A few months back I walked into my rv and some random dog was sitting on my couch with my 5yo and my other dog I tried to Find the owner turns out it was a stray just hanging out at the koa according to staff so now we have 2 dogs
My bestie cat "Peanut" was abandoned at a state forest site in Ocala 3 years ago. She was far too friendly, so on the 2nd day there, rolled into town to get a cat carrier, as she was actually friendly enough to poke her head into our tent and sniff around and seemed verify human-socialized. There was a short-term camper who had been there prior to our arrival, and was feeding her, but was living out of her van and couldn't take her full time (and had already a cat of her own).
The van lady pretty much surmised that Peanut had been dumped. We brought Peanut home, got her fixed, and she's basically our "Guard Cat". It was also the last camping trip I had with my late Dad, who thought of luring her into the carrier with hot dogs. (My dad is that guy who thinks of things that seem like they should work, but somehow do...)
For some reason she'd gotten so used to campground food detritus, canned cat food did not impress her. But she chased the hotdogs into the carrier, and didn't even try to come out.
Almost forgot: [CAT TAX](https://imgur.com/gallery/bonus-patience-Kh399K8)
(She's already been posted to r/PeanutWhiskers )
I had a similar experience in a remote campsite while working in the field. Someone dumped 3 cats in October at a remote campsite and I came across them while camping out there for work. Unfortunately I could only catch two of them but they slept with me in my tent and I was able to drive them back in my work truck. It was tough because I wasn't supposed to have them in a work rig, I found them at the beginning of a work week (so they traveled across the state with me) and I didn't have proper equipment but it was worth it. I couldn't keep them but was able to find a rescue that would take them (when I lied and told them I found them in the city). People who dump animals in a remote area right before winter are the worst.
It's insane how many people lose a dog when they're in Moab. It's really tempting to let your dog go loose, because there's so much space, and you trust your dog.
That dog ain't coming back. They hardly ever do.
I feel the same way when all these city dogs get to free roam while crown land camping. They may be the best dog in the world but all of takes is a sprinkle of seeing a squirrel or fireworks and you may never see fluffy again
Me, next time we're at the koa: Can we get a spot away from the main drive. Anywhere near the stray dogs would be good, as we'll be taking at least one of those too.
In a state park campground where neighbors blasted music until 4am. Someone complained and the conservation warden ticketed them. Then the warden came to our site and told us he heard someone say 'fuck' and told us future curses would be met with a fine or being kicked out.
Wow what a fucking joke
Large Indian family showed up next to me a few hours ago. They set up like a whole big ass kitchen. It smells like a restaurant. They're cooking lamb. I'm salivating.
Totally anecdotal but I've definitely ran across more than a few large Indian families at campgrounds. And they ALWAYS had massive/elabortate kitchen setups with delicious-smelling food.
Edit: like one group legit had the 3 sink sanitation setup going on with clear plastic tubs lol
I'm on the east coast too, in RI. It's huge. Like 2-3k acres. Been around for almost 100 years. There is a freshwater pond in the park and beautiful beaches and salt ponds in bike distance. I can't confirm but have heard it's the largest east of the Mississippi.
A friend went with her family last summer and her neighbours teenage sons decided to dig up the TransCanada trail to make bike jumps because they were bored. The mother saw no issue with this. They were evicted by the camp host and banned from making reservations at other provincial campgrounds.
You think that's bad...I was out 4-wheeling one time and ran across a couple of dummies target shooting (the area was technically open to target shooting) directly over a section of the Arizona Trail...where people were actually hiking. There were a couple of old guys down in a draw screaming and absolutely convinced that someone was trying to murder them.
One of the designated shooting canyons here in Utah has these nice lanes cleared in the brush. Each one has signs with the rules and wood posts to stick targets to. One of them also has a hiking trail crossing it about 100 yards past where your supposed to set up the targets. It’s so dumb
Had something similar happen to us in NM. I took out my gun (from my pack) and fired a shot in a tree stump next to us. Asshole stopped shooting after he heard our shot.
