Ranger Smith
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Posts posted by Ranger Smith
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Thought that I would help with a few "rules of the road" for those who have not been to Twin in awhile.
1. Bring your bug spray!
2. Quiet time is 10:00 PM -6:00 AM
3. Beach driving = 25 MPH (It is a State Highway and it IS patrolled)
4. The best donuts are in Westport.
5. Remember the Sunset and Sunscreen
6. Enjoy your stay!
Ranger Smith
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Have been looking at this forum and it appears we have some of that "english language" introduced wich sparks controversy.
The "bullets" that were found were actually "cartridges", wether live or lot, we do not know as the "cartridges" may not have had powder in them.
A cartridge is a casing to wich a primer, powder and bullet are "installed" (unless a rimfire)
A bullet is "the projectile which is propelled from the cartridge upon the ignition of the powder"
The Rules are listed as AMMO and probably a more difinitive definition needs to be administered. In my mind, as an avid sportsman, outdoorsman, reloader, landmanager, and geocacher, that means LIVE ammunition. Primers ARE NOT allowed under the "explosives" clause, Empty casings and bullets ARE allowed by ruling BUT NOT IN MY PARKS OR CACHES.
As a cacher and a landmanager, I have to find middle ground on this subject. I do not allow any ammo parts or pieces within any cache within my jurisdiction and remove them from any cache that I find them in wether within my parks or not, to keep the peace. It's the simple thing to do to avoid conflict.
As far as your daughter in the picture, you tell her "YOU GO GIRL" from Ranger Smith
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Interesting. The reports I read said just the opposite. Can you point me to a reference for this?One of the reasons the state quit collecting the $5.00 fee was that it was costing them more money to collect it than it brought in.
Yes. And it took the government down a path -- charging individuals for access to commons -- that is fundamentally anti-American. Next, can you imagine charging a fee to use a city neighborhood park?It also caused usage of the parks to plummet.First things first, Washington State Parks had worked for years with NO budget, zip. Not collected from the taxpayers, not distributed to the parks. With no budget and no way to access funds for maintenance ( and I'm talking that the rangers were donating their lunch money once a week to buy fuel to run a weedeater), the historic buildings were falling in. After lawsuits from individuals stating that the State was obligated to maintain these structures, a way to collect funds was needed (remember, no taxes= no budget) A parking fee was thought to be best. It was NOT a usage fee.
The park staff fought hard to keep the fee reasonable and yet the legislature overrode them. The staff wanted a $3.00 fee, the legislature said $7.00 but that they would reduce it to $5.00.
City parks are funded by city taxes, contact your mayor and find out where from, how much, is it enough to sustain your parks, if not why, ....... Get involved and let them know you care for your parks and want them managed properly.......There your parks...VOLUNTEER!
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I am curious how they come up with the number of visitors a year.
I am personally aquainted with one park on the list.... Beacon Rock .
I have been down there several times this year to maintain and build trails there. There is no way to count the people visiting. tThere are no counters on the two roads to the trails and camping and nothing along HWY 14 to count cars stopping to use the bathrooms or climb the rock.
It is a very busy park even with snow and 40-50 mph winds on a couple of the days I was there.
I would hate for my efforts to build a new trail to be in vain.
The numbers are taken from the car counters that are driven over with each vehicle that enters the park. You probably would never know that they are there unless you look for them at the entrance to each park.
I find it quite interesting that the governor simply did not reimpose the parking fee. The monies generated with the parking fee was more than the money she gave them in budget after it was revoked. Most persons who could not afford the fee was granted a free yearly pass.
As far as access is concerned,you will still be allowed to use the park. They belong to the people of the State of Washington. There will be no facilities including restrooms, no litter and garbage pickup, no maintenance done.
So much for the 2013 Centennial Celebration - 100 years of our State Parks!
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And now I have a mandate from the caching side, as well...last night at the WSGA board meeting, I was voted head of the re-energized Advocacy Committee, which is the part of WSGA that works with the Washington park systems (city, county, state, federal).
I'm looking for folks who want to participate on the committee, who either have, or want to build, relationships with our parks, so PM/email me if you can help! We have a couple from Puget Sound area who are interested, but it would be ideal to have committee members from around the state, as there are a lot of great parks on the East Side, the Olympic Peninsula, etc. Thanks!
Does one have to be a paying member of the WSGA? I would like to, but I don't have the money right now to join.
Yes, to represent WSGA with the parks, I'd prefer you be a member of WSGA. It's a whopping $12/year.
