Items stolen out of camp?

[SAR-EMT40]

Here is a two parter. First part, do you "break camp" when day hiking by packing up your stuff and stashing it? Part two, have you ever had your stuff stolen if you have left your camp set up and have left camp for a few/several hours? I am not talking about an established campsites like rocky branch or 13 falls. I am talking more about trailside camping.

Keith

 

[Waumbek]

Ditto cantdog except that I carry only enough food to last me until I could get out to a trailhead as well as the basic survival stuff for the dayhike--first aid, compass, headlamp, you know the drill. The rest of the food I hang out of sight and hopefully a bear's reach (haha) near the campsite.

I've never had anything stolen in 30 years of backpacking.

For the poll, I'm going to check the first one.

 

[Pete_Hickey]

Depends... If the campsite is less than half of a mile from a road, and it is a well known camping area, I worry a bit more than if it is several miles into the woods..... so much so, that I rarely camp within half a mile of the road if I'm planning on being there past 6:00AM the next day.

 

[Guinness]

I must agree with Pete, if the campground is close enough to a road and well known enough, it won't see me. In the back country I have always left my gear stored away in the tent or lean-to.

Over the past couple of years I have used many DEC campgrounds or at the Loj. I am always worried I will come back to a stripped site.

 

[jbrown]

I've only had to establish my own campsite off-trail a couple of times and didn't use it as a base for dayhiking. I have, however left my belongings in a leanto many times while off peak bagging for the day.

I was very encouraged and amused when friends and I were leaving one of the leantos on Flowed lands (Calamity Brook?) heading off to hike Marshall. We were packed up so we could pick up our packs after a day hike and hike out to Upper Works. A couple of guys came in at that moment and asked if we were going to be leaving. When getting a reply to the affirmative with the explanation that we were hiking that day, they proceeded to dump their stuff in the leanto and go off on their own day hike. I remember looking at the Dana Designs pack that one guy left in the leanto thinking, "Man, that's a nice pack." Then thinking how great it was that he trusted his fellow hikers enough to leave such a great pack to take care of itself.

I've never had anything stolen, and I've never stolen anything. Those guys left me with a sort of comfort for leaving my stuff unattended in the "backcountry." Trailheads and parking lots are another story...

 

[dougb]

I've never worried in back country, but closer than a mile or so to a road, everything gets left and locked in the car - if I camp there at all.

 

[ghassert]

I voted for the first one. I always leave almost everything in my tent except my ID and whatever is needed for the day. Food goes in either a bear canister or gets hung.

That being said, my buddy and I hiked the Great Gulf widerness the first week of June this year. While getting ready in the parking lot, a couple came out of the woods to their car. When we asked them about the conditions of the trail, they told us that their stove had been stolen the day before while they were doing a day hike and they were camped all the way up by the Wamsutta trail. This was the first time that I had ever heard of anything being stolen from a camp site and that one is many miles up the GG trail.

 

[Pucknuts61]

Many many years ago at the old Franconia Brook campsite, my hiking buddy Brownie and I had our packs stolen at night. Fortunately there was a ranger staion right there and he called in to the Lincoln police, who in turn caught the 2 punks trying to hitchhike out of the area. They had thrown some of our stuff out along the way but the big ticket gear like our tent and sleeping bags were fine because we were in them. It was only a pain carrying the stuff out in our arms, but there was an officer waiting for us at the trailhead so we could get to the station to recover our packs and what was left. I don't remember the outcome but I do remember that we received some $$ months later but not even enough to come close to the gear and clothes we lost.

 

[Artex]

Stealing in general is obviously very wrong, but stealing from someone's campsite, especially if in the backcountry is sacrilidge. May they die a thousand painful deaths.

 

[Warren]

Never worry about it away from highly used close to trailhead areas. But I do prefer out of the way not used bivy sites so sometime the concern is not will someone find my stuff but can I find my stuff again.

 

[jbreen]

When leaving my stuff behind, I always remember that chapter in A Walk in the Woods when Katz took someones bootlaces because they they made Bryson and himself uncomfortable enough to leave the leanto at night.

 

[KayakDan]

Never had anything stolen from a campsite. Since we are usually only camping in snow in the Whites,I figure nobody is ambitious enough to want to haul our gear out a couple of miles. I think it's a different type of group in the winter,less likelyhood of the "predator" type. We have left gear at Osgood platforms,and other places in spring or fall,without a problem also.
We often leave stuff at island campsites in Maine,without a problem.
Car camping sites-lock it up!
I would like to think that there is an unwritten moral code among "serious" outside enthusiasts....on the other hand,maybe I'm delusional!

 

[BorealChickadee]

I've never had anything stolen, anywhere.

Car camping next to a road-I lock up anything valuable and may or may not leave the tent up depending on the area. South Meadow -no,I won't leave it up Moose River Plains -yes, i"ll leave it up

Back in the woods- leave everything except for wallet, camera, GPS and meds

Acadia- same as back in the woods

But no matter where I am I tend to put easily pilferable items such as a good flashlight, or small cook stove out of sight, not particularly well hidden but just not sitting out in front. I tend to think most larceny is opportunistic. Kind of like magpies, some people are attracted to shiny objects.

 

[jfb]

At a backcountry site, I usually keep wallet, car keys and the stuff I need for the dayhike with me and leave the rest. Never had anything stolen. If the site was crowded, I might leave the tent, pad and bag then pack up the rest and hide the pack somewhere nearby. Best of all is to find a site that's not visible from a trail. I worry more about my car getting broken into at the trailhead.

 

[twigeater]

I selected #1, but then I'm a very trusting person - and I've never had anything stolen.

I drop my full pack beside the trail to hike a side trail, and I've handed my car keys over to someone I chatted with on the trail, then as I was walking off, said "hey, what's your name anyway!" (we are good friends to this day, and still laugh about it)

Another time a friend of mine put the kibosh on a key swap with strangers on Doubletop - they were doing an up and over with the idea that it was a 2 mile road walk back to Kidney Pond. I told them it was more like 10 miles, but I had yet to do the hike up and over and was excited at the prospect...
As we were discussing the key swap (I think they had theirs with them, mine were hanging in the lean-to) my friend kept saying kinda under her breath "but my pocketbook is in the car"
bewildered, I replied, "well, they can put it in the back"

LOL...finally she stood in front of me and got her message across, I ended up driving them back to Kidney Pond. Funny thing is, they had a Mercedes...

 

[mudhook51]

I've never had anything taken while backpacking , but once, a long time ago, while hiking in the Redwoods in Ca., we stayed in an out of the way car campsite for the showers one night , and were acused by the car campers of robbing them. Everthing from coolers to stoves. The park rangers actually searched our packs. Luckly for us the real culprits were caught with a truck load of stuff down the coast. I've never stayed in a car camping area again with out a car. And never figured out where we were supposed to put all that stuff.

 

[Head]

When I was doing multiday stints in the backcountry, call me paranoid, but I picked 3...I've had a few friends that lost some expensive gear from their packs. I just dont like to 'invite' people to take stuff by leaving it out in the open for all to see. (I dont really worry too much about it anymore...most of my hikes are day hikes )

 

[bobmak]

I only hike in the fall, spring and winter, and always camp away from roads. The dog, camera, money, car key and ID come with me, food gets stashed, everything else gets left in the tent. I have never had anything stolen from site in 27 years of hiking, but I have had several cars broken into at trail heads.

 

[1ADAM12]

I have never had a problem but i always camp several miles into the wilderness.