Boondocking safety

I agree with the earlier posts about cell phones and texting while driving. People don't realize how many are doing this coming at you on the highway. To me, that's much more of a concern than boondocking safety.

When returning from Az this spring, we stopped in a campground in Oregon miles from the highway. It was completely unlit and not a sole in it except for a camp host. Large overhanging trees and total darkness when we arrived made it seem like the spooky "Sleepy Hollow". After we parked for the night I looked out the window and saw a unit right behind us. I thought why the he** would anyone park so close and felt a little concerned. The next morning we awoke to discover the unit was a dumpster right across the road from us that we had not noticed when choosing our site. Made us laugh at how our imaginations do stupid things when it's dark.

I've just wasted 10 minutes of what's left reading all this doggerel. Too much speculation, fear mongering and position defending.
Safety while boondocking is a conscious decision based on awareness and experience. Only an infinitesimal amount will be left to chance. Not enough to worry about. You need a good sniffer. If ANYTHING does not look right, move on. We leave nothing outside the TC when staying overnight in the boonies. We have had a couple bad experiences while camping, both on named Jeep trails in the Sierra Nevada: The Rubicon and Barrett Lake Trail. Both had to do with too much liquor involved and those barrels of testosterone on the loose from those low-paying, mindless, big city jobs. This got so out of hand that Barrett was closed recently to all vehicles. Yet another negative sign is lots of large caliber spent brass in the dirt.
We try always to swim upstream while the masses are swimming downstream and visa versa. This is why we have an XTC to avoid the madding crowds by getting far, far away from pavement. It's good to have a 'gatekeeper' when going off-pavement. The road surface below cuts out a lot of the madding crowd:

In the city, with the blinds drawn and the lights off it just looks like no one is home, especially at the curb in an area where no one has a high ownership of the adjacent property. (learned this from one of my mentors, Tioga George) The Mexicans didn't mind:

Choose well my friends, choose well.
regards, as always, jefe

bucky wrote:
I think somebody was into the "shrooms" back in 1990. Also, Desertboy if you ever get to the eastern shore of MD I have 2 men who will take money for getting sprayed and videoed. One begged a LEO friend to taze him. The other one took pepper spray to the face and then licked the rag he wiped his face with. For money. The taze guy was going to do it for free just for the thrill. There isn't enough to do around here in the off season evidently.

Not a snowballs chance of me getting to the eastern shore so I should be safe.

We've been on the road for a month now in the western U.S. heading to Canada for the summer. We have had nothing but great boondocking experiences in national forests, BLM, and other sites we have found on FreeCampSites.com. We stayed outside the Grand Canyon in the forest, it was the best site ever. We plan on boondocking the rest of the summer as much as possible.

We do lots of dry camping, in national parks and forest campgrounds
We seldom boon dock where there is nobody for miles around
We do Dry camp in empty/near empty forest campgrounds
Saturday night to close to town, is the when and where of the party crowd

I think somebody was into the "shrooms" back in 1990. Also, Desertboy if you ever get to the eastern shore of MD I have 2 men who will take money for getting sprayed and videoed. One begged a LEO friend to taze him. The other one took pepper spray to the face and then licked the rag he wiped his face with. For money. The taze guy was going to do it for free just for the thrill. There isn't enough to do around here in the off season evidently.

I just realized there is another technique that we use for selecting a safe boondocking site -- when we are scouting campsites in any given area, we take note of the amount of trash on the ground. If there is a lot of trash (especially beer cans), we tend to move away as far as we can, not only because it is unsightly but also because the trash indicates that this particular site is popular with noisy party people. The same with discarded diapers, believe it or not. (Do other parts of the country have a problem with diapers, or is it just Southern California? And what is it with all of these beer-drinking infants, anyway -- if you are drinking so much beer that you have to wear a diaper, maybe you should cut back on the beer?)

If a site is very clean, it means either that people seldom go there, or that it is frequented by more responsible campers. or that it has been picked clean by recyclers. Either way, it's a winner!

Good to ask at the nearest knowledgeable source. Conditions can change quickly.

1. Maps.

If boondocking on public lands, definitely check with the nearest ranger station/visitor station/etc. They will tell you what areas might be noisy, crowded, etc. (ATV, hunting, wildlife, brush burning, etc.). May have to dance around a bit or read between the lines.

Some rangers have been very helpful, and suggest avoiding certain party areas. Other rangers may be having a bad day, and may have to revisit station for someone else.

Sometimes have free maps, trail maps, etc.

2. Permits.
Some areas may require free permits or gate access combos. Also good to find out any different or new rules for area.

3. Road Conditions.
Also, like to ask about road conditions and open-ended anything else I should know.

Never too enthused about seeing information wanted posters re recent murders in the ranger district.

Only problems we have encountered are in regular campgrounds located within an hours drive of a town. The local youth can take a short drive and raise hell without worrying about the cops.

If I see a choice of camping areas I will pick the one furthest from town.

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