New World Order at the Shut-Ins
I received the following by email today.
I strolled down to the shut-ins. Posted on the path was a DNR employee who asked me if I had any bottled water. I thought he was thirsty and told him I had some in my truck. No thanks, he replied. He just wanted to know if I was 'carrying,' as bottled water is not allowed in the shut-ins.
It's like a TSA checkpoint at the airport. I wonder when they'll install metal-detectors and have us take off our shoes.
You can bring water, but it has to be in re-usable container. Apparently they're worried that people will be tossing bottles left and right. "We want to keep the area pristine," he told me. You can take lawn chairs, coolers and food... but no plastic bottles of water.
When I visited the lower swimming hole I saw a paper plate floating in the water. I imagine paper products will be on the list next.
They also have a 'guard' on the shut-ins observation deck, so be careful if you visit.
They're watching.
posted by staff @ 1:35 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
1)The person should have said, "I have the water for medical reasons." They cannot (and better not) deny a visitor water on that basis. Thirst in Missouri summer is a bonafide medical reason.
2)I actually tangled with DNR over a similar thing at Hahatonka. From the upper trail, it's a fair hike to the Spring --which you can't touch. Big sign at the top: 'No food or drink on trail.' It was a mid-July trip. When I got home, I blasted a letter off to Jeff City, explaining it would be better for me to take something to drink than for them to have to haul my heat-stroked, unconscious body up that trail on a stretcher, and got a response which I still have: "we have the signage there to keep the spring hollow clean and trash free. You are free to take any beverages you'd like as long as you do not litter and carry the refuse out with you."
3)What if your canteen *is* a recycled water bottle? Hmmm...I use a recycled bottle for a water bottle...sounds like a challenge!
4)Re the 'guard'-- when we visited last year, they had a person stationed at the beginning of the trail, and one on the platform. They rotated staff during the day. The person on the platform isn't guarding anything. They are there to answer questions.
5)Incensed over something with a state park? P.O. Box 176, Jefferson City, MO 65102...tell them about it. It won't get changed otherwise.
a plastic water bottle is a reusable container (although not as nice a reusable container as a Gatorade bottle).
Every time I go into the outdoors, it is with plastic bottles full of tap water.
Maybe DNR should ask Ameren if they had any water before Dec. 2005 because they wanted to keep the area pristine!
I just sent you an email on your pottery, and then came over and saw this.
I've been hesitating about visiting, because last time I as there, I got a bit hassled when I chatted with people (it was mutual conversation, I wasn't bugging people). Evidently the park people don't like visitors talking to each other, either.
Shelley
I went to look yesterday.
Not a particularily good job of cleaning up. There is still a lot of gravel above the normal high water line at the main shutin that doesn't belong there and some more in the chute above the deep hole and in the deep hole below. It looks like all they did was clean gravel out of the shutin itself and wash the rocks.
All the obvious chunks of concrete and other artificial debris were gone.
Water looked okay, but not great. Kind of what the Big River looks like at Washington State Park in the summer. Nothing like the super clear water that set Johnson's Shutins apart from all the other area shutins.
The water bottle thing is silly.
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