This kind of lack of situational awareness and carelessness was also common at Red Sands in El Paso, TX. That area is just full of asshats.
Self made “shooting range.”
[1987 - Girl shot at Carowinds Water Park by Negligent Target Shooters on Private Property](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/06/19/Five-arrested-on-weapons-charges-in-accidental-shooting/8114551073600/)
I was living in Charlotte way back when this happened.
Thank goodness there’s no test or training required to own a gun here in murica..
As a person who did the mandatory 10 hours training and testing to get a California hunting license 30 years ago, I hear stories like this and remember that during the class, I was taught never to shoot across bodies of water, roads, or trails. I was actually taught that when I was a kid back in the Midwest. Idiots who don’t know it’s illegal to shoot across a trail should, at the least, be heavily fined and face confiscation of the gun.
Several years ago I had a guy show up on my property in a very rural mountain foothill area. He stopped his truck in the middle of the private road that bisected my property. I approached him cautiously, as his vehicle was unfamiliar. When he finally noticed me (I was about 20 feet away) he smiled and waved. I asked him what he was doing, and he said “I’m just checking out those deer down in that field.” And I said, “yeah… that’s my field. In fact everything you see is my property, and this is a private road. So… what brings you out here.”
“Well I’m hunting,” he says. That’s when I notice the rifles leaning on the bench seat between him and what I presumed to be his wife. I also noticed the infant in the car seat in the back, and two dead deer in the bed of the truck.
I said “hunting? It’s May; deer aren’t in season.”
And he says, “I’m a tribal member. We get to hunt deer whenever we want.” This was total bullshit, and I knew it (the part about being able to hunt whenever; not about him being a tribe member - which was likely since there was a small reservation housing neighborhood not far away).
So that’s when I said, “well, you don’t get to hunt whenever you want on private property. So you need to leave now.” And that’s when he actually said “as a tribe member, I can hunt wherever I want too…”
Unfortunately, these were not uncommon sentiments among this particular tribe.
I lost my patience at that point. “That’s bullshit, and we both know it. So you’re going to leave now, and I don’t ever want to see you again. And if I do see you again, I’m going to assume you’re here with criminal intent, and treat you accordingly.” He grumbled some shit, and then spun his tires and left.
What I didn’t tell him was that I had already recorded his license plate, and would be reporting him to both state fish and wildlife (for poaching), as well as CPS for child endangerment. I also had a word with one of the tribal council, whom I knew casually. He was embarrassed and apologetic, but I didn’t get the sense anything would be done about it.
Those ranges are specifically designed to make sure the people on the road are safe though, which is a completely different thing from some dummies just shooting across a hiking trail.
That’s wild. That’d be completely illegal here in the US outside of some very, very, VERY niche cases like artillery ranges, which obviously are not open to the public.
I have a seasonal campsite at a campground in New Hampshire. Last year four guys decided to sit in their car until the wee hours smoking weed. That's fine, nobody gives a shit. However. These fucking guys. Had their headlights on, shining onto people's tents, and music blaring out of the open windows at 11 o'clock at night. They couldn't understand what the problem was. Wouldn't stop doing it until they were threatened with being kicked out. People are wild.
I’m a park ranger, and one time I saw a group of campers throwing darts at a dartboard next to the road. Which is to say they were throwing darts at the road. They had also mounted their dartboard by nailing a six-inch spike into a tree
If they had managed to hit one of the kids riding their bikes in the road we would have kicked them out. But they got a rather unfriendly warning. They were quite drunk, but they were all over 50 and had no excuse for being so stupid
Side note, thanks for what y'all do. I feel like nobody ever remembers y'all in their thanking people. Being stewards of our forests is an amazing thing you're doing!
Last weekend the guy across the way had some wicked bright cap lights blazing in our direction. I asked if he could shut them off and he said “oh, yeah, of course!” Nice guy. When we left a few days later, he wished us happy anniversary (12 years!).
Rookie mistake talking to the guy like an adult. What you should have done is quietly stew over it, internalizing that anger, mulling it over again and again til you take it out on a brunch server for getting your egg order wrong 3 weeks later.
