The Good And The Bad

[Featherdfishead]

If its not homeless people squatting on your land then its dope growing cartelys camping in our mining areas. 

I headed out Saturday morning early as planned and had boot to the ground by 7. After hiking and swimming through some narly brush i located the old wagon trail and mining trails branching this way and that. Took some pics and made some notes on good looking spots lower in the drainage as i worked higher and higher. After hiking a few hours i could see the head waters of the stream opening up on the hill slope above. Locating were the old timers had began drifting up the hill chasing the gold out of the creek i switched on the detector and scanned a little before walking around a slight bend in the trail smack dab into a resupply camp for a grow somewhere near by. There were two garbage middens at the mouth of an old drift and a big pile of plastic hose and sleeping bags all covered by camo tarps and wood as to help camo more. Two more piles under near by brush and many bags and tarps suspended in the trees. Pissed at my not being able to get any detecting in and not being armed i high tailed it out of the area very frustrated.  I did recon some good info far down in the drainage but wont likely return soon because i like to mine far of the beatn path. Pot choppers was flying afew days latter but unlikely it mattered.

 

 

My wife felt bad i never got to detect on Saturday so i hooked up with my mining partner on Sunday afternoon and he brought me to a place he had mined years ago and did well and then hadn't been back due to new owners of the adjacent private property. He had returned three days before and gotten permission to mine. He  detected a 1.5 dwt peace and cleaned up a few more dwt of small pickers in a nearby runner the first day and had found another peace around a dwt the day after. We hit the spot around noon and had a great time exploring the area and putting together a good plan for how to cover it in the best way. "sophisticated mining" is what my mining buddy say's always makes me chuckle the way he say's it. I agree though. Its the only way to cream a spot to the last drop. I was able to detect one small picker that led to a few more nearby. Nothing deep but all in crevasses. The gold only weighed .5 dwt but the place looks very promising and there is allot of area to work. 

 

 

May return this weekend but the weathers still not to hot and i have some places i want to recon before it gets latter in summer.

 

 

Go get some Gold!

 

AjR

 

 

 

 

[Norvic]

Understand where your coming from, it is a scary feeling and wrecks the sense of security and harmony one has when out there, sad to hear you folks have that also.

Same thing happened here way back had the Missus and kids camped with me in a top gold field, lovely waterhole, had done well over the years there. Walked into a new catchment area, took a shortcut across inside of bend, before I new it was amongst a cash crop. Sneaked out back to camp packed up and left. Been a number of murders in that area since, definitely wild horses couldn`t drag me back.

[Rick K - First Member]

Loose treasure makes some folks crazy. When gold was the "cash crop" robbery, murder and mayhem were the rule. It was sorted out by better government and better law enforcement. Of course the enforcement preceded the government when the "barons" ran off the small timers. Good government sorted that out.

Now we have poor government and selective law enforcement. In my opinion a bad combination.

[Relichunter]

Call the cops, they will put a camera near their stash and nab them. Same thing happened to me....it pisses me off these damn cartels are running a muck in gold country. Cartels need to be run out of this territory. 

[deathray]

Open borders are working out great! That sucks man. I hate that feeling of being watched too!

[Steve Herschbach]

I found a place recently with dozens of old wood pallets, each with a wire cage about two foot across and two foot high. Being naive my first thought was "tomato plants?" Is this what they are growing the weed in? Luckily looked like nobody had been there in years.

 

Never had to worry about this kind of stuff in Alaska! Maybe with it going legal there will be less people doing it in the hills.

[Sourdough Scott]

Well it is legal for individuals to grow at home in California for their personal use. In turn, the weed market has pretty much dropped out here in California. But the Mexican cartels are growing here and taking the buds back east. They ruin our forrests with their trash, human waste, and commercial fertilizers they use to grow. Plus they are heavily armed. Without going into details, I've had a nice confrontation before. Don't go unarmed!

[gambler]

Well it is legal for individuals to grow at home in California for their personal use. In turn, the weed market has pretty much dropped out here in California. But the Mexican cartels are growing here and taking the buds back east. They ruin our forrests with their trash, human waste, and commercial fertilizers they use to grow. Plus they are heavily armed. Without going into details, I've had a nice confrontation before. Don't go unarmed!

I second this, don't go unarmed.

[deathray]

Third that. They leave piles of garbage too, tortillas wrappers,propane bottles, fertilizer,etc.

[Featherdfishead]

Yup Steve likely remnants of a grow. I have no issue with people growing their own weed at home and feel it should be legal. I've been around dope growing my entire life. I have found many grows in the past but those were hippy patches and not the Cartels. afew yrs back i found a Spike drop snare along a main trail into a drainage that wouldnt have killed a guy but would have maimed him good - Arr! I usually go armed into areas i have concern with but my excitement to hit a new area got the best of me. I made some calls and a chopper flew but that's it. The cops here NEVER arrest the cartels they just fly around and hope they scare them off - BS. In the past the cops have started gun battles with them and still had no arrests - Hmm. I hope if its legalized then the cartels will dry up but they may just grow more to supply nearby states were its still illegal. We locals have talked of running them out ourselves but i'm sure we'd be arrested and thrown in jail since were working class people that abide by the laws and pay our taxes.

Being armed in the woods isnt like it was anymore either. The hotshot cops, Fish Cops and Twig Pigs (USFS Cops) that move here from the city figure if your armed your a problem and will stop you and accuse you of poaching or illegally brandishing a fire arm. Klamath National Forest has been considering the idea of outlawing caring a gun on the forest unless hunting. Total BS.

 

Good excuse to by a new handgun i guess. Used 357 for sale anyone?

Thanks for the comments and good luck out there.

AjR