To Share or Not to Share (Dispersed Camping)

[Deriggs007]

This is a tough answer. There’s no right and wrong and comes down to personal opinion.

For me, if I’ve had a stress free week at work and want to camp, I wouldn’t mind having company if I felt things were genuine. For example, I’m with my family and another family strolls in, I might be okay with it.

Another week might be stressful and I might just want to get out with my dog and stay away from civilization. That said, I would always be polite and simply say. “Hey, it’s public and free land. I can’t tell you not to stay here, but I had a very stressful week at work and I’m trying to mellow out and would appreciate it if I could stay alone. I’ll be out of here in 2 days. Is that okay? “

Any sane human being would understand and move on. If they were asshats, I would probably ensure my pit bull gave them the dirtiest scares at night as possible ;)

 

[Aequitas1916]

If I came across the same situation and knew there was another campsite not far away, I probably wouldn't have stopped at all. I prefer to camp alone (or alone in a group) if possible, and other people being around defeats the purpose for me. I run away to the wilderness to enjoy the wilderness.

If I was the guy in that campsite, I probably wouldn't have told you to get lost. And would definitely be polite and friendly. But I would have made it clear that I was out there for the solitude, and if you could respect that and move on to the next site, I'd be much obliged.

 

[Billiebob]

On the first question,

• If you are the person that has already set up camp (Primitive/Dispersed Camping), and along comes a similar situation as described above; Do you turn the person away or invite them to stay?

It is public land, leave enough space for comfort and I have no right to tell you to leave. Hopefully we are all decent respectful campers but if I don't want to share I can always leave. Actually I enjoy sharing a beer, coffee and a bit conversation. There is only 1 place you can expect absolute privacy, on land you own.

But if I was the guy arriving late, I'd only stay if I could distance myself and park to avoid staring at him, otherwise I'd keep going and find a new spot.

For me, that comfort would closer to 100 yards than 100 feet. I would definitely expect privacy of 5 to 10 car lengths.

 

[Billiebob]

We have a few beach access trails where guys will set up across the trail virtually blocking beach access. If you are that rude, ignorant, stupid, I'll just drive by or thru your camp site. And drive a half mile down the beach to set up my campsite.

Asking permission should not be necessary, I assume we all want to be a comfortable distance from the other guy. if you cannot park far enough away, move on voluntarily. I also assume the other guy is not trying to stake a claim.

 

[Billiebob]

This is pretty typical where I live, there were about 20 parties camping on this beach today, all about this far apart. But one could easily park between any of the campers and still get reasonable privacy.

 

[Billiebob]

Heres a good reason to give plenty of spece.

 

[Wallygator]

I too would not have even bothered the guy and would have moved on. I prefer to have as much privacy as possible and if three cars full of people rolled up on my campsite that could not accommodate enough space ( a mile or so ) than I probably would have preferred that they move on.

 

[Billiebob]

I too would not have even bothered the guy and would have moved on.

yeah, thinking about it, if you think you have to ask......

 

[RideFlyDiveJeep]

So you said a bunch of you went up there, that might have been intimidating to that guy he may have been just put off. 1:1 you might have been invited to stay. So balancing the safety in numbers and movie theater rule. How would you feel if 4 people sat by you, the only person in the theater? So being in a group, I'd move on. One vehicle 1 would have asked. But if I am out there and you see my OB Basecamp flag, bring a chair, good stories, and a firm handshake.

 

[Sneaks]

The moment someone would have pulled into the spot, my trip is done, you could have had the spot, and I would be going home. Sudden, forced social contact will have both the better half and myself ramped up for hours or longer, ruining the trip. I had someone stop recently at the house and ask if I wanted to sell my bus. No one comes to my house unless it is for a delivery or planned in advance. It took three days for the stress to bleed off. It's an INFJ\Introvert thing, extreme reaction for many, I get that, but for us it is how we are built. YMMV.

 

[HeliSniper]

I agree with some of the prior post and disagree with others, for me it is situational. If you arrive after sunset, don't even think about asking. Move on and do a better job of scheduling next time. If still sunlight, introduce yourself, assess the mood or vibe, ask to stay at a distance if all feels right, if not ask how long he/she plans on staying and plan accordingly from there. Sounds like if you had asked when he planned to leave you might not have been so uptight about spending one might at another site.

 

[RickR]

I haven't run into this problem yet, but if I were that man I would keep my mouth shut as it is NOT his land. If I were you and your friends and encounter a rude man like him I would also have left. I must say though I would hope ~ and expect the other parties, "intruders" would not want to be there either way as I would hope they would be courteous enough to respect my solitude. I for one don't want to hear peoples music all night, hear people arguing with the spouse or smell cigarette smoke AT ALL (that's my main pet-peeve).

 

[MattLew]

Here is an example from our experience related to this topic before posing the actual questions.

