Video - Journey to the Bat Cave

[copperpot]

Ryan,

I can almost guarantee you 100% that it had nothing to do with the TV Show.

I can imagine you have already thought of this, but someone went to a lot of trouble to first find your phone number. They then spent thirty or forty bucks and bought a disposable phone. They called you and threatened your life. They probably threw the phone away after that.

Does that sound like a kook, or someone from a forum just pulling a prank? NO. Do not take that threat lightly. Be very careful. Remember how I posted previously that I never broadcast my comings and goings into the Supers? Now you know why. If someone thinks you may have a chance to find what they have been trying to find for many years, there is a better than average chance (if they know when and where you are going to be) they may wait for you out there and take potshots at you. There have been a lot of mysterious (and also a lot of not so mysterious) deaths out there. Don't put yourself in a position to be the next one.

Take Care - Mike

...After hearing this, it kind of makes me feel unsafe now going out there. You really think someone would be out there waiting? I just assume most threats are not worth a crap and are hollow. I just don't like bullies or people telling you what you can and can not do. It's a free country. Ryan (or anyone) has every right to go out there on public land and do his videos. But as someone else said (I think Frank), don't broadcast and go with a group of people with the proper equipment. But safety is key.

 

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[Azquester]

...After hearing this, it kind of makes me feel unsafe now going out there. You really think someone would be out there waiting? I just assume most threats are not worth a crap and are hollow. I just don't like bullies or people telling you what you can and can not do. It's a free country. Ryan (or anyone) has every right to go out there on public land and do his videos. But as someone else said (I think Frank), don't broadcast and go with a group of people with the proper equipment. But safety is key.

Hell with it.

Broadcast it after your already there and be waiting yourself!

Let um see what a 'lead mine' tastes like when it rains bullets!

Someone has declared war it's time to make it be known your not going to cow down!

I'll bet the Police will find this guy technology can be traced easy nowadays.

It's probably some young punk playing a prank. It seem's lately that's all there is out there.

Jealous Punks!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Yeah it's funny because it's all made up BS just to add more hype and drama. Give me a fricking break!

AZ, unless you want a loooong time out do not repeat... Calling a member a liar violates our rules which is what your implying as well as attacking member...

FYI.......Any TN member that physically threatens another TN member will earn a min 1 year ban..

As far as armed in National Forests, heck I go armed to local Walmart, grocery stores even movies so I have no issues going armed in wilderness...

 

[gollum]

Copperpot,

Going out into the SWA, Tonto NF, or LDSP (Lost Dutchman State Park) should not worry 99% of the general populace at all. TONS of people hike and sight see in all three every year with zero issues (except maybe snakes, scorpions, and rogue cholla).

That said, it is most dangerous when you start going Off-Trail. Easier to get lost. Everything out there wants to eat you, bite you, cut you, scratch you, or kill you. A lot of canyons require you to boulder hop, which makes it very easy to get injured, and getting injured off-trail in the middle of nowhere, with no call boxes means it is much easier for something very serious to happen to you. If you and some friends want to go out for a hike, you don't really need to go armed. If your desire is to off-trail hunt for the LDM, ALWAYS take a firearm (and make sure you are very proficient in its use). I can't think of anybody that has been killed ON-TRAIL. Off-Trail is another story.

ANYTIME I am off-trail ANYWHERE, I always take my SPOT, and my Ruger!



Just Be Careful!

Mike

 

[Eldo]

Yeah, be careful when hunting legends, you get overly paranoid and start shooting at snakes following a trail of Black Hands around,.....Rick didn't find any?? How Strange.....

Now back to the BatCave with all the PooPoo a Confederate could ever want.

I think its so funny that Geronimo offered this cave to the Army for his release, and that it was a death trap set to locate and ambush the men while carrying him there....the place is a huge Ampitheatre. ECHOOOOOOOO

So he planned to carry them there to a place where they would be surrounded on all sides, cornered in a pen so the Apache could free him.

What a bold warrior,

Now you can see how these shows take the true history of the area and distort the reasoning of why they are even important in the whole of things there during the war.

