mooning the cog train on Washington

[Zimmer]

I can't help but wonder whether it's the same NF enforcement guy from the western Whites who tends to take things a bit more seriously than the average camper dude. Dollars to donuts. He's kind of notorious...

 

[Chip]

I can even hear the rallying cry - "they can have my buttocks when they pry them from my cold dead fingers!" Ummm... maybe that slogan needs more work...

Now that's just funny, I don't care who you are.

The Cog is missing a major marketing opportunity here. They should embrace, nay, ADVERTISE the tradition ! Cog Riders would be lining up to catch a glimpse of the unwashed and blistered who bare cheeks at the smokey beast.

 

[MichaelJ]

One problem with mooning the cog is that you're often mooning a lot of little kids. It's up to you whether or not that makes you think twice about doing it; however, I would guess that many of the parents don't like their kids exposed to those sweaty derrières, and that's probably tarnished the (already soiled in a different way) reputation of the cog, and perhaps they have decided it's time for it to end?

I have mooned the cog. The kid issue had not occurred to me at the time.

 

[Neil]

Speaking of the cog.

Sorry to butt in, basically coming in through the back door but Hey! I hate that friggin' Cog. I hate the whistle, I hate the smoke, I hate the tracks, I don't care about how it brings the old and the sick to the summit of the rock pile. If I was king of the world I would or order it volatilized, forthwith.

OK, I'm done. Carry on.

 

[sierra]

Im glad actions are being taken and find this "mooning" tradition a joke. I find no humor in it at all. To those who hate the COG, it was here long before you where. To be honest people who pull stunts like this are a little cowardly imo, its very easy to do someting like this when the people on the train cannot do anything in response. Example if you mooned me and my mother when riding the train (she loves the cog) I coulndt do much about it, but if we where on the same trail and you passed us and mooned us, whole different outcome believe me. Its not that Im a prude or anything, but the COg is riden by families and I just dont see how being so crass towards that kind of audience is fun.

 

[dr_wu002]

Im glad actions are being taken and find this "mooning" tradition a joke. I find no humor in it at all. To those who hate the COG, it was here long before you where. To be honest people who pull stunts like this are a little cowardly imo, its very easy to do someting like this when the people on the train cannot do anything in response. Example if you mooned me and my mother when riding the train (she loves the cog) I coulndt do much about it, but if we where on the same trail and you passed us and mooned us, whole different outcome believe me. Its not that Im a prude or anything, but the COg is riden by families and I just dont see how being so crass towards that kind of audience is fun.

All joking aside, if I were 10 and riding the cog up and saw someone moon us it would have been the thrill of the trip. I don't know about you but growing up, kids always mooned one another, in fact, my dad (who is fairly conservative) probably was the first person who taught me. At that age it was probably the funniest thing in existence.

I'm not even sure if I believe the story about the ticket. The frequency of Cog Mooning is probably fairly low and I doubt they have cops staked out on every trip. Maybe if you did it right on the summit and there was a FS guy right there but that would be a different story.

I've changed my mind a bit: I like the Cog. Long live the Cog! I just wish they'd clean up the coal along side the trail and stuff. Otherwise, as long as there's a weather observatory and hot dog stand on Washington, I hope the Cog is there as well. I don't like the smell or the ugly clouds, but when I'm on the Jewel trail I like seeing the thing Choo Choo by me. And no, I've never mooned it. My pants are glued on.

-Dr. Wu

 

[Neil]

Worried about law enforcement representatives, staked out and in disguise as ten year old kids on the offending conveyance, the would-be mooner says,

"Cover my back will ya Wu, I'm gonna moon the Cog."

 

[Tim Seaver]

But...but...the CHILDREN!

The passengers are well aware of the mooning tradition, and actually look forward to it with cameras in hand. Hard to believe that some people are more offended by someone's behind at 50 yards than locomotive smoke spewing into the Great Gulf.

I think yardsale's idea is quite excellent - maybe if the passengers got some smoke and dust in their eyes they might realize why the contraption is so offensive to the mountain environment.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Hard to believe that some people are more offended by someone's behind at 50 yards than locomotive smoke spewing into the Great Gulf.

Or the mayhem perpetrated on a regular basis by highly paid individuals. Some call it football.

 

[dr_wu002]

Or the mayhem perpetrated on a regular basis by highly paid individuals. Some call it football.

?

-Dr. Wu

 

[Artex]

Hard to believe that some people are more offended by someone's behind at 50 yards than locomotive smoke spewing into the Great Gulf.

A-frickin'-men.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

?

-Dr. Wu

Frank -

My point is that some of us find the violence of football offensive, and certainly more offensive than someone's hairy butt.

Mooning the cog, IMHO, is more a political statement, a way of showing extreme displeasure, at the COG, not the passengers. Just like I can turn off a TV set and not watch football, a passenger not wishing to see a hairy butt (I probably shouldn't use hairy, because I've seen a few gals shoot moons as well) can look in the other direction.

