Well, I will add my own miserable experience that I had today.  Probably the worst experience I have had since starting hiking in the district back in 2002.

I did get to go hiking today, but had a rather bad day……I wanted to go up one of my favorite wintertime routes, the old road up Fish creek (old road 54, from the north).  I got there about 10:00, and there was a pickup there.  It was two "guys", who had gotten assault rifles for Christmas.  There was a large slash pile about 200 yards up the old ripped up road that they thought was a good thing to shoot at.  I asked them if they would consider moving up the road a bit, since this hadn't been a place for shooting in the past, but all he could say was "I don't want to be a jerk, but we were here first".  I wasn't about the hike through their shooting gallery, so I left, but as I was leaving, I said they were giving shooters a bad name-he didn't seem to care.  As I was walking back to my truck, his buddy fired off about 40 rounds, just to show me how important he was, I guess.  I wanted to report it to the FS in Estacada, but they were closed today.  After I left, I was thinking that area was supposed to be closed to shooting due to the thinning projects in the area.  The really sad thing is that I went back after my hike, and found two more guys there, and walked up the road a bit, and it is quickly becoming another one of the many shooting junk piles that litter the area.  I took a couple photos of the carnage.  Those idiots think firing into a slash pile is a safe backdrop?

Anyway, I ended up driving up the road a bit and hiked another trail.  The bad thing was that I forgot to pack my new boots I got for Christmas!  I ended up wearing my tennis shoes, and the trail wasn't in too bad of shape, so I did OK.  I was careful – I didn't want to twist an ankle.  The other thing was that I could hear those bozos most of the time on the trail, and it ruined my mood all day…..

I'm quite happy to cede the old gravel pits to the shooters.  At least they are reasonably safe, and there certainly are LOTS of them to choose from.  What really bothers me is this old road has gotten to become a pretty decent trail, and has been very busy with foot and horse travel the last few times I've been there.  It is a really nice walk, and it would be a shame to have it ruined like so many other places.

Here are a couple shots of the garbage (this was some of the big stuff).  I didn't take too many since there were people shooting there when I took these pictures.

Sorry you had that experience. Not sure what to say.

But if one does feel endangered, call the County. Forget the FS. They pay the County to run around up there as it is. And the County isn't asleep or on sabbatical when you make the call to 911. If there is any FS around, they will call them anyway.

My 2cents.