Headed over to CT today to do some scouting at some potential sites Isaac and I might hit later this month. I was only planning on hiking today and did not take any of my detecting gear with me. I park at the trail head and as soon as I park an unmarked SUV pulls up to me and a conservation officer gets out and walks over. He asks me "why I'm here" "why I drove so far from RI" and "whether I knew anything about reptiles and rattlesnakes". Apparently the area is extremely sensitive to rattlesnakes and people have been coming in here poaching and killing the endangered species. I was not about to tell him I was here to scout sites to go metal detecting at so I gave a pretty lousy excuse about hiking. He asked for my information and we chit chatted a little more and then he released me from his custody. He also told me there were restricted areas and trail cams up there so he would know if I was up to anything illegal. I have to say I was pretty nervous through the entire affair even though I knew I had done nothing wrong and I'm pretty sure he didn't even have probable cause to detain me. It just stinks that people have to do such terrible things and poach rattlesnakes and cause someone like me to be interrogated. I know he was just doing his job and I'm glad he told me about the trail cams but I really think the whole thing was a little unnecessary. I doubt he would have stopped me if I had a CT plate and not a RI one