Weirdest story you will read today

Via the New York Times, this bizarre news: 

It was supposed to be a fun family summer trip to Yellowstone National Park. Two cousins, a neighbor and their families packed two chickens, canoed about eight hours and hiked to the Shoshone Geyser Basin, where they decided to cook their chickens in a hot spring.

But dinner didn’t go quite as planned. In fact, it led to three of them pleading guilty to petty offenses. They were sentenced to two years’ probation, banned from the park for that period and fined between $500 and $1,200, according to court documents.

“A ranger responded and found two whole chickens in a burlap sack in a hot spring,” she said. A cooking pot was also found nearby. When Mr. Romriell went to check on the chicken — the group was bathing in the river nearby — he found the park ranger, who then questioned him and the rest of the group of 10 people about it. The next day, the ranger returned to the men’s campsites and issued them citations requiring a mandatory court appearance.

In September, the three men pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Casper, Wyo., to foot travel in a thermal area, according to court records. Mr. Romriell also pleaded guilty to the additional charge of having food in a thermal area...

So there are a bunch of dumb questions to ask, like: 

• Why would you want to eat chicken stored in a burlap sack? 
• Why would you risk your life to get near enough to a hot spring to cook a chicken in it? 
• Why would you think you wouldn't get caught? 

But here's my real question - why would you think it would taste good? Aren't all the hot springs pretty sulfurous? The water smelled pretty bad to me when I visited 19 years ago...

(The article says that the men said it tasted good? Who knows.)