If in fact, people are being fined - well, that may only increase the level of mooning, because then the perps have confirmation it's being noticed. I'm a strong supporter of the concept of civil obedience, but to use mooning is risky. Depending upon the jurisdiction, a conviction may subject you to the permanent label of sex offender, the requirement to register and report in on a regular basis, and in some states, the inability to live within X distance from a school. Pretty serious stuff.

Don't get me wrong - within the proper context, I think mooning can be a huge source of entertainment. When I was in college we used to live in mortal terror that our buddies would spot us with a date and drive by at high speed, shooting a moon. Or being passed on the highway, only to have the car ahead slow down, and see two butts pressed up against the rear window. Not a pretty sight under any circumstances, and not easy to explain to your date that you have no idea who those guys are up there.

 

[dr_wu002]

My point is that some of us find the violence of football offensive,

That transition just kinda went over my head.

Mooning the cog, IMHO, is more a political statement, a way of showing extreme displeasure, at the COG, not the passengers.

I think a lot of people do it because it's fun! I would venture to say that some people both like the cog ~and~ like mooning it at the same time! Like I said, mooning's not for me: I may think the cog is kind of gross with all the belching smoke and coal on the trails but then I just filled my car up with gasoline to get there.

Don't get me wrong - within the proper context, I think mooning can be a huge source of entertainment. When I was in college we used to live in mortal terror that our buddies would spot us with a date and drive by at high speed, shooting a moon. Or being passed on the highway, only to have the car ahead slow down, and see two butts pressed up against the rear window. Not a pretty sight under any circumstances, and not easy to explain to your date that you have no idea who those guys are up there.

Kevin, "College Days"!? sounds like you have an active social life out there

-Dr. Wu

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Kevin, "College Days"!? sounds like you have an active social life out there

-Dr. Wu

Yes ... it wasn't all Chaucer, Beowulf and deferential calculus.

 

[Paradox]

All joking aside, if I were 10 and riding the cog up and saw someone moon us it would have been the thrill of the trip. ....-Dr. Wu

Easy for you to say, you're a doctor!

 

[Paradox]

I find no humor in it at all.

When I was in the 5th grade, some of my classmates and I built a scale replica of the Cog in the back of the classroom as part of a class project. I have had a soft spot in my heart for it ever since. In the grand scheme of things I don't find the Cog awful. I feel it is simply a small remembrance or salute to a time of simple technology.

When I was in high school, I recall mooning some unsuspecting folks out the back window of the track team bus. A clear indication that I had become more sophisticated by that time.

 

[LenDawg]

Just put a sign up saying that you have entered the hikers mooning zone. Hikers agree to only moon in that section of the cog. Those offended can lower a shade through that section of the cog. Those who think they are at the zoo can take pictures. All settled.

 

[sweeper]

Do you suppose Homeland Security has "Cog Marshells" riding the rails? Or are they hiding in the rocks waiting to pounce?

Can SOMEONE produce a real police report on one of these fines?

And lastly if they're going to be fining mooners what will the prudes demand next? Fining topless/braless women? Topless men? Dogs urinating on rocks? People ur..........

Only in America, Home of the Proud, Prudes.

 

[dr_wu002]

Yes ... it wasn't all Chaucer, Beowulf and deferential calculus.

Back in my college days, us math and physics geeks would huddle around the cog tracks and scream out vector calculus equations and thermodynamics formulas when the choo choo passed by. And if we were really feeling pretentious we'd follow the train to the summit and hand out copies of Jackson's book on Electrodynamics and ask the passengers to do problems on the spot. I can still remember the frightened looks on passengers faces when I yelled out the Navier-Stokes Equation. Forget mooning -- we were too cool in college.

Funny and actually true story: one time when I was a physics undergrad at Clarkson Univ. and all nerdy and into it and serious, I hiked up Washington with about 30lbs of physics text books in my pack determined to get some reading in or something at the summit. I had this enormous Quantum Mechanics book by Shankar and a few Electrodynamics and Statistical Physics books as well. I hiked up with my sister who brought like, a water bottle and some cheetos and laughed at me when she saw my pack. Needless to say I didn't get much studying done on the summit as I was so freakin' exhausted. Talk about White & Nerdy!

-Dr. Wu

 

[Roxi]

pack your binoculars

Hard to believe that some people are more offended by someone's behind at 50 yards than locomotive smoke spewing into the Great Gulf.

Probably depends on the behind. For those folks who get tattoos at a young age, imagine what it will look like when you're 70. Actually I'd love to see a 70 year-old with a tattoo on their behind moon the cog. It would be great fun to see the people on the cog try to get a closer look to figure out what that tattoo once was. "Hand me the binoculars!"