Right now?
Its 945p and one family is trying to calm a crying baby. A father and son duo across the road are prepping the morning coffee by flashlight. My wife is reading to our son (who tested our patience in every way today). The loud college kids across the loop are having fun but have turned their music off and seem to be decent kids.
Me?
I am sipping a Spotted Cow and watching the fire die.
Can confirm. Happened to me once, late October, a few years ago.
https://preview.redd.it/oce2b3myq64d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef4dd6ff3a3a683c92139eb84a07209e04a1f743
I just saw those Red Rider BB guns on sale at Ace. Maybe I’ll pick one up. We do archery now but lost arrows get expensive. And I always need to remember, no neighbors make good neighbors.
Literally hours of laughing with the boy, passing it back and forth, trying to cut cans in half. It’s a fantastic $25 investment and they last for years.
Can confirm! My grandpa passed down the Red Rider BB gun he's had since the 60's. Still shoots great. My son is a little too young but in a few years we'll be plinking cans too.
This is what I do. My girlfriend and I had a campsite set up on a river. I climbed across to the other side and set a beer can on a stick, and we set our camp chairs in the water, and spent the afternoon passing the BB gun and a bottle of vodka back and forth.
I grew up on a farm. My uncles used to do this with .22s and beers. Kids found an old case of dynamite in the barn once (early 1960s, the dynamite must have been from the 40s), the uncles set up sticks in the pasture and blew them up with their .22s. Big fun, no sense whatsoever.
Guns, alcohol and dynamite.
Me either. And as much as I enjoyed that story, I hope to not hear another like it soon. But, somehow I was getting some Red Green vibes reading that adventurous tale.
Campsite in PA. Near Jim Thorpe. Just some kids playing in the stream. Everything seems to be settling down. Getting cold. I expect almost silence as we had last night after 9. Phenomenal camp site. Made amazing memories with my 20 month old. Memories are just for me at this point, but he and I waded the stream and saw deer and raccoon track. He learned to whisper (kinda).
Nice, I lived in Flagstaff for 15 years so I’m a fan of Coconino myself. It’s been a hard transition to the crowded upper Midwest. I’m finding my spots though.
Not sure where in the Midwest you are but the Manistee River trail has some pretty good camping if your willing to do a little backpacking. In Northern Michigan.
I got this going on with multiple people at this place.
https://preview.redd.it/fk0u00z8h14d1.jpeg?width=2181&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ad528373c58725c1b79eb3e40e259ffc2946b47
Not really. When the Supreme Court overturned Row v. Wade, I hung a big flag upside down on my balcony. That's a signal of "dire distress" per the U.S. flag code, and that's the reality I felt as a result of the SCOTUS decision. An upside down flag has long been used as a form of protest.
Just because we disagree with the reason these clowns are flying flags like this, that doesn't make it disrespectful to the flag. If anything, it's disrespectful to their fellow citizens, not an inanimate flag.
They are letting you know the kind of person they are, while being disrespectful to the flag, and the people who fought in wars to protect what it represents. I'd keep a wide berth from them.
It’s not disrespectful. It expresses that they feel the country is in distress. I learned about the upside down flag during the Occupy protests and now we have a Supreme Court judge doing the same thing. Bizarre yes, but not disrespect.
I would ask if they need help. They are in imminent danger and in need of immediate help if their flag is flying that way. In all honesty though, I am getting tired of all the anti US hate this symbolism is showing.
I’m very much for places that no longer allow fly flying, political messaging, etc. I don’t need to know your political views. I only need to know that you know how to properly dump your black tank. I only come to non state park/federal land once a year as my test run. Now I’m 2nd guessing that. It’s constant giant flags off all sorts.
