New guy here - long, long time lurker. I've seen what both Mike and Fred have expressed in terms of honoring a claim, and what GB_Amateur has experienced. My first time in NoCal, my son and I saw a dig beside a creek that was obviously recently worked. We were curious and when we got closer, we saw a bucket, trowel and (partially filled) water jug with a member number on it. I was a new member of the club in the area, and with no knowledge of what this all meant I simply assumed and acknowledged that someone had dug this hole intending to come back to it, so we moved on. I have also experienced the situation that GB_Amateur describes. I joined GPAA a few years ago when my interests/challenges turned to finding wild gold. While I can only visit gold country occasionally, I am at times quite disheartened by the prevalence of recent trash on the claims, as well as unfriendly people on one occasion. Sadly, as Fred observes, some folk just don't care.