Robertjohkn said:
These stories are the reason I hike futher into the woods to find spots to camp away from the other hikers.
It was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. I had just paddled to Grass Pond on Low's Lake, with intentions of bushwhacking to various locations over the next couple of days. I stashed my canoe and gear where they would not be seen in the woods, some distance from one of the designated campsites. As I stood in plain view at the campsite enjoying the beautiful morning view a loon appeared to be "patrolling" the shoreline. Suddenly at treetop level a float plane buzzed directly over my head. It swung around and made it's landing toward me, taxiing up to a piece of sandy shore maybe 30 yards from where I was standing. I stood there as the pilot and two passengers unloaded all kinds of boxes of gear.
I was astonished because they could obviously and plainly see me there but from where they were they could not see whether I had set up my own camp under the trees. They never asked if the site was occupied. They apparently assumed it was "their" campsite and what I was doing didn't matter. Before they arrived where I was standing I disappeared into the woods. I could still see the plane taxi out and a sight I had never seen before. The loon literally chased the plane as it made it's taxi out into the lake. It was making all kinds of noise, and sped up to do it's "water walk", chasing directly after the plane. I could only guess that it was protecting a nearby nest. After that I continued on to do a short bushwhack to a small pond.
When I returned a couple of hours later there was a large fire burning next to a family size tent with no one in sight. A large bottle of "Wild Turkey" sat 3/4 empty on a stump. "Hello, anyone here?" I repeated a number of times, louder each time. Just as I was making the decision to douse the unattended fire I heard a squawk from a 2-way radio inside the tent. I peered in under the tarp covering the door to see 2 cots, one with a large man snoring, and a .22 rifle propped up against the other. The voice on the radio sounded excited but the man did not move. Then I could hear the voice and commotion on the shore just out of sight.
I walked in that direction to find a scruffy looking man holding a large bass. I'm beginning to think "deliverance". He was all excited, saying it was huge and there were lots more there. I followed him up to the tentsite. As the fish lay flopping on the ground and the sleeping man stumbled up, I mentioned that bass season was not yet open. "Yeah, but there are lots of them there". I repeated "bass season is not open for another couple of weeks - do you know the ranger?" I reiterated that fact 3 or 4 times as I began to take pictures, all the time keeping tabs of what both men were doing. Finally he got the hint and threw the bass into the water. I thanked him and disappeared for another few hours.
When I returned later in the day I thought I'd stop by to say "hi". They were cleaning fish in a bucket. "Bullhead, we got bullhead" they said. Sure enough they were. "You'll have a good dinner with those". I headed off to set up my hammock in the woods on a slope about a quarter mile away.
I don't know how that plane ever got into the air with all the lead it must have been carrying. For the next hour all I heard was continous gunfire from that .22 rifle. I don't know what they were shooting at, but I feared for that poor loon. Soon after the shots stopped I noticed a white motorboat heading directly toward them. It wasn't close enough for me to verify, but it looked very much like the ranger's boat. It went directly to their site and left after about 20 minutes. It was quiet over there the rest of the evening.
The next morning I made one more pass through, just to make my presence known. I usually hike in clothing that resembles what an assistant DEC forest ranger wears, so I left the option open for them to think that. On my way home I stopped at the real local AFR's residence. Sure enough that was the ranger checking up on them by boat. The ranger knew of the reputation of some of the people that particular float plane service was known to bring in and he wanted to pay them a visit. He told the female AFR not to bother going there, but to call if she heard of trouble. He said he did not find anything in violation at the time of his visit, but he made sure they knew they were being watched. And so did I.
MAN, a few of us did Adams and Jefferson via King Ravine and Castle in mid-April. After driving up from CT that morning and a nice long hike we camped at Barnes Field. There was this one group there, right in the middle of the place - they must've had 10 tents and as many cars, big old camp fire, grills going, drinking, laughing, someone had some FREAK music playing on their car stereo, I went up to them and, oh, wait, that was us. It was a VFTT gathering, never mind. 
