What is your biggest public land pet-peeve?

[Tremain4414]

This last blacktail season I hike into a nice little reprod area and am tucked in glassing before first light. Unbeknownst to me, there was a dirt trail running along the east side of the area...no biggie, most of the people utilizing the road would stop, glass for a minute or two then drive on.

This one particular gentleman tho decided he was going to get out and glass for a bit. Fine by me. He glasses and glasses for maybe 10 minutes or so. Then I watch as he goes back to his truck and gets his rifle. I’m thinking maybe he’s seen something I haven’t and watch as he walks out to the end of the landing and fires off two rounds across the unit then immediately throws up his binos and begins glassing again.

Now I’ve never seen anything like this so I’m confused if/what he was shooting at and am still not sure if he actually saw a buck or what the hell was going on. I then watch as he throws his rifle back into the truck hops in and tears ass out of the area. It then dawned on me what the hell he had just done so I take off back to my truck and tried to catch up. End up finding him a ways down the road and proceeded to tear into him for a solid 5 minutes before deciding it was probably best to leave the situation before I end up in jail.

Never seen anything like it and hope to never see that again

 

[Dirtbag]

The ATV and OHVs for sure. All it takes is one of them to go off trail and they seem to all follow. Doesn't take long before a new trail is formed. Its bad to generalize, but it seems like that Clique has very little regard for others or the natural world and too much regard for tattoos, loud music and large women.

 

[CoHiCntry]

This last blacktail season I hike into a nice little reprod area and am tucked in glassing before first light. Unbeknownst to me, there was a dirt trail running along the east side of the area...no biggie, most of the people utilizing the road would stop, glass for a minute or two then drive on.

This one particular gentleman tho decided he was going to get out and glass for a bit. Fine by me. He glasses and glasses for maybe 10 minutes or so. Then I watch as he goes back to his truck and gets his rifle. I’m thinking maybe he’s seen something I haven’t and watch as he walks out to the end of the landing and fires off two rounds across the unit then immediately throws up his binos and begins glassing again.

Now I’ve never seen anything like this so I’m confused if/what he was shooting at and am still not sure if he actually saw a buck or what the hell was going on. I then watch as he throws his rifle back into the truck hops in and tears ass out of the area. It then dawned on me what the hell he had just done so I take off back to my truck and tried to catch up. End up finding him a ways down the road and proceeded to tear into him for a solid 5 minutes before deciding it was probably best to leave the situation before I end up in jail.

Never seen anything like it and hope to never see that again

Lol! Is it just me or did you leave out an important part of your story? What was he shooting at???

 

[Buck197]

People being disrespectful, in the woods and out, whether you disagree with hunting or not, don't go making loads of noise because I choose too, itll cause a ruckus.
People picking up after themselves.
The solitude of the mountains is a place I absolutely lose myself from everything in. So don't come running a big mouth, abd don't go throwing crap on the ground. We have few places left and more and more encroached upon yearly.. My pet peaves.

 

[Tremain4414]

Lol! Is it just me or did you leave out an important part of your story? What was he shooting at???

Oh sorry...nothing. He told me that was the way his dad taught him to hunt was by shooting across the unit and seeing if anything popped up and ran. I told him his father was an idiot and by the end of the conversation he agreed.

 

[156821]

I have had more than one hunt ruined by side by sides. They absolutely destroy the woods around them and are usually half drunk. My favourite hunting area has a ban on them. You either go in on foot or by horse. It’s lovely.

 

[Mosby]

Many of the ski resorts in PA were built on State Game Lands illegally and they got the land for free. The irony of it is that they state used to own ski resorts that were dirt cheap to ski. The privately owned resorts, sued under anti trust laws and closed them all down. The same privately owned ski resorts that were built illegally on land the state owned. Years later and it still pisses me off.

 

[Geewhiz]

I have had more than one hunt ruined by side by sides. They absolutely destroy the woods around them and are usually half drunk. My favourite hunting area has a ban on them. You either go in on foot or by horse. It’s lovely.

Side by sides are alot of fun and have their place in the recreation world, but when people use them because they are lazy fat lards and incapable of hunting on foot, it greatly frustrates me. I had a guy "hunting" from a sxs foil a great opportunity for a buddy and i on a nice 6x6 one year.

Couldn't tell you how many times I have been into elk walking logging roads and had people on wheelers and buggies cruising right past the elk completely clueless, on the way to their "spot".

 

[CorbLand]

If the SXS, quads, bikes, etc are doing what they can legally do. I don't care. If you are hunting close to a road and it gets messed up because someone drives down a legal road, that's your problem.

