Originally Posted by cyccommute
Some things to know about stealth camping in the State of Colorado (and a few other states as well). Land owners here don't have to post no trepassing signs nor do they even have to place any designation as to their property lines. As someone using of the outdoors, it's your responsibility to know where their property starts and ends (I know it sucks but that's the law). If you are caught on someone's property illegally, they can't shoot you. Not that they won't threaten but they can't legally kill you for going on their property. However, they can call local law enforcement and you
will be required to appear before a judge. That could be quite a ways away depending on where you might be. Also, if it's a Friday, you won't be seen before the judge before Monday or Tuesday (if you are counting that's 5 days
) Meanwhile your stuff may still be out in the woods...your bike, tent, camping gear, etc. Then, after you've seen the judge, the local constable may not be helpful enough to take you back out to your gear. And, if you happen to get a ride back out to your gear, you'll have to get permission to retrieve it from that landowner...and they may not be inclined to let you get it back...if it's still there.
Now, lets look at this logically, your camping somewhere and a guy comes up to you, and says, something to the effect that your trespassing. You tell them you are sorry and didn't realize it was private property, and offer to clear out immediately. You start packing up, not to many people will push the issue, some might even offer to let you stay, as long as you don't leave a mess, and clear out first thing in the morning. If the person has a police officer in tow, the officer is going to suggest that the property owner accept the offer that you made to leave. The officer isn't being nice to you, if they arrest you, they know that when you go before a judge, and state that you offered to leave, the judge is going to toss the case, and probably give the officer crap, for wasting his/her time. I think the problem most people have with campers, is when you get people who leave a mess, however if the occasional camper comes by, and leaves no trace that they were there, few people would really mind.
One of the issues with camping, if your doing a lot of stealth camping, you should plan your route better, to hit campgrounds more often. I found an interesting website,
Campsource.ca they list some 4000+ campgrounds in Canada, and include contact info. One of the online mapping services like
Google Maps, can be handy for route planning as well. If you know that you can cover 150km a day, then you probably want to plan on finding a site beyond 120km, so where does that leave you, probably near a town or city, so Google the name of the city, with camping, and see what comes up.
When you do stealth camp, the general idea, is to leave no evidence of your visit, that means no fires, no garbage, pack out you toilet or bury it in such a way that it can not be detected, be careful to place tents and equipment where they don't destroy vegetation, if everyone did this, then people wouldn't care if people camped in the far corner of the back 40.