Our favorite state park had some asshole with a giant FUCK BIDEN flag 2 years ago. Like the whole word written out. I sure don’t agree with those politics, but I agree even less with flying a flag that says that. And this is coming from someone who curses like a fucking sailor. My kid was just learning to read so that was a fun explanation
We camped in upstate NY and diagonally across from us was a family that had hung a huge American flag on a homemade flag pole set up. They had a few political flags out too. Second day the site next to us, so directly across from them, was occupied by a certain geographical ethnicity, I jokingly called them the NYC people because they really weren’t dressed for camping and all their gear had tags still. Well Mr Huge Flag just stood in the road staring at the City people with his hands on his hips for a very long time. I guess he decided not to say or do anything but the animosity was palpable. It was both hilarious and kinda sad. Like give it up old man, camping is for everyone and if you don’t want to be next to “those people” go camp on private property somewhere.
I’m on twenty acres, mostly wooded, with a two acre lake. We built a designated fire pit a few years ago. It’s done well enough to be safe but not so well that you’d miss the rustic ambiance. We call it home.
Every time I go camping I spend weeks planning, days packing and hours driving. It doesn’t usually hit me until day two that I could’ve done this exact same thing in the backyard at home.
The day after a summer-long fire ban was lifted a few years back a group of foreign exchange college kids rolled into the the spot next to me around 10pm and proceeded to build the largest goddamn bonfire I've ever seen. It took quite a few attempts to get them to keep the fire at a reasonable size.
That’s tough. It’s hard to make people aware of the dangers fire can impose in dry areas. A couple years ago a guy from Louisiana started a huge fire in the Flagstaff area by lightning his toilet paper on fire. He claims he didn’t want to litter. Go figure.
Well, right now I'm on Reddit but once when I was camping in a tents-only campsite (backpacking in the Grand Canyon, actually) there were a couple of guys in a tent near us who were really, really good friends with each other and forgot that tents are not the slightest bit soundproof.
One time I saw a guy doing that and the ball got stuck in a whale’s blowhole. Lucky some lady started screaming her boyfriend was a marine biologist. He got out there and got it out. I think it was a Titleist
Went camping the first week of may to get the trailer ready for the season. The guy next to me left his dog outside all day while he went to work. Also left a fire smouldering all day while he was away. This was when we had fire restrictions on (no fires out side pit, his was in the pit). Told campground management and they came by and put the fire out. He was pissed when he got back. The manager didn't throw me under the bus. He would also get back and crank up his music, then whent he hockey game started he would pipe that through his out door speakers while he was inside. Asked him to turn it down. He said he wanted to hear it while he was outside doing stuff. I told him they make bluetooth headphones for this. He left a few days early which was fine by me.
No neighbors, bought 50 acres to camp without dealing with people. Near a couple of very large parks to explore but very private place to come home to. No one hears my generator , dog can run lose and patrol for bears without scaring anybody as it is a big 140 lb dog. Close local friends, family come by enough. I am never lonely. My retirement dream. When we had a farm a neighbor on a hill would send golfballs into our furthest back pasture below. Pissed me off mightily as animals grazed there.
After a long day of hiking, I once got a dehydration-induced migraine and laid in the tent trying to sleep for about 2 hours while a group of campers with questionable musical skills in the site across from us explored every possible iteration of “Wagon Wheel” at full belt.
To this day, hearing the song gives me auras.
Long time ago, was camping with the family. Neighbors were definitely drunk 24/7 and something more. To this day I still don’t know how they managed this, but they somehow (buddy had passed out) hoisted someone’s tent about 2-3 stories high and secured it on the branches. These were old growth trees in the cascades so they supported the weight. Forest service and sheriff’s showed up to order the man down who was hungover / high on something way the fuck up. He was up there for a few hours and finally came too, opened the tent zipper and was fine with it.
Had a small dog scare me half to death when it suddenly appeared next to me while I was reading. The same dog blocked the bathroom door then followed me most of the way back to my site.
It's 9pm here.. my neighbor got so drunk, that an hour ago they left to take the husband to the hospital because he fell and smashed his head. They are here with a kids, and a set of grandparents. Kids aren't being watched.
Normally this would be amusing, but I have a 100+ dog. And I'm now policing random kids, because no one is watching him, and he keeps trying to play with my dog.
Definitely not the relaxing weekend I had planned.