Besides all the obvious ones, like people driving places they shouldn't, trash, etc. The one that drives me the absolute most nuts is when people act like they have more right to a place than you for some reason. For example, a couple years ago deer hunting. We show up to a trailhead that is the only access point for miles to a wilderness area. You all have to go in the same trail for about a mile then you can branch off and go a million different directions and never seen another person. Well some dude that placed his camper at said trail head thought he had that spot reserved and no one should be able to use said trail head. He got all pissy with us because we came into his camp in the middle of the night, on opening day of deer season and were noisy.

That shit makes me angry.

 

[Rob5589]

Biggest pet peeve are those who believe multiple-use means only their preferred use.

Any illegal use should be reported and offenders cited. But if it's legal, then live and let live. Never know when your favorite activity might be the one on the chopping block of increased restrictions. Common courtesy to other users is definitely lacking in many areas.

Fracturing of the outdoors community between backcountry hunters, "traditional hunters", hikers, OHV/ATV, horseman, campers, etc. decreases the voice of all of the users as each battle for their own preferred piece of the pie. Much easier to defeat a fractured army than a unified force.

That said - poop-flags and trash are probably my biggest pet peeve - it's not hard to take care of things properly and not detract from the beauty of where we seek it.

Agree. I used to atv and off road with my Jeep. It's all good as long as it's done the right way.

 

[rclouse79]

Agree. I used to atv and off road with my Jeep. It's all good as long as it's done the right way.

The capabilities of those machines seem to tempting for a large percentage of people.to use them responsibly. If I were a responsible atv user the jack wagons out tearing up the forest would piss me off even worse. They will be the reason areas allowing atvs continue to shrink.

 

[CorbLand]

The capabilities of those machines seem to tempting for a large percentage of people.to use them responsibly. If I were a responsible atv user the jack wagons out tearing up the forest would piss me off even worse. They will be the reason areas allowing atvs continue to shrink.

I understand what you are saying and I agree but people have been taking vehicles places they shouldn’t for a long time. It’s not some new phenomenon. I took an 1988 Kawasaki Bayou 220 way more places than I have taken a side by side.

 

[magtech]

Other humans..... Every time I think I'm safe.. theyre they are...

 

[grfox92]

Yes, Uncle Rico may stay. These turds will stay six months thill the f.s. or sheriffs kick em out, then they leave their trash and move 5 miles till they get hassled again. Rinse and repeat. And this is a small one, and no they’re not hunting or camping for the weekend. They’ll leave when it’s 110, or snowing( maybe), or when they get kicked out.View attachment 291008

Is the slide on the side of that trailer completely blown out or am I seeing it wrong ?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[MTPipeliner]

People driving off road or on closed roads. Called the local FS office and sent a letter to the regional director as well as talked to the game warden about it. Got a response about limited budget, limited staff, but they would see if they could do a better job of signing the roads. Not overly optimistic about things changing but maybe they’ll get some better signs up. Current signs are about the same size font as the newspaper so you can’t even read the closed dates unless you get out of the truck so bigger signs would be a start.

 

[cnelk]

Flagging Tape.

 

[Blackcow]

^^I think they turned it into an open air patio. On my way home I drove in a ways and tried to get a pic of a rig in a big group that’s been there since deer season last October, but it looks like they finally left. Lest you think it’s all bums, this rig( and a bunch of them actually) was a $250,000 tour bus type rv, with a trailer with an orange can am max rs turbo, and I assume since it was always parked next to it, an older Range Rover. Just living there with 20 other trailers and beat up cars and vans. I’m all for enjoying your country, your woods, and recreating. But all these people are doing is a living for free on YOUR dirt. I mean, they have YouTube videos on how and where to go.

 

[Ranger 692]

Around here, I’d say Side by sides, aka the Texas Wheelchair, are the most offensive and consistent offenders of both disruption and destruction. Snowmobiles can be pretty ******* annoying that with the way the throttles are set but don’t do much actual damage so I try not to complain about the aesthetic offenses.

All in all my single biggest pet peeve is trash, of which hunters may be one of the most significant and consistent offenders, accept it or not, but a close second could be hunters who have that resentful look on their faces as they are, unsurprisingly, encountering lots of other people and user groups on popular trail systems and act like they are the only ones who should be there. If they leave trash and drive side by sides in destructive manner, they they are scum of the earth. If they do all of that are are fat and from Texas, they are Spawn of Satan and should be sterilized.

How about pompous a holes from Tennessee?

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Pigs, the human kind.

 

[kentuckybowman]

them pot smokin, unbathed, folk song strumin commie hippies i saw all over unit 39 in colorado when i was elk hunting made me want to chop them up into little bitty pieces with a machete.