Bugout Log, Entry #11: A Unique Situation

During the trip, I encountered several different situations that center around running across other people.  Some questions have been asked about my encounter with two game wardens on the river, I mentioned getting stopped by a game warden in the first leg, seeing fishermen along the river leg, and some rednecks in a power boat.  Going 150+ miles, it is just something that is going to happen and honestly, I am surprised that it did not happen more often than it did.  My goal when I started out was to maintain as low of a profile as possible, for obvious reasons and I took steps to appear as benign as possible to anyone that I might encounter.  I have found that it is much easier to hide in plain sight than it is to attempt to remain unseen because when it is obvious you are trying not to be seen, it tends to draw suspicion.

Open carry is legal where I traveled and I carried a drop-leg rig for all the world to see.  It is a common sight, even with many hikers, because of the wild hog and black bear populations in the area(s).  I packed or concealed the remainder of my weapons and even considered substituting weight for my M1A but decided against it.  Now, I know there are many that will say “it is legal to carry a long gun…. It is my RIGHT….” and I agree with you wholeheartedly.  On the same note, people tend to respond to you and act differently toward you when you are doing so, especially some LE officers.  So, I weighed my rights against wanting to maintain as low of a profile as possible and opted for the common sense option in order to avoid potential problems that I really did not want or need.  I also did not paint my face, attempt to look para-military, or militia – still perfectly legal but…

Most people that I encountered passed me by without a second glance.  This included most of the fishermen, passing motorists, people in their yards, etc.  Some spoke, some waved or nodded their head but pretty much to a “t” all left me to go on about my business.  A couple of fishermen asked if I was fishing or where I was headed but their questions were more a form of greeting than anything else and I would typically answer “on a camping trip” or “down river”.  It did not seem that I piqued too much of their interest and I was perfectly happy to oblige.  I did encounter some rednecks in a powerboat on the river.  It was obvious that they were drinking and riding and they seemed to get a kick out of passing my paddle powered boat numerous times, making as big of a wake as possible, and watching me bob like a cork in the middle of the river.  Even then, all I did was grit my teeth and wave until they lost interest and moved on to their next “shiny object”.  I did wonder if they had known how well I was armed, would they have made so many trips by and around me.

My first encounter with an LE officer was a single game warden.  He passed by as I was walking along the road, turned around and came back to me.  I figure he thought I was a hunter, even though pack hunting is rather uncommon in this area.  He never exited his vehicle, just simply asked where I was headed and what I was doing.  I told him that I was doing a ruck march for the “Wounded Warrior Project”.  He asked if I had served, to which I responded somewhat truthfully, thanked me for my service and what I was doing and allowed me to continue on about my business.  I had expected this encounter, or a similar encounter with some other type of LE officer and as long as I was walking, my story was going to be “Wounded Warrior Project” since it is a common event in the area and I have participated in those events in the past. The game warden was simply doing his job and only delayed me a few minutes.

The next encounter with LE was on the river leg and it is the subject of several questions.  I intentionally did not attempt to hide my presence on the river and probably could have done so fairly easily by moving at night but moving at night along that river is dangerous and tends to raise some flags to LE officers (poachers primarily).  When they started to approach me and it was obvious that they intended to check the boat, I simply put the paddle across my knees and kept both hands visible on the paddle.  I knew they could not tell that I was armed from the angle that they were approaching from and I did not want them to panic when/if they did notice.  I had been checked numerous times while fishing along this very river, so I knew what to expect to start.  They threw me a line, which I attached to the boat and they pulled me along side of their boat.  They asked for ID, camping permits, and fishing license and at that point, I informed them that I was armed.  Of course that announcement changed things but I had to move to get what they had asked for and being armed would have been obvious.  While neither panicked, I could tell that this revelation made them nervous, so I told them where what they had asked for was and how they would like to proceed.

They asked me to paddle to a point where we could beach both boats while they followed and I complied.  Once there, they asked me to step out of the boat and remove my sidearm which I did by unclipping the strap on the drop leg and set it back in the boat.  They asked if I had any more weapons on my person and I told them I did.  At that point, they asked if I would consent to a search of my person as well as the boat.  I told them both were fine.  They searched me first, asked me to have a seat while they searched the boat, and proceeded to do so.  They asked what my purpose was on the river at which point I told them “I am a survival instructor and am looking for new areas to teach classes.”  One replied smartly, about my being a survival instructor and I said “Of course, there are plenty of those prepper types out there with plenty of money that are willing to pay big for survival classes.”  They went through every inch of my gear, including unpacking everything and about half way through their search, they told me I could start repacking the smaller items (compression sacks, zip-loc bags, etc).

I asked why they were so interested in searching me and my boat and that is when they told me about the trouble they had had with meth labs operating in house boats along the river and people running meth down the river.  Also, they always had trouble with poachers along the river.  They asked how far I was going and I told them two creeks below where I actually intended to pull out.  I asked about potential campsites, where I could expect trouble from the general public, issues down river, etc and they were more than happy to tell me all that I needed to hear.  Once they had finished the search, they stayed talking in general about the river while I repacked all of my gear.  Since I had not seen either of them before, I acted like I did not know a whole lot about the river, except what I could get from a map.  One had noticed my retired ID and asked what I had done in service to which I replied “logistics”.  Once I was done packing, they left and went up river while I continued down river.

Now, could I have refused the search?  I believe I would have been well within my rights to refuse the search of my person.  I probably was well within my rights to refuse the search of my gear.  However, I do not believe that I could have avoided the search of my boat, because game wardens are charged with performing boater safety inspections and have every right to search a vessel for “safety purposes” as well as creel limits.  So, was the search “legal” – yes, it was legal in all aspects because I gave consent.  LE officers have the right to ask permission to search and we have the right to refuse the search.  At the same time, I had nothing to hide, knew refusing was only going to delay getting back on the river longer than necessary, and really did not feel like giving guys with a tough job (think about it game wardens encounter someone with a weapon in just about 90% of their “stops”) a hard time.  Not to mention the fact that had I refused and gone all “Fourth Amendment” in the middle of absolute nowhere, with no one else within shouting distance, things could have gone bad for me in a hurry.

It is important to mention here, that at no point were any of the LE officers I encountered overzealous or unprofessional.  They treated me with respect and I do not feel as though my rights were violated at any point.  I know there are many out there thinking “no way I would have consented” and that is certainly your right, but I chose to take things a different route in my own personal situation and since I wanted to maintain some anonymity to what my true purpose on the river was, I feel it was in my best interest to consent to their request.  After all, when they left me no worse for wear, they still had no clue as to why I was there, where I was taking out, or that I was a prepper.