stealth camping! (shhhhhhh)

There are plenty of elaborated military techniques but for most situations:
* not speaking loud
* not going where everyone goes, at the same time everyone goes
* lighting your fire late enough
(everything the average hiker doesn't do) is good enough
 
With an ordinary camping trip, people often tend to camp in regular campsites or areas, such as flat spots near creeks or at lakes. People camped here are easy to find, for blackbears.

After seeing several cell phone bear pics and having a couple of wierd nighttime issues happen on the JMT, I went to stealth camping. This meant that I no longer overnighted at lakes or creeks. Instead, I loaded up my platypus bags and camped where noone would expect to find me, bears included. No more problems.

I'm now sold on stealth camping. I see it as a way to eliminate all kinds of unwanted attention.

If they can't find you, they can't bother you.
 
I think I also follow the same "stealth guidelines" when going solo, but with other people I'm probably car camping so that would be impossible anyways. When I'm alone in the woods, I like to stay alone - just me, my gear, and nature. If I'm with anyone else it just wouldn't work out because I would be the most experienced outdoorsman of my group of friends and getting everyone to listen would be like herding cats :p
 
Good idea about staying away from streams, etc. James Kaywaykla (member of the last generation of Warm Springs Apache children who grew up during the Apache Wars) mentioned making camp away from streambeds as one of the Apaches' methods of keeping from being found. (BTW, Kaywaykla's book, In the Days of Victorio: Recollections of a Warm Springs Apache, is an excellent read, replete with tips about how his tribe traveled, avoided capture, fought, survived, etc.) Another trick, gleaned from firsthand stories of the Pima (Akimel O'odham) tribe from south of Phoenix: set up an obvious campsite to attract the attention of enemies, then actually stay a little ways away.

Incidentally, stealth camping has advantages in the area of keeping oneself from becoming a victim of crime. Reading media coverage of sensational murders, I come across quite a number of stories of murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc. perpetrated against innocents camping in established campsites. If you look like you have a tent, sleeping bag, camping gear, etc., don't you think you'd be high on the target list for any prison escapee / fugitive from justice who happens past your campsite?

Another interesting take: Joel Hardin's book "Tracker" (Google Joel, and order directly from him--much cheaper than any other source I've found.) Joel is a retired Border Patrol agent. He has interesting vignettes about tracking, including one case in which he was called in to help locate a burglar in the Pacific Northwest who'd taken to building unobtrusive shelters and burglarizing cabins, etc. Detailed account of the guy's hideout in there.

Erasmus said:
With an ordinary camping trip, people often tend to camp in regular campsites or areas, such as flat spots near creeks or at lakes. People camped here are easy to find, for blackbears.

After seeing several cell phone bear pics and having a couple of wierd nighttime issues happen on the JMT, I went to stealth camping. This meant that I no longer overnighted at lakes or creeks. Instead, I loaded up my platypus bags and camped where noone would expect to find me, bears included. No more problems.

I'm now sold on stealth camping. I see it as a way to eliminate all kinds of unwanted attention.

If they can't find you, they can't bother you.
Click to expand...
 
Good idea about staying away from streams, etc. James Kaywaykla (member of the last generation of Warm Springs Apache children who grew up during the Apache Wars) mentioned making camp away from streambeds as one of the Apaches' methods of keeping from being found. (BTW, Kaywaykla's book, In the Days of Victorio: Recollections of a Warm Springs Apache, is an excellent read, replete with tips about how his tribe traveled, avoided capture, fought, survived, etc.) Another trick, gleaned from firsthand stories of the Pima (Akimel O'odham) tribe from south of Phoenix: set up an obvious campsite to attract the attention of enemies, then actually stay a little ways away.

Incidentally, stealth camping has advantages in the area of keeping oneself from becoming a victim of crime. Reading media coverage of sensational murders, I come across quite a number of stories of murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc. perpetrated against innocents camping in established campsites. If you look like you have a tent, sleeping bag, camping gear, etc., don't you think you'd be high on the target list for any prison escapee / fugitive from justice who happens past your campsite?

Another interesting take: Joel Hardin's book "Tracker". Joel is a retired Border Patrol agent. He has interesting vignettes about tracking, including one case in which he was called in to help locate a burglar in the Pacific Northwest who'd taken to building unobtrusive shelters and burglarizing cabins, etc. Detailed account of the guy's hideout in there.

Erasmus said:
With an ordinary camping trip, people often tend to camp in regular campsites or areas, such as flat spots near creeks or at lakes. People camped here are easy to find, for blackbears.

After seeing several cell phone bear pics and having a couple of wierd nighttime issues happen on the JMT, I went to stealth camping. This meant that I no longer overnighted at lakes or creeks. Instead, I loaded up my platypus bags and camped where noone would expect to find me, bears included. No more problems.

I'm now sold on stealth camping. I see it as a way to eliminate all kinds of unwanted attention.

If they can't find you, they can't bother you.
Click to expand...
 
And don't talk !!!
Talking is a huge give away, you generally spot groups of people minutes before you see them because they are talking, on the other hand it has happened to me to almost stumble on people that were sitting still.
Even if you do a lot of ruckus, you can stand still and let people believe it was just an animal. If you talk, any person around will know for sure there's human presence in the area.
If you really want to get unnoticed you'll have to go in hard routine which is basically avoiding everything that makes moving around easier:
* avoid roads and trails
* avoid the best/more obvious camping spots
* avoid the clean obvious water stream and go after that muddy water instead
* avoid the main mountain pass, getting a secondary more difficult one
* don't use any cabin or man made help you'll pass by
you don't need to follow a dangerous trail or anything but using the best instead of the obvious best is easy, and the third or fourth is even better.


Just try it you'll see how efficient it is, but also after a long day how difficult it is to resist the urge to not just walk down the trail and go into bushbashing instead. Requires a lot of discipline.
 
Interesting thread. I believe I'll be somewhat north of Lake Isabella for a week, sometime in the next 30 days. Zone D8's mule deer season is starting, and I'm taking off with my long suffering 40L backpack. I've currently got my eye on the Domelands Wilderness. I'll be wearing greenish earthtones, and intend to be hard to find.

After a couple of days high up in the Sierra Nevada, my 9lb .303 Enfield is going to feel like 90lbs.

SO, are the rest of you backpack hunters bothering with stealth camping?
 
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