So you ran into a Park Ranger?? Do tell.....

[restless]

When I first started hiking in the mid 90's, A lot of my trail time was spent near home in the Smokies. Saw a couple of Park Rangers, one of whom was a hog hunter, the other was a backcountry ranger out of Cosby. Skip ahead 15 years later to a different park-Shenandoah NP in Virginia, where I now work. I wonder how many people have seen me working on trails and think to themselves how strange it is for a ranger to be doing trail work.

[Old Boots]

I am going to show my ignorance now. I have a lifetime pass to all National parks and Federal Recreational Lands. Is this sufficient or do I need additional permission to hike in the GSMNP and SNP as well as other national parks that the AT passes thru?

[Majortrauma]

Since we're sort of on this topic here, do the "rules: for reasonable articulable suspicion in a Park or National Forest differ from what would apply to a person outside of the park/Natl Forest?
I don't believe that a leo may detain you or even search you and/or your possessions/pack etc if he does not have reasonable articulable suspicion. What is reasonable articulable suspicion is NOT totally subjective.

[Sly]

One time, before you needed bear canisters, in northern Yosemite a backcountry ranger asked to se my permit and I told him I left it in my girl friends car that visited me at Toulemne Meadows, and if he didn't believe me I was in the system. He seemed to accept that and asked if I knew how to counter balance my food since the bears were active. I told him "of course" and he let me go. What I didn't tell him is I had no rope.

Another time, I had just got back on the trail in the SNP and forgot my food bag at Bear Fence but didn't realize it to Rock Spring Hut. Rather than retrace my steps 11.5 miles back to Bear Fence or even 2 miles to Skyland Drive, I continued and hiked to Skyland where I hope to find a ride back. Upon hearing my story, one ranger that did nature walks agreed to give me a ride when she finished her scheduled walk. The walk didn't get over until it was nearly dark at which time she said she reconsider during her walk and since she didn't know me and there had been murders at the Park in the past she couldn't give me a ride. Yeah, thanks!!

I went back inside and ordered two Rubens sandwiches and kept hiking well past dark. I figured I was just before Marys Rock and camped right in the trail. It's a good thing I stopped as I recall it would have been easy to step off the trail at Marys Rock which was only 100 feet or so from where I camped. The next couple says I survived on Rubens, chicken wings and chips.

[deeddawg]

[...]do I need additional permission to hike in the GSMNP and SNP as well as other national parks that the AT passes thru?

See here: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisi...ry-camping.htm

You need a permit for all backcountry camping; particularly all the AT shelters require you make a reservation ahead of time. The exception is for thru-hikers, I don't see the listed definition right now but if I remember correctly it meant starting and ending your hike at least fifty miles beyond each end of the park.

[Doctari]

About 10 - 12 years ago, I met 2 "Park workers" pretty sure they weren't rangers (No badges, no guns, park patches & uniforms though) in GSMNP on the Cucumber ridge trail. Their "Park service" truck was parked on the little river trail. A few years later I met a "Ridge Runner" along the AT N of Newfound gap, spent a few nights in the shelters w him, great guy. Then about 4 years ago I met, very briefly, a SOBO Ridge runner somewhere in VA, I think it was on the S side of Mt Rogers, but would not swear to it. He was talking to some NOBO Thrus who had just came up from getting water (1/2+ mile RT) & as I walked up, he told me of a nice spring a few yards N of where we were, ON THE AT! The other hikers just groaned, "If only we had waited!" It was a very nice spring indeed.

[GoldenBear]

> Is this sufficient or do I need additional permission to hike in the GSMNP and SNP

To HIKE you need only to be legally within the Park. I presume you mean to camp outside the fee-based campsites.

You'll need a (free) back-country permit to camp in there, even at a shelter.
http://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/campbc_permit.htm
You can get one at any entrance station during normal business hours, and it only takes ten minutes to fill it out.

[handlebar]

Ran into a backcountry ranger at Heart Lake in Yellowstone NP during my second chunk of the CDT in August. She was very nice and, finding I was a thru hiker, helped me revise my campsite reservations for the the rest of the park. I found I was making much better time in Yellowstone than down in the Teton wilderness or further south in the Wind River range---maybe because the Jonathan Ley map mileages for that section were accurate. Hah!

