Rest Areas

[04jeep]

Are rest areas legal to hunt in the state of California? Was hunting a rest area off HWY 99 in central California when I was approached by a women in a orange vest who told me and a friend of mine that her boss told her that it was state property and we could not metal detect there. I told her, that unless her boss was Governor Brown that since it was open to the public, I wasn't leaving and to do what she had to do. We hunted for about an hour than left. Any advice, after the fact.


Thanks and HH

 

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[Truth]

Are rest areas legal to hunt in the state of California? Was hunting a rest area off HWY 99 in central California when I was approached by a women in a orange vest who told me and a friend of mine that her boss told her that it was state property and we could not metal detect there. I told her, that unless her boss was Governor Brown that since it was open to the public, I wasn't leaving and to do what she had to do. We hunted for about an hour than left. Any advice, after the fact.


Thanks and HH

Nothing but....... GREAT JOB.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DeepseekerADS]

04, you got some cajonas!

I'm glad you got away without further trouble. This is a weird world we've got here now.

 

[kcm]

You were right to stand your ground, albeit respectfully. That's the problem nowdays - the only folks that seem to want to stand their ground are the folks that don't even have a leg to stand on!!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

There's no *specific* prohibition in any CA law (state parks, general laws of the state, etc....) that prohibit detecting. The only thing someone could SAY applies, is :

1) the song & dance of "alter" , "deface", etc..... (because they fear you might be about to leave a hole, a mess, etc...)

2) the song & dance of "cultural heritage" (if we were talking about state parks here).

3) Or perhaps something like "harvest and remove" (because you're about to "take" something).

To each I would answer:

1) If you cover your spots and leave no trace, then presto: you haven't alterED or defacED anything.

2) You can just say you're angling for modern stuff. We find coins all the time on state beaches, which is a form of state land, and .... in my 40 yrs. of this, no one has ever approached me with a calculator doing the math on the ages of coins I/we find.

3) This is rare, and not common for someone to dream this up.

No doubt they are probably concerned about #1 . So if she persists in giving you flack, just come back at a different shift when she's not there. Out of sight is out of mind

 

[04jeep]

There's no *specific* prohibition in any CA law (state parks, general laws of the state, etc....) that prohibit detecting. The only thing someone could SAY applies, is :

1) the song & dance of "alter" , "deface", etc..... (because they fear you might be about to leave a hole, a mess, etc...)

2) the song & dance of "cultural heritage" (if we were talking about state parks here).

3) Or perhaps something like "harvest and remove" (because you're about to "take" something).

To each I would answer:

1) If you cover your spots and leave no trace, then presto: you haven't alterED or defacED anything.

2) You can just say you're angling for modern stuff. We find coins all the time on state beaches, which is a form of state land, and .... in my 40 yrs. of this, no one has ever approached me with a calculator doing the math on the ages of coins I/we find.

3) This is rare, and not common for someone to dream this up.

No doubt they are probably concerned about #1 . So if she persists in giving you flack, just come back at a different shift when she's not there. Out of sight is out of mind

Tom...I was hoping you would chime in. Being from California and with your background I knew you would have the answers.

Thanks and HH

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

I hunt the I-5 rest areas and have never had an issue at all even had Cal-Trans supervisors ask if I ever found anything good.Who you had talk to you was a supervisor for the AARC people who clean the rest area's and the have no authority issued by the state.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... Who you had talk to you was a supervisor for the AARC people who clean the rest area's and the have no authority issued by the state.

Perhaps. But all they would have to do is get on the phone, call some superior, or the sheriff, or whomever, and say: "He's tearing the place up". Which isn't true, of course. And if you have any sort of digging device, it will just devolve into a debate of semantics. Thus .... rather than try to convert anyone to our logic, sometimes better just to be invisible.