Word: rangers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Waterville, Me., newspaper editorial which criticized the selfishness of the climb, Yates explained, "When I started out I was aware that some form of park regulations did exist and endeavored to climb quickly and secretly in the hope that I would be done and out before the rangers became worried or irritated." Unfortunately, before Yates even entered the park he ran into a ranger...
Hiking into the park on a hard-packed, snow-covered road, Yates expected to hear a snowmobile before he saw one. That would give him time to duck into the brush and escape notice. The ranger who spotted him, though, was riding on a snowmobile with a muffler. The ranger caught Yates trying to disappear into the woods. Although Yates offered the alibi that he was heading for the nearby Appalachian Trail and not Katahdin, and though he was not yet within the park bounds and there was little the ranger could do, the ranger's suspicions were aroused. Likewise...
...began the descent from the summit, Yates decided to leave the trail and bushwhack the rest of the way down, mindful of the plane and the ranger he had run into two days before. He continued to hike into the night, hoping to avoid rangers, get out of the park and station himself near the road for the trip back to Cambridge the next day. Unfortunately, he did not go far enough. Although he was outside the park boundaries, the rangers, who had been on his trail for two days, tracked him down early the next morning...
...authorities may have taken such extreme measures to find Yates because of an accident last year, when a pair of climbers illegally attempted to scale the mountain. One of the climbers fell and broke his arm. If it hadn't been for a ranger who spotted them--much as Yates was spotted--no one would have found...
...points out that the plane, helicopter and ranger hours were already paid for by taxpayer money. And although the park authorities feel that four is the minimal number of people needed to deal with an accident in severe weather conditions, Yates thinks that one can be just as safe. At least an injured solo hiker isn't endangering the lives of anyone else...