National Park has issued 20 tickets at Valley Forge since shutdown began

The National Park Service is literally making a federal case out of a guy going for a run. A Chadds Ford man was issued a citation for entering Valley Forge National Historical Park Sunday to go running on some of the park’s miles of multi-use paths, which are closed to the public for the duration of the federal government shutdown. “I just went for a run like I always do,” said John Bell, 56, a real estate broker who has run 100 marathons in his life, raising more than $100,000 for charity. “I’m a marathon runner. I’ve been going down to Valley Forge for probably 25 years. I had no idea the park was even closed.” Bell said he drove to the park Sunday morning and noticed that internal park roads were barricaded, much like they are at night after the park closes, so instead he drove to a remote parking lot off of state Route 23. He proceeded to run about five miles through the 3,500-acre park and returned to find a pair of park rangers in the parking lot. “When I came back my car was surrounded by two ranger vehicles with their lights flashing,” Bell said. “I felt like I was a terrorist.” Bell said the rangers asked him if he “watched the news” and told him the park was closed because the government is shut down. Bell said they had already placed a $100 ticket on his car. “I’ve got to go to federal court if I want to fight this thing,” he said. Bell said that there were dozens of other runners, walkers and bikers throughout the park the day...more