USFS (and alikes) safety?

Where I disperse camp in NF I've never worried about my gear. They are usually so far from normal routes that thieves aren't likely to find my site. I am much more worried about leaving my gear at a trail head that is frequented by a couple dozen folks a day. Enough possibilities for a thief to score but not enough for them to be noticed while they break into a vehicle.

I try not to leave anything that can't be replaced in the vehicle or where it can be quickly found. It may be an inconvience if they break in and steal something like my laptop, but I will still be able to continue my travels. The phones, cameras, money, and credit cards are with me on the trail anyhow so there isn't much left of value in my rig anyhow.

I've boondocked and camped on BLM land a lot and always felt safe and have never had anything taken. In contrast I stayed in cabins (rental) while canoeing and had people come in snooping or casing and luckily had a guy that decided to stay back two different times that had to run off locals that came in thinking everyone was gone.

agesilaus wrote:

WE-C-USA wrote:
Never had a problem at any sites, whether organized or not. Always be aware of your site, if you're not comfortable being there, while you're there. Don't leave anything unattended.

We haven't either after 30 years of camping. But use common sense. The 'Rainbow Tribe' took over some CG in the Ocala NF. That would not be a good time to camp near there. Look around and if it doesn't look safe, leave.

And just what is the "RAINBOW TRIBE" you write about?? And why are they inherently more suspect than any one else?

I had to look up the Rainbow Tribe as I've never heard of them either.

http://www.rainbowtribe.net/

Back to the OP's question of safety in national forests... we've used them extensively - campgrounds and boondocking - in our 16 years of full-timing with not a problem.

I guess they are called the Rainbow Family not tribe:

link

For awhile they were taking over NF CG and living in them for long periods, way past the normal camping limit. The Rangers seem to have orders, at least when the we in the Ocala NF, to leave them alone. But they trash the CG, do not pick up their debris, have very poor hygiene in where they choose to eliminate wastes to be delicate about it.

We accidentally drove thru one of the Ocala NF CG when they were there and got some very threatening looks and gestures from the inhabitants. I'll describe them as hostile 'hippies' for lack of a better word.

But again this happened once to us in 30 years so it is a rare event.

We boondock as much as possible, and utilize public campgrounds whenever necessary over commercial campgrounds (we've stayed in a couple scary commercial parks over the years) and don't worry much about safety, but as noted above, you need some common sense...

The last accident I (well... my vehicle) was involved in was in a US National Forest campground. We were enjoying a nice campfire with friends when BANG! Someone not paying attention backed into my Jeep... $800 damage!

We've never felt threatened in a public campground of any type. We have felt threatened boondocking twice, once when what sounded like drunken partiers not far away (we didn't see 'em at all) started unloading their weapons the noisy way... we packed up and left!

The second time was boondocking near Quartzsite, AZ in late Spring. Most of the 14 day areas were already mostly vacant, and we parked at the extreme edge of the area as far from the road as possible. A little after sunset I heard a noise outside, but decided to ignore it as it didn't bother the dog, but a few minutes later there is a knock on the door. I was totally surprised, and glad the dog was acting like he was a trained attack dog. They guy asked for water, we gave it to him and he left... the whole time the dog barking and me holding him back.

I've never felt good about the scenario, and wonder what might have been if our 100lb dog hadn't been ready to attack.