Backpackers Etiquette.........

[SSSdave]

In the past I've written about this subject a number of times and could easily fill a small chapter in a book with experience, advice, and anecdotes. Your experience Packtofish is nothing new. I've seen it for decades. Personally I crosscountry into remote areas, often camp away from near water at viewpoints, and tend to find pristine spots away from obvious used camp zones. Those I backpack with have a tradition of spending considerable effort looking for the best camping location regardless of how tired we might be when we arrive. Time and time again that has occasionally given us amazing campspots only because we made the effort.

Groups of people often backpack several miles to a destination lake and then plop down right where a trail meets a large lake where one will find a little town of well used campspots. That is because after the effort and exertion of reaching the lake many backpackers are in no mood to hunt about for campsites. Thus rule #1 for those seeking solitude is to not take a campsite on a larger lake that is where a trail meets a lake.

Another hillarious aspect of that behavior is that people will hike miles and miles through absolutely vacant wilderness backcountry only to arrive at a larger lake where it seems for some reason all groups are tented every couple hundred feet or so along the shore while much of the rest of the lake has no one. And some will be so clueless as to later complain about how crowded it all was? Thus those groups did not bother to really look much. In fact there is a gregarious factor that I would speculate causes some people to subconsciously choose a camp spot near others. You see real wilderness actually scares many people. Now when a lake is small and is popular, it may be impossible to expect to find solitude unless one distances themselves from water. Of course many just cannot bear to be much more than a legal minimum from the amazing magnet of water. And sometimes even if a lake is somewhat larger, the terrain may not allow camping about it's shores because otherwise terrain may not provide any flat camp spots, shade, or shelter. But such situation like Ruby Lake up Rock Creek Canyon are infrequent. Another location about lakes that is the next most likely spot a town may set up especially at fishing lakes is where an inlet stream enters.

Your thread post mentions what happens if someone does move in close to ones camp spot? A couple years ago two of us backpacked into a small remote crosscountry lake at noon where no one was. We took the obvious nice view camp spot under whitebark pines and made camp. By afternoon three more parties had arrived and set up out of sight though within 200 feet of us. We knew the area we chose was the main camping area for the lake so such was to be expected. We looked about and found solitude in an unexpected area so after saying hello to our new neighbors, uprooted our gear and moved a couple hundred yards away.

What about a situation where a lake is large and there are vast areas where another group might set up camp but for whatever reason a group sets up camp right next to you? Well having to complain or ask a group to move a bit further away is certainly distasteful and sets up a bad vibe. Likewise would be uprooting one's gear then moving down the shore without saying anything. If it bothered me, I will likely say hello and then add were planning to move to such and such spot down the shore and then do so. Thus even though the new group has been told they are not the reason for the move, one can be sure they will regardless wonder. Enough so that the next time they choose such a campspot they may be more considerate.

[hikerduane]

On one trip, I had taken the last spot above a small lake, ate lunch, washed my socks, set my tent up and had the party next to me say there hiking partner was going to camp there. Fuming, I packed up and hiked a mile to the next spot I could find, by a small pond, which as it turns out, one of the bpers there was the sister of a paramedic I knew by name where I lived. Nice folks.

I tend to wander over to people to talk a little and stay too long I am sure, just like at home. Don't know when to cut the chat and leave. Which reminds me of the horse folks up north in the Marble Mts., I went over to their camp to burn my paper in their fire from my meal and they gave Pooch some pork chop bones and me a mixed drink with real ice.

[dave54]

Most here have similar horror stories. I won't add to the collection here.

But I will make a side observation...

I spot the bright day-glo gear of other hikers while they are still quite a distance away. Even if they are the only other people on the lake and camped on the opposite shore, that single bright red or yellow or blue tarp just makes the entire lake look crowded. Likewise a long vista from a remote ridge is marred when a train of hikers decked out like a circus train is spotted miles away.

So I try to purchase gear in more subdued colors, or even camo. I do not want to advertise my presence any more than I have to. I encourage others to do the same. LNT also involves visual impact. You can always have one article of clothing in a bright color for that rare occasion when you want visibility.

To be fair, I am seeing more gear selections in milder colors than years past. Many here remember the 80's and early 90's when neon colors were all the rage and were the only selection. In the mid? 80's a Forest Service rep from DC made a presentation at an outdoor gear manufacturers convention, asking for selection of gear in less conspicuous colors. He basically was booed off the podium.

[DJG]

In response to the original question, and to other inconsistencies of others' outdoors behavior, I often think how lucky I was to be exposed to hiking and backpacking at a young age, and formally, with the Boy Scouts and continued on later with my dad after outgrowing Scouts. During those earlier years I learned many things that I have built on through the later years, adding new twists, tweaking techniques, etc.. as experience adds to knowledge. I now take so many things for granted that other people who haven't had as much exposure to the lifestyle don't know or aren't aware of, and some want to learn how to do things best, other don't care. Some folks are aware, some aren't.

So many times when we go car camping somewhere we are reminded of why we go backpacking. Frustrating when knuckleheaded people follow you in, I just try to hike a little further, look a little harder for a better spot.

[TehipiteTom]

Oddly enough, this has never happened to me. Maybe it's because I'm nearly always off the trail, away from the haunts of other backpackers. Maybe it's because even in the frontcountry, people tend to look nervous and edge away from me...

[cgundersen]

Like Tehipite Tom in the preceding post (*and Maverick & Giantbrookie& SSSDave), my wife and I have found that the further off trail you go, the less frequently you experience the vexing encounters described in the opening post. And, the folks one meets deep in the back country tend to be there for the same reason and are pretty respectful of the urge for solitude. At the same time, we were amazed one evening to see two guys struggling up to an off-trail tarn at sunset. I met the guys and found out they'd spent the last 3 hours following our footprints in the snow. In spite of entreaties for them to camp a bit further away, they plopped down well within earshot. We bolted at dawn and avoided snow wherever possible.

The real question I have is for Tehipite Tom: just what is that look that is so effective at dispelling interlopers (let alone fellow travellers)?
Cheers!
CG

[Packtofish]

The real question I have is for Tehipite Tom: just what is that look that is so effective at dispelling interlopers (let alone fellow travellers)?
Cheers!

Yes! Please post photo of aforementioned "look"..........I need to start practicing for my next trip.

[TehipiteTom]

Oh, I was mostly joking. But when I had my ratty old pack and was doing conditioning hikes with it in Golden Gate Park, some people really did cross the street to avoid me.

Out with my Sierra Club trip last week, I thought about this from the other side, and I can say that I'm very careful about not camping too near other groups or individuals. The first trip I led, we had planned to cross Rohn Pass--cornice!--so we traversed over to Shout-of-Relief. It was getting late in the day, and people were getting tired and cranky, and the clouds were building, so I was glad to see a perfect campsite near the base of the pass. As we got a little closer, I pulled out my binoculars to check the site, and I saw...a bag hanging from the tree. And a tent. Damn!

We could have invaded, and while the lone guy camped there would have been annoyed, under the circumstances I'm not sure a lot of people would have blamed us. I just wasn't going to do that, though. Instead, we spent an additional half hour looking for a site where we wouldn't be crowding anyone. That's the approach I always take with groups.

[Buck Forester]

I'm guessing most of the people who plop down too close are either -
a) not experienced and don't really know better
b) too exhausted once they reach their 'destination' to even give a flip
c) people-person people who are hoping for conversation
d) afraid of being too far away from people because of bears
e) think you're extreeemely good looking

[TehipiteTom]

I'm guessing most of the people who plop down too close are either -
....
e) think you're extreeemely good looking

Ah, so that's why it's never happened to me.