The Perils of Guerilla Camping

[markk53]

Originally Posted by Okie Preacher

Brother... I don't know what you would call it, but that ain't camping.

It could fall under the Guerilla camping header. A friend who was in VietNam recounted doing pretty much a similar thing when on patrol, which he did a lot - like three months at a time and three days back. They would go back in the brush or whatever, well off the trail, flatten a round area, tie their boot lace to the guy on either side of them, then go to sleep. Why the boot lace? They could silently wake each other up with the tug of a foot. He was in some bad ass territory.

[Frostback]

OK Markk53, I;ll bite.

You wrote of Viet Nam vets sleeping out while on patrol in enemy territory who would would

" tie their boot lace to the guy on either side of them, then go to sleep.

Ummm - if I was an enemy soldier happening upon such a group I would be somewhat delighted. One shot then watch them all stand up, fall down, stand up, fall down.

This sounds as non-intuitive as a seatbelt on a motorcycle. If they wanted to silently awaken each other, how about the good ole' poke in the ribs?

Are you sure he wasn't pulling your leg . . . with a long boot lace?

Having said that, I have been so jet lagged in Heathrow that I put a strap from my computer case through my belt loop while napping on the benches. I did not get shot either.

Lee

[MotorradMike]

I guerilla camp more often than not. I used to call it "renegade" camping 'til I read the real name here.
In Canada, we can camp free on crown land, which is not everywhere but there's still lots.

I've never had an "Adventure" but got moved out by cows once.

What I do:
Get off the main road.
Find another road off that road.
Find an 'out of sight' place to park and pitch the tent.
Make damn sure you're not on a trail.

My rules:
Don't camp in a business.
Don't light a fire.
Don't go through a gate.
Move on if there's a private property sign.

[Rainshadow]

I've been a guerilla camper since way back. I love doing it and have been lucky to have some fun adventures and have yet to get shived.

Slept behind what I thought was an abandoned gas station just outside of Rijeka, Croatia (then still part of Yugoslavia) in 1985 when I was trying to hitchhike to Dubrovnik from Trieste. I was stuck in the pouring rain after having been passed by a hundred Volvos with roof racks loaded with windsurfing boards and full of giggling gorgeous Swedes and Danes (I still hold a grudge).

Imagine my surprise when the owners of said fully operational gas station found me snoozing amongst their used solvent drums behind the shop. I'd just spent the last couple of terms studying in what is now the former Soviet Union so I figured that I'd regal them with my knowledge of Russian since it was the Eastern Block (at least to an 19 year old American it was). They laughed and asked in just about perfect English if I was an American. I somewhat disappointedly replied "I guess so". They told me never to utter another word of Russian in Yugoslavia or to admit, under threat of dismemberment, that I'd set foot there as people were just as likely to slit my throat as they were give me the time of day as they were not all that happy with their big "ally" to the east. After we got that out of the way they made me coffee, tossed me a couple of rolls, helped me get a ride straight through to Dubrovnik.

After spending too many days chasing those same gorgeous Swedes and Danes around Dubrovnik and Split in a quest to extract my revenge for leaving me in the cold by playing drinking games with their unsuspecting womenfolk, I meandered back through the rest of the continent where I eventually got stuck again north of London at a rest area on the M1 or M6 (can't remember due to the loss of brain cells at the hands of those evil Swedish and Danish girls who were way more skilled at drinking games than I). Managed to beg a ride in the back of a carpet van straight into London after about 12 hours pleading as I had a flight home the next day.

The carpet van driver dropped me off in a sketchy neighborhood on the north end where his warehouse was. I was wiped out and was going to sleep on a bus stop bench which he advised against because of the real possibility of waking up naked, penniless and dead. He lead me to a nearby bus storage yard where he showed me how to use the emergency door bleed valve (disguised as a petrol cap) on the municipal buses to open the doors so that I could get up on the upper deck for some undisturbed nappy time. It was perfect until the buses on either side of me pulled out about 2 hours later and I had to come barreling down the stairs and out of the yard with my backpack and blanket in my arms while the driver that was just starting the bus I'd been snoozing on screamed something that I assumed to have been "Have a nice day young man!", but the with his accent and a mouthful of roll made it sound more like "Get off my F-ing bus you piece of F-ing good for nothing Shite!"

Ah...good times. Lots more stories like that here in the states

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by markk53

It could fall under the Guerilla camping header. A friend who was in VietNam recounted doing pretty much a similar thing when on patrol, which he did a lot - like three months at a time and three days back. They would go back in the brush or whatever, well off the trail, flatten a round area, tie their boot lace to the guy on either side of them, then go to sleep. Why the boot lace? They could silently wake each other up with the tug of a foot. He was in some bad ass territory.

