Sierra Nevada mountains. LOTS of timber preserve and undeveloped land. You may have read of some of the big busts the last couple of months in our mountain areas of Cali. There's no way this country can easily be scoured by foot. Why do you think it's taken so long for them to find anything of Steve Fosset? Plus, my line of reasoning is this: They may not be looking for ME, but if they run across me, why not bag me if I make it easy for them?
And see, here's the thing. I know they were out looking for the cartel guys and other big growers. But! They were SCOURING the whole area, I'd listened to them working their way up for HOURS. Then, next thing I know (good thing it was the time of year it was and warm and all, or I might not have realized) they were literally on top of us. Figure eights and circling, west to east, south to north. They came back the next day, but were further south and east of us, but I could hear them.
So, I watched them over the next ridge, then they left. Cool, they're not coming back. Then, FUCK! They're back and they're closer! Kept happening, so I bring the plants under. Then they leave. Gone for over half an hour, I figure I'm golden. Take 'em back out. Then they're back again! What the fuck? Bring everyone back in. Heart pounding this time cuz they're a lot closer. Then they work their way away from me, cool, maybe they're just working their way along the major roads. Everyone goes back out again. Before I know it they are on TOP of us, literally. As in blowing the trees around that low on top of us. But they're on the other side of the house so I just grabbed everyone and SHOVED, heart really pounding this time!
I took pictures of the motherfuckers. Oh yeah, they were burning through TONS of fuel, believe you me. (And I am not the paranoid type.) The following photos were taken over a period of time. They gave me that much time to get the camera, focus, take a few shots, then they'd come back, I'd take a few more, and so on. Pix are totally out of order. And when they were on top of us I was too scared to take pix, I figured that's poking at the tiger.