by achilles38 » Wed May 29, 2013 5:29 pm
I haven't ventured too far into the wilderness, yet, but I'd imagine taking a handgun just in case wouldn't be a problem. I have some friends that hike all over the Sierra Nevadas and a few take handguns, others don't feel the need. When I'm fishing local mountains in Southern CA I take my knife, which is a very sharp fixed blade about 6" in length for the blade. It's only slightly for protection from animals (mountain lions are nearby, but I've never seen one), more for protection from the idiots from the base of the mountain. I know guys that have had to draw handguns on people while fishing because little gang thugs left the valley and thought they could rob some fisherman, or throw rocks at them. Some have had cars stolen while fishing, others have had cars broken into, but again this is Southern CA, fishing about an hour drive from Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and other cities.
Just last Sunday I was fishing a small creek in the San Gorgonio Mtns and ran into a guy western fly fishing. He said some guy decided it was a good idea to sit down with his case of beer, wife, and kids directly in the back cast. The fly guy had been there for about 30 minutes fishing a large pool with his friend. He politely asked the beer dude if he'd move a little because he didn't want his fly to hit any of them. The beer dude said "We're here now, so make do". Then the fly guy asked politely if they could move because he really didn't want to hit the kids or any of them with his hook and the beer dude replied "oh, if anybody get hits with a fly, we gonna have a serious problem." haha, ignorant moron. So the fly guys politely collected his stuff and headed downstream for some piece and quiet. My buddy and I later found the beer guy and got a chuckle out of it. Unfortunately we also found several of his beer cans and other trash him and his family left behind. I'll never understand why some people drive and hour or so to nature and trash it.
Jeremy