You're friend was pulling your leg, or FOS. Dismounts in a base camp or assembly area don't dig in and sleep elbow to elbow. They disperse in buddy pairs in a wide rough circle or triangle so that a single burst or mortar round won't do much damage.

[Jamie Z]

Originally Posted by Rainshadow

Ah...good times. Lots more stories like that here in the states

You're a great storyteller.

Jamie

[señormoto]

Originally Posted by Tuna Helper

I've only "camped" once, I was riding to Beaufort SC to visit a bud in the Marines. I was somewhere in Tennessee when I decided to stop for the night. Having little money, I rode deep into some national forest where I stuck my key in my sock and slept in the grass. Nothing happened during the night, and I woke up in the morning covered in dew, cold and sore from no mattress, blanket, or pillow.

I used to do a lot of mountaineering in the winter. Ice climbing and such. Traveled very light. A couple of time I found myself in 0-10 degree F at night in a storm with high winds; sleeping with only a bivy sack in the snow and my shell gear and fleece layers. Another time I was out ice climbing with friends and we setup our tent near the frozen falls. It stormed that night very heavily and when we woke up and dug out the door to the tent we found the tent was under 5 feet of snow. Foolishly we left out boots outside of the tent before going to sleep. There's nothing quite like trying to put on rock solid frozen boots at 6am to go climb some ice.

I also used to do a lot of early morning road biking - ride big passes in the tahoe and markleeville area (death ride training) and would drive out to the base of the passes at night and park off the road, then lay out a thermarest and my sleeping bag and crash out until 5am. A couple of times I was woken up by cops shining flashlights in my face, demanding "what are you doing?" and then asking if I'd been drinking or on drugs. "no officer, I'm sleeping. going to go ride 50 miles uphill 3-4000 feet tomorrow morning... see the race bike on the roof rack there?" Jeez. Cops.

[Bill 310]

In the Iron Butt Association we call it staying at the Iron Butt Motel

We even have a T-Shirt

http://www.ibaestore.com/products.as...CategoryID=50&


On longer rides/rallies sleep is important and often it seems when you need to sleep you can't find a place or it is too expensive/out of the way. Though once I spent 5 1/2 hours here

http://www.ambassadormilwaukee.com/

When you are wet, cold, and need food, clothes dried and everything to work smoothly, a great hotel and tossing mulitple 20's around like a drunk in a whorehouse always works. A ggo Pal of mine became a legend when in the IBR she stayed in a spa in NAPA for a rest bonus

Some hints

Need a morning sleep if you have been riding all night?

Find a motel with a big parking lot .

Enter away from the lobby/ away from front desk

Walk around and find a tired harried looking cleaning lady. Tell her you are on a budget, have ridden all night and need three hours sleep.Ask here if there is a dirty room that has an unmade bed in it that you an use.

Hold up a $20.00 ask her to wake you in 3 hours.

Get soap and shampoo from her cart. S&S, set your screaming meanie for 2 1/2 hours, sleep in your gear on the unmade bed, hang out the DND sign and be gone when she comes back.. I first started doing this in small towns in the east. If you time it right there is often still free breakfast. They have no clue at the front desk - someone else worked the night. Always give the lady in the kitchen for a tip -they are paid shit and she will really make sure you have food for the road. A few of the instant oatmeals, a cardboard bowl. plastic spoon and three bananas makes a nice lunch . Hot water is always free if you ask nicely at the gas station. Ask them for a cup of it- it is bad form to make the oatmeal up in the store. Bikes with centre stands make meal prep easier.

When the motel is , dark and the no vacancy sign is on. Park in the lot by the door and go sleep in a lounger by the pool. Again set your screaming Meanie

Highway rest stops. The ones with the Free Coffee. Park near them and go up to them and say Hi I am to tired to ride anymore. Here is $5.00 for your fund raising can I ask you to watch my Motorcycle and me while I sleep over there on that table . I will set my alarm for 2 hours if I don' wake up please wake me, I will have my free coffee then. Never been refused/ I have often ben invited into to sleep in their back room on a cot.

In one IBR a rider was sleeping in a field and woke to the combine/thresher running down beside him.

If there is a security guy or a police officer in the rest area do the same thing I have never been refused. Once a fellow came over to me on !-90 in WA State and told me I shouldn't sleep there because it was on the drug mule trail.

