Selfish egomaniacs destroy fragile habitat on Katahdin.

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Pig Pen said:
Troll Alert!
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If you have concerns about a post, please contact the moderators. DO NOT accuse other posters of trolling.

Keep all personal attacks off this board. Everyone got it?!

-dave-
 
I was wrong to accuse anyone of trolling, I apologize. I just wish that some facts go along with posts like this. Particularly ones that are obviously going to attract a lot of interest like this one. Having said this, I didn't have any facts to back up the word troll so I was worse than the original poster.
 
At the risk of fanning flames, I will confess I was immediately put in a certain frame of mind by the non-objective title. If one is going to be blatant about one's point of view, one is bound to incite a response, maybe from the opposing point of view. I understand it comes from a passion and love of hiking and BSP, and mostly it preaches to the choir, but I had nearly the same reaction as Pig Pen, I simply did not write it.

A similar event transpired on the road up Everest thread, ostensibly because the initial posting contained a blatant point of view.

I do agree with Pig Pen's point of "show me the victim". There are far too many real victims of real crimes whose perpetrator(s) go unpunished.


Tim
 
bikehikeskifish said:
I do agree with Pig Pen's point of "show me the victim".
Tim
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I agree. I don't know Baxter like I know the Whites so if someone could tell me exactly what they did wrong. Specific rules or laws that were broken I would appreciate it. I'm not saying rules/laws were not broken, I just want to know what they were.

Thanks,
Keith
 
Well, to start with the obvious place, the official BSP rules:
20. MOTORCYCLES, ATV'S, BICYCLES and PARASAILING: Motorcycles, motorized trail bikes, and all-terrain vehicles are prohibited within the Park. Bicycles are allowed on maintained roads only with the exception of roads in the Scientific Forest Management Area (SFMA) where bicycles are prohibited. No person shall fly, cause to be flown, or permit any model craft, hot air balloon or hang gliding device of any kind in the Park..
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Anyone who doesn't think this is a crime doesn't belong in BSP, or any other spot like it.
 
I'm pretty sure you have to provide your names, addresses, contact info, etc when heading to a trailhead for parking, etc...

Wouldn't these guys have to wait around for a heck of a long time for someone to lug their stuff down the mountain if they only took 20 minutes to parasail down? Can't the park authorities match up the names in the trail register to the names of people heading for that parking area on that day at that time?

I have some friends in NZ that are big into parasailing. If they know what they are doing they can stay in the air for a long time. The packs that they hike up their sails with are big but not outrageous. They probably didn't leave much gear behind since most of the bulk is in the sail itself.

By the way, is this a first-hand account from someone that was there, or was this paraphrased from an official report? Did anyone take pictures as it was happening? Did the environmental impact get documented, or is it speculation? If you were there Teej, what did you say or do about the situation?
 
Wouldn't the people who couldn't park at their shelter have taken down the license plate? (I would, but I've been accused of being a jerk for something like that, so maybe I'm alone on this) A good reason why there are few break-in problems in BSP is that everyone has to register.

They will get caught. BSP is a big source of pride for Mainers. Percival Baxter worked too hard to make this dream come true to have a few idiots ruin it.
 
20. MOTORCYCLES, ATV'S, BICYCLES and PARASAILING: Motorcycles, motorized trail bikes, and all-terrain vehicles are prohibited within the Park. Bicycles are allowed on maintained roads only with the exception of roads in the Scientific Forest Management Area (SFMA) where bicycles are prohibited. No person shall fly, cause to be flown, or permit any model craft, hot air balloon or hang gliding device of any kind in the Park..
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Sounds like they broke the park rules. With the video hopefully they will be caught and prosecuted to get the word out that this won't be tolerated.

