National Forest Camping Ethics

[MTtrout]

Wow I didn’t realize roksliders claim spots as their own far in advance prior to actually stepping foot outside of their camp. Glad to see not everyone thinks this way

 

[stanginthe11s]

Then you have no understanding of a true spike camp.

I mean, I did clearly say that I don't understand it lol, thanks for the clarification.
that is the way I see it, and if there is no explanation otherwise, then I have no reason to believe otherwise.

 

[Mykolaivka887]

Wow I didn’t realize roksliders claim spots as their own far in advance prior to actually stepping foot outside of their camp. Glad to see not everyone thinks this way

Yep, it's public trust, open to entry. As long as it's law adiding in a conservation management sphere, sky's the limit. Thank goodness for a capitalist society.

 

[archeryisking]

Dumb question. You're preventing someone else from using a camp site while you're not even there. If you want to hold a camp site, camp in it. If you're not camping then F off and leave the spot for someone who is camping.

Pretty enlightened response. Appreciate the insight.

 

[idcuda]

Fair enough. I doubt where I'm proposing on setting up my camp is family friendly but your point is well taken....

There's definitely a benefit to camping where nobody else wants to! I was thinking of more popular spots, which is where I see issues in my neck of Idaho.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

What’s the actual scenario here? Setting up in a designated overnight area with limited spots? Setting up off the trail somewhere where only you know exactly where it is?

Two completely different answers from my side depending on which scenario.

 

[CorbLand]

One scenario advances the outdoor activity (management plan)---hunting, say--- and one does not.

Not sure what is so difficult about this.

I am scratching my head trying to figure out the difference between leaving a camp set up to go camp somewhere else and leaving a camp set up to go back to town.

What management plan? Are hunters the only one allowed to camp? Do you have to have a purpose to camp now? Who deems the worthiness of that purpose?

Maybe we should just stick to the, you got 14 days and what you choose to do with those 14 days is up to you.

 

[idcuda]

I am scratching my head trying to figure out the difference between leaving a camp set up to go camp somewhere else and leaving a camp set up to go back to town.

In one, you're doing it to facilitate a hunt; there's a purpose.

In the other (going to town), you're doing it just to be selfish. You want that spot and you're willing to screw over others to get it.

 

[CorbLand]

In one, you're doing it to facilitate a hunt; there's a purpose.

In the other (going to town), you're doing it just to be selfish. You want that spot and you're willing to screw over others to get it.

If I set up camp the weekend before so I don’t have to opening day…would that not be considered “facilitating the hunt?”

I have done this. We took a camper up the Sunday before opener. We didn’t do it to save the spot, we did it because we would have all day Sunday to set things up versus 3 hours the night before opener.

 

[MuleDeerMike]

OP, I'm glad you brought this up and are asking for opinions before deciding to do it or not. That being said, setting up a Dummy Camp for yourself a week or more before season and leaving it unattended until you come back for the opener is a D-Bag move. Just my opinion though. This has always bothered me and it happens here in WA all the time. I've seen super cheap small Walmart tents with 2 cheap camp chairs set up in the best camp spots for multiple weeks before season with no sign of any people there for weeks. Happens every year. Ive even seen unused and empty solo cups in the cup holders for some extra flare. Leaving it unattended like that for that long is technically an abandoned camp and as far as I'm concerned you've now littered a bunch of shit that just happened to once be camping equipment and you're now forfeiting your stuff to whoever wants to either throw it away or take it for themselves, just like any other trash found anywhere else in public. I'm not saying I personally would take someone's dummy camp and throw it away, but I wouldn't turn someone in if I saw them do it and I'd probably give them a cold beer from my cooler for their efforts. This is a big issue on public land in WA.

 

[Super tag]

this has always bothered me, I wouldn’t do it, who knows, maybe someone else wants the spot for a day or two, i am pretty sure most places have regulations that you cant leave camp unattended for more than 48 hrs.

 

[Mykolaivka887]

I am pretty sure most places have regulations that you cant leave camp unattended for more than 48 hrs.

Not within undesignated camping areas/regions (i.e.; non-fee areas) on federal lands.

 

[elkyinzer]

I view any kind of public land spot claiming as high-level douchebaggery. Blinds, stands, cameras, camps, whatever. I'm not going to steal it, but if you're not there, it's just part of the scenery.

 

[sndmn11]

I've done it once. I had a business trip that landed back home in the evening, and driving straight out put me at camp around midnight. My wall tent went up the weekend before because I left early in the week.

I wouldn't t have cared if anyone set up next to me, I'd have actually preferred it due to deterring any thief's and consolidating noise/scent.

