My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

First and foremost i am dumb.

Me and my buddy's went to the desert this weekend, we were roaming around through the desert and decided heck lets crack open a beer there is not a person around in miles. Suddenly a ranger comes over a peak right in front of us. Bad news bears. Luckily our driver a close friend of mine was not drinking because we all know DUI's are a lot of trouble. Long story short me and the other passenger got busted for MIP (20 yrs old) and open container in a vehicle. I am a little confused because everywhere i look it says its a 200$ fine.

My ticket says 50$ + 25$ processing for the underage drinking. The second ticket for the open container is 100$ + 25+ processing. Does this seem low? The cop was nice and we all cracked our a jokes. Did he let me off easy? This desert is four hours away from home and i don't mind pleading guilty for the crimes that i am guilty of. However it say's online that my license may be suspended. That is something i cannot have happen considering i work full time and work is quite far. Should i drive all the way back and plead not guilty in court or plead guilty and pay the fine. Will my license be suspended? He didn't say anything about this when i asked him the punishments he just said pay the ticket and you wont get a warrant.

The ticket was issued by U.S. Bureau of Land Management does this change anything?


Violation codes
CFR - 43 cfr 8365 1-6 (underage drinking)
CFR 43 cfr 8341 1 (d) (open container)


this officers writing is really hard to read.

Also my other friend who received the ticket said the cop told him his license wouldn't get suspended.