Keith
 
SherpaKroto said:
Wouldn't the people who couldn't park at their shelter have taken down the license plate? (I would, but I've been accused of being a jerk for something like that, so maybe I'm alone on this)
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I was thinking the same thing... if I arrived at BSP to find someone parked in my spot, I would go straight to the rangers.... I would have assumed there was some sort of mix up and the shelter was double booked or something. I would be surprised if a ranger wouldn't walk over and take down a plate number after that. And I know they write down plate numbers when you enter the park at the gate.

I would bet the parasailers aren't going to remain anonymous for long.

- Ivy
 
David Metsky said:
The video has already been posted on YouTube, so I think we can assume this really took place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itejsk2zC0g
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Hard to argue with that. :eek:

They'll probably have to pay a fine and get banned from the park for a short period of time, which is appropriate. I'm not sure that I can elevate this to "not enough bad things can happen to these guys (or girls.)" status.
 
Breaking the park rules does not necessarily equate to criminal behavior. It may, if the rules are officially part of Maine state law. I don't know -- never been to BSP, and I'm not a resident of Maine. Likely this is a civil infraction, like a speeding ticket, rather than a criminal one. Not that it's not "criminal" in an environmental sense.

Tim
 
SherpaKroto said:
Wouldn't the people who couldn't park at their shelter have taken down the license plate? (I would, but I've been accused of being a jerk for something like that, so maybe I'm alone on this) A good reason why there are few break-in problems in BSP is that everyone has to register.

They will get caught. BSP is a big source of pride for Mainers. Percival Baxter worked too hard to make this dream come true to have a few idiots ruin it.
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Listen to Sherpa Kroto!

Look, the plants and animals don't have a voice. They can't say "stop" so we've got to stick up for them. Just like ordinary citizens gotta stick up for somebody in the street getting mugged. Or any type of crime taking place. Sometimes the law fails those people and sometimes it's up to ordinary people like you and I to do something besides stand around. The same goes for the environment. Gotta educate more people on what's going on and then stop the people that are doing wrong. I'm not going to condemn the people that made the 27 second video on YouTube... maybe they didn't realize that there are fragile plants up there or maybe they don't realize what pride Mainers have for BSP. But that shouldn't stop people from acting.

Perhaps cold-blooded murder or even a beating wouldn't be the right type of action for these morons. But I bettcha being confronted by a lot of angry Mainers would make them think twice -- not only about doing it again but bragging about the details to the whole world.

-Dr. Wu
 
If this were done without tramping on the plants and littering (leaving gear behind), AND the obvious breaking of the specific rules for BSP, I personally wouldn't have had any problem with it.

However, due to the fact that the above was NOT the case, I agree: MORONS.
 
dug said:
If this were done without tramping on the plants and littering (leaving gear behind), AND the obvious breaking of the specific rules for BSP, I personally wouldn't have had any problem with it.

However, due to the fact that the above was NOT the case, I agree: MORONS.
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Yeah, what's wrong with parasailing? I've seen plenty of people do it off Mt. Tom (MA) and Mt. Greylock and it looks wicked cool. Plus, they seem tough hiking that huge pack up the mountain and then sailing down. But doing it off Katahdin wasn't appropriate and walking around on them sensitive plants wasn't either. I got nothing against parasailing... more power to 'em. Just be responsible.

-Dr. Wu
 
dr_wu002 said:
Listen to Sherpa Kroto!

Perhaps cold-blooded murder or even a beating wouldn't be the right type of action for these morons. But I bettcha being confronted by a lot of angry Mainers would make them think twice -- not only about doing it again but bragging about the details to the whole world.

-Dr. Wu
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Well, I'm glad to hear that they may not deserve the death penalty or whipping!
 
If this were done without tramping on the plants and littering (leaving gear behind), AND the obvious breaking of the specific rules for BSP, I personally wouldn't have had any problem with it.
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Ditto - they do it off Cannon all the time...
 
So what do you do now?

What do you do now? Send Baxter an email with the youtube link? I hope their is enough evidence here. I mean the youtube vid is proof, but you really can't identify the persons. Hmm....

grouseking
 
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