Ghost camp

[kirkl]

My question to some of you is what are/is your basics of calling a ghost camp.  (I know this camp is obvious). But many times maybe they aren’t.   I have a lean camp.  I might be gone by 3am back at 10pm.  I don’t have stuff out. I don’t want it stolen or rained on. You might only see a tent and if I am really getting fancy, a woodpile.  You’d have to unzip my tent to see what is in it.   Would you go that far?   Then there are occasions I coyote out.  Is that illegal because I left my basecamp for more than 24 hours?  It’s really sad when most of my trip out I am worried about how I am going to find my camp when I return.  It’s bad enough the meth heads, but regular outdoorsman as well.....  curious?

Again, I'm not going to take down anyone's camp. A ghost camp is anything unattended for more than 24 hours. If it's a tent with a chair and nothing else, it's a ghost camp. The LE can make a determination of what they find when they come to look at it.

So are these spots your thinking about camping in or do you just drive around looking for ghost camps to call the LE on?

[pianoman9701]

My question to some of you is what are/is your basics of calling a ghost camp.  (I know this camp is obvious). But many times maybe they aren’t.   I have a lean camp.  I might be gone by 3am back at 10pm.  I don’t have stuff out. I don’t want it stolen or rained on. You might only see a tent and if I am really getting fancy, a woodpile.  You’d have to unzip my tent to see what is in it.   Would you go that far?   Then there are occasions I coyote out.  Is that illegal because I left my basecamp for more than 24 hours?  It’s really sad when most of my trip out I am worried about how I am going to find my camp when I return.  It’s bad enough the meth heads, but regular outdoorsman as well.....  curious?

Again, I'm not going to take down anyone's camp. A ghost camp is anything unattended for more than 24 hours. If it's a tent with a chair and nothing else, it's a ghost camp. The LE can make a determination of what they find when they come to look at it.

So are these spots your thinking about camping in or do you just drive around looking for ghost camps to call the LE on?

I'm fine with having an intelligent discussion with someone who disagrees with my viewpoint. I'm not going to trade barbs with someone throwing insults. Go troll somewhere else.

[kirkl]

I'm asking a question cause I think it's pretty sad you keep bringing up the 24 hour rule, so if a guy who's camping by himself has to run home for a couple days, then with your logic he needs to completely pack up camp and you'll be calling LE

[Fl0und3rz]

Don't like the rule?  Change the rule. I would pack up.

[Okanagan]

My question to some of you is what are/is your basics of calling a ghost camp.  (I know this camp is obvious). But many times maybe they aren’t.   I have a lean camp.  I might be gone by 3am back at 10pm.  I don’t have stuff out. I don’t want it stolen or rained on. You might only see a tent and if I am really getting fancy, a woodpile.  You’d have to unzip my tent to see what is in it.   Would you go that far?   Then there are occasions I coyote out.  Is that illegal because I left my basecamp for more than 24 hours?  It’s really sad when most of my trip out I am worried about how I am going to find my camp when I return.  It’s bad enough the meth heads, but regular outdoorsman as well.....  curious?

Big ditto to this concern ^^

On backpack hunts we/I usually leave food and a sleeping bag in our vehicle if we leave it at the trailhead.  That way I can hunt down to the vehicle, stay over night and hunt back up to my backpack camp, which by then has been left more than 24 hours unoccupied.  I may hunt lower country and sleep at my vehicle/base camp for more than one night.   If I have a base camp near the road, then it is left unoccupied for more than 24 hours, sometimes for several days.  That arrangement also lets me take out a pack load of meat only and not carry sleeping/eating gear because I have it at each end.  We tend to do that overnight round trip when solo or doing long pack outs.

I've only been doing this kind of thing for 50 years and now I find that such backcountry safety prudence is illegal???  Ditto for coyoteing out some nights, sans sleeping bag, and if so may be gone for two days from my spike camp.  In such situations, when you are tired and in bad weather, finding a snug dry camp intact as I left it is more important than merely pleasant.

Re trailheads:  I now hate to leave a vehicle at a trailhead after seeing some vandalized and several broken into.  I'd rather be dropped off and either cache some stuff in hiding or leave a minimal camp with as little as possible worth stealing.  Ghost camp?


