Whelp, I got a ticket...In the Woods...(Virgin Falls, WMA HeadsUp)

[Gambit McCrae]

I will keep it short.
I have hiked Virgin Falls and or stayed the night over 50-60 times in the past 6 years. I live right down the road so it is super easy for a quick getaway on a poor weekend. So I had always heard that there is a back way into Big Laurel Falls by driving past the trail head take your first right and halfway between welches point and the turn off there is a sign, "Big Laurel Falls 1.3 miles this way" with and arrow. So I didnt want to leave my car right on the road so my friend dropped the rope gate and we pulled into a field out of sight of the road as I was the only one parked there, I was worred about theft etc. So we hit the trail and in about 5 minutes I spotted a deer hunter over int he woods standing there about 100 yards away. We were real quiet and eased on by him, I could hear people on the Virgin Falls Trail just about 50 yards away from us on the other side of Bee Branch. So we camped at the Caney Fork, got up took our time, and when we got back to my car and pulled onto the gravel road there were 3 TWRA game wardens, road blocking the exit with their trucks, and standing in the middle of the road. I pull up, turn the car off and they all just stand around for am minute or two, then the old one comes over and says they have been waiting for us for over 22 hours and they we have committed "Unauthorized entrance to WMA lands" which with the tickets we both received totals up to $506. So, after some choice words directed at us we were sent on our way with our tickets, still having a good time. I guess the best part about this is they gaurded my car all night, with a $1000 deductable, they saved me $500 bucks :)

So, I politely asked when we WOULD be able to park there and use the land and he said any time that isnt hunting season. I will have to call hime and make sure he just means deer hunting season because at every point of the year just about there is some kind of hunting goin on. :datz

Stay Classy Whitebalze, lets use our virgin falls trailhead lol

[Starchild]

I don't understand how they can legally do that and wonder if they were just pissed of about you taking 22 hours to what they assumed would be a hunter returning in a few hours to inspect the kill and license.

But yes having them stand guard and watch your vehicle, 3 men and 3 trucks for 22 hrs for $500 is a great deal, you hired them for about $7.50/hr.

It would be interesting to put in a plea of not guilty and have them cite the actual infraction of the law that you violated.

[Gambit McCrae]

The law that I vialated is "Unauthorized Entrance to Wildlife Management Area" As well as I parked on the other side of a walking only gate to be out of sight of the road. And had a unleashed dog on deer hunting grounds

[OwenM]

Haven't been up there since spring, but did they move Bee Branch out of BFCW and to the other side of the road? Are you talking about that parking area on the road going down toward the cemetery?

[WingedMonkey]

Hiking season and hunting season run the same cooler months here.

I usually try and hit the Ocean to Lake Trail (a spur off the Florida Trail) during this time. The trail passes through two WMA's. One is extreamly busy and I try to avoid it unit end of season around January. The other has light restricted use with hunting on weekends, Friday-Sunday. When the WMA is closed to all but hunters.

I assumed that wild hog still hunt was the usual weekends in November and December.

I pulled up the Game Commission's web site a few days ago to check and mark my calender. For some reason the hog hunts were changed to four mid-week sessions, Tuesday-Thursday. Fortunately the trails and primitive camp sites are open during hog hunt dates.

I try to make it a habit to check before I make plans. The Florida Trail goes through a lot of WMA's that are closed to trail camping during hunts.

[Speakeasy TN]

That's just a rough story!
Parking in a field during hunting season is a great way to end up with puncture holes in the car! Hunters are there using the WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA which they buy an extra permit for, so all in all this was the best possible outcome. Sometimes you just have to say "My bad" and move on.

[TNhiker]

did ya try whippin your Eagle card out?



:banana

[Gambit McCrae]

did ya try whippin your Eagle card out?
:banana

no no not on this one lol I figured the 22 hour stand by waiting time pretty much trumped the eagle scout shenanigens lol

[Sarcasm the elf]

That 22 hour stakeout might have cost a lot, but I think that we all feel safer knowing that those dangerous criminals are off the street. :D:eek::(

[bangorme]

The great thing about this country is that we get to chose to follow the law or not. So, when I speed on the highway and get a ticket, I don't complain about it. You knew that when you removed a barrier to park that you were breaking a law, and got a ticket. That's fair.

[4shot]

The great thing about this country is that we get to chose to follow the law or not. So, when I speed on the highway and get a ticket, I don't complain about it. That's fair.


I used to get mad about speeding tickets and the like. Now i just view them as a tax i pay to drive at the speed I prefer to drive at. (Disclaimer:I do not drive to endanger myself or others). It's kind of like complaining about the PUDS on the AT...it's worthless and counterproductive. you have to learn how to lean into the mountain, or , as one shelter entry I read said, learn to "embrace the pain".

[The Solemates]

I used to get mad about speeding tickets and the like. Now i just view them as a tax i pay to drive at the speed I prefer to drive at.

precisely my philosophy as well!

gambit.....sorry to hear about your tickets. i was just at virgin falls a few weeks ago. why did you not want to go in at the traditional location? you only saved less than a mile of hiking.

