I rode a Surly LHT from Key West, Fl up to the Great Lakes and west to California then back home to New Mexico a few years ago. I was on the road for a little over 7 months and stealth camped in a tent each night. Yes, it can be done but the ease with which you can do it depends on the US region you find yourself in at any given moment. The east coast and eastern woodlands extending west to central Missouri were the easiest. Lots of unfenced woods at the side of the road in which to hide. The Midwest extending to New Mexico was the most difficult. No woodlands to hide in and extremely rare is a piece of property that doesn't have a barbed wire fence around it. Do not climb fences to camp. Only camp on land that is not fenced. Otherwise, if you are caught, you lose all deniability of knowing you were on private property. I was told to "move along" by cops three or four times at the early stages of my trip before I wised up to the fact that any "citizen" driving by who happens to see you from the road camping is going to pull out a cell phone and call the cops. We live in a culture of do-gooder anonymous snitches. So make sure no one sees you leaving the shoulder of the road to enter the treeline and go deep enough into the trees that your tent can't be seen from the road. Once I entered the Midwest and cattle country it became virtually impossible to find unfenced land or woods. Your entire day is basically limited to pedaling down a ribbon of blacktop road between two never-ending barbed wire fences. To deal with this I would pedal up to the local city hall building of whatever small town or village I had entered at the end of the day, telling them who I was and what I was doing, and asking to pitch for the night in their local municipal park. They always said yes and were very nice about it. Once I had made it across the Midwest and into BLM country, I went back to stealth camping. When asking for permission to camp in a small town's community park, always ask at city hall. Never ask at the local police station. City Hall's contain politicians and they are more prone to welcoming you. Cops reside at police stations and their first instinct is to say no to anything that falls outside their limited scope of life experience. Plus, cops just like to say no to prove their manhood. But by far and away, my biggest piece of advice for commando camping is to think like a hunted animal. Because in a culture as socially backwards as ours, the infinite layers of law enforcement won't make the slightest distinction between you and a homeless person and we all know how the homeless are treated in our country. I was riding a $4,500 custom bike with $2,500 worth of state-of-the-art camping gear and dressed in cycling clothes. No matter. The cops, especially in the dixieland south, stopped me and ran my driver's license on a regular basis. On one particular day in Georgia I was stopped five times by local police in various towns. In southern Alabama I was surrounded on the side of the highway by five police cars and cops with drawn weapons and accused of committing a **** that had just happened as I was cycling through their town. In Arkansas I found myself in a vicious fist-fight with an Ozark hillbilly in front of a convenience store for no other reason than he thought I was a homeless man and jumped on me for fun. In Kansas I was repeatedly refused entry into a certain chain of grocery stores for being "indecently dressed". I was wearing standard cycling clothes. Having said all this, most days were fairly good days and some were sublime. But anyone attempting a long bicycle trip in America should be wise to the fact that in large part cross-country cycling is a European thing and the average American has never seen such a creature much less comprehends why you would want to do such a thing. The familiar explanation for them? You must be a homeless person. So do what I did and TAKE IT AS A PERSONAL CHALLENGE NOT TO LIVE THE LIFE OF A HERD ANIMAL AND STEALTH CAMP UNTIL YOU'RE TOO DAMN OLD TO DO IT ANYMORE.

i just looked up lyme disease information, and saw that it is all over the Great Lakes and Northeast. the quicker you get the tick off you, the less chance you have of getting lyme disease. and you may want to use the pesticide permethrin on your clothes like the USA military.

[QUOTE=bruised;17207075Anyone do any dumpster diving..? .[/QUOTE]

I know I'm going to be beaten up for saying this, but if I had to dumpster dive, then I'd rethink my life's choices. I'm NOT knocking anyone else for doing it, but there is no way I could unless it was that or starvation. And if it's starvation, then maybe taking a bike tour isn't meant to be.

To Catharsolus: Sadly, this seems to be a growing attitude towards cyclists. When I was traveling on my own, I was usually well treated (older female, probably helps) until I hit California. There was a huge transient population in several cities and even McD's weren't exactly welcoming. I had stopped in one (like you, with an expensive bike, gear, etc) and didn't see their 30 minute sign. I got up to use the restroom and came back to find the Manager and her assistant discussing me, IN FRONT OF ME, like I was some homeless bum who was smelling up the place. I was clean, I was well dressed, I didn't have dirty packs surrounding me and I definitely wasn't amused.

Scariest camping experience by far for me was on a wild camping trip, between Sudbury & Timmins, Ontario, close to Halfway Lake Provincial Park. Some critter tore open my tent. Heavy, gruff breathing. I don’t know what it could have been other than a bear. I had my food up in a tree far from the tent, & I never eat in the tent. Don’t know why s/he stopped, but I’m glad to be alive. Also I was glad to find a tailor in Timmins the next day, who stitched up the tent.

I've wild camped for years. Comes with long distance backpacking and bicycle touring.

I've never run into an issue, but I tend to be discreet. Find a place where I don't expect anyone. Don't use any lights or make any sounds. In and out before sunrise etc.

Personally I could never use a "real" camp ground. No ****ing way am I going to pay someone to sling my hammock up between two trees. Stealth camping all the way.

