# Riverboards banned in Dinosaur



## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

Maybe the ranger can come on here and explain. 

After I got back from my two month trip from Flaming Gorge to Lake Mead the Lodore ranger sent me a message saying sorry he missed me at the boat ramp on my launch date, that he really wanted to talk to me about my Mountainbuzz comments about a ticket he wrote some Buzzards for floating the section above Lodore. He basically told me that it's too bad he missed me he was hoping to harass me. 

The thing is, he wasn't there. I'm glad, but he should have been. I called the ranger station from Crook Campground upstream and told them we were running late because of weather difficulties, but we would be there in time to launch at some point the next day (our launch date). Now if you were a ranger and a group contacted you, telling you they were having difficulty making time in the storm upstream (within park boundaries), and the group had payed hundreds of dollars to float Lodore, wouldn't you want to make sure they made it OK? Especially if you were planning on harassing them, as he later informed me. He just doesn't give a fuck.

The results are in. The Lodore ranger (MMDave) is a giant douche bag. He doesn't care about boaters' safety and he is vengeful and sarcastic. It's time for a change. I encourage anyone experiencing difficulties with this prick to contact his superiors and complain.

I'm calling my homeboy at Secretary Salazars office tomorrow.


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

we have had major problems with rangers there also. i dont remember a dave but i do remember a doug ross. dude was possibly a little ill. everyone was wearing lifejackets through island park and he still came and inspected them and said some werent approved, a lecture and threats of citation ensued. then, he followed us and layed over at jones with us. came into camp for a second lecture about the same issue with more threats of citation and it culminated with him pounding himself in the head, hard, saying "stupid,stupid, stupid" (as he pounded himself), about the whole"fishing life jacket" thing. most of the fishing PFDs are approved type 3 (not sure if ours was). i think he had a hard on for dory guys or something, which i certainly understand, but should the ranger be bias?? these guys get paid to float the river over and over again. you would think they would be happy to make sure everyone is having a good time and be laid back about all but the most serious of saftey offenses. if he had been at the ramp to check us in, he could have caught the spare fishing jackets. they had real ones on through the rapids by the way, this is island park we are talking about. a coke bottle would keep you afloat.


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## Don (Oct 16, 2003)

*SUP*

Matty for 10 Mile Kayak in Frisco told me that SUP boards are banned from Lake Dillon as well. It seamed like the perfect spot, but not as far as the law is concerned.


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## asleep.at.the.oars (May 6, 2006)

The NPS: "Protecting river bums' shins from rocks in Low-Dore since 2009"
I'm not sure I see the safety reasoning behind banning a piece of gear originally designed for performing rescues. If they want to keep people safe, they should mandate the use of shin guards for anyone with a riverboard on a 400' wide river with 1000cfs in it. 
For what it's worth though, if you can manage to thread your way through all the rules it's a really well managed system from an ecological footprint perspective, and it's still less arbitrary than the Grand.

And with regards to Doug, he's a really good guy, I just think the sun gets to him sometimes. One summer a few years back he would hide out in the eddies below the dam site and pretend to be a cop behind a billboard when we floated by - using a rubber chicken in place of a radar gun. It was damn funny, so maybe the sun got to me sometimes too...


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## ZGjethro (Apr 10, 2008)

Don said:


> Matty for 10 Mile Kayak in Frisco told me that SUP boards are banned from Lake Dillon as well. It seamed like the perfect spot, but not as far as the law is concerned.


I think it is because Dillion is Denver's drinking water and they don't like the idea of your body stewing in it. You can pump your boat's bilge out and they are ok with that though.


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

i am typically very supportive of the rangers and know many of them, including former dinos. dino is the one place and lodore imparticular, i have had bad to very bad experiences with rangers. i dont know what it is about that place, but if it's the sun, dude needs to get a bigger hat. good guy or not, his behavior was down right obnoxious and as unprofessional as it can get.


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## ezwater (Sep 1, 2009)

They used to forbid c-1s. Are they over that now? OC-1s?


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

Those bitches need to respect the right to float.


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## carvedog (May 11, 2005)

sounds to me like he has a small penis


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## brendodendo (Jul 18, 2004)

Are we talking Down River Body Boards (ie: Rocky Mountain River Boards) or Stand Up Surf Boards (ie: Stride)?

I think it is a lack of knowledge on the part of rangers that these types of crafts are banned. I believe that as more people get into river sports, we are going to find that there is traditionalist mentality behind the way some people think. That does not make it easy for new and different aspects of our community to get the credit we/they deserve. As a part time down river bodyboarder, I can say that people look at me as though I am an alien sometimes when I look like Scuba Steve about to jump in the river. 

Rollerblading is still ...


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## Tele-axel (Dec 10, 2007)

My group had a great experience with a young ranger at Jones this summer. Offered to let us change sites as we were scheduled downstream and the mosquitoes were really bad there, claimed the change was self serving as he didn't want to come down to check on us. Came back up to our camp and shared a few beers/stories/laughs.


