How long till considered abandoned?

[impfected]

Hey all,
I had a great weekend bikepacking with the dogs up a old washed out road here in washington. The area was active years ago with claims up and down the creek till the price of gold dropped at around the same time that the road washed out never to be repaired.
In any case, I came across a highbanker/dredge setup minus pump and various parts back in a ways. The land has not had an active claim on it since the mid 2000's. I would guess it had been sitting at least 3 years with the amount of debris on it. All the other pllastic and hose (what was left) shows even older age.
I was thinking it would be a good 2/3 inch to rehab and use as a spare. Would it be theft or ?
If I placed a claim on the property, then would that be considered trash that I would be responsible to clean up?
Al

[russau]

touchy subject! id look for any names or markings indicateing a owner and try to contact them before id touch anything.the last claim owner would be noted in the claims records and id search that first.from what ive seen, claims dont get updated very fsat or often so id be carefull before i "claimed" any equipment.

[impfected]

It was probably left behind since it is too damn heavy to truck out, which was my initial thought. There was a bucket with a faded name and info. I should have took a pic of it and compaired it to the lr2k records. Wasn't thinking of that at the time.
I won't be back there till later in the year when the water level drops. I will probably maintain the trail a bit next time. Damn hard to ride a bike when you have to get off every 100 feet to climb over a tree.
Al

[Hoser John]

You will thusly leave a blazed trail for every tom,dick and harry to follow....and they will. No legal claim means no legal rights either. I left a triple 8" at Pollard Flats on the river for the same same reason...tooooooooooooooo much work and paid for itself X 1000's. Help yourself. John

[russau]

well, there you go!

[impfected]

Some of the other hose from other mining camps on the river looked to be 6 or 8 inch.
I'd like to be in a situation where I can abandon a large dredge for that reason!

[russau]

dont we all!

[nebraskadad]

imperfcted. LR2000 does not have accurate records, you need to check the BLM district office to see the current record of the location in question.

[impfected]

I realize LR2K is not up to date. I took that into account before posting. I'm fairly confident that it hasn't been filed on in the last 4 months as it take too much work to get back to and there is none of the legal paperwork/markers located anywhere to be seen. All the other claims in the area are up to date on LR.
If I decided to file on the land than I'd take the trek to the county seat. On this trip I was hiking to old mines to see the history of the place.

Al

[Hoser John]

Amen to the county recorder as ALL claims start and end there with no exceptions---except illegal ones. There is up to a year lag time in BLM offices to list claims,I have 20 year old not listed yet, they MUST be filed at the recorder within 90 days soooo off ya go and usually much nicer local yokel type folks to deal with also--tons a au 2 u 2 -John