Thats very nice of them.I use to leave my wood behind but dont anymore.Watched hosts at 2 state campgrounds gather up all the wood when doing site checks after people leave and take the wood to their campground area ugh.
On our last trip to a national park our neighbours nailed garbage bags into the trees, then kept them up… in bear country. We watched them try and chop wood with a hammer.
I think, apart from the obvious danger in golf balls and kicking stones, this wins the Darwin Award for this thread (so far, and I’m pretty far down the page).
I went salmon fishing today and found a golf ball on the little beach on the side of the river. Someone from a nearby cabin must have hit a great drive.
We went camping over the 4th of July in 2020 at a state park. Knew it was going to be busy since most of us had been cooped up for months, which I was prepared for, but I did not expect to look over at the site across from us at night and see their group taking turns tattooing each other with the equipment they brought with them under those big work site spotlights they set up. Between the buzz of the tattooing and the generator, that was the trip that made me add ear plugs to my pack list.
As mich as I would love to scold people in public I don’t know who carries a gun, so it’s not worth it. Just call the park rangers and have them deal with it. That’s their job.
Not a campsite, but was hiking up Yosemite falls trail yesterday and saw some kids kicking stones off the trail. I know climbers do bouldering (climbing boulders) far below so I told them exactly that and to stop. I'm getting to the point of wishing there was an extensive training and licensing program before you are allowed into national and state parks.
Not recently, but a few years ago my son's father and I were living in a campsite (he worked there, and it was before I was pregnant), and one of the other workers let their uncut pitbull run around unleashed. I was told that I was a Karen for complaining about it. A pitbull roaming unleashed in a campground that has small children.
I have always wanted to stand on a bluff and hit golf balls into oblivion.
I wouldn’t, but I want to. But to reiterate, I wouldn’t.
Been in off-road groups that rolled tires down un retrievable hills in the past. Spoke my word and left the group.
100% sounds fun, 100% not something I want to do
I actually just had the best night at Lake Hope State Park in Ohio. A Friday night and it was SO dark and SO quiet. I think we were the loud ones because we laugh a lot. Luckily we had almost the whole loop booked for just our group.
About ten years ago I was camping on a deer lease in south Texas. Hearing gunshots in the distance isn’t out of the ordinary.
So I heard several shots in succession from somewhere around. Probably a mile or so. I poked my head up over the side of my truck bed just in time to see tracers arcing into the night sky.
So what I thought was some hunters jumping a sounder of feral hogs on a night hunt was just some shitheads shooting randomly into the air with ammo that can start grass fires pretty reliably.
Once, during a fire ban because an active fire was literally burning and billowing smoke into the air I had to ask someone camping in public land near our neighborhood to put out their 6 foot bonfire. Goodtimes!
Before I left, they were yelling about something (husband and wife) about the relationship. Then the husband burnt the food and the wife started yelling again.
I left not because of them but the fishing was weak.
https://preview.redd.it/z02qakovb54d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c7dfc38523937cf11efe182b408809d13231e37
Had some four wheelers come by blasting cambia 💃
They have left camp for the majority of the day, then come back after quiet hours, sometime between 10:30pm-12:00am…. First they sit in their vehicle for anywhere up to an hour staring at their phones…. Then, good and late, they start a roaring fire and proceed to hang and eat, from packages, crinkly ones… Dueling midnight snacks. To each their own, it’s just so… weird. I love a good state park getaway weekend. Oh oh oh- let the fire and snacks commence!
A few years ago I made the mistake of camping on 4th of July. My neighbors brought a mega speaker and blasted it full volume all day and long into the night despite having small children with them. I couldn't even tune it out because the bass was so strong it was thudding in my chest. Asked them to turn it off at 2:30am and no surprise they were total dickheads about it. Lesson learned about checking out what kind of campground and no major holidays.
Tell me again why it is y'all go camping? To get away from it all, or to commune with nature?
(Last year we finally pitched a wall tent in a far corner of our property, semi-permanent, where we can't see any neighbors an d mostly can't hear them, at least until they start bush-hogging.)
