Red_Chili
Hard Core 4+
BUSTED! Or, how I spent my Sunday...
Tim Nakari, Matt UnknownLastNameButDealsInSkidSteers, Kevin McDermott (BRD ranger), and I went up to do a review of the Jenny Creek/Yankee Doodle Lake work project coming up. We have a very good feel for what will be doable, and boys and girls this project is gonna be very very cool.
As we were wrapping up, a fella came by on an ATV and told us there was a pickup stuck in a mudhole up on the tundra. In shock, we hurried up there to bust his ... um, person.
This is a story about way-casual, way-uneducated users, not serious OHVers (thank goodness).
Just after the narrows above Jenny Lake, after the 'Tunnel Closed' sign, this fella had taken his ATV through the moist tundra to avoid a snow drift blocking the road. He gets it stuck in the mud, creating a mess and some pretty significant resource damage. Not content to leave it at that, he fetched his stock Chevy pickup, drives into the tundra with *it*, and pulls out the ATV - only to bury his pickup axle deep in the new tundra mudhole. Not content to leave it at THAT, he talks a Jeep Liberty guy into trying to pull him out. Though it is trail rated, it is unable to do much more than get down there. We show up, and Kevin asks the well-intentioned Liberty owner to leave, please. We winched him out with a 12K winch and 4 straps for length, so we would not have to enter the tundra which I was loathe to do.
The guy's girlfriend cops an attitude and says it's the USFS's fault for not posting 'No Motor Vehicles' and her whole life you could go anywhere you wanted up there and she was not to blame, yadda yadda yadda, endless. I tried to do some nice, admittedly assertive, but certainly not combative trail education. Nope, she was in the right in her mind.
Paul Krisanits, the Boulder Law Enforcement Ranger, responded to the call. Paul is the sort of guy who makes you want to stand at attention, say "Sir Yes Sir, Semper Fi SIR!", and do whatever he even casually suggests. I would NOT want to cross the man. Net/net, the attitude on the lawbreakers' part netted them a fine for going off-trail, a fine for resource damage, and a fine for an illegal campfire (still smoking) after they had been warned the night before for the campfire.
Call it $500 tuition to the school of Hard Knocks Education for the Bullheaded. It could have been $5K, confiscation of the vehicle, and 6 months of assisted living.
No sooner than the fines were levied, somebody drove by saying a Jeep was stuck in the Yankee Doodle mudhole we will be closing. Despite all our closure carsonites.
A guy with is wife, his little girls in the back, and a new Rubicon who decided his need to get muddy and set a fine example for his family superceded the closure due to the resource damage.
That was a fast $100 to the same establishment of higher education.
I carsonited the new illegal tundra trail, and got home around 7PM or so. Our project is sorely needed, it will be a great and good deed. It was good to meet Matt, and we are definitely going to make a tremendous impact for good in the area.
If you see anyone damaging the area (or any area in the Boulder Ranger District), take pix of the vehicle, the damage, the license plate, and the driver and send them to pkrisanits@fs.fed.us. The man will make the hammer fall!
Tim Nakari, Matt UnknownLastNameButDealsInSkidSteers, Kevin McDermott (BRD ranger), and I went up to do a review of the Jenny Creek/Yankee Doodle Lake work project coming up. We have a very good feel for what will be doable, and boys and girls this project is gonna be very very cool.
As we were wrapping up, a fella came by on an ATV and told us there was a pickup stuck in a mudhole up on the tundra. In shock, we hurried up there to bust his ... um, person.
This is a story about way-casual, way-uneducated users, not serious OHVers (thank goodness).
Just after the narrows above Jenny Lake, after the 'Tunnel Closed' sign, this fella had taken his ATV through the moist tundra to avoid a snow drift blocking the road. He gets it stuck in the mud, creating a mess and some pretty significant resource damage. Not content to leave it at that, he fetched his stock Chevy pickup, drives into the tundra with *it*, and pulls out the ATV - only to bury his pickup axle deep in the new tundra mudhole. Not content to leave it at THAT, he talks a Jeep Liberty guy into trying to pull him out. Though it is trail rated, it is unable to do much more than get down there. We show up, and Kevin asks the well-intentioned Liberty owner to leave, please. We winched him out with a 12K winch and 4 straps for length, so we would not have to enter the tundra which I was loathe to do.
The guy's girlfriend cops an attitude and says it's the USFS's fault for not posting 'No Motor Vehicles' and her whole life you could go anywhere you wanted up there and she was not to blame, yadda yadda yadda, endless. I tried to do some nice, admittedly assertive, but certainly not combative trail education. Nope, she was in the right in her mind.
Paul Krisanits, the Boulder Law Enforcement Ranger, responded to the call. Paul is the sort of guy who makes you want to stand at attention, say "Sir Yes Sir, Semper Fi SIR!", and do whatever he even casually suggests. I would NOT want to cross the man. Net/net, the attitude on the lawbreakers' part netted them a fine for going off-trail, a fine for resource damage, and a fine for an illegal campfire (still smoking) after they had been warned the night before for the campfire.
Call it $500 tuition to the school of Hard Knocks Education for the Bullheaded. It could have been $5K, confiscation of the vehicle, and 6 months of assisted living.
No sooner than the fines were levied, somebody drove by saying a Jeep was stuck in the Yankee Doodle mudhole we will be closing. Despite all our closure carsonites.
A guy with is wife, his little girls in the back, and a new Rubicon who decided his need to get muddy and set a fine example for his family superceded the closure due to the resource damage.That was a fast $100 to the same establishment of higher education.
I carsonited the new illegal tundra trail, and got home around 7PM or so. Our project is sorely needed, it will be a great and good deed. It was good to meet Matt, and we are definitely going to make a tremendous impact for good in the area.
If you see anyone damaging the area (or any area in the Boulder Ranger District), take pix of the vehicle, the damage, the license plate, and the driver and send them to pkrisanits@fs.fed.us. The man will make the hammer fall!
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. Looking forward to the clean up, a much needed vacation
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