Unless you know something I don't, or know them personally, I doubt they were "on" to me. It was only one truck and the same ranger that we ran into, Labbie makes it sound like it was a sting operation lol. I'm chalking it up to the receptionist not bothering to actually check the trail status as the ranger stated it was closed all day Friday as well. I listened to your advice of calling and checking the status of the trail. Every entrance to the Cedro peak area was closed to highway vehicles.
Nevertheless, lesson learned and I lost my ability to organize any further events. It sounds like folks want to do Puerco next time, and April was tossed around as the general time frame.