Need some help for a bad deal.....?

[wilywin]

So here goes.....Every year about 3-4 weeks before opening day me and my uncle go over to our hunting spot.  Scouting,  cut some fire wood, then sneak in a little fishing.  Our hunting spot is over in the #218 unit. (Chewuch boulder crk. area outside of winthrop).  My grandfather started going hunting there back in the late 50's.  My dad and uncles started taking me there back in the early 80's.  Every year for hunting season me, my dad, and all my uncles, ect have gone there hunting.  We all get together for a week.  Its been a family tradition since as long as i can remember. My grandfather passed away back in 1995.  We spread his ashes there and hung up a sign on a tree there.  As you can see this spot means the world to all of us.  It is tucked away back in the woods about 12 miles up off the main road.  You would never even know it was there unless we gave you directions.  And even then you might have trouble. 

So anyways this last weekend me and my uncle loaded up the truck and headed over just like we do every year.   As we roll up the road and come around the corner to our spot there is something different.  The little spur road that goes back into our spot is blocked.  We get out of our truck and walk back there and could not believe what we saw.   Someone had come in there with a dozer and leveled our camp.  The fire pit flatten'd....small wood pile demolished, our deer hanging post knocked down and broken.  And most importantly they took the sign down off the tree.  They moved boulders in the road and then completely dug up the road so that we can not even get back in there. Knocked over trees and just ran a dozer thru there until it was destroyed.  I could not beleive it.  Over 30 years there and then this? 

Does anyone know someone in the forest service over there or any contacts that i could call???  Just more curious as to why than anything?  We had a sign on the tree,  a couple deer hanging posts and a couple old wooden spools that we used as tables that we left there.  We always left camp better than when we got there.   30+ years of memories are gone in about 1 hour by some guy on a bulldozer.  Anyone?  Thanks!

Ron

[haugenna]

Sorry to hear that. 

The real memories are in your head.  Nobody can ever take those away from you.  Not with any piece of equipment.  Sorry to hear about the camp though.

[hunterofelk]

I think the rule is car camping within 100 feet of the road and no permanent structures.  Doesn't sound like the case here.  I have seen buildings framed out of two by material and left for next year and eventually they come down.  Can you still set up camp somewhere near?  Maybe a local contractor was eliminating the competition for this season.  It would be nice to get the sign back.  Tough break...a lot of hunters camp in the same spot year after year.

[coachcw]

they went through and did it to us a few years back , it happens , make new memories

[mossback91]

they did that to all and any sort of old spur road out there this summer pretty much...........blocked em and then dug em up........trying to turn it all back to the way it used to be....just forest again.........

[JackOfAllTrades]

In that area you're not 25 miles from the border to the north. I've heard that the FS is cleaning up any camp they find. Hunter, drug runner, people smuggler camp. Doesn't matter what kind. They're trying to keep people camping in the FS camp grounds for the revenue and to reduce spread out fire danger.

Go find one of the spots that grand dad frequented. Inscribe a stone there. A good rock will last until the next iceage and be a grand monument to the memories with your grand dad.

Be well.


-Steve

[DOUBLELUNG]

Too bad about your spot.  Unfortunately, smugglers, drug runners, pot growers, garbage dumpers, poachers, homeless squatters, keggers, etc. - and idiots with fire - all conspire to make it necessary to limit motorized access, since most of their bad acts are associated with vehicle access.  Traditional car campers and hunting camps take it in the shorts. 

That is pretty much the way it goes with all regulated activity.  People who didn't do bad things, end up paying the price along with the people who do bad things.  One more reason we all need to be extremely vigilant and report all bad actions we observe on public lands to the right authority ASAP.  It's more than being a good citizen, it is safeguarding against further restrictions on our ability to do what we value.   

[Buckmark]

they did that to all and any sort of old spur road out there this summer pretty much...........blocked em and then dug em up........trying to turn it all back to the way it used to be....just forest again.........

Yup, alot of places have been earthen berm blocked and established camps knocked down, it can be hard when you have been using a place for a long long time, the F/S is trying to get back to what the rules say and that is no camps past 300ft from a main road and even less that 300 in some areas, that rule has been around for a long time but just not enforced, the green dot sytem is still in effect for open roads but not enforced too much either, legally you are not to drive a vehicle (truck/car) on any road that is not numbered (number posted at the road) and then only if that road has a green dot also posted on it. Driving on an unnumbered road can get you a ticket.
This has not been enforced for so long that people drive pretty much on any two track they find. Jackofalltrades is not correct in that they want you to camp at a F/S campground only, you can still camp pretty much anywhere along a main road but not boonie up in the hills..
It's hard when you have memories in a spot, but remember your grandfather started that camp in the 50's so now it's your turn to start a new camp, in his memory and like jackofalltrades said with a stone marker.. Heck i know of a few markers people have put in the woods on favorite hills, meadows etc, if i know one is there i always stop and say hi..