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If you are not one for reading please just skip to the Underlined Questions.​

When we lived in state of Washington, we had found an absolutely epic dispersed campsite on a Plateau just a 10 minute walk from Sore Thumb Mountain in the Olympic National Forest. This Plateau had no name on any map that we could find, so I dubbed it Freedom Plateau. Before we had decided to camp there we had been exploring, and found this particular camp site during the day a couple weeks before. ​

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It is pretty isolated from the main road, and takes close to a good hour to get there doing decent speeds on a fairly maintained forest service road. This plateau was at about 3,600 ft. in elevation, and had an incredible view of the Pacific ocean off in the distance to the west. To the east is the Olympic Mountain Range with Mount Olympus in view. The view is utterly breathtaking!​

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So in the following weeks a bunch of us decided to head up there, and make a weekend of it. From where we lived at the time it takes about 2 and half hours to reach the service road. Then another hour to get to the campsite. Things had not gone according to plan, so by the time we reached the campsite the sun had just set with some light still in the sky. ​

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We finally reached Freedom Plateau! ​

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Low and behold (this happens fairly often depending on when and where you are camping, so get to your campsite early! lol) someone was there camping out, no big deal right? ​

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This particular plateau can easily fit 5 vehicles with plenty of area for tents and a fire pit. The guy comes out of his truckbed camper and asks "Can I help you all?" We say "yes!" and we ask him "Would it be cool for us to camp along with you?" Then we explained our situation as depicted above, to say the least he is not happy with us being there and made it clear he did not approve of our presence. He then asked us to leave. ​

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Just to be respectful, and to not cause issues we departed. We knew that just at the base of Sore Thumb Mountain down the road not far away was another area to camp. Not as great as a view but still camping none the less, we camped there till he left the following morning. Soon as he left we moved camp to the plateau, and enjoyed the spoils of the newly found epic campsite!​

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SO!!……. lol​

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With all that being said and if you've made it this far, here are the questions:​

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1. 
   
   
   • If you are the person that has already set up camp (Primitive/Dispersed Camping), and along comes a similar situation as described above; Do you turn the person away or invite them to stay?

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Here are a couple thoughts that we have had ourselves about this question.​

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To start off with, in most states if you have the proper pass for either a national park/forest and/or a state park/forest. You can go "Primitive/Dispersed camping" entirely for free! Most people either do not know or realize this.​

So with that being said does someone really have the right to tell you that you can't be there to begin with? ​

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To be honest, we believe you do. However (some may disagree with this, which is fine because we want everyone to share their opinion on this matter) only if you believe that you feel threatened/uncomfortable/not safe with the other party camping with you for whatever reason. But this reason should be a legitimate one, and not solely because you want to be there by yourself. ​

If that is the case! Just simply ask them to camp far enough away to give you some privacy. Most people will oblige, hopefully lol.​

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Also to add: YOU are on land that everyone has a right to, if and only if they are utilizing the proper channels i.e. a pass or a permit. Which you should have to primitive/disperse camp in these parks/forests.​

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You can usually feel someone out (what they are up to/their character/moral fiber) by just having a simple conversation with them. Then from there you can probably make an assumption (you know what they say about assumptions lol) about whether or not they could be a danger/threat to you or your family.​

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So please share your thoughts, and What you would do!?​

Realistically, it is first come first serve unless the parks service has a site permit system in place. Disappointed though I may be if someone beats me to my intended camping space, they still got there first.

As to what should you do if someone shows up when you are the one who got there first... Well it is kindda a bit of a craps shoot. Your new neighbors may be cool come by with some snacks and beer to socialize a bit, they may quietly keep to themselves on their end of the plateau, they may crank Megadeath through 15" sub woofers til 3am, or they may be gone at first light along with anything you did not have cable locked to your vehicle. You are very much within your rights to ask them to move along, or you may invite them to stay and make new friends (I have made plenty of great new "friends" along the way... even kept in touch with a few for a while)... perhaps negotiating before hand that megadeath gets turned down to a quiet whisper or at least replaced with pink floyd by sundown :)

 

[MOAK]

I haven't run into this problem yet, but if I were that man I would keep my mouth shut as it is NOT his land. If I were you and your friends and encounter a rude man like him I would also have left. I must say though I would hope ~ and expect the other parties, "intruders" would not want to be there either way as I would hope they would be courteous enough to respect my solitude. I for one don't want to hear peoples music all night, hear people arguing with the spouse or smell cigarette smoke AT ALL (that's my main pet-peeve).

Interesting the times we live in - I was once labeled a rude dog hater because I called someone out for allowing their dog to run all over the devils kitchen in the needles district and then again on the WRT. They were fortunate that a ranger didn’t witness them or they would have been, at the least, kicked out. At the worst, fined and banned. I’m not rude, nor a dog hater, quite the opposite.

In this instance a peaceful fellow has established a campsite for himself and along comes a bunch of people, that are just a wee bit naive concerning back country etiquette. He expresses an unwillingness to share the site with them and then is forced into a position that requires him to have to say no, go away. This guy wasn’t rude in the least. If anything it would be the other way around. However, if we were indeed several days away from civilization, say up in the Yukon or NW territory, and someone stumbled into camp, well then, that’s an entirely different scenario isn’t it?

 

[RickR]

Interesting the times we live in - I was once labeled a rude dog hater because I called someone out for allowing their dog to run all over the devils kitchen in the needles district and then again on the WRT. They were fortunate that a ranger didn’t witness them or they would have been, at the least, kicked out. At the worst, fined and banned. I’m not rude, nor a dog hater, quite the opposite.

In this instance a peaceful fellow has established a campsite for himself and along comes a bunch of people, that are just a wee bit naive concerning back country etiquette. He expresses an unwillingness to share the site with them and then is forced into a position that requires him to have to say no, go away. This guy wasn’t rude in the least. If anything it would be the other way around. However, if we were indeed several days away from civilization, say up in the Yukon or NW territory, and someone stumbled into camp, well then, that’s an entirely different scenario isn’t it?

That's exactly what I said, I would not have said anything as I don't want trouble and also have no right to say anything anyhow. I also probably would have just shut up and started packing and politely excuse myself and go elsewhere or home.
But I would hope (but not in today's climate) that the "invaders" would be courtesy enough to not encroach on my solitude.