[Gambit McCrae]

I went to college in Cookeville, only 30 minutes from VF trailhead, i stopped counting the trips at around 50, that was over a year ago so now that ive started goin again as its a good weekend before an AT trip workout, i was curious to take a new way down to the bottom, and that is legal to do OUTSIDE of deer season. And i do have to say that the alternate way is in the works to be an actual trail, what i dis was just fallow a topo map of the area until it spit me out at laurel falls. But soon it will be blazed, as well as accessible during dur season.

[Wise Old Owl]

Here may be the pitfall you found. It may be more for your personal safety as you were mixing with Hunters in the same area.

Unauthorized persons are prohibited from being in the area during big game hunts except when indicated. Unauthorized persons are prohibited from being in the Wildlife Management Area during managed turkey hunts, except on the Cherokee, Royal Blue, Sundquist, Tellico Lake, and Land Between the Lakes Wildlife Management Areas. Only persons having valid turkey hunt permits for the hunt date are authorized to be on the management area.

[wornoutboots]

Who owns the land you were on??

[joker52186]

Wow thats messed up

love peace and chicken grease

[rocketsocks]

Wow thats messed up

love peace and chicken grease
I hear ya!

peace pots and micro dots.

[4shot]

I hear ya!

peace pots and micro dots.

+1. This.

corn spoons and pink balloons.

carry on my wayward son. there'll be peace when you are done.

[LittleRock]

That would have been really funny if you were out for a week instead of just one night. Wonder if they would have kept waiting.

[rickb]

The great thing about this country is that we get to chose to follow the law or not. So, when I speed on the highway and get a ticket, I don't complain about it. You knew that when you removed a barrier to park that you were breaking a law, and got a ticket. That's fair.

Sounded to me like the creative parking spot had nothing to do with the ticket-- at least in the eyes of the law.

Just being on the land without a valid hunting permit was the "crime". And having an unleashed dog, correct?

Out of curiosity, did the officers ask to search your car "since you had nothing to hide"? Or ar they really all about the game laws.

[Starchild]

That would have been really funny if you were out for a week instead of just one night. Wonder if they would have kept waiting.

I wondered since they assumed him a hunter why they just waited, as if a hunter was really that long out the chances that they are in need of help, perhaps medical or being lost.

[ocourse]

The OP broke the law and had to pay. The authorities had a job to do. What part is truly subject to discussion?

[upstream]

I doubt if they truly waited that long just for you. They probably just worked a game check station there, and when they saw you said, lets have some fun with these hikers. If they'd been waiting for you they would've ambushed you before you got to your car.

I don't know the situation on the land you were parked in, but on USFS land managed by the state of Georgia DNS as WMA's, hunters do NOT have exclusive rights. I also know that it is illegal to camp or park on Wildlife openings whether created by USFS (as most are) or DNR, unless they are marked as handicap areas, in which case you must be permitted as handicapped hunter.

[Gambit McCrae]

The OP broke the law and had to pay. The authorities had a job to do. What part is truly subject to discussion?

That our tax dollars went to THREE game wardens sitting and waiting for 22 hours on opening day of muzzleloader to write a couple hikers tickets for parking in a graveled field, which is about to be a parking lot!

Bottom line anyway you look at it is that this area is NOT being used the way it was intended, which is for everyone to use, at all times. The land was donated by bridgestone/Firestone with the written intent for hunters, hiker, kayakers, and anyone else to share the land and thats not being done.

Enjoy the Read folks (http://www.cragrockusa.com/room-for-both/)

[bangorme]

That our tax dollars went to THREE game wardens sitting and waiting for 22 hours on opening day of muzzleloader to write a couple hikers tickets for parking in a graveled field, which is about to be a parking lot!

Sorry, but I doubt this very much. But, I'm not going to argue about it since it's not provable either way. To me this is an issue where someone removed a barrier so he could park where he wasn't supposed, I guess took a dog where he wasn't supposed to, and got a ticket. So what?

[Old Hillwalker]

Rangers saying that they waited 22 hours for me to show up is as ludricous as the State trooper who told me she had to do over 100 to catch up with me. I was doing 70 in a 65 zone when she passed me going the other way. Huh?

[Berserker]

I pull up, turn the car off and they all just stand around for am minute or two, then the old one comes over and says they have been waiting for us for over 22 hours and they we have committed "Unauthorized entrance to WMA lands" which with the tickets we both received totals up to $506. So, after some choice words directed at us we were sent on our way with our tickets, still having a good time. I guess the best part about this is they gaurded my car all night, with a $1000 deductable, they saved me $500 bucks :)
$506 for a ticket...woooooo...that's pricey...but hey you must be a glass is half full kinda guy because at least you looked at the positive side of this in that your car was guarded part of the time you were gone. I mean heck if they were actually there for 22 hours like they said they were, then you got 3 guys guarding your vehicle at about $7.67 per person per hour...that's a pretty good deal :D

[Gambit McCrae]

HAHA that it is, and I know they had been there for quite sometime as one called his wife as they were writing the tickets saying he was finally about to be home, and they had about 15 coffee cups on the hood of the truck lol