fwd: Rick Bass on logging roads

[Muskie]

 > 
> >   A couple years ago, the owners of a LARGE tract of land next to my 
> > property in the U.P. began trespassing on my land during deer
> >   and grouse season(part of it is an old apple orchard).
> 
> Is yours posted?  If so why?  That's just ONE of the things that most 
of 
> the UP residents hate about you and people like you.  You come up, buy 
a 
> postage stamp piece of property, and post the hell out of it.  People 
> like you are so incredible obsessed with "This is MINE and that is 
> yours".

 No,  my land is not posted.  I will even let people fish the trout 
stream on my property, as long as they don't litter.   The people who 
own the bass lake(they are locals)  have signs posted everywhere. This 
fact made me upset when I found they were hunting on my property. To 
post signs all over, then to
go hunt on someone elses land is rude.


> 
> The reason many UP residents post their property is because of the 
> tourists like yourself that don't have any respect for the property 
that 
> they are on.  Walking through a tract of land is one thing, leaving 
> garbage, cutting trees down, reckless hunting, and tearing up the 
ground 
> with RV's and ATVs is another.  While those may not directly relate to 
> how treat other peoples land Muskie, it is the majority of the 
> recreational tourists behavior.
> 

  I don't use ATV's.   In fact, most of the ATV riders and dirt bike 
riders I have met in the U.P. are locals.   I even witnessed one drunken 
ATV rider( I met him before, he was a local)  riding his quad up a trout 
stream, ripping up spawning gravel.  He was trying to go UPSTREAM, in 
his quad, like it was sopme sort of a trail.     I also had the pleasure 
of watching two drunken locals trying to run over a small aspen tree in 
thier old chevy pickup.  One of the men called his truck the
"Valdez, because it leaked so much oil".  They would creep up to the 
tree, put on the gas and try to mow it over. Then they would reverse the 
truck, and try it again.  I would have said something had they not been 
carrying loaded handguns.  

  I don't even use a snowmobile,  I snowshoe.   As for the garbage,  I 
am constantly picking up beer cans left behind by some slobs.   When 
spring hits,
 I go to several accesabile holes on the trout stream and pick beer cans 
and bottles off the stream bottom.  When I fish,  I carry a large hefty 
bag in my backpack to pick up trash left by slob fisherman and campers. 
 Sometimes
I find it hard to belive that people could be so inconsiderate.  There 
has been 
a BIG increase in people littering the U.P. lately.  It was not like 
this ten years ago.  To say it is all tourists is a mistake.   The area 
where my property is
is quite remote, and I have yet to meet many tourists at all.    The 
area around the
Porkies is different, as that is a popular state park.    If you want me 
to go on and on about my new local neighbor, just say the word.



> Personaly, when I bought my land in northern MN it was posted.  The 
first 
> thing I did was take down the signs.

     And your point is?
> 
> Personaly, I dought the validity of this tale of yours.  If this WAS 
the 
> case, it doesn't sound like that big a deal.  That being true, one has 
to 
> wonder WHY you have not responded earlier to the repeated requests 
over 
> the last 6 months?  Would it be because those requests were only in 
> alt.great-lakes?  Now that this message was cross posted to your 
friends 
> in the other environmental newsgroup and made you look bad, you had to 
> come up with a story.
> 

 Thats the story.  If you don't like it, feel free to embelish and 
add-lib to it.


> >  They still continue to do so, and I took it upon myself to sneak 
over 
> > and fish their virgin bass lake.The best bass fishing I have EVER 
had. 
> > Caught two 8 pound bass in one weekend, plus a slew of 5-6 pounders.
> 
> If they continue to do so, then whay don't you take legal measures 
> against them.  Ever here of 2 wrongs don't make a right?  Your little 
tit 
> for tat game only verifies your childish, short sighted attitudes that 
> many here in alt.great-lakes were already aware of.
> 
  Who are you to decide what is childish?  Besides,  I needed a good 
excuse
  to fish a PRISTINE bass lake.


> >   We released them all. Yes, I always have a license carry a valid 
> > Michigan fishing license.
> 
> Ya? So? Should I be proud of you doing the right thing? Want me to pat 
> you on the back?  Good Muskie!  Good Muskie! ...pat...pat...pat...
> I really don't see why you throw out comments like this.  It's 
pointless.  
> The only reason for it, is to plant the notion (an INCORRECT one at 
that) 
> in others heads, that I don't believe in using hunting/fishing 
licences. 
> 
 Oh, I figured Al would post up and accuse me of being a poacher.
 I added that so he wouldn't waste his time replying.
> >   Happy now?
> 


> Yes, thank you.  And I must say, it's about time.
>  
  Darren, when is the last time you have hiked or camped in the U.P.?
   You seem to have all the opinions about the U.P.,  but those opinions 
never get validated by any recent experiences.  I don't even think you 
are a sportsman.   I think you like to claim that you fish and hunt,  
but when have you?

  Your opinions on the U.P.  will be Voided until you can validate them 
with recent experiences in the U.P.  Otherwise, this "debate"  is 
worthless.
 -------Muskie