Originally Posted by JimDDD

In many states in the US, stealth camping is NOT trespassing. In Massachusetts, you are NOT trespassing if you are on unimproved, unenclosed, unposted land and you leave when asked by the owner or owner's agent. This is a common law right dating back 380+ years in these parts, excercised by countless generations of fisherman, hunters and travellers.

You do not give up your rights simply because you are riding a bike instead of carrying a gun and hunting.

Here's the exact Mass law:

"PART IV. CRIMES, PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGSIN CRIMINAL CASES


TITLE I. CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS


CHAPTER 266. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY


Chapter 266: Section 120. Entry upon private property after being forbidden as trespass; prima facie evidence; penalties; arrest; tenants or occupants excepted


Section 120. Whoever, without right enters or remains in or upon the dwelling house, buildings, boats or improved or enclosed land, wharf, or pier of another, or enters or remains in a school bus, as defined in section 1 of chapter 90, after having been forbidden so to do by the person who has lawful control of said premises, whether directly or by notice posted thereon, or in violation of a court order pursuant to section thirty-four B of chapter two hundred and eight or section three or four of chapter two hundred and nine A, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days or both such fine and imprisonment. Proof that a court has given notice of such a court order to the alleged offender shall be prima facie evidence that the notice requirement of this section has been met. A person who is found committing such trespass may be arrested by a sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable or police officer and kept in custody in a convenient place, not more than twenty-four hours, Sunday excepted, until a complaint can be made against him for the offence, and he be taken upon a warrant issued upon such complaint.

This section shall not apply to tenants or occupants of residential premises who, having rightfully entered said premises at the commencement of the tenancy or occupancy, remain therein after such tenancy or occupancy has been or is alleged to have been terminated. The owner or landlord of said premises may recover possession thereof only through appropriate civil proceedings. "

Originally Posted by CCrew

Sorry, I see nowhere where that law gives you the rights you claim.

Originally Posted by valygrl

I like camping with access to drinking water and bathrooms, and I don't mind paying for them. It's a trade off, as campgrounds are usually noisy and often have some kind of unpleasantness - people, animals attracted by food, campfires, generators - but it's a trade off that I usually choose.

If I can, I'll choose a forest service campground in a nice setting over an RV park, but you don't always have that choice.

I've camped a few other places - behind a bar in South Dakota, on people's lawns a few times, in city parks a few times. I actually really dislike the city parks, I don't feel safe in them, even in very small towns. Maybe that's a factor of being female and solo. These experiences have usually been of necessity, not choice.

Originally Posted by a1rabbit

That's just plain rude. Very rude! First of all you assume people who like to actually camp somewhere that's not designated are lazy or cheap. Cheap also makes it sound like you re calling people poor, which if I wanted to do what you have could allow me to use your post to say you don't think poor people have the right to tour if they cant afford accommodations every night they don't find a campsite.

Or I could be rational.

First of all, I am cheap and I don't care. I'm cheap because I don't have the same funds as other people do, that does not mean I don't deserve to enjoy myself as much as the next guy or girl.

Originally Posted by k9power

These type of conversations must be frustrating for Native Americans.

Originally Posted by RWBlue01

If they had just killed the first white people who tried to stealth camp on their land on the east cost....they would still have their lands.

Originally Posted by Niles H.

People often ask where I spend the night when on the road. There is hardly a place you could mention where I haven't slept. I hope to make a list some day of all the different places I've stayed in. I suppose most nights have been about equally divided between (1) sleeping in my tent or hammock, (2) in the homes of people who invited me (3) in cheap hotels or (4) youth hostels in Europe, Japan and Asia. But then there were hundreds of unusual places to spend the night such as churches, mosques, temples, shrines, ruins, empty houses, on bridges, under bridges, on benches and on beaches, tables (once on a pool table) in trucks, under trucks, in cars, in trains, on buses or in bus shelters, in offices, in schools, in fire stations, with the Salvation Army, on yachts, in canoes, in pleasure houses, in villas, in the mountains, in police stations, in shacks, garages, stables, caves, prison cells, military camps, in 24-hour truck stops and even once in a telephone box. You name it, I've slept in it. I have also slept in many different body positions and the most difficult of these was "while riding the bike". Twice I have run into a ditch that way. Many nights were spent in Mr. Lees s bicycle store room in H.K. surrounded by hundreds of expensive Cannondales. I was captioning some 7,000 slides taken during travels in China and rebuilding my own bicycle.

Generally I tried to find some kind of shelter. Sometimes I have deliberately slept in unusual places in order to keep a particular spot more clear in my memory. I remember sleeping at the foot of the statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Hill in Rio de Janeiro, high above the lights of the city and waking up to a spectacular sunrise. I slept on top of the Temple of the Jaguar in Tikal, the ancient city of the Mayas in the jungles of Guatemala and over the ruins of Machu Pichu, the lost city of the Incas. In Ladakh (India) I pitched my tent at 5,200 m for 48 hours during a snow storm, but it was Tang-Lang-La Pass in the same province where I spent a night at 5,360 m (17,582 ft.) after having pushed my bicycle and gear for 3 days.

More here https://www.bikechina.com/heinzstucke2z.html (additional Heinz Stucke pages before and following that page).

Culverts.

The top floor of an unfinished skyscraper.

Treehouses.

Inside giant redwoods and sequoias.

Playhouses and tree forts.

Mining tunnels.

Caves.

Sea caves.

On the tops of boulders, in various locations, including out in the water, surrounded by water.

Underneath trees, with fragrant flowers in full bloom, on the edges of cliffs, with great views of the sunset.

Originally Posted by cyccommute

In the West we have lots of open range land. That doesn't mean that the land is 'unimproved'. This picture
is of open range. Not a fence in sight. But to get to this point, you have to cross a cattle guard and fence line behind this point and there is a cattle guard and fence line 2 or 3 miles in the distance. The road is an easement to allow traffic across this rancher's land but the land is in full use and to go off the road...for any use...is to violate his ownership of that land. It's his pasture land and the 'improvements' to it are several miles of fencing.

Originally Posted by Bander

If you are out west, most range land is public land. It is used by ranchers that have a grazing lease, but you still have the right to access public land in most cases even if a rancher has built improvements such as fences to contain his herd.

Originally Posted by benajah

I guess the reasons for or against stealth camping can be regional or country based as well. In the deep south of the US (GA, MS, SC, AL) people tend to be rather protective of their land, and if they catch you camping on it, they are very liable to shoot first and ask questions later, thinking either you are growing pot on their property, or are some sort of hobo. Whether legal or not is irrelevent.
I know many people have had very positive experiences in these states, I grew up there, and know good and well I have several relatives, and years ago probably myself included, who would go ahead and shoot at someone they caught camping on their land.
Forget about legalities, practicalities are what matter.

Originally Posted by jamawani

Not exactly.
(And I notice you are from the East coast.)

Originally Posted by k9power

I find this crazy, having lived in the South my entire life. If you would shoot someone for putting up a tent on wooded property you own you probably are not smart enough to own very much land.

Originally Posted by staehpj1

In the rural US, I typically stop in little town parks where they are available. There is often an outhouse and a picnic pavilion. Often there is running water. In the West and the plains this has worked out well. I can't say how it would work out in the east. Some of the larger town parks even have bathrooms and a pool. The bigger and more developed the park the more likely you will need to ask permission. If there is a park manager ask them, if not the local police can often help.