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Signs are posted required for camping: shovel, axe and bucket. Has any one been asked by forest service folks when camping if you have these items ?

A better question: Has anybody ever even seen a forest service employee when camping!?

(My answer to both questions is no. But then again, I hardly ever spend any time in the forest :roll: )

chumley wrote:A better question: Has anybody ever even seen a forest service employee when camping!?

(My answer to both questions is no. But then again, I hardly ever spend any time in the forest :roll: )

In San Isabel NF (CO), the ranger stopped at my campsite on two different days and gave me a careful going over. He didn't ask about those tools, though. I thought it was funny that he seemed so suspicious. Most of the neighbors were in big campers with generators going all night and huge blazing campfires. I was in a one-person tent with no fire. I guess I was the one that didn't match.

Ha, in fact have been asked by several federal employees to report back in---
1. Grand Gulch from the goverment trail after some flooding, folks at Kane Gulch ranger station asked for a report after my return
2. Ranger I met on the Jackson cabin road ( during hunting season) asked me what it was like back toward Hooker cabin, etc.
3. Maze trip in Canyonlands UT, folks at Hans Flat asked for a report after I had driven up the Flint trail to get my permit, guess storms had reportedly messed up the Hite road ( which was fine as far as I could tell).
4. Most reports of pools and conditions are from hikers on the board outside the ranger station at Paria for Buckskin Gulch.
5. I winched up a ranger at a bad place in Anza Borrego park years ago. She was blocking the road and was trashing the front end of her truck trying to bounce it up the rocky bypass on the way to Sheep,Cougar canyons.

I assume just don't have the manpower and much too much paper pushing to do.

I'm with Chumley. I've never seen a ranger while camping. The only times I've seen them have been when driving on the forest roads (and they were in their own vehicle).

I've only had contact with a DPS Drug Enforcement Team... I was driving my Samurai, scouting forest roads and old Jeep roads along the ridge from Oso Road to Edwards Park. I first passed them while driving in the opposite direction. Then shortly after they began following me at a what they may have thought was adiscreet distance but every so often I'd spot them. They followed me from the Oso Mine area all the way out to Edwards Park where they simply had no cover and it became very obvious they were following me, so I just stopped and waited for them to approach.

At this point I had no idea who they were, all I knew is they were three rough-looking characters riding in a side-by-side (-by-side since it was all three) and all three were packing sidearms. They stopped, got out of their ATV and kind of spread out in a semi-circle in front of me and the biggest one started asking questions... where was I going, what was I doing and why. By now, wondering who the heck they were and why they were asking me these questions I began to feel very uncomfortable. Having experience staring down folks about to beat the crap out of me or worse and defusing the situation more than once in a former life I wasn't about to show any fear so I held up my hand in a gesture of Stop! and queried the interrogator, asking what business of his was it that I should answer the questions?

At which time he reached back (is he going for his pistol?) behind his back, pulled out his DPS badge then introduced himself and his fellow officers.
But no gun-play... Whew!

Then he proceeded to tell me why THEY were out there and once he found out that I do many hikes as far off-trail as possible over many areas, he gave me his personal DPS cell phone number and let me know any time I see anything suspicious (MJ grow, meth lab, PVC piping for miles, etc.) to give him a call.

I have in fact called him on a number of occasions over the last three years. He answered no matter what time of day, and always provided a follow-up call with the results, obviously not going into detail except when things were on the up-and-up... like a new cattle-grazing leaseholder running a pipe from a deep well to a generator and finally up to a water tank.

Nighthiker wrote:shovel, axe and bucket

I've never brought any of those items camping before.

@azpride
I never have a bucket. Car camping I always have a shovel and an axe, plus a large 7-gallon water container, which I think would serve the bucket requirement. But I don't have safety goggles or closed-toed shoes.

chumley wrote: and an axe

and you've substituted/complimented the axe, with a Chainsaw on NUMEROUS occasions.

I have an axe and a shovel that are mounted on my bed rack and always on the truck. I also carry a bucket if I'm out car camping because it is part of my camping kitchen sink. I've never been asked by any forest rangers if I have these items though

chumley wrote:A better question: Has anybody ever even seen a forest service employee when camping!?

(My answer to both questions is no. But then again, I hardly ever spend any time in the forest :roll: )

Um HAZfest...missing person ...motorized vehicle map... ;)

Azbackcountry wrote: I also carry a bucket if I'm out car camping because it is part of my camping kitchen sink.

I carry a nylon water bag, but I don't know if they would consider that an satisfactory bucket.

nonot wrote:Um HAZfest...missing person ...motorized vehicle map...

Chumley probably didn't think of that one...Sexy Rangers don't count....

That's an oxymoron.

I love rangers... You guys are talking about beer right?

The forest service updated the sign for camping. The new sign just depicts a bucket and shovel, to many injuries with axes ?

Nighthiker wrote:The forest service updated the sign for camping. The new sign just depicts a bucket and shovel, to many injuries with axes ?

Most people should not be trusted with sharp objects.

I think too many yahoos go camping and think they are supposed to cut on live trees with axes and saws. They make a big mess. So unnecessary. I don't even make a fire when I go camping unless it is very cold. And generally, nowadays when it's cold I just stay home.

I have been asked to show my fishing license at Tonto creek before, just upstream of the Horton trailhead, which I promptly produced. The ranger also told me there was a possibility of making Tonto artificial only above the power lines, but I've heard nothing more of that. I also was approached by a ranger, Paul, at the Reynolds creek trailhead before hiking into Hells Hole. He offered parking advice since the trailhead was cluttered with road work equipment.
Both encounters were pleasant.

Years ago I've run across backcountry rangers in the Desolation, Carson-Iceberg, and Kaiser wilderness areas. But I doubt the Forest Service has the personnel anymore for that kind of frequent encounter to occur anymore.