IME
This is the kind of regulation that is put in place when the game wardens are stretched too thin: when they keep stumbling upon people with fishing gear, who are in FMAs where fishing is prohibited, they know that they can either spend man/hours waiting around to catch them fishing, or enact regulations that prohibit the possession of the equipment in no-fishing areas. If there was unlimited funding, they could just post someone on each FMA, but in reality people don't want to be taxed at a rate that would pay for that kind of staffing; to manage the resource, we end up with legislation that impacts the law-abiding segment of the population. The CT reg I cited makes it easier to take care of the jacklighters while they are shining for deer, without having to wait until they take a shot (although watching a jacklighter make perfect shots on a full-body whitetail decoy and then wonder why it doesn't drop, is just about the funniest thing I've seen). Regarding your hiking buddy, this is where discretion comes into play, both on the part of your friend, and the officer involved: a cased, pack rod on an obvious through-hiker, is an easy one for the officer to warn, not cite.

Is there a website you can go to before going into a national park to learn the laws and requirements? I don't want to get caught up in something like this, and I have a large survival kit in my trunk.

Go to nps.gov, browse to the park you want to visit, and under the management button, you should see "laws and policies." There is usually an email link to "resource protection" and a phone number for the chief ranger of the facility on that page, or somewhere on the site for each facility.

I won't debate the morality of getting out of real or apparent infractions and fines but generally it pays to contest any tickets and fines. Depends on how much your time is worth.

There is a good chance, approximately 50% according to some court records, that the ticketing officer will be unable to show up to testify in court. If the officer for any reason fails to show up the court automatically dismisses the charges on the basis of your inability to 'confront your accuser'.

There is some risk of the judge raising the fine if you bollix your appeal and flaunt your cynical attempt to work the system but generally if you don't shine them on the cost only goes up to the extent that you pay court cost.

Last time I asked court costs in misdemeanor cases were around $50. In effect your risking court cost and lost time to avoid the fine. A fair deal if the fine is $500 or more. Not so much if the fine is $60.

With the exception of traffic court. I got stuck with a bogus citation once on radar, which I am a licensed tech and was working on for the county at the time. I contested it, and the cop didn't show. The PA there said that it didn't matter that I was a licensed professional and that the conditions on the day of the citation were poor for using radar, or that the unit hadn't been calibrated recently. The judge agreed with the PA even though I provided all the evidence to the contrary. I asked to appeal, and the judge said no. I could've appealed elsewhere, but at the time it was only a $35 fine, and let me tell you I got that back in spades from the county Sheriff over the next year working on their radio system. Let's say they paid me back on about two orders of magnitude. Sometimes it helps to be the only game in town.

Some of the laws are open to intrepretation. We were asked to leave a national park because we were checking to see if our 6 month old needed a daiper change. According to the security person there that was prohibited.

Eugene, I certainly hope you didn't leave. Not that you should start a conflict with your family there but standing up to idiots is something that just has to be done.

JohnE

Random thought for the day...

At a former employer we created an on-boarding process that was designed to indoctrinate newhires into the company culture. This included values and ways of thinking the company cherished.

One of the scenarios we gave to young newhires was the following:

"You are late for something very important and hurry to make it on time. As a result you are pulled over and ticketed by the local police. What do you do? Explain your approach."

The newhires are asked to discuss their answer in small groups and present it to the class.

The creativity, variety and rationalizations we saw were truly amazing. Breathtaking in some instances. We were truly amazed at what they came up with to avoid the ticket.

However after a few years we actually stopped being surprised by the looks of amazement and disbelief on the newhire's faces when we presented our alternative answer...

"You did something against the rules. Simply pay the ticket and plan ahead next time"

Not once in all the years of doing that exercise did we have a group come up with that.

Fascinating story, doesn't apply but fascinating none the less.

There is no law prohibiting the changing of a baby's diaper in a national park, and laws that aren't in existence don't need to be obeyed, regardless of what some "security person" states.

There are laws in place about disposing of a baby's diaper in a national park.

JohnE

We did leave, I should have asked for his name and contacted the supervisors afterward.