Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks warned a Port Angeles man of the dangers in Olympic National Forest, he recalled Thursday.
Elston Hill e-mailed the Peninsula Daily News with this message:
“I remember meeting her at the trailhead to Mount Mueller two or three years ago. We had just come back from a day of hiking.
“She stopped, and several of us in the Klahhane hiking group talked with her as she sat in her vehicle.
“I saw the K-9 on the outside and asked if a dog was really inside. She rolled down the window, which was heavily tinted, to reveal the dog.
“What stood out in my memory was that she described the national forest as an intimidating and unsafe place, not the national forest that we experienced when we hike.
“She indicated there were undesirable people in the forest, and I clearly understood she was concerned for her own safety and her life.
“She said it was not the national forest we knew from our childhood. She mentioned those who steal plants such as salal and indicated there were even worse criminal types in the forest.
“She was a lovely lady. It makes me very sad to recall that conversation, and it makes me wonder if rangers should not be sent in pairs.”