Just like the OP, and just like when people want a place to come back to after backpacking for a few days, I wanted to get to camp and not have to set up. As long as the law is being followed, I can't see any ethical dilemmas with having a camp set up. Some of the comments here make me wonder if they take their camp down every morning before they go out to hunt, so their unoccupied structure isn't rude to picnickers or day hikers.

 

[MCS]

People setting up camp weeks or months ahead of season happens all the time now. The worst I've seen it is in Wyoming. I hope the forest service starts taking people's camps down.

 

[87TT]

I see it done all the time that camps stay up all season and are sometimes up a week or two before the season. Unless you are sitting there watching it, hoe do you know when or how often it's used. I don't waste my time or energy worrying about it. I go hunt. I have left my camp up and went home to restock, shower etc for a couple of days. Again don't sweat the small sh^^. Go hunt your own hunt.

 

[Dust Rider]

When we go out of town for hunting we just load all the crap up and roll. When we get there we figure it out. We find a spot, set camp and start hunting.

Since Covid we have noticed a lot more Gypsy camps hidden among BLM and FS when we are dirt biking and mountain biking. Some of these semi permanent camps are pretty ghetto and nasty. I wouldn’t consider these as hunting camps but the people who live like this just dont care about rules and regulations.

 

[Z71&Gun]

OP, I'm glad you brought this up and are asking for opinions before deciding to do it or not. That being said, setting up a Dummy Camp for yourself a week or more before season and leaving it unattended until you come back for the opener is a D-Bag move. Just my opinion though. This has always bothered me and it happens here in WA all the time. I've seen super cheap small Walmart tents with 2 cheap camp chairs set up in the best camp spots for multiple weeks before season with no sign of any people there for weeks. Happens every year. Ive even seen unused and empty solo cups in the cup holders for some extra flare. Leaving it unattended like that for that long is technically an abandoned camp and as far as I'm concerned you've now littered a bunch of shit that just happened to once be camping equipment and you're now forfeiting your stuff to whoever wants to either throw it away or take it for themselves, just like any other trash found anywhere else in public. I'm not saying I personally would take someone's dummy camp and throw it away, but I wouldn't turn someone in if I saw them do it and I'd probably give them a cold beer from my cooler for their efforts. This is a big issue on public land in WA.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Also from Washington.

 

[Swamp Fox]

I am scratching my head trying to figure out the difference between leaving a camp set up to go camp somewhere else and leaving a camp set up to go back to town.

What management plan? Are hunters the only one allowed to camp? Do you have to have a purpose to camp now? Who deems the worthiness of that purpose?

Maybe we should just stick to the, you got 14 days and what you choose to do with those 14 days is up to you.

I think if you go back and re-read my previous posts you might pick up what I might have explained better. I've been trying to indicate that the land can have multiple recreational uses (hunting is only one of them).

While you're camping, whether at base camp or a spike camp (or both!), you're using your share of the resources the way a "free", shared and largely unsupervised system is designed. Everyone has a shot, first come, first served.

When you set your camp and go back to town for a few days, not only are you preventing someone else from taking that spot and that time-frame, but neither you nor he is doing any kind of critter management work the land supervisors might rely on recreational users to help with.

My guess is that this is not big an issue in the West, but if people were causing hunting time and locations to be inactive on a significant level on the other side of the river, the biologists and land managers would be getting camping rules changed double-quick.

They want hunters *on* the land, with their guns and money.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

OP, I'm glad you brought this up and are asking for opinions before deciding to do it or not. That being said, setting up a Dummy Camp for yourself a week or more before season and leaving it unattended until you come back for the opener is a D-Bag move. Just my opinion though. This has always bothered me and it happens here in WA all the time. I've seen super cheap small Walmart tents with 2 cheap camp chairs set up in the best camp spots for multiple weeks before season with no sign of any people there for weeks. Happens every year. Ive even seen unused and empty solo cups in the cup holders for some extra flare. Leaving it unattended like that for that long is technically an abandoned camp and as far as I'm concerned you've now littered a bunch of shit that just happened to once be camping equipment and you're now forfeiting your stuff to whoever wants to either throw it away or take it for themselves, just like any other trash found anywhere else in public. I'm not saying I personally would take someone's dummy camp and throw it away, but I wouldn't turn someone in if I saw them do it and I'd probably give them a cold beer from my cooler for their efforts. This is a big issue on public land in WA.

WA guys and prob ID DB’s do it in the panhandle too, I just pick up the cheap tents and chairs and take them to the dump every time. Hopefully posting about this online, which I try and do on every forum, is a deterrent for these inconsiderate DB’s of the world.