There are alot of parks out there that could be CITO'D of aluminum cans!
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I consider this a perfect example of how we can be pro-active with regards to self-policing. We have a member of our community watching the placements in the area and letting the owners know if there is a potential problem. This gives the owner information about the geocaching policy in that area, which they likely didn't know about previously, and allows them the opportunity to fix it before there are any problems.
This goes a long way towards establishing the kind of trusting relationship we need to have with land managers if we want to continue to play our game with out formal policies like we have with the State Parks.
I think we should all be sending a big
KUDOS to HYDNSEK 
for being there for all of of us when in reality she could simply turn her head and walk away. 
Not only a fellow cacher, but a landmanager as well. Ranger Smith
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The one issue they do have is at Cougar Mountain and that is the no brushwacking policy, due to the dangers posed by sinkholes caused by the coal mining, so please keep caches close to the trails.
Yes, Niki McBride, the primary Cougar contact, has asked me to monitor the caches and request removal of any that are significantly off-trail. There's one that possibly should be removed, but I've hesitated to play geo-police, because it's been there a while and appears to be in a safe area.
What's the story behind the recent archival of three caches?
They were off trail 30 to 80 feet. *if I remember and have read correctly.
Correctomundo. A new cacher placed one that was 50 ft off trail, using the one we'd been "grandfathering" as precedent. So...time to archive the non-compliant caches. To be fair, I also archived one of my own, which was off-trail more than it shoulda been (I retrieved it today, and was embarrassed at my naivety back when I placed it). And props to Sven & Daisy for immediately archiving their Costume Cache when asked, without protest (it was the grandfathered one).
In response to the Tuesday Cougar Cache Massacre (3 dead, 39 survivors), Niki (our Cougar contact) sent me this email: "We are so grateful that you do this for us. The geocaching is such a fun activity for people and I feel much better about the safety of the participants. We still want to find a time to go hike with you to some of the sites." We are in good with King County Parks, and hope to keep it that way!
I was just wondering if they had made a specific request or not.
DITTO: I would also like to know what the status of the request was. Ranger Smith
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Contacts for Flaming Geyser State Park would be the new area manager, Jeff Vesselo. He is the area manager for the Green River Gorge area which includes Flaming Geyser State Park, Kanasket-Palmer State Park and Nolte State Park. Great guy!
Nolte State Park possibly could be mothballed although this is not new. During times of financial difficulties, it is "normal" for this park to be "closed".
Don't get too worked up on the word "closed", these are still public lands and access is/or has been and should always be granted although there will be limited facility maintenance.
The best thing that we can do as geocachers is to keep a good relationship going with our park managers and volunteer when needed. CITO'ING a "mothballed " park is even more important as the funding has been removed temporarily for any garbage collection/ litter collection.
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METRO PARKS TACOMA does not have policies on Geocaching although it is always wise to contact them if a property (other than a park) is in your sites. Call the main switchboard at 253-305-1092. *** Some of the properties are actually under Tacoma Power and could be OFF-LIMITS for Homeland Security reasons.
TACOMA POWER / TACOMA POWER PARKS --- No policies on geocaching within the park areas although it is best to contact them to make sure the area is open as there are areas OFF LIMITS around the dam sites and power generation due to Homeland Security reasons....ZERO TOLERANCE!!!! Simply ask, these folks are great to work with and support geocaching. Contact for Tacoma Power is the main switchboard at 253-502-8000...........Tacoma Power Parks is at the individual park. Speak with the Park Manager or Assistant park manager.
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Volunteering for any Park, Resource Area, Wildlife area etc. certainly qualifies as a CITO in my book! Volunteers are needed and wanted nationwide wether picking litter or doing trail maintenance. I am sure that any any person doing trail maintenance who sees litter would take the time to remove it. Simply have some garbage sacks with you while doing the trail maintenance in case the are needed and you have done double duty.
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Green River Parks Crew
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"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat".
The Father of our Parks, Theodore Roosevelt
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"Ranger Smith calling King County cachers", "Ranger Smith calling King County cachers, come in in King County cachers"....... Ravensdale Park is currently in need of an adoption/placement of cache after Ravensdale Park cache was archived. The park has been mighty lonely this winter and a cache placement/adoption would be just the thing to make this a happy park once again!
Thanks, Ranger Smith
for being there for all of of us when in reality she could simply turn her head and walk away. 
CITO at The Mountain GC28DN8
in Northwest
Posted
June 5th is National Trails Day so it's appropriate to celebrate and volunteer at multiple locations as we do on Earth Day.