Cruising through the park looking for a toe tapping good time

The recent onslaught of news coverage about Idaho Senator Larry Craig's arrest for soliciting sex in a public restroom by tapping his foot has exposed the secret world of cruising for sex in public places. Apparently most people were not aware that many gay men visit public restrooms and parking lots to hook-up with anonymous sex partners. In the gay community such behavior is commonly known as "cruising". Parks and restrooms where gay men can easily find other men looking for sex are called a "cruisy parks" and "cruisy toilets."

Park rangers that have the pleasure of working in a cruisy park are usually quite aware that such activity is occurring. I was lucky enough to work in a cruisy park for several years. During that time I had to clean up a variety of items left in restrooms by careless cruisers, including used condoms, sexual lubricant, pornographic magazines and even sex toys. I had male park visitors complain about being hit on by male cruisers. One time a female birdwatcher photographed a naked man pleasuring himself in the woods. She thought it would be funny to embarrass her fiends by showing them a photo of the nude hiker that she ran into. After looking at the picture on her computer monitor, however, the bird watcher realized that this man was enjoying himself much more than he was enjoying nature.

Cruising for Sex
How do you know if people are cruising in your park?
Apparently, the internet has become a prime resource for sexual information (who knew?). Currently the most popular cruising websites are CruisingForSex.com and Squirt.org. Warning: These sites are NSFW (Not Safe For Work) because they are full of gay porn (who knew?). Warning: If you are a fan of the TV show Will and Grace and you have never seen gay porn before, then do not go to these websites or you will never be able to enjoy the show again.

To find out if you work in a cruisy park, just search for the park name to see if it is a popular meeting place. Squirt.org requires that you fill out and verify your registration before you can read any detailed listings. Warning: It may be difficult to explain to your wife why you had to setup an account on a gay sex website.

Ranger Gord's Cruisy Toilet Cleaning Tips
Here are some tips if you are a park ranger who has the unfortunate task of cleaning up after some messy cruisers:

• There is no such thing as wearing too many surgical gloves, but after about six pair, you start to lose your ability to grab things with one hand.


• The Center for Disease Control recommends using a 10% bleach/90% water solution when sanitizing surfaces that have been exposed to body fluids. I recommend an 90% bleach/10 % acetone solution. Warning: Make sure you take a deep breath of fresh air before you spray because this solution has a tendency to dissolve lung tissue when it is inhaled.

Why?
If you are wondering why men act like this, then check out this documentary where they interview several cruisers and film them on cruising escapades. Warning: Although there is no nudity or sexually explicit scenes, does feature several gay men talking about sex.

Enchanted Forest

Enchanted Forest

Documentary exploring the underground world of cruising