Middle Earth Ranger Forum

RikJohnson wrote:HERE IS A QUESTION...

In Arizona, most of the land is either Military, or Indian Reservation or National Forest or Cattle Ranches. There isn't much left save some desert that is privatly or city owned. Note that each city in Arizona incorporates maybe 5-6 miles of desert around the actual city to a) give them room to grow but mostly b) prevent some subdivision from incorporating and keeping property taxes for themselves.


For obvious reasons, we do not want to Range in military gunnery ranges.
Ranchers are afraid that you will hurt their cattle thiniking it is a 12-point elk (it happens).
Indians are so jealous that even the sheriff is afraid to go there... Indian cops love to arrest white cops who think that they have the right to go wherever they want and even the border patrol stays off the Reservations.
So that leaves National Forests.

Now we can legally hike and camp on the Federal lands (obey fire restrictions) but if I am caught carrying a bow by a Forest Ranger, his first words will be "show me your hunting license" (or else). I can get away with a sword so long as i am in garb "found another crazy medievalist today, I let him go."
If I explain that I am simply stump-shooting, he will reply "show me your arrows" and they had better be target points. ANY broadhead or blunt kicks back to the 'hunting license' argument and poaching is the accusation even if I have no animals with me... they will simply say that they caught me before I killed a deer...

So do you all have similar concerns or problems to solve?
with all the IR and spyware the boys-with-badges have, hiding is no longer an option.

ineffableone wrote:When I lived out West (WA, OR, AZ) I tended to opt for public lands. As in BLM land. Very limited amounts of other people as there aren't official camp sites or park like settings. Though in WA I also had a decently large wooded back yard I could play around in also. Not to mention a few friends in rural areas with large wooded lands.

In NJ though wild lands are a bit harder to find. While there are lots of little pockets of nature it is hard to find areas larger that 40 acres that are wild other than official State or national parks. I have found a few nice Wilderness Preserves around where I live. One 19 acres, another 15 acres, and another 34 acres. I also regularly visit a State forest less than 5 min from my house that is actually Native American controlled. They occasionally do Powwow's there and it is a hunting allowed area during hunting season. Mostly though it is fairly low traffic. Most people stick to the trails, so exploring off trail gets alone time pretty quickly.

Otherwise it is the Pine Barrens. A weird sandy place with stunted pine trees. Though the Pinelands is not the best of place to dress in ranger gear as running into Pineys (NJ rednecks) is highly likely. I have had pretty good luck not running into people out there, but you know the first time I do go dressed up I would meet them.

I do have plans to venture over to PA, and start exploring the forests and parks over there more. But so far my trips that direction have been limited.

Straelbora wrote:New Jersey doesn't have a whole lot of wilderness, but at least it has lots of Orcs.

Greg wrote:Kortoso...are you, by chance, connected with Druin's Ranger's Apprentice-based group, out of Chico? Loop up "Ranger Corps" on facebook.

Anywho, no matter where you are, go to Wilderness.net Can't sing the praises of this site enough. Topo maps of every BLM and other agency-owned and managed Wilderness area in the US. Searchable by region/area/zip code. Has regs and everything. Can't beat that.