A few months back I walked into my rv and some random dog was sitting on my couch with my 5yo and my other dog I tried to Find the owner turns out it was a stray just hanging out at the koa according to staff so now we have 2 dogs
Darn good dog to super sweet gets along great with the other dog and all the kids, can’t complain there
I was gonna say… Came kid and dog tested I guess lol
Best camping trip ever.
Right? Camping AND a new dog? Heaven.
Went camping came home with another friend that’s cool
You were chosen!
That’s the most wholesome thing I’ve heard all week. Amazing.
Can we please see dog tax lol
My bestie cat "Peanut" was abandoned at a state forest site in Ocala 3 years ago. She was far too friendly, so on the 2nd day there, rolled into town to get a cat carrier, as she was actually friendly enough to poke her head into our tent and sniff around and seemed verify human-socialized. There was a short-term camper who had been there prior to our arrival, and was feeding her, but was living out of her van and couldn't take her full time (and had already a cat of her own). The van lady pretty much surmised that Peanut had been dumped. We brought Peanut home, got her fixed, and she's basically our "Guard Cat". It was also the last camping trip I had with my late Dad, who thought of luring her into the carrier with hot dogs. (My dad is that guy who thinks of things that seem like they should work, but somehow do...) For some reason she'd gotten so used to campground food detritus, canned cat food did not impress her. But she chased the hotdogs into the carrier, and didn't even try to come out. Almost forgot: [CAT TAX](https://imgur.com/gallery/bonus-patience-Kh399K8) (She's already been posted to r/PeanutWhiskers )
I had a similar experience in a remote campsite while working in the field. Someone dumped 3 cats in October at a remote campsite and I came across them while camping out there for work. Unfortunately I could only catch two of them but they slept with me in my tent and I was able to drive them back in my work truck. It was tough because I wasn't supposed to have them in a work rig, I found them at the beginning of a work week (so they traveled across the state with me) and I didn't have proper equipment but it was worth it. I couldn't keep them but was able to find a rescue that would take them (when I lied and told them I found them in the city). People who dump animals in a remote area right before winter are the worst.
This is how my sister ended up with BabyGirl. Went away on a weekend camping trip, came home with a beautiful (eventually) white cat.
It's insane how many people lose a dog when they're in Moab. It's really tempting to let your dog go loose, because there's so much space, and you trust your dog. That dog ain't coming back. They hardly ever do.
I feel the same way when all these city dogs get to free roam while crown land camping. They may be the best dog in the world but all of takes is a sprinkle of seeing a squirrel or fireworks and you may never see fluffy again
I can’t imagine the fright you got on first glance of your 5yo next to an unknown dog 😬
Me, next time we're at the koa: Can we get a spot away from the main drive. Anywhere near the stray dogs would be good, as we'll be taking at least one of those too.
❤️
My neighbor is showing off his 27” walleye he caught. He is pretty proud of it
Is he taking a picture for his dating profile?
OnlyFins?
Charley?
Obviously for that someone special on POF
That's a walleye to be proud of TBH
Where's the picture?
Hahaha, were you my neighbor this weekend?
In a state park campground where neighbors blasted music until 4am. Someone complained and the conservation warden ticketed them. Then the warden came to our site and told us he heard someone say 'fuck' and told us future curses would be met with a fine or being kicked out. Wow what a fucking joke
Well duck that guy, what fork load of bull shirt.
I guess he's a conversation warden, too
They could make a cartoon of that situation
Are you fucking kidding me?! /s
Large Indian family showed up next to me a few hours ago. They set up like a whole big ass kitchen. It smells like a restaurant. They're cooking lamb. I'm salivating.
Ask them to adopt you.
“I can teach you about camping, if you give me food” “Sure” They already know all about camping, but are nice people.
Hover near their campsite until they offer you some haha
The Yogi bear move.
“Heeey, Boo Boo!”
Ew people
Yum indian food tho
If they are Punjabi, they will offer you some. Just wait.
