German,
What type activities are these folks up to out there at night?
I 15 is the only corridor from SLC to Vegas and further to southern California. Most of the land in the Utah area near it is wide open BLM land with some areas fairly hard to get to/terrain locked. There is zero patrolling of anything, and except the first mile or two at the front where 95% of people go to shoot, hang out, bike, etc, not many are further in. It's honestly the wild west.
It's common knowledge that there are people cooking meth/drugs/whatever out there and using the the land to bypass the highway for transportation of whatever they don't want to get pulled over for. Like I said above, I've come across sheds that were built in between fingers of cliffs and covered with bushes to hide them; this is MILES away from anything.
I've also seen small groups of 3-4 mexicans wearing jeans and tshirts/flannels with rucksacks moving around there at night, while its 95+ degrees out with no equipment, lights, etc. I'm assuming from the cache of daisey chained 1 gallon water jugs stashed in a dugout in the middle of the desert I've come across out there, illegals also use the land.
The wild card out there are the people who take advantage of being allowed to 'live' on BLM land for I think 3 weeks at a time, but set up shop out there for 6+ months. Usually the BLM/wildlife/whoever people come around towards August and you'll see the notices to vacate stuck on all of their trailers/RVs, but at that point they've been out there since March. Most are there just to live the 'RV life' and basically live for free, but theres a lot that goes on out there at night by people who don't want to be found and/or are using this as a mobile base.
If I go hunting at night, for the reasons above, I have way more on me than just the single mag people take hunting. Besides having a giant advantage with having nightvision, I have either a Mk12 or a carbine with PEQ15 and suppressor, my hunting rounds, hydration, IFAK, comms and then 3-4 mags of M193/262 on a chest rig along the entire time.
I also take precautions that we did when patrolling overseas like not returning to the vehicle the same route you left, and having a short halt a few 100 yards before going back to it to check out whats going on at it, instead of just walking back to it and being surprised by people who were using it as a ambush point they knew you'd eventually return to.
To date, other than having people pass by me and not know I was there, I haven't had any weird night time interactions but it only takes once. The stories people have locally of finding new places to shoot and people coming out of nowhere and constantly watching them or telling them some bullshit as to why they need to leave the area are common. If something were to ever happen, especially at night, I do like my chances though lol
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