See what you can find while hiking around LA

wow...:eek: what a find... you got to watch out for those big plots, more often than not, they're gaurded by idiots toting guns...
 
wow...:eek: what a find... you got to watch out for those big plots, more often than not, they're gaurded by idiots toting guns...

Yup. Knew a guy who was canoeing down a river and came to near to a patch, shot in the head from a hidden gunman. Hence my armed status when in the woods.
 
The article suggests that the growers escaped. What kind of BS is that? If the authorities were going out to a known site, you'd think they would deploy appropriate resources to catch the guys. It's not unforeseeable that they would flee! And it's not deep wilderness.

These guys apparently had pellet guns. Doesn't look like they were especially well financed.

DancesWithKnives
 
Damn. THats ballsey though, huh?
 
I found myself in a patch on some public land in Northern Michigan a few summers ago. I turned around and got the hell out of the area. I haven't heard of the armed gunman guards shooting up hikers who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time up there, maybe because its mostly just locals growing for themselves and not gang/OC run operations. They've since started using the IR cameras on the helicopters and there's a lot less growing going on up there now.
 
A school friend had his father arrested (later released). He grew coffee and citrus. During the war he stopped tilling fields for feeding workers and instead gave his workers tools, seed and fertilizer to grow their own maize at the back of the farm where it was safe for them to go and not for him (ambush and landmines). At the end of the war he offered to till the land as well and they just asked to continue their way. He though himself lucky that his farm wasn't considered for land acquisition. The new army base was next door and very helpful. Hah! The guys were running 10ha of pot plant in the maize, into it's 4th year between hills at the end of the only (the farm) road into the area.

The airforce picked it up flying over, the police still strong, did a raid but the local military base of excomrades, did their utmost to hamper operations including welding the gates shut and trenching the road the night before?!

Two guys were charged the rest vamoosed to return days later "what me?"
 
Thanks for the heads up. I am constantly planning day hike excursions with my kids. This reminds me to stay on the trails, and do not be tempted to veer off the beaten path. Ventura Co. has some great hiking in it. I plan on seeing as many as I can till the kids do not care to hang with the ol fart no more. Got about 8 more yrs.
 
Here in BC in the woods outside the city limits, there are THOUSANDS of grow Ops. Hikers, backroads drivers sometimes stumble onto these plots, and often get warned. You dont hear about the ones that get killed, they "just went missing".

scary stuff, i've come across a few, i tripped a few traps, and now i am very careful WhERE i go to get to the backcountry.
 
I'm glad we don't have that problem here. Once I found 2 plants growing and watered :eek:. Later met the guy that planted them - a local home owner that didn't want to grow them in his back yard.

Doc
 
Yessir, I carry a subcompact Springfield XD-9 when I'm out and about just for that reason. I've stumbled across some grows in PA and even had a 1911 pulled on me once. Not fun.
 
These sort of situations are also why I avoid the tactical styled gear and dress when I'm out in the woods. I don't want to be mistaken for any sort of law enforcement if I run into these sort of situations.
 
Shame, honest law abiding folks can't even safely take their families out into the backcountry anymore it seems. I did plenty of backpacking and hiking through the 1980-1990s and nver came across any large grow operations. Most of my hiking was backcountry and off the beaten trails during those periods, and across all the environments in the USA. It's not to say that I did not see it growing by the roadside in Indiana and places! I'd have to agree that some of the 'missing hiker' stories are probably victims of crime due to illegal cultivations such as the article referenced.

Funny thing, now I understand why our beloved moderator Kevin here, likes to carry when he's in the woods. Guess I'm not as up to speed as him on back country grows and meth labs. But he's got my attention now....
 
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