Originally Posted by
TheRef
The campsites I'm talking about are unattended. A couple of them are forest preserves with road access, they close the gates to the road at night but the trail passes through the preserve and yo can access the campsites from the trail.
The only way to contact them is call the office many many miles away on regular business hours and to be told to go to the office in person or use the online reservation system... get this.. with 72 hours of advance.
Makes me think the odds of being found are very unlikely if you set up after the gates are locked. I realize you're trying to do it by the book, but they sure don't seem to be facilitating that. My friend and I got a night of free camping by biking to a campground where, if the gate house is empty, you're supposed to park in the lot, then set up camp at an empty spot, and they will come by to complete registration later (no car parking at the actual campsites). Being on bikes, we just rolled on down the trail, found the whole place to be empty, and set up camp. I figure the ranger must have done a pass through the parking lot, saw no cars, and concluded there were no campers. Then the next morning we surprised the guy at the gatehouse when we tried to register on the way out. He was flummoxed by the process of backdating a registration and just sent us on our way.