In PA, both State Parks (the A.T. passes through Caledonia and Pine Grove Furnace state parks, and Swatara State Park), and State Game Lands (many miles, basically most of the A.T. north from the Cumberland Valley to Delaware Water Gap are in SGL) ban alcohol.
Eleven years sober does have its advantages. Having hike many a trail in my life, I can count less than 10 times that I would have considered a group getting out of hand. Most of the time everyone was to tired to sit up and pound drinks/beer even if they had it. The other times were at campgrounds and hostels/motels and were the group that were on the trail to party, not hike. This meant I could get up early and get out ahead of them.
In my state we have wildlife officers to enforce hunting/fishing regulations and park rangers with full arrest powers in state run parks. The one national forest in the state is covered by national park rangers. I don't mind people who can drink responsibly as long as they are not driving. Drink, stay quiet and make an effort to hide what you are drinking and your chances of getting charged are greatly reduced, but don't b**ch when you are charged.
Blackheart
Whether allowed or not,
If you got to drink when you're out hiking or camping
Know that you have a problem
"Responsible" drinking in a park that bans alcohol is akin to "responsible" speeding on a road with a posted 35 mph speed limit.
Reason number 5,468 why I would never, ever camp in a state park. Thank God for the N. Georgia mountains. 900,000+ acres of national forest with only one rule - Leave no trace.
The problem with this metaphor is that driving over the speed limit has a direct effect on others. However if I quietly have one beer in my campsite, I am not impacting others.
The way I look at it is that banning alcohol in parks is like punishing the people who are innocent. It would be nice if they could ban the bad behavior (not alcohol). If someone behaves badly (for any reason), throw them out and ban them for life. Let us responsible people enjoy in peace. I appreciate that the reality of the situation makes that solution impractical, but in on-line discussion fora, we can dare to dream the impossible.
At least not until that one drink becomes 5...8...10 and then you get drunk and unruly.
Sure you say you're only drinking one beer. But if we let you drink that one beer, there's going to be "that guy" that's going to drink 10 (and tell any LEO around that he's only on his 1st as he cracks open the 8th). So because of "that guy", no one is allowed to drink.
Fair point. There are a lot of rules in life like that. The ones that get my goat are the ones in everyday life that make things inconvenient for people who are responsible because of the actions of a few knuckleheads. Example - deposits on cans and bottles so when irresponsible people litter somebody will pick up their trash, bans on plastic bags so irresponsible people can not cause problems with them, etc., etc.
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.
Of course then there's the random goofiness that sometimes comes with "government" getting involved...
Case-in-point was a news story I heard on NPR this morning. In some city, an exterminator was using Dry Ice as a safer method of killing rats. Rather than laying out POISON, he would find the rat burros and drop dry ice in them. The dry ice would evaporate filling the hole with CO2 killing the rats without leaving poisons in the environment.
Well the "government" made him stop using dry ice because it wasn't an "approved pesticide". Some company came up with the brilliant idea of getting 'their' dry ice tested and approved as a pesticide. So the exterminator can now go back to using dry ice, but he has to go out of his way to get the dry ice from 'this' company at 3x the cost (even though there is absolutely nothing special about 'their' dry ice... it's still the same dry ice you get from any other dry ice supplier).
Not really. When I camped in a GA state park a while back, I asked the ranger if I could drink. He said technically, it's not allowed, but the reason for the rule was to make it easier to kick out rowdy and noisy folks. As long as I was quiet, and not out in the open with it, they were fine with it.
Time is but the stream I go afishin' in.
Thoreau
This ^^. Just have a peek at the recycling dumpsters at the exits - I'd say over 50% of the bottles/cans are booze.
I'm personally glad to see the no-alcohol signs (and I enjoy a drink or two during dinner/evening), stayed at too many alcohol-permitted campgrounds that needed eyeshades and earplugs for the late night party-goers - bon fires, bright lanterns, music, and drunken rowdiness.
I find it dangerous not to speed. In SW CT the speed limits seem to be set ridiculously low and the norm is easily ~10mph over the limit. If your doing the speed limit on a two-lane road around here (where passing zones are extremely rare), then you've got a line of road-raging drivers piling up behind you. The only place the cops seem to care about 10-over, are the school zones.
I would have argued this vociferously several years back. I try not to use absolutes, but I now understand or believe that, yes, if a person can't have a good time without drinking, they probably have a problem. For me, it took about a year (of going without) before I realized I was enjoying a public event without chemical assistance.
As a law enforcement officer, for a state forest, this thread was painful to read. One of my favorite movie quotes "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." Laws are in place to manage the people. Sorry, but we are all one of the people.
It's amazing that we have an endless supply of "why do I have to follow the rules?" threads.
What do I think? Speaking of backpackers---since I never car camp or visit car campgrounds---or State Parks---so speaking of backbackers---I take a dim view of backpackers bringing out alcohol in any form. This is probably because I struggled with alcohol addiction all thru my 4 years in the USAF and I finally kicked the habit in 1973 after hitting bottom in a bad way. Irresponsible drinker? Yes I was. And it was tough to quit. 45 years now SOBER.
So, when I see backpackers hauling out booze I understand their intentions are often NOT to commune with nature in a wilderness setting but to commune with alcohol next to a big bonfire in a social setting. They tend therefore to howl thru the night like monkeys and demand a big bonfire no matter the wind conditions. Anyone camping nearby be damned.
And the morning after? Well, we "normal" people have to pick up the pieces---I found this mess at a campsite on the Benton MacKaye trail after the Miscreants were long gone---
They left not only their booze bottles---which I gathered from out of the woods---but they also left their junk tent and poles as trash in the firepit.
I use Everclear responsibly in my stoves.
My guess is rowdiness is involved.
alcohol and rowdiness?
no.......say it ain't so......