Stealth camping

[Kiwi49]

How often do you stealth camp in your van? Do you find that stealth camping helps keep your costs down?

 

[bcbullet]

I spent 4 1/2 years living in a converted cube van with my divorced kids....best times of our lives and not a moment's regret. 2 nights every second week, 26 times a year. Would not change a thing and if you asked them now, they would not either.

 

[cyndi]

I don't actually stealth camp but I spend the night in places that aren't necessarily legal. On one hand it saves me money because I'm spending the night someplace where the only other option is paying for a campsite. On the other hand, I don't generally pay for a campsite, anyways when I'm on the road,traveling.

 

[Almost There]

Define stealth camping to you.

Various people have different definitions of 'stealth camping'.

Mine is 'trying to spend the night where you know you're not supposed to be and would be kicked out if they find you'.

I don't do it. It's not worth the difficulty of trying to go to sleep and then waking constantly wondering if the noise I hear is trouble coming my way.

There are too many places where it is acceptable to be overnighting to be bothered.

I use freecampsites.com, overnightparking.com, google the state/province regulations for rest areas, allstays.com (drivers app) etc. to find somewhere where I'm welcome.

I've never been stuck yet for a place to stay where I'm okay.

 

[USExplorer]

It definitely helps keep costs down for those of us trying to escape paying rent for either apartments or campsites. And no, stealth camping is not camping in a place where you KNOW you are not allowed, such as a woodlot fenced or posted against trespassing or the backyard of an unoccupied house. Places where getting caught means getting immediately ejected or having the handcuffs slapped on, or worse.

Instead, it is camping in places where camping or trespassing is not explicitly prohibited, nor explicitly allowed, and where if you remain discreet you have a very good chance of getting away with it. Rights of way, dumps and gravel pits, under bridges, ungated logging roads, the edges of fields. Even if you do get caught, it is up to the discretion of the owner or officer to let you stay, and as long as you are respectful, most will give you a break. Even if they don't, all they can do is tell you to move on, they cannot charge you with a crime unless you refuse to leave.

Out in the wooded rural East, the patchwork-quilt layout of land parcels means that after a few miles of searching you will likely find a spot that just feels right to camp in. It is far harder in the parts of the country where one owner owns all the land for miles around and posts or fences or farms it all.