[Jim Adams]

In 2002 I was in the Smokies, in shelter in a hard driving rain storm after dark. A ranger came into the shelter with a shotgun, a huge pack (but light) and his .40 side arm. He was very polite and appologized if he was bothering anyone. He was out hunting wild boar and also attempting to narrow the location of a hiker that they had recieved alot of complaints about. He chatted quietly to everyone, heated his dinner and never asked to see a permit. THEN HE RE-DRESSED AND SAID GOODBYE AND WALKED OUT INTO THAT STORM! Those guys are hard core...much respect for them.

geek

[msupple]

Now that you mentioned it, they have retired yankees driving golf carts at Alexander Springs (blue blaze off FT) that question your right to be at the park when you blue-blaze in.

I think mudcap already determined that you aren't referring to retired baseball players in your post so I'd just like to remind you that the war is over....you lost....now please get over it. Every time I head south I encounter numerous references to Yankees, usually in a derogatory form. I've never heard the same about Southerners up North. Frankly, it gets a little old at times.

[Sly]

I found I was making much better time in Yellowstone than down in the Teton wilderness or further south in the Wind River range---maybe because the Jonathan Ley map mileages for that section were accurate. Hah!

I dunno, Yellowstone was much easier than most of the trail and either of those two sections in particular. I can't recall a single climb of any magnitude.

[Sly]

I think mudcap already determined that you aren't referring to retired baseball players in your post so I'd just like to remind you that the war is over....you lost....now please get over it. Every time I head south I encounter numerous references to Yankees, usually in a derogatory form. I've never heard the same about Southerners up North. Frankly, it gets a little old at times.

Couldn't agree more.

[Skyline]

I think mudcap already determined that you aren't referring to retired baseball players in your post so I'd just like to remind you that the war is over....you lost....now please get over it. Every time I head south I encounter numerous references to Yankees, usually in a derogatory form. I've never heard the same about Southerners up North. Frankly, it gets a little old at times.

Are you serious? You've never heard folks up north, or out west, paint Southerners as ignorant rednecks? Mock our accents?

Personally, I can't think of a dumber method to divide people, chastise, or discriminate than by using one's zipcode to define them. That statement could apply to almost any part of the USA.

[Kookork]

We came across a Ranger on the BMT in the Smokies last year. She was a cutie plus she was packing. I bet she drove a truck too. Girls with guns in trucks...it don't get any better. She said that she was suppose to shoot any boars that she saw but didn't think that she could.

Also last year had a Ranger in SNP check out my hiking permit in a parking lot. He was cool. He gave me an A- for filling out my permit correctly but down graded me because I kept two copies instead of just one.

With all the respects for rangers and their difficult job , if she cant shoot boars( for any reason including being brutal) then she needs to think twice about her job. It is like a veteran says I am not going to shoot my enemy if I see him , just because it is cruel.

[Wise Old Owl]

ugggh. Kookork - its called priorities, IF you were running towards her with a large knife screaming - she wouldn't reach for her umbrella.

[wythekari]

So the year is 1975, I'm a riverguide at an outfitters in Harpers Ferry and my girlfriend was a whitewater paddler. One night we drive down to the Shenandoah River at the HF parking lot for some skinny dipping; it was summer, the river was low and calm, the day visitors had all gone back to DC or B-more and we swam out to some rocks for some, well, to be alone. Now, back in the day the NPS Rangers at HF knew the owners of my outfit and kinda watched out for the riverguides (young fellas in our teens or early 20s and prone to get into a spot of trouble) in a nice uncle kind of way. So our swim is over and I have shorts and a T-shirt on, my GF only has a long T-shirt on and up comes uncle ranger in his cruiser. What are you kids doing down here? Oh, nothin'. Hmmm, OK, get in the car. So he drives us back to the outfitters and drops us off and tells us no more swimming at night. Yes sir. Then I have to get a buddy to drive us back down there to get my car. It all ended up good but we did quit our night time swimming down at the park. Have not had a bad experience with any of them since - mostly the ones I run into lately in the west have been young and into their work and seem to be looking out for people who might end up in trouble. Hmmm, just like that ranger back when.

[atraildreamer]

Not a Ranger but a couple of years ago a Ridgerunner in CT. told my wife and I we were stealing bear food by picking wild blueberries.

Well, the Ranger should have cited the bears for not "people-bagging" their blueberries!

(What goes around comes around! )

[Fredt4]

I usually ask them if there's any lost hiker they don't know about. ;-)

[bamboo bob]

When "summiting" Fort Pickens on the Florida trail I met a Nice Ranger who told me all about the hurricane damage and history lesson about Ft Pickens and then drove me back to Pensacola Beach saving me a half day beach walk after finishing the FT. He said he wasn't supposed to give rides. I thought that was nice of him.

[Blissful]

I had a ranger check me over then give me a lift up in SNP when i had a bee sting and had a minor allergic reaction. I came out on the Skyline Drive from the AT and he was there. An EMT too.