Rick you still have my respect for retracing these trails through the manure of the mainstream media.

I am going to be NOT telling everyone BEFORE I go out so as to not be followed, IMO that is the first rule....

Second rule is inform good friends you are going out, and set the timeframe to have a return call to call off any alarms

Third rule is never show off arms when talking about digging treasure.

Even if you are scared of being attacked. It truly will do nothing more than escalate to a full shootout if you are armed and ambushed.

Nature provides the best cover against any attack

Just ask Chief Cochise

 

[deducer]

That said, it is most dangerous when you start going Off-Trail. Easier to get lost. Everything out there wants to eat you, bite you, cut you, scratch you, or kill you.

Tell me about it!

 

[gollum]

Tell me about it!

View attachment 1145330

HAHAHA I know. I have desert pinstripes on my truck and my body! Hazard of the trade, but I will take those scratches over picking up a piece of cholla on the toe of one boot and kicking it into the back of my other calf any day!

Mike

 

[deducer]

HAHAHA I know. I have desert pinstripes on my truck and my body! Hazard of the trade, but I will take those scratches over picking up a piece of cholla on the toe of one boot and kicking it into the back of my other calf any day!

Mike

Speak of the devil, this one got me good, and those are heavy duty carhartts I'm wearing.

Went through it like knife through butter.

 

[gollum]

Speak of the devil, this one got me good, and those are heavy duty carhartts I'm wearing.

Went through it like knife through butter.

View attachment 1145420

HAHAHA LOVE IT! That one looks like it just jumped onto your pants leg. Bad but not horrible. It will happen when you're not paying attention. You drag one toe on the ground and pick up a cholla burr on the toe of your boot. Then, you go to step around something and kick yourself in the back of your opposite calf and bury those spines in your calf. When I did that, my day was pretty much done. HAHAHA

Mike

 

[Azquester]

Save that Cholla for a snack.
Those things are good eaten once you burn the spines off!
Might save your life one day.

My very first experience with a cholla was in a desert dirt bike crash circa 1979. I had gloves on but my hands were stuck to the handle bars with cholla sticking through them like a Chinese finger trap!

I had to have a buddy help me remove my hands from the bars then pull all those needles out of my gloves so I could take them off.

A month later I had what looked like a pimple in my knee right under the knee cap. I attempted to pop it and a three inch long needle came out!

Ouch!

 

[deducer]

It initially jumped on, and while it doesn't look it, I managed to drive it in when I let my backpack slide off my arm and hit my side. Barbs on this one were good and long.

Wouldn't trade this for anything else, though; have had some of the best adventures of my life in the Supers.

 

[Azquester]

It initially jumped on, and while it doesn't look it, I managed to drive it in when I let my backpack slid off my arm and hit my side. Barbs on this one were good and long.

Wouldn't trade this for anything else, though; have had some of the best adventures of my life in the Supers.

Amen Brother, Amen!

Arizona can humble a man with it's beauty and kill a man with it's dust.

Or in this case some little man hiding behind a cell phone.

This whole thing with Ryan reminds me of a Barry Storm novel when he finds those small prints just outside the normal trail.

 

[copperpot]

^^^ Interesting and thanks for sharing! Ever come across anything more dangerous, such as direct contact with scorpions, rattlesnakes or hostile humans while out on there?

 

[countryhick]

Great video, as far as the show, There is no such thing as reality TV, they are all fake. You have done an outstanding job.

 

[Las Vegas Bob]

^^^ Interesting and thanks for sharing! Ever come across anything more dangerous, such as direct contact with scorpions, rattlesnakes or hostile humans while out on there?

I've had a couple with rattlers, once in AZ and once in CA while dredging. I

n AZ I was hiking up a steep hill and I was using my shotgun as a walking stick on one particularly steep and rough part of the climb. I was walking close to a rock outcrop and at one point as I went to lift my shot gun up to brace myself it had suddenly gotten heavier. When I looked down at it a rattler had struck at me and had hit the rubber gun butt with it's fangs. He was firmly attached to the gun butt and was in full tilt pissed off panic mode. My mind went blank, did I or did I not have the guns safety on was it cocked? And what if this pissed off snake accidently gets his tail in the trigger housing with all the thrashing around he was doing. Was he going to bite me if he got off the gun butt or was he going to shoot me with my own gun. Before he could do either I put my foot on his back and cut his head off with my knife. I do hate snakes.

