worst ranger experience?

[Dechristo]

Bad Ranger

[Kraken]

i'll be a volunteer ranger at either Rainier or on Denali next summer. I'll make sure i'm not like these aformentioned dudes.

[Cobra_Commander]

i'll be a volunteer ranger at either Rainier or on Denali next summer (insert post here)

 

You should throw that in your signature since you are repeating it so often.

[archenemy]

i'll be a volunteer ranger at either Rainier or on Denali next summer (insert post here)

 

You should throw that in your signature since you are repeating it so often.

you're mean.

[Kraken]

yeah what the hell was that about?

 

You are mean! YOU MUST BE A RANGER!!!

[Double_E]

This wasn't a bad ranger experience, per se, but it was certainly kind, um... bizarre.

 

about ten years ago, me and two friends crossed Olympic Mountains from south to north... up the NF Quinault River and then down the Elwha River. one of the bestest hikes I've done in my whole life, actually. The headwaters of the Elwha have got to be one of the coolest parts of the planet.

 

First night we camped about eight miles in. Second night we camped at Low Divide. We set up camp in the early afternoon... noticed the little backcountry ranger tent/hut thing, but the ranger was nowhere in sight... no one else was anywhere in sight, either... had the place all to ourselves. So while we're cooking an early dinner, this friggin' helicopter arrives, and starts circling overhead for what was probably 15 minutes... kept going back and forth, circling, circling.... at first we thot it was trying to find a place to land, but there were flat/open places nearby, so... strange. oh well. Pretty damn annoying at the time, but eventually it flew away, never to return.

 

About three hours later the sun goes down. We brew up some, like, special tea we had, sip the warm goodness down, and settle in for a fun-filled evening complete with full moon lighting up the meadows, ...... bugling elk RATHER close by (almost too close for comfort), ..... and random fun and laughter. Come about 10 or 11 pm, the elk and us had all quieted down, but we were still up, staring at the moon and stuff ... and eventually, we were starting to think about bed soon...

 

When all of a sudden we hear sort of heavy, fast bootsteps coming up the trail thru the meadow, along with sort of harried, frantic breathing.

 

All of a sudden, coming into view in the moonlight, is a NPS ranger, with long hair and a big beard... he notices us, and starts talking fast and frantically, mostly just asking us a bunch of questions about HOW long we'd been there, HAD we seen a helicopter, HAD it landed, WHICH way did they fly, etc etc. Apparently he'd been hurt or stranded or something (or I forget, maybe he'd been helping someone else who'd been hurt, etc) and he'd called in for a chopper and they'd misunderstood him and gone to Low Divide, whereas he'd been somewhere else.

 

We asked him if we could be of any help, but he declined and he stormed off to his little hut-thing, in an apparent state of seething frustration and anger. We sort of stared at each other, kind of not knowing whether to crack up, or feel sorry for him, or what...

 

 

 

Yeah. Twas easily the strangest interaction I've ever had with a ranger, and very possibly the strangest state I've eve seen any type of cop-type person be in.

 

[jerseyscum]

Worst ranger experience 1992 was being told in strong Austrian accent to "please get off the grass" up near Seven Lakes Basin by distainful and beautiful young female summer intern ranger.

 

Best was checking out historic 1950s trash as "official business" outing to below Blue Glacier icefall with Yalie summer intern-type ranger in 1989. It was great fortune to hook up with him & his gear on my solo hike to edge of ice.

Edited October 31, 2005 by jerseyscum