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## Alpnrafter (Sep 4, 2009)

We have a Rocky Mountain Riverboard and they forced my wife to put it back in the truck. Didn't matter that we also brought helmets and wetsuits, plus our approved PFDs and 16' raft. Supposedly DNP has 6 of them but nobody knows how to use them. 

Pretty sure they'd balk at SUP too, though not sure I'd disagree on that.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

You should be able to swim that shit if you want to. People swam the entire Grand Canyon. After some discussion, the rangers let them continue and they made it alive.

Adventure on public lands should be allowed and safety education should be encouraged.

"You can tell how corrupt a society is by the number of laws it has." -Mr. Abbey


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## Big Da (Mar 8, 2006)

We've had 3 run-in's with Ranger Doug and firmly believe he is a total jerk-off.


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## wyboat (Jul 20, 2009)

I was dissapointed to discover that the fee for running an overnight trip was a flat $185. I wanted to do it with my wife and saw the cancellations, but at $185 for permit, $150 shuttle, and about $100 gas, it became a very expensive 3 day trip. I think they should charge per person per day like everyone else. They would have less impact on the canyon than the flat fee encouraging 20 person trips. Do the rangers check to see if they can read PFD tags? On a Ruby/Horsethief/Westwater trip I had an intern who never saw a river try to deny my recsue vest becuase the writing was worn off the tag.


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## JDHOG72 (Jul 18, 2007)

Randaddy said:


> You should be able to swim that shit if you want to. People swam the entire Grand Canyon. After some discussion, the rangers let them continue and they made it alive.
> 
> Adventure on public lands should be allowed and safety education should be encouraged.
> 
> "You can tell how corrupt a society is by the number of laws it has." -Mr. Abbey


Every river runner should read that book "We Swam the Grand Canyon" Awesome story!


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## Ture (Apr 12, 2004)

False alarm. I called the rangers and it turns out they have banned the use of SNOW boards on the river. They said that nobody had actually tried it yet but they wanted to get the word out there to head off any potential for problems.


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## Scary Mc (Jun 15, 2004)

wyboat said:


> On a Ruby/Horsethief/Westwater trip I had an intern who never saw a river try to deny my recsue vest becuase the writing was worn off the tag.


 When was this, was the 'intern' at Loma or Westwater?


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## wyboat (Jul 20, 2009)

It was at Westwater. The real problem is that we were already into our trip and our shuttle was down at the Westwater takeout. The next time I went I had a beater PFD strapped to the frame and showed them that. They still needed to read the tag and it was still a freakin intern that didn't know squat.


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## swiftwater15 (Feb 23, 2009)

zbaird said:


> we have had major problems with rangers there also. i dont remember a dave but i do remember a doug ross. dude was possibly a little ill. everyone was wearing lifejackets through island park and he still came and inspected them and said some werent approved, a lecture and threats of citation ensued. then, he followed us and layed over at jones with us. came into camp for a second lecture about the same issue with more threats of citation and it culminated with him pounding himself in the head, hard, saying "stupid,stupid, stupid" (as he pounded himself), about the whole"fishing life jacket" thing. most of the fishing PFDs are approved type 3 (not sure if ours was). i think he had a hard on for dory guys or something, which i certainly understand, but should the ranger be bias?? these guys get paid to float the river over and over again. you would think they would be happy to make sure everyone is having a good time and be laid back about all but the most serious of saftey offenses. if he had been at the ramp to check us in, he could have caught the spare fishing jackets. they had real ones on through the rapids by the way, this is island park we are talking about. a coke bottle would keep you afloat.


Did you mean echo park? Jones Hole is above Island Park


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## zbaird (Oct 11, 2003)

excuse me, echo park. still just as flat. thanks.


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## swiftwater15 (Feb 23, 2009)

The Dino rangers used to sit on a ridge overlooking Island Park with binoculars, and then drive around to the takeout at split mountain to write lifejacket tickets.


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## cma (Dec 19, 2003)

ZGjethro said:


> I think it is because Dillion is Denver's drinking water and they don't like the idea of your body stewing in it. You can pump your boat's bilge out and they are ok with that though.


Yeah, isn't it even illegal to swim there? I know a few people that have gone commando and skinny dipped after dark while camping up there..


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## dport (May 10, 2006)

Three trips so far on Lodore, never had a problem with any rangers, at the launch site or on the river. Just lucky I guess


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## Hey Zeus (Mar 19, 2007)

I was one of the people who received a ticket last October and I believe I was the one who warned you and your group. 

I never responded to the ranger after he posted regarding my friends post on the buzz. Frankly, he did not budge regarding his stance on the ticket. There were no signs and no real information on the subject that we were able to find. It is sad that the rangers job is more to harass than to help people. 

On a side note, I noticed a post last year on vandalism at the Lodore TO. My thought is, they fined me and my friend each $125, $that's 250 total. They should put that money to good use and buy a $200 trail cam that will snap photos of the vehicles going in to steal boaters gear.


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