He and his wife (I assumed) saw that I looked really tired and he said OK we can watch you for 45 minutes will that be enough time for you to get a recharge? I said yes and set my meanie. When I woke up they were still there, I thanked him and they then showed me their badges (DEA). I guess they weren't married

[jeepinbanditrider]

A ggo Pal of mine became a legend when in the IBR she stayed in a spa in NAPA for a rest bonus

Was that Ms. Crockett in 07?

[Bill 310]

Originally Posted by jeepinbanditrider

Was that Ms. Crockett in 07?

Rebecca, who is a mod here

[Mambo Dave]

Originally Posted by markk53

It could fall under the Guerilla camping header. A friend who was in VietNam recounted doing pretty much a similar thing when on patrol, which he did a lot - like three months at a time and three days back. They would go back in the brush or whatever, well off the trail, flatten a round area, tie their boot lace to the guy on either side of them, then go to sleep. Why the boot lace? They could silently wake each other up with the tug of a foot. He was in some bad ass territory.

I believe it. Not for a whole group, but in pairs and sometimes three's.

You try to wake a Vietnam combat soldier up from shaking or a push to the upper body and you're asking for a fist-swing before they're even awake, and excited movements while they are waking up.

I'm no Vietnam vet, but even I used to ask to be wakened by tapping or shaking my foot by co-workers when I used to work 24-hour shifts in EMS. It's just safer for them.

One thing I've learned about real life - internet posters who say "it never happened that way" who weren't there are normally always wrong.

----------

One thing I've been worried about for upcoming planned long-trips and guerrilla camping is fire ants. WIthout having to set up a tent, but most-likely using a sleeping bag, does any southerner have tips on what to do to a ground-area to prep it for sleeping?

[univibe88]

Originally Posted by Bill 310

I
He and his wife (I assumed) saw that I looked really tired and he said OK we can watch you for 45 minutes will that be enough time for you to get a recharge? I said yes and set my meanie. When I woke up they were still there, I thanked him and they then showed me their badges (DEA). I guess they weren't married

[jeepinbanditrider]

Originally Posted by Mambo Dave

I believe it. Not for a whole group, but in pairs and sometimes three's.

You try to wake a Vietnam combat soldier up from shaking or a push to the upper body and you're asking for a fist-swing before they're even awake, and excited movements while they are waking up.

I'm no Vietnam vet, but even I used to ask to be wakened by tapping or shaking my foot by co-workers when I used to work 24-hour shifts in EMS. It's just safer for them.

One thing I've learned about real life - internet posters who say "it never happened that way" who weren't there are normally always wrong.

----------

One thing I've been worried about for upcoming planned long-trips and guerrilla camping is fire ants. WIthout having to set up a tent, but most-likely using a sleeping bag, does any southerner have tips on what to do to a ground-area to prep it for sleeping?

Don't know how effective it is but I spray the area around my bag and sleeping pad with OFF then mist my sleeping bag with a little let it air out for a bit before I go to sleep then head off to bed.

What I really worry about during the warmer months is snakes making a home right next to my 98 degree sleeping self lol.

They do make a lot of low cost bivy tents (google that youll find lots o examples) that work great for simply keeping bugs off of you that have full mesh walls with a rainfly just in case. Just big enough for you a pair of boots and a tiny bit of head room. :)


Sent from my iPhone

[smrchief]

On a ride south via the coast in 1980 we arrived at a campground in northern CA after they had locked the front gate. We parked the bikes by the booth and walked out into an adjacent field with our bedrolls and passed out. The next morning we awake to find ourselves to be completely surrounded by a herd of grazing Elk! The ranger was amused as he watched us very slowly pick up our stuff and make our way over to the bikes. He then began to chastise us and tell us what could have transpired had the herd not being busy having breakfast.

Another time we were riding east from LA, stopped in Lodi, and after "too much fun" at the local watering hole decided to just pull off the road between town and the highway to "crash" in the underbrush. About 4 am all hell broke loose! We heard a violent collision of sorts followed by screaming, sirens and all kinds of confusion. Turns out we had "crashed" very close to the railway. A train had derailed about 20 yards from where we were sleeping! We considered ourselves fortunate that the train fell off the tracks on the opposite side from where we were sleeping.

[NJ-GS]

There are a few threads in this forum on "stealth" or "low budget" camping. Here are a few:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...=662783&page=6

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=742163

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=548217

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=712944

Some of the posts are pretty funny. If I recall correctly, Jamie Z is somewhat of an expert in this area.