kidag

I cycled lubeck - Amsterdam a few weeks ago. stealth camped between the road and an industrial estate in Hamburg, out in the woods outside Bremen, and even in Netherlands just outside enschede. no detection anywhere, and I left in broad daylight. just pick a spot where few can see you and where few people would go, bring a nature colored tent, lay down your bike and relax. would prefer seemingly public land to private to avoid angry farmers. but as long as you aren't stupid ( ie camp in a corn field) the worst scenario would probably be someone tells you calmly to leave.

arctos

Bike tour camping is about making do with the resources avaiable to you when you need to stop for the day. Sometimes the day's plan and the stars align perfectly at the end of the day but there are many times when they do not. Then some innovative thinking and asking leads to a secluded location suitable for a night's sleep. It may be the lawn of a friendly household; a police or fire station yard or patio; a church pew or cemetary; a barn or unused chicken coop or merely lastly vacant unposted land in a national, state or city forest, park or open space if the previously mentioned inhabited places deny permission to use them. Leaving the space as you found it or even better condition is vital. I have used all of the above resources and many others as required by the circumstances with memorable stories about each one. [Remind me to tell you about the vegetarian and the hunter offering him bear burgers and elk steaks for breakfast some time.]

Cyclomania

A cemetery roost I'd never thought of. I think I may in the future. At least it will give me the motivation to rise up early to get a head start.

TealLA

Thanks for the info and your time Mr. Jim.
Much appreciated.

Pedaleur

Similar experience for me. Ended up surrounded by cows in the morning because I thought I had crossed through all the pastures. Doubt anyone would have cared had they seen me.

I camped in a railyard the next night (miscalculated the sunset).

Otherwise, I generally stick to campgrounds, mostly just to get a good shower in.

jharte

X2. When I started touring/camping it was just called...camping. Now some refer to it as 'stealth' camping. If I see someone, I'll always ask. Never been turned down. Big smiles go a long way. If I don't see anyone, I'm pretty secluded.
I've been known to leave money in an envelope in a church door with a 'thank you for your hospitality'. The possibilities are endless. The scenery is what you make it. This is what makes bicycle touring so worth it. Adventures are always just around the corner. As said earlier...Leave No Trace.

Oh, yeah, don't forget to look up www.warmshowers.org. You might find a host in an area you will be travelling through.

Jerry H

rekmeyata

They allow bums to camp illegally all the time, do you not think they will allow decent bicyclists to camp illegally? The bums will trash the site, cyclists won't.

MNBikeguy

Good points. Except I might not try a chicken coop. :-)
I have camped many times in a technically "illegal" spot. I try to plan the day to arrive early enough to find somebody to ask. In many years there have been only a few times I've been told no, you can't stay here.

etroutski

Well yes, of course! Many times over the last 35 years. It becomes an art! It's part of the thrill of the trip. My rules are to be respectful, stealthy, and leave no trace!

mbryant52

Simply a matter of getting far enough away from people and dogs. Bit brash to build a fire, but I had a very secluded spot.

Cyclebum

My preference is small town city parks for a table and services, occasionally a shower. Wild(free)camp when city park or cheap campground not availiable. Easy to do just about anywhere in the US with a bit of site scoping out before sunset. Never been disturbed.

Bekologist

let me suggest a spot few may have considered -

the roof of a building. perhaps more convenient before the era of security cameras, but i've hauled up on the roof of a truckstop before, you know the ones, the huge, midwestern and west coast truck stops you sometimes encounter when riding major routes. I've wound up riding after dark to the lights of a truckstop to get food and warmth, nothing else good for miles around but interstate and cornfields, its so easy to find the ladder to the roof.

give it some thought, its more convenient than you'd think. also, the backs of many community halls, rural fire stations and the like often serve as a suitable hootch.

Clarabelle

Camped in a National Forest campground that was closed. Nobody seemed to care. It was off the beaten path and quite pleasant.

Tansy

Two nights ago I did. I was in western Missouri, hot, tired, and ready to be off the bike. A prairie conservation area presented itself. I know that you can camp around the parking lot in some of the Missouri conservation areas, and this one had no visible 'no camping' signs. Once I'd sat down, changed clothes, and was about to eat my cold canned corn(fire in a prairie didn't seem prudent...), I found the 'no camping allowed' notice I'd missed, but by then I didn't care.

I was in plain view of the road, but no one else cared much either. Only problem was that it was thick with fog by 10pm, everything was wet, and a small hatchling snake crawled under my sleeping bag. Hrmph.

