Have you had any run-ins with the law while orienteering?

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I had a minor "run-in" with the law while I was running this evening. I'd gone to Wyandotte County Lake and ran on the hills (wearing my headlamp). When I got back to the car, a Wyandotte County Ranger pulled in and questioned me for a few minutes -- what are you doing? where do you live? etc..

I explained orienteering to him. I had an old photocopy of the Wyandotte map in the back of the car -- so I gave him a copy.

I guess I appreciate that the rangers are patrolling and taking an interest in people in the park. But, it is kind of a pain to be "hassled."

Anyone else had any similar run-ins with the law?

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), January 20, 2000

Answers

I've had 2 unhappy landowners accost me while I've been mapping. One I was able to mollify, the other was convinced I was up to no good and nothing I could do or say would appease him.

The best thing that happened to me though was on my very first mapping project, while a cadet. I was mapping the post of West Point itself, and one particular day I was mapping very near and around a fenced off ammo dump. I was in the area quite a while, and at the end of the day I was walking away, and as I got about 500m away from the nearest fence I heard some shouting and saw 2 soldiers with guns were coming towards me. They were MPs (military police). They suspected I had been mapping the ammo dump area for the wrong reasons, and they forced me to come along with them. I was driven to West Point's MP Headquarters and questioned a bit before they finally released me. But they kept my fieldnotes, which I got back the next day after they finally decided it was all legit.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), January 21, 2000.


I had a run-in with the law this weekend while out running some trails. I came to a trail intersection and saw a horse standing there tied to a sign. Then a guy in a funny-looking uniform came around the horse. As I was running by and taking a swig of my water, the guy yelled "Wait!, is that a map?"

I stopped and said "Yes." I was carrying a trail map of the area, about 1:100,000 perhaps, really a condensed version of the 1:24,000 USGS maps.

He said, "can I take a look at it?"

I was a bit put-off, but went back to the guy hoping it wouldn't take too long.

He told me "I just wanted to see where Hutch's Spring is."

I said "you mean Hutch's Pool?"

He said yes.

It was about this time that I noticed the patch on his uniform. It read 'Pima County Mounted Posse'! No kidding.

He asked where we were on the map. I showed him. Hutch's Pool was folded on the backside of the map so that it was not visible. He looked at the map for a moment or so while I stood there saying nothing (I had, after all, the right to remain silent). He was obviously clueless and didn't get anything out of looking at the map. He handed it back to me.

"Thanks", he said. "Nice Day, Enjoy!"

I said "thanks" and left.

It wasn't a very interesting story, but it was my most recent run-in with the law.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), January 24, 2000.


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