Stuff stolen while on a hike

[Sboring35]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

Generally where I'm from and have camped most (TN, NC, GA,) you don't go near or touch a site that has anything at all at it. Still, I don't leave valuables.

We don't leave valuables either.

We have never lost a campsite..... It blows me away that somebody would set up on a site that they know is taken.

[regis101]

I don't understand the mentality. Why is this even happening? What is wrong with some people? It boggles the mind

[Kirk B]

I saw a cone used at a Canadian park campsite last year. I thought this was a pretty good idea. They had a laminated note attached to it explaining that the site was claimed but they had a van and so left no tent.

Just a couple weeks ago near Olympic National Park I had a BLM officer remove our chairs from our site (they were blocking the parking area for our site) and remove the registration tag from the site post and gave them to the camp host along with a written warning. According to the warning the site needs to be "occupied" and registering and leaving the chairs evidently was not enough occupation to satisfy the BLM. I lost my site, but at least I got my stuff back. Lesson learned, next time I will pitch my tent.

I found a tent in the trash at a campground once. It still works. I carry that with me as my "sacrificial tent". I don't mind leaving that to claim a site and will throw my chairs and table in there just to keep them out of sight.

[YoTerryh]

Originally Posted by Kirk B

Just a couple weeks ago near Olympic National Park I had a BLM officer remove our chairs from our site (they were blocking the parking area for our site) and remove the registration tag from the site post and gave them to the camp host along with a written warning. According to the warning the site needs to be "occupied" and registering and leaving the chairs evidently was not enough occupation to satisfy the BLM. I lost my site, but at least I got my stuff back. Lesson learned, next time I will pitch my tent.

This is nuts and about the most egregious example of an overzealous BLM "Officer" (?) that I've ever heard of!

[rob_gendreau]

Originally Posted by Kirk B

I saw a cone used at a Canadian park campsite last year. I thought this was a pretty good idea. They had a laminated note attached to it explaining that the site was claimed but they had a van and so left no tent.

Just a couple weeks ago near Olympic National Park I had a BLM officer remove our chairs from our site (they were blocking the parking area for our site) and remove the registration tag from the site post and gave them to the camp host along with a written warning. According to the warning the site needs to be "occupied" and registering and leaving the chairs evidently was not enough occupation to satisfy the BLM. I lost my site, but at least I got my stuff back. Lesson learned, next time I will pitch my tent.

I found a tent in the trash at a campground once. It still works. I carry that with me as my "sacrificial tent". I don't mind leaving that to claim a site and will throw my chairs and table in there just to keep them out of sight.

What nonsense. I'd send a complaint to the local BLM office. The dude is obviously a moron; that sort of payment and site marking is as common as camping.

Guess I'll have to add a note that says "hey dimwit I'm constructively occupying this site I already paid for by enjoying my public lands in my van, but leaving this note."

[Kirk B]

Originally Posted by YoTerryh

This is nuts and about the most egregious example of an overzealous BLM "Officer" (?) that I've ever heard of!

I looked at the Warning Notice that I received and I was incorrect. It was not the BLM - it was the Washington State DNR. I will share this to help inform others as it's related to this discussion. I was cited for:

"Unattended Campsite: Leaving personal property, including recreational vehicles, camping equipment, and/or other personal property is prohibited. Unattended property may be removed by DNR. Saving, holding, or reserving campsites for others is also prohibited."

The law is WAC 332-52-300:

https://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default....ite=332-52-300

It sounds crazy the way the warning is written. So you can't even leave your van to go to the bathroom??? The part about savings spots follows the law, but the part about leaving personal property is a bit off from the law. One word is missing that is in the law and it's critical: "overnight". The law says that you can't leave stuff at a site unattended overnight. We left our chairs in the same spot as the prior day and the DNR officer assumed that we were not occupying the site.... hence our trouble. He did not see that we did occupy the site at night in our van. Lesson learned - next time I will set up our sacrificial tent and make the site look more occupied rather than just saved.

[Sboring35]

Originally Posted by Kirk B

"Unattended Campsite: Leaving personal property, including recreational vehicles, camping equipment, and/or other personal property is prohibited. Unattended property may be removed by DNR. Saving, holding, or reserving campsites for others is also prohibited."

(b) Hold a reservation for the campsite for the period of occupation.

If you have a reservation how can you loose your site or your stuff?

[shenrie]

all this is such garbage. sorry you folks gotta deal with that crap. I haven't heard anything of that nature around here, but parking campers in the good spots to "reserve" them has become commonplace around here. I find it to be bs personally. unfortunately it doesn't seem to be regulated much, but I have heard stories of some peoples campers being vandalized, a few were totaled. I wont say that I haven't thought about hooking up to a few that have been in some of our favorite spots weeks on end and relocating though.


to avoid stories like you have all shared above, we take 2 pitbikes with us and explore the immediate area with those so we can leave the van in place. only stuff that really comes out of the van when we camp is a few chairs and a table. I am paranoid though. lots of nights I lock the motos up with an industrial strength cable to the hauler on the back of our van. its not cut proof by any means, but if someone does get any brilliant ideas their gonna wake us up. hopefully we never have to use any of our strategically placed boomsticks.

[MadScience]

I was a little surprised to see BLM implicated in what sounded like a rather bogus enforcement. In my experience the folks who manage to land a BLM ranger position are smart enough to see the the bigger picture and are generally quite reasonable. Glad to see that there's not obvious evidence to the contrary yet.

[86Scotty]

This is really crazy stuff. As I just read through something occurred to me. Why is this discussion happening here instead of on a typical RV site? Hear me out, it's a bit of a dig but hopefully some of you will get my drift.

The OP, Dave, who drives Vanessa (not his wife) has an awesome custom Sprinter. It's very large and very 2wd. I completely understand his plight. However, most of us drive more capable 4wd SMB's. The whole definition of one is to camp where others can't. We are self sufficient and don't need anything a camp site offers, unless you like noise, close neighbors, barking dogs, overzealous (obviously insane) officials. Rid yourself of all of this!

I've camped all over the West and what I like most is that no campground is needed. There are more free Forest Service campgrounds, hunting camps, BLM sites, etc. than I could ever camp at. I'm trying though. Actually, maybe not quite. Kristie and I spent 2.5 wonderful weeks in Colorado this summer and did use one campground. The first night out in Kansas it was 90 something and there's no off-grid camping available that isn't flooded lately. Our second formal shelter was a motel on the last night, 2 weeks later, on our way back.

Remember, SMB's are for getting away from this stuff!