Fred,
Oh, I remember and knew Bruce Walters very well.......About the 2nd or 3rd year turkeys were starting to show up near Lake Henshaw. On the last day of the season (May 3rd), a friend and I asked a sheriff where he might have seen some turkeys. He said right below the dam......So we drove over there and there's the NF sign. We park near it......We walk up the hill next to the sign and of course, we don't hear or see anything (really thick).....We decide to call it quits and walk down to the old road (about 100 yds down)......Now mind you, VID has no trespassing signs on just about every tree above the San Luis Rey River facing north. As we get back to our truck, there's Bruce standing next to it. He says, Steve, do you know where you are?.....And I say jokingly, right here......He says, No, do you know who's property your on?.....And I say, my property, national forest......He says, nope, your on VID land.....Then asks me where my map is.....So I pull out a CNF map and the area is green (indicating NF).....He proceeds to tell me, that my map isn't detailed enough.....WTF!.....About that time, the sheriff shows up and he tells Bruce that he told us to come over here.....Bruce says, that's fine, but I'm writing them a trespassing ticket......WTF again!.....The very next day I go to VID's office and ask, if they owned a little triangle of land near the NF boundary......The answer was "I think we do, but I'm not sure and we've never posted it".....OK, do you mind, if I can get that into a written statement......And I did.....We obviously, plead not guilty and went to court......Walters shows up and in his statement he says he had had trouble with me before.....WTF again again!!!.....We had taught a hunting & fishing class in Julian together. I even had his home phone and had talked to him a number of times about different things.....When the judge came to me, I didn't say much. Just handed him the statement from VID.....The judge then told me that the letter was not acceptable because it could be hearsay. I also had a ton of pictures of the area including the NF sign that was no more than 50 yds from where we were standing with no signs in between.....He then asked Walters, if it was posted on May 3rd.....Walters said no, but it had been, but hunters torn them down......Really!......NOT GUILTY!
Yep, I remember Bruce Walters.