 

[kirkl]

We'll okanagan, according to some on this site you can't do that. Better get back every night or pack your stuff up or get the rule changed lol

[Skyvalhunter]

Those that are so concerned about someone's stash or how long they leave their camp out there need to get a life.

[kselkhunter]

One other thing to keep in mind regarding what appears to be an unoccupied camp.  Some of us hunt all day.  I hike out in the dark, and return to camp in the dark.  Anybody that happens by my tent during the day would never see me there.

Just something to think about regarding a tent you never see anybody at during daylight hours.......

[pianoman9701]

I'm asking a question cause I think it's pretty sad you keep bringing up the 24 hour rule, so if a guy who's camping by himself has to run home for a couple days, then with your logic he needs to completely pack up camp and you'll be calling LE

So back to your barb; I don't go looking for ghost camps so I can run to the cops. I try to be a pretty fair person on the forum here and in the woods, I've learned to be more humble and grateful for my fellow hunters, and I've learned to give way even when it's been clearly my right to tell someone to "buzz" off. When someone smudges my character with an offhand comment, as I thought you had with your previous post, it gets under my saddle blanket a bit.

I've come upon two now that were clearly not base camps and were set up to take up whole campsites, one that could fit 10-12 people, places we'd scouted out, cleaned up, and planned to camp. They were "saved" with $25 Walmart tents with a $10 plastic chair. In one case, we left the tent and chair undisturbed and without reporting it. In the entire 10-day hunt, no one showed up to take it away or claim it. We took it out of the woods at the end of our hunt and brought it to the GPNF headquarters here in Vancouver, in case someone was looking for it. I thought 10 days was enough but maybe you think I was being a jerk. I don't really care. In the second instance, I called GPNF and the ranger showed up that afternoon and took down the tent without a word from us other than "There it is. What do you think?" He thought it was clearly left there days prior in an attempt to hold the spot.

This year, we'd cleaned out a campsite and someone was there when we got up there for the season. Neither of us had a problem with it and we had discussed our options ahead of time for that contingency. This ISN'T about being a tattle-tail, thinking I own the woods, or wanting to destroy someone else's hunt. This is about the rules for camping and fairness, for other hunters AND me. I get that you don't agree. That's what makes the world go 'round. Have a nice day.

[Rainier10]

Personally I just move on.   The world is big enough to let the ephrata boys have their fun.   I guess I live in Yakima country and am used to ghost camps.   No, I don’t like them, but....

Just realized the sign in front of the tent said "ephrata boys".    I was thinking you were taking a shot at ephrata.

[pianoman9701]

One other thing to keep in mind regarding what appears to be an unoccupied camp.  Some of us hunt all day.  I hike out in the dark, and return to camp in the dark.  Anybody that happens by my tent during the day would never see me there.

Just something to think about regarding a tent you never see anybody at during daylight hours.......

First, that wouldn't be 24 hours. Secondly, your tent wouldn't be empty and would look like it was being used.

[pianoman9701]

We'll okanagan, according to some on this site you can't do that. Better get back every night or pack your stuff up or get the rule changed lol

Your comment again is inappropriate and disrespectful. If you're too immature to engage in respectful dialogue with people who don't agree with you, then don't engage. But don't call people names. It's against forum rules.

[pianoman9701]

I suggest people forget the purpose of this forum is a gathering of ideas and knowledge. This thread, to me, has become a bashing room, much like when liberals can't stand to hear an opposing view. When you run out of ideas, you turn to insults. That's BS and I'm out.

[Rainier10]

Cleaned up the name calling.

A healthy debate on the subject is encouraged.  Don't let this spiral into name calling.

[Colville]

Go back to the OP.  This subject almost never comes up about spike camps for one small tent with gear that a hunter goes to and from.  This is about high and heavy use areas that are easily driven to and access popular public land.  The spots are frequently very high demand and someone is trying to grab not a share, but more than their share.

I don't know anyone who ever thought anything about a tent that was off trail in some basin unoccupied no matter the length during deer season. These disputes are almost always about very high demand camp sites, on roads in high hunter density areas.  When that happens and when someone tries to play the "dibbs" game, especially for a larger chunk of dirt one tent wouldn't require, people get bent. And should.  We don't need to deflect into the rare case in order to defend the usual case.  This isn't really about Pack hunters and their small and efficient base camps.