Several places that I have camped that I did not see mentioned here are county fairgrounds, highway rest areas, and truck stops. The truck stop was with permission and I would not do it again. Truckers leave their diesel engines running all night. Some use gas powered electric generators- extremely loud and obnoxious. We stopped at the truckstop for a shower; it was late and the manager said we could set up our tents on the surrounding grass strip. Fairgrounds are perfect. Lots of out of the way places behind the livestock barns, etc. and usually no one comes around.

I'm a fan of graveyards. No one ever goes there at night, and there is pretty much always one side that has a patch of woods being used for nothing. Great place for a quick night in a hammock.

+1. Behind churches or fire stations too.

Here.
Slowest web app on the planet, and waiting for the data to load and appear will bring you to tears. But this interactive map shows all the different crown lands in Ontario. The Yellowish areas (or any area listed as "general recreational use - permitted" under policy information) are what your looking for. Grey is private land, and Deep green is usually the national parks, that have greater restrictions on camping.

Map viewer hosted by Land Information Ontario

tutorial video on using the atlas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbMdL0ZK1M

edit : spellen'

I thru-hiked the Appalachian trail in 2013 and I stealth camped A LOT. Graveyards were great (we usually camped next to a graveyard, never in the graveyard).

I've camped behind gas stations.
I've camped behind a pizza hut.
I've camped behind a Walmart.
I've camped in a parking space at a truck stop.
I've camped on the side of the road in a field.
I've camped on the side of the road in a wooded area.
I've camped just about everywhere it seems.

Absolutely. A deer will stomp a dog to death.

When i was in ne tn, one of my regular rides crossed the AT at Iron Mountain, near Bakersville, NC. pretty country.

What about using a fire when stealth camping. So far, i've done dispersed camping in the national forest, but i have to have a fire. A stove to cook. A fire for warmth.

My last trip recently, it was 10 degrees when i woke up at 4am on the mountain, for instance. I fed the fire til well past dawn. Everything was frozen anyway, so there wasn't much point in leaving early.

Awesome post. It's funny when people decide i'm homeless. Am i? I don't know. I don't feel sub-human. I'm intelligent. I have some property in the foothills of tn where some family lives. I get mail there. Cops. Hmmm. They don't bother me much. I play music on the street for tips. I camp. I ride a bicycle. Some towns, like asheville, nc, want buskers(musicians) on the street. They do NOT want homeless people, however.

The trick is to be a good musician, stay presentable, and camp out in the national forest, even if that means a 20 mile ride after a 10 hour day. Avoid homeless camps like the plague, and shun panhandlers. The aggressive panhandlers scare normal folks. Normal folks generally like my music.

That's some of my perspective.

Stealth and Fire don't mix. If there's any reason to conceal your presence then you've just blown it.

Ever hear the phrase "sending up smoke signals"?

In some cases where it's day time and I'm well hid I'll cook some oatmeal on my stove. But usually not even that.

Heard that.

"Dispersed" and not "disbursed" is the term NFS uses.

All good pointers, and I'd like to add one that was a good fallback for me when not in wilderness areas, unfinished construction. Spot a place that is under roof but has no windows or doors and it is likely to be vacant overnight. I never had trouble with watchmen or police and was always gone early before the work crews arrived.

true

Hey, somebody besides me uses this! Glad to see it.

Yep, they know where the food is!

I can't imagine pulling a half eaten sandwich out of a trash can, not knowing if the guy who ate the first half has/has not washed his hands after using the restroom anytime within the last thirty years! YUK!!

When I strike out next May there'll be a big can of "OFF" in my handle bar pack. People have come down with Lyme disease here in California's central valley. It's rare but it happens.

It's more about stuff thrown out by grocery stores and restaurants because of regulations/laws.

For wild camping, I've ended up camping next to communication towers a few times.

As Erick alluded to, it is usually more about perfectly good food still in the original packaging.

It has been some years ago but when a Giant store was taken over by a Grand Union they threw out all of the Giant brand merchandise. My Dad noticed and started salvaging it. He gave most of it away to struggling and lower income families, but used plenty of it himself. He figured that it would end once the change over was complete, but the waste continued at a decreased but still shocking level. Things like dented boxes, a case of shampoo where one bottle got cut when opening the case and shampoo got all over the other bottles, a dented flat of fruit where maybe 10% was ruined, seasonal or holiday stuff out of season, items where the packaging was slightly shop worn, and slightly out of date items.

My Dad was a fairly wealthy man, but but frugal and hated to see the waste. He repeatedly talked to the store manager unsuccessfully trying to get them to donate the stuff to some worthy charity.

My favorite part of the change from Giant to Grand Union was when they threw out all the ice cream and frozen yogurt of every brand and type. My Dad called me and I went over and filled the bed of my truck literally to the brim. We stocked our freezer and told the neighbor kids to tell their friends to come and get it. Kids swarmed in from everywhere.

In the interest of keeping this bike related, I'll mention that while it wasn't touring he did most of his "shopping" on a bike with a huge basket.

And make sure it IS permethrin, not DEET. Permethrin is effective against ticks, DEET isn't (despite being a good mosquito repellent). Permethrin is more expensive and probably more difficult to find, depending on where you tour. It's also very harmful to aquatic life, so keep the stuff (and the clothes you applied it to) well away from any sources of water.

Here in the US we can get it fairly easily, I think even wal-marts carry it. I spray everything: clothing, tent, and panniers, when I tour in northern US deer-tick areas. Amazingly it lasts for 6 washes of your clothing. I sure hope it's safe