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[pct-l] Search and Seizure
- Subject: [pct-l] Search and Seizure
- From: DAVCATDAV at aol.com (DAVCATDAV@aol.com)
- Date: Mon Oct 11 00:46:10 2004
Well..this is sure to cause a storm...
My own attitude is that my access to public lands is a form of
entertainment. No more noble than going to the movies...attending a public
lecture...going to a porn site on the Internet. I do not have the calculus that allows me
to quantify my hiking as any more objectively noble than any of these other
activities. I am not so wise that I feel comfortable asserting my own joy is
anymore worthwhile than your garden variety heroin addict's. When not on the
trail I can often be found obscenely fondling my hiking equipment..a sickness
that does no one but myself any harm.
The issue of bear canisters...and the arbitrary bureaucratic rules of the
various agencies that administer forest and grass lands...that seems to vent so
many spleens in this chat room...I gotta wonder if your living rewarding and
self fulfilling lives. So it's dumb to add 2 1/2 pounds to my backpack, and
Ms Ranger..the Fifth says you can't check on my baggy of gorp...this is a
battle worth all the effort I've seen here?
So I carry a bear canister where required, or even when it's suggested...I
purchase the forest passes used here in the Northwest...(I hike from car to
car...picking up the one when I finish and going back to my starting point to
pick up the other...I gotta buy two passes...at $60 a shot...for both cars?
The man says yup...(but then am I environmentally correct..two cars...one a
Suburban...the other a Jeep...this vast use of foreign oil..do I deserve the
joy?))
I guess what I'm saying is that I can see, certainly, that you can argue
that the sundry and various administrative rules enacted by the men and women in
green may be wrong..or right..and that the money collected by them for my
access to wilderness areas may be misused. Myself..if they say I gotta wear a
bearbox covered with Victoria Secrets best..so be it. I have trust that
their hearts are in the right place no matter how silly it may seem to me at the
time. And when I'm asked if I am carrying a bear canister...I smile and say
yes ma'am...it's right here. Or when asked if I have my forest pass..I smile
and say yes sir, it's right here. It may indeed be silly...or even
stupid..but I remember good people can disagree, and that this is not a moral
battle...just a disagreement over administrative policy...and that I've been wrong
before.
Folks..it's a good thing to fight the good fight... this world is filled
with troubles enough to keep us all occupied for more than this one life...but
you'll all have to forgive me...if you wanta draw the line at bear
boxes...access fees to public lands...to these sort of matters...and are unable to just
stand with a smile on your face and say...well...on this tiny matter...I'm
gonna compromise a little..well...I'll buy you a beer at that trail town we
both get to...but you're gonna have to forgive me smiling at you kinda funny...