last spring miner bust

[skunkapemining]

A local guy, (single father and little league coach) was busted for running a highbanker nozzle in 3" of water by the fish cops. He had some nuggets to die for! They said they had reports of a poacher and came in guns cocked! They asked him if he was armed and his response was " I aint afraid of nothing out here" They pulled his gear and gave him a ticket. I dont think it was a claim in his name,but I still told him to contact PLP. He paid the fine and said all he wanted was his gear back! He still came out alright. If it was his claim i would of fought those bastards tooth and nail! They do not have the power no matter what they think!!!!!!! You can still file to work your claim and that includes dredging it! The state of Kalifornia does not overpower fed law!!!!!!!!!! ASK THE POT GROWERS! A retired minerals director spent a good hour with me and told it how it is!

When debb and I were asked to file an noi , I said "what if we dont" He said " well ther is nothing we can realy do" We filed a Non sig small pick and shovel to let the rain go over .

Take care out there and work safe!

skunkape

[tommyknocker]

"...We filed a Non sig small pick and shovel to let the rain go over ."

Hey skunkape,
could you spell that out for me. I didn't really understand that statement. I totally believe as you do. We MUST know our rights so that when they do come for us, we won't be Bamboozzled!

Tom

[skunkapemining]

We have to go thru a forest service locked gate to get to our claims,so to put our own lock on it we filed a noi. A notice of intent takes the heat off of the minerals guys in the forest service for people working their claims. Up here it would not be a big deal,but the rafters and pct hikers ( who crap all over the place and litter) are always bitching at the Happy camp ranger station about miners. When we filed our NOI,we put down the way we were to get to our claims and our small scale operation. We stated how,when,where and why. They come back with a letter with " no new roads,slash piles ,timber harvest,gray water,black water,litter,etc" It is just statements from both parties with no signed agreement, just statements. Paperwork and paper trail. You dont need one to work a legal claim with small impact(non significant) on the area,but sometimes it calms the waters. The cost to get big motorized equipment to our claims is way over the deposits and sampling we have done. I would rather bust ass and make the same profit than spending a lot of money and the head ache of big equipment to make the same amount of money.

A notice of intent is not needed,but does take heat off of you. Its the miners call.

I hope that came out right.
skunkape

[Hoser John]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamen-small,quiet,lean,mean gold mining machine and prosper-tons a au 2 u 2 -John

[gremlin]

have a cam handy, take photos of the rafters and every one else, leaving a mess. send it in to the rangers. tell them whats up and then let them know there doing it to get you in truble.

[skunkapemining]

Hey Grem! A Forest Service big guy told me me about observing a rafter taking (leaving) a dump on the far side of Rocky Point campground of the Klamath River. When they(the rafters) complain to the FS aboutthe miners,some of the FS do bring up the bad seeds of the rafters! It is addressed but, overlooked to a point.


skunkape

[gremlin]

you can bet a lot of it is over looked. it is easy to blame the miners. there the ones with there names on the land.

[ManVsGold]

I go to the hills to get away from it all. But when I get there I seem to find lots of cops They haven't got me for even 1 thing BUT they keep checking.I once said screw it and hiked almost 2 miles straight into the foresest OFF-TRAIL,so as not to be disturbed but you know what? A helicopter flew right over my camp SLOW the next day. Was the chopper for me?I dont know and gawd I hope not, as that would be a serious waste of chopper fuel. But its the fact I cant get any peace from the law no matter how deep I go. They are more than happy to pull right up into your camp, with no reasonable suspicion of a crime and start the questioning.Isn't this America?

[russau]

i bet they dont pull right up into the dopers camps! theres not as much money in fines there!plus they could get hurt!

[Hoser John]

Your cell phones and gps give off location signals on some(most now) and you are then discovered. Disable when you want to disappear and NEVER start a fire and you'll have a much quieter adventure and less cops-tons a au 2 u 2-John