Everywhere else I've stealth camped or free camped, I've had permission, a 'go ahead' from the locals, or no reason to be sure camping wasn't allowed.

bikenh

I have to fess to not having did any touring as of yet. I've got a tour mapped out and just waiting to see if it is going to happen this year or sometime next year. This summer just seems like it never wants to even start to change to fall. I think I'm being a bit of a ***** this year.

One idea for anyone looking for possible ideas in mountainous territory would be to look at downhill ski areas. Both the two options for routes that I have been looking at taking has me eyeballing downhill ski areas. They are 'open to the public' and during the summer months some but not all of them are pretty much shut down for business. You can get much more abandoned than that.

Jude

Anyway, I'm stealth camping/illegal camping in some woods somewhere in PA tonight...I'm hoping the hurricane doesn't arrive until Saturday night once I'm safely biked back to Philly. It's supposed to rain all Saturday but as long as it's not strong winds, I should be OK. I hope.

gpsblake

yes, I've stealth camped quite a bit in the past. The late Ken Kifer has an excellent on how to stealth camp.

https://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/camping.htm

Yea, be safe. But if it gets too nasty, suck up the pride and get into a safe area. Best wishes.

Bekologist

three rights make a left dontchyaknow?

anyway, watch out for the hidden dangers in the inviting lawns of commercial buildings .

I wound up late in a big city due to wierd circumstance, and decided to simply lay out on a groundcloth 0n a dimly lit lawn in a commercial warehouse district, thinking I was in a good spot to get some zzzs and wake up early, vacate.

I was jolted awake, getting drenched and hit full in the face with what seemed like the largest rainstorm EVER. I jumped up and hopped in my sleeping bag for the eave of the building only to discover i was hopping in my sleeping bag to escape a in ground sprinkler system that had triggered.

I can still hear the peals of laughter from the crowd of truck packers at the warehouse that were watching all this.

kralizec

while going north on 1 i stopped in what i thought would be an ok place, a national park. well ano nuevo is not one where you can camp. Luckily the park ranger was nice and didn't make me take down my tent after it was already dark.

Jamoni

A couple times.
Once was on a 4 day long weekender in autumn. I had planned to ride to the site (owned by some friends), about 100 miles, camp two days, and return. The weather turned, and I was blasted by freezing headwinds and rain the whole way. Only made about 60 miles, and had to quit. This was on a 4 lane country highway. I waited till there were no cars, then pushed the bike into the woods and up on top of a ridge. Setup camp, got dry, cooked some food, got some sleep. Next day continued on with my trip.
Another time was a similar trip, same area, actually. I got to the commercial campground I'd been headed for, only to find they didn't allow tent camping anymore. It was already dark, so I just rode back the way I came to an abandoned barn, and slept there.
Have also done some motorcycle tours where we pulled off onto a utility cut, rode in for a mile or two, and camped in the treeline.

rekmeyata

I was camping once in the early 80's and a guy rode in on his bicycle and pitched his tent near the bathroom/showers not far from my site just after dark. The park ranger came up to him and gave him a small hassle but relented and allowed him to stay there but the rider had to pay the $8 (?) fee which the rider didn't have so I paid it. The rider had come from Alaska (he showed his ID to the ranger) and was in Cachuma Lake in California when I saw him and was on his way to San Diego. His bike looked like it had been on the road for quite a while, and he looked like a decent educated person 20ish, not some bum type. He was running low on funds for food and thus not enough to pay for the park plus eat till he got to San Diego, so I gave him another $10 for food. We talked for quite a while, in fact it was him that gave birth to the idea for me to tour the USA on my bike when I retire.

SweetLou

Doesn't sound illegal to me. Were there "No Trespassing" signs or other markings?

Erick L

I camped once at campground that wasn't really opened and twice I arrived at a campground after the paying booth closed (not on purpose) and left before it opened the next morning. Once I got up so early I just didn't want to wait and once I was looking at the fee chart (40$ for site and park fee) when a maintenance employee told me "they open at 8:30am... wink wink".

Stealthammer

I only consider camping in an organized campground without paying or camping on private land illegal. Almost any Walmart, and many others including many Denny's, Starbuck's, etc. will not object to a driver getting off the road rather than becoming a road hazard due to sleepiness. I don't camp that much any more, but when I did a lot of it, I never even thought of paying for the "right" to use public lands whether Federal, State, or County unless it was posted.

SweetLou

Camping on private land is not illegal except in Wisconsin.