I enjoyed Tom Watters' story of the Ohioans trespassing in North Carolina
(USA). Some comments:
 
If you were collecting directly under the bridge, or within the easement
flanking it, and the road was maintained by county, state, or federal
governments, then you really weren't trespassing. But it's a technicality,
because most landowners wouldn't agree with this assessment.
 
I have collected fossils at hundreds of sites in Alabama over the past ten
years, and have only had trouble with two landowners. I have walked through
the woods into people's back yards with no more result than a raised
eyebrow. I never wear camouflage, which might be misinterpreted as hunters'
gear, and I take the time to answer questions. In the Coastal Plain,
landowners are usually interested in the fossils on their land and are glad
that (at long last) the state is spending some tax money on them. With the
men out in the fields and the women at home, the inhabitants seem to prefer
that I meet the men outdoors. (Don't try this yourself. As a field
geologist of the Geological Survey of Alabama, I am empowered to cross
property lines without prior notice, something that even a policeman can't
do without a warrant, unless he's in hot pursuit.)
 
In the Appalachians, people are more suspicious, and a fair proportion of
landowners are out of work. Here, it is best to check with people at their
homes before crossing property lines. This does not make mapping the
geology of a 50-square-mile area easier.
 
I have never been ordered off anyone's land. I have been shot at exactly
once. I was collecting trilobites in a small creek within the road easement
near an Appalachian town, and I heard the baying of leashed hounds
approaching at a walking pace long before the shot. The man hit a nearby
tree dead center, spraying bark, and its accuracy showed that this was a
warning shot. Still, I was affronted, considering that I was not actually
trespassing, and especially since he didn't say a word to me. In fact, I
never even saw him clearly. Later, a resident told me, "Oh, Mr. G shoots at
everybody that goes on his property." Under the circumstances, it would not
have mattered whether I came from Hokes Bluff or from Birmingham, Alabama
or Ohio, nor whether I was on state property or private property as a legal
nicety. I'd be dead right, eh?
 
Good luck on future trips, Tom! And--Is it really more dangerous to collect
in Ohio?
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama