hat on or say something like an orange handkerchief on your backpack and something orange around your waist, etc.  I hunt.  I know I'm patient, will take only a good shot (know I can hit effectively) and by all means will shoot only when I know for sure what I'm shooting.  There are plenty of hunters who would of course say the same thing, but, just read the incident reports on say Oregon or Washington's department of fish and wildlife sites to see the types of incidents that occur.  There are some total idiotic "accidents" that happen.  

People do let shots fly when they are hopeful they have seen a bear, or a deer, or whatever it is they are hoping to get.  Not only do they not size up the game they are going after, make sure they can make an effective shot (hit it where it should be hit, that they are close enough, that the horizon behind the shot is a safe area to have shot into should they miss the prey or should the bullet fly through), but they'll shot hoping they got what it was they went after...  Just this past year, I believe, a hiker in Washington was shot and killed by someone hunting bear.  Now, that would have to be one big hairy freaking hiker in my opinion to pass for a bear.  Orange, though, is easy, very easy, to spot at a distance and bears don't tend to wear it.  As a mater of fact, the shirt I'm wearing now is a dryfit shirt made by Champion I believe.  It's blaze orange.  It cost me I think $12 at Target.  I nearly always wear black shorts and a black dryfit shirt
 while running trails.  Those are near the city without game and without hunters, though.  If I'm off in the woods, or in forest land on or off trails, I wear white or orange or a mix of both.  

________________________________
From: patti kulesz <peprmintpati88 at yahoo.com>
To: pct-l at backcountry.net; Brian Lewis <brianle8 at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 11:12:51 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Hikers required to wear orange? (likely not ...)

actually it made me think about a time I was hiking out here in the Angeles...over at Cooper Canyon actually...and there were those darn hunters ruining my solitude with their gunshots...I had my dog, who BTW was well behaved and LOVED hiking and backpacking...I got him a jacket that was made for hunting dogs so they didn't get shot...it was great for him...light weight, fleece lining...waterproof exterior...reflective strips on both sides...brightly colored....

patti

--- On Tue, 2/17/09, Brian Lewis <brianle8 at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Brian Lewis <brianle8 at gmail.com>
Subject: [pct-l] Hikers required to wear orange? (likely not ...)
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 9:35 AM

Perhaps a way to divert attention from the perennial dog topic is to raise
something else that will create some passion  (that's a joke, folks ...).
to whit:
WA state house bill 1116 - 2009-10 "Requiring visible clothing while
recreating in a mixed-use area during hunting season."   (in the state of
Washington)
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/Summary.aspx?bill=1116&year=2009

This bill is one of the responses to the 14-year-old bear hunter who killed
a hiker last year (Aug 2nd).

I don't actually bring this up to "create some passion", and in fact I hope
that folks that are interested in the topic will read the long extant blogs
on this topic rather than opt to recreate the same discussions here.  For
existing discussion/opinions, I suggest one or more of:
http://tinyurl.com/c82z9r
http://uw.cascadeclimbers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25712
http://tinyurl.com/chgxvx   (comments follow the article)
http://www.theolympian.com/hunting/story/740933.html

More importantly, a couple of places I read suggest that there isn't much
support for the bill, and one or two places quote the bill's sponsor as just
having brought it up "for discussion" ... (?!?)
So I don't know that it's worth getting excited about, just an FYI.  (If
you're a WA state resident, consider writing one of your state house
representatives)

Perhaps one lesson from the incident is that hunting season can extend over
a longer time frame than one might expect --- it's not super intuitive that
any sort of hunters might be out there in early August.

There, now didn't that clear any thought of dogs on trail right out of your
head?  :-)

Brian Lewis / Gadget '08
http://postholer.com/brianle
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