Officious Ass

I don't know why I let this bother me so much, but it really does.

Last night we took the dog for a walk. Around the path, then up into the woods on a small trail that we've used for the past 4 years. As we got up to the small road at the end of the trail we noticed a large tree that had been struck by lightening in one of our recent storms. As we were looking at the tree a car pulled up from the house at the end of the road. The man rolled down his window and the following conversation occurred:

Him: You know you're on private property.
Us: We're just walking through and stopped to look at the tree.
Him:Well, this is private property.
Us:We've walked through here for years.
Him:Well I've never seen you before.
Us: We come up from the path through the woods
Him: All of that is private property. From those boulders on.
Us: Um...OK...thanks.

He drove off, and we continued our walk. Considering that there were no signs posted, and that it wasn't late at night, we weren't suspicious, littering, loud, teenagers making out, stalking his house, or even within 500 feet of his house... I didn't see the need to stop and inform us three distinct times that this was indeed private property. I really wish the dog had left him a present.