Richland Road

cumminsdzl

cumminsdzl

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Wake Forest
Hey guys, just got back in town from a long weekend in the Boone area. Headed over to richland road off of 321, and this is what i was greated with right as you pull off the pavement and drive thru the creek.
aimg.photobucket.com_albums_v126_cumminsdzl_Pictures_ScooterDixie062.jpg

Looks like we have lost another wheeling spot. Even if there wasnt much to it, it has always been a fun place for a little light-duty wheeling.
I suppose that it is possible that you can still enter from the other end, but i didnt get a chance to check. Maybe the tresspassing signs only affect a small portiong of the actual trail but this isnt a good sign.

PS Sorry for the HUGE pic
 
I do wonder how that can be done. Beyond where you say the sign is there are many land owners. There is a graveyard too. I would have figured the actual road was as you said, a right of way. May be a land owner blowing smoke, anyone can have a sign made. I would check and find out to see before I decided to defile the sign though. If it is legit, it doesn't surprise me as the place has been junked up so much over the years. Oh and it being where it is, there is no police, just the sheriffs dept. And that would include Caldwell, where it starts. Then Wataga(sp) County, and then Wilks Co, All three would would have to be involved, and as I remember it's hard to say where you are once in there.
 
It is a thru road, so that doesn't seem likely. There are so many landowners back in there it is uncountable, and the road goes out in about 3 directions to Blowing Rock/Darby/Buffalo Cove, etc.
Here is how the statute reads:
14‑159.13. Second degree trespass.

(a) Offense. – A person commits the offense of second degree trespass if, without authorization, he enters or remains on premises of another:

(1) After he has been notified not to enter or remain there by the owner, by a person in charge of the premises, by a lawful occupant, or by another authorized person; or

(2) That are posted, in a manner reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, with notice not to enter the premises.

(b) Classification. – Second degree trespass is a Class 3 misdemeanor. (1987, c. 700, s. 1; 1993, c. 539, s. 102; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).)
 
Thats the first time i had heard about that wreck, but the police were at the river on richland road when i went thru. They had lots of oil-dry all over the road trying to soak up the oil.
I would doubt that the sign has anything to do with this incident though, the signs looked new, but not that new. I was at the trail about 3-4:00 in the afternoon. As i said before, the sign was about 50 feet past the first creek right off of the pavement.
When i came through, there were several fireman at the wreck site with the state troopers. I stopped on the way out and asked if they knew anything about the no tresspassing signs, and they said that was the first they had heard of it.
 
Something I already knew before confirming it before posting here, but according to the GIS data, Richlands Road is NOT and has never been a public right-of way, and has been private property beyond the Yadkin River crossing since the state abandoned it. The state abandoned the right-of-way decades ago, did not declare it as a public right-of-way. That means the property reverted to the landowners. The rights-of-way through each piece of property remain in the deeds as the law demands so that each of the interior land owners can have access to their own properties, and all are now under the control of the property owners whose land those rights-of-way are on. If there is no covenant in each of the affected property deeds stating that the road is to remain open to the general public (public right-of-way declaration), then it's closed. If all the property owners decide to gate it and lock it, then they can do so. If not all agree, then it has to remain open to the property owners so that they can access their own properties.

Being open to passage does not include you unless you are one of the property owners. That's why the sign has been posted. So the bottom line according to NC law regarding every piece of private property is that unless the right-of-way has been declared public, or you are accessing your own property on a deeded right-of-way, or you have written permission in your possession to be on the property or any of the rights-of-way, then you're trespassing. We got away with it for years, but the free ride is obviously over now.
 
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