In CA is was dredging about seven feet under water trying to hit bed rock and I had worked my way in pretty close to a rock face on the shore, so to get my bearings I crawled up on a boulder and stood up, my head just broke the surface of the water by a couple inches , a rattler was sunning it's self on a natural shelve on the rock face. He saw my before I saw him and he struck out at me from this perch. Nothing is more scary then see a set of fangs heading right towards your face. He hit the glass of my face mask and fell into the river with me. My dredge pontoon was blocking my retreat backwards and the snake was backing up against the rock face in a posture that looked like he was going to try and strike again. I was trying to get my dredge nozzle up between me and the snake to basically suck him through my dredge box if he tried to bite again, I had been doing a lot of wiggling and maneuvering to get the dredge hose up, the snake did come at me again and I did get him to take the ride of his life through my dredge hose and out the other end of the dredge box. I had a guy named Don tending my dredge that year and after the snake was dispatched to where ever snakes go when they die, I turned to Don and said, "Didn't you see me fighting with that snake?" To which Don replied in his South Texas drawl, "What snake? I just thought you were having a seizure!" Although he was a very funny guy, needless to say I never hired Don back the next dredge season.

Did I mention I hate snakes?

 

[azblackbird]

AZ, unless you want a loooong time out do not repeat... Calling a member a liar violates our rules which is what your implying as well as attacking member.

Now I'm confused... I'm calling BS on a guy who's calling BS on a guy who created the BS... and I'm the bad guy?

 

[i am the horse]

^^^ Interesting and thanks for sharing! Ever come across anything more dangerous, such as direct contact with scorpions, rattlesnakes or hostile humans while out on there?

i was walking along one time and came across my first gila monster. it startled me cause it was quiet. they move slow but i have heard if they do bite ya that ya need pliers to get em off ya. so as i was backing away from him the rattler started rattling. he was slithering away from me in a ready to strike position.my first thought was "ya got to be kidding" lol.

 

[gollum]

Now I'm confused... I'm calling BS on a guy who's calling BS on a guy who created the BS... and I'm the bad guy?

HAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Hey Norton! I been watchin' you. And you know that I know that you know that I know that you been watchin' me. So Norton, I'm gonna let you......." (imagine Eddy Murphy imitating Ralph Cramden)

Mike

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Rick - sorry that you got the threat, and considering that murders HAVE occurred in the Superstitions, I would certainly take it seriously.

That said, I extremely doubt that this has anything to do with the people whom were mining in the Pit mine, twenty odd years ago. The statute of limitations has long run out, they could literally go on the evening news and announce what they did, and would face no legal issues.

If you don't believe in tax fraud. IRS never sleeps.

It is almost certainly someone whom is doing something there NOW, or very recently was, or is planning to, illegally, and they do not want you there with a camera to catch them at it. The fellows who did some small scale mining (at great risks) already made their cash and are not operating anything at the Pit mine. I doubt any of them will ever return there, unless for the sake of nostalgia.

There have been whackadoos orbiting the LDM legend since, well practically since the story went public. I could tell you more but rather than derail the topic, just say that I think you did the correct thing, and you will get to go to the Pit mine to shoot some video footage, just may have to wait a bit for a whackadoo to get picked up by the police. Who knows, perhaps this particular whackadoo has been involved in other, recent mysterious deaths in the Superstitions too?

Good luck and good hunting to you all, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
Oroblanco

 

[Las Vegas Bob]

people feel the need to walk around armed in a national forest..... what a sad state my country is in.

Yes it is. Why do you think these so called environmentalist want so much land protected from intrusion by making it a "wilderness area? They grow their pot there. I have come across the signs of pot growers in the middle of the desert, near a water supply of course, in Arizona and S. California. I have come across pot fields in the forests of N. California as well.

So yes I carry, just because some asshat wants to make a buck off someone else's habit.