jbrown
New member
I wish DEC would stop nagging backpackers and start bagging bears. These animals (I'm refering explicitly to the high peaks area) are hardly wild anymore... Do any of you get a chuckle at the stonefaced dead-serious DEC agents in the LOJ parking lot? I know, I know, there just doing their job. But I have to bite my lip to not burst out laughing.
I guess I'll echo Tramper Al's last post and go Mcenroe-esque here, you CANNOT be serious! The DEC agents are trying to curb the actual problem; i.e. the backpackers. We have invaded the bear's turf with our backpacking and they have become accustomed to getting food from the people that don't know how to keep it from them. Laugh at the DEC officers? No way, thanks for the hard work, fellas. More than once I've seen a group of college-age guys with huge, over packed packs, carrying a cooler and a couple of cases of beer on their way in to Marcy Dam, but the bears are the problem. (This has been between the hours of 11:00 p.m and 1:00 a.m., no DEC officers on hand.) Want to party? Go to a KOA. Stay out of the High Peaks.
I hope that they never start "bagging bears" in response to the people who are too ignorant to keep their food away from bears.
Flame over.