[pct-l] Rangers

[Ellen Shopes]

I vowed I wasn't going to get suck into this conversation...

Just so you know my background, I worked as a law enforcement Ranger for 
several years at various national parks.  Because of this background and 
because I truly want to protect the resource, I tend to follow rules.

No, the parks don't officially establish 'quotas' for tickets, but 
managements vary as to how strictly they expect rules/regulations to be 
enforced.  And even without quotas, Rangers vary alot in how they perceive 
their role.  For example, one year at Grand Canyon, the Rangers in the 
corridor use area (Bright Angel Trail, etc) established a game to see who 
got the most points over the busy season: a ranger got one point for every 
ticket he/she wrote, had one point taken away for every evacuation he/she 
'allowed'.  The person who racked up the most points won.

Some parks do encourage more of a police presence, even in the backcountry. 
I've never encountered this in Sequoia/Kings Canyon.  But Yosemite...Last 
year, being the 3rd time the JMT, my husband and I planned to see a few new 
sites along the way.  When we picked up our permit at the Tuolumne RS, we 
had a long conversation with the Ranger about trail conditions in the 
Ireland drainage (off of Lyell).  The next day, we planned to go up Tuolumne 
Pass, down Ireland, and rejoin the JMT to camp (something that would have 
been legal at Grand Canyon).  Just short of the pass, we ran into a Ranger, 
who upon checking our permit, told us we were off itinerary and subject to 
citation.  He allowed us to backtrack to Lyell.

But this is one of those instances where I sure wanted to argue the 
absurdity:
    1.  The Ranger at the station and the one in the backcountry had 
different views of the regs
    2.  I doubt that it is illegal to day hike up Tuolumne Pass, down 
Ireland, and out Lyell to Tuolumne.  But because we had on backpacks instead 
of day packs, we were illegal.
    3.  This did nothing that I could see to 'protect the resource'. 
Indeed, since we ended up hiking more miles by turning around than we would 
have otherwise, we caused more impact on the trail.

I wrote a long letter to the park at the end of our trip and received no 
reply.  I also wrote one to SEKI, congratulating them on their excellent 
Rangers.

Ellen
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