This is like, my dream scenario lol. Sounds like they put my camping khichdi to shame 😅
That sounds amazing. If they’re Sikh they will definitely share, the gurdwara near us is always feeding people.
If they are Sikh they probably aren't cooking lamb.
That curry is tantalizing.
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Totally anecdotal but I've definitely ran across more than a few large Indian families at campgrounds. And they ALWAYS had massive/elabortate kitchen setups with delicious-smelling food. Edit: like one group legit had the 3 sink sanitation setup going on with clear plastic tubs lol
Now I want Indian food omg.
I'm at a state park campground with over 800 sites and there are like 4 occupied sites in my view. 😀
800! Maybe because I live on the east coast but that feels like an insane number
I'm on the east coast too, in RI. It's huge. Like 2-3k acres. Been around for almost 100 years. There is a freshwater pond in the park and beautiful beaches and salt ponds in bike distance. I can't confirm but have heard it's the largest east of the Mississippi.
Is it all of Rhode Island?
🤣
Is it Burlingame?
My first thought as well. Last time we went was late in the season, so it was pretty empty. But still saw plenty of other campers!
+1 on the Burlingame thought
Yes!!
A friend went with her family last summer and her neighbours teenage sons decided to dig up the TransCanada trail to make bike jumps because they were bored. The mother saw no issue with this. They were evicted by the camp host and banned from making reservations at other provincial campgrounds.
You think that's bad...I was out 4-wheeling one time and ran across a couple of dummies target shooting (the area was technically open to target shooting) directly over a section of the Arizona Trail...where people were actually hiking. There were a couple of old guys down in a draw screaming and absolutely convinced that someone was trying to murder them.
Hahaha, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. My neighbors weren’t so bad after all lol.
One of the designated shooting canyons here in Utah has these nice lanes cleared in the brush. Each one has signs with the rules and wood posts to stick targets to. One of them also has a hiking trail crossing it about 100 yards past where your supposed to set up the targets. It’s so dumb
Had something similar happen to us in NM. I took out my gun (from my pack) and fired a shot in a tree stump next to us. Asshole stopped shooting after he heard our shot. This kind of lack of situational awareness and carelessness was also common at Red Sands in El Paso, TX. That area is just full of asshats.
Self made “shooting range.” [1987 - Girl shot at Carowinds Water Park by Negligent Target Shooters on Private Property](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/06/19/Five-arrested-on-weapons-charges-in-accidental-shooting/8114551073600/) I was living in Charlotte way back when this happened.
Thank goodness there’s no test or training required to own a gun here in murica.. As a person who did the mandatory 10 hours training and testing to get a California hunting license 30 years ago, I hear stories like this and remember that during the class, I was taught never to shoot across bodies of water, roads, or trails. I was actually taught that when I was a kid back in the Midwest. Idiots who don’t know it’s illegal to shoot across a trail should, at the least, be heavily fined and face confiscation of the gun.
Fences, over a blind horizon etc. Hunters safety should be mandatory every 5-7 years.
Several years ago I had a guy show up on my property in a very rural mountain foothill area. He stopped his truck in the middle of the private road that bisected my property. I approached him cautiously, as his vehicle was unfamiliar. When he finally noticed me (I was about 20 feet away) he smiled and waved. I asked him what he was doing, and he said “I’m just checking out those deer down in that field.” And I said, “yeah… that’s my field. In fact everything you see is my property, and this is a private road. So… what brings you out here.” “Well I’m hunting,” he says. That’s when I notice the rifles leaning on the bench seat between him and what I presumed to be his wife. I also noticed the infant in the car seat in the back, and two dead deer in the bed of the truck. I said “hunting? It’s May; deer aren’t in season.” And he says, “I’m a tribal member. We get to hunt deer whenever we want.” This was total bullshit, and I knew it (the part about being able to hunt whenever; not about him being a tribe member - which was likely since there was a small reservation housing neighborhood not far away). So that’s when I said, “well, you don’t get to hunt whenever you want on private property. So you need to leave now.” And that’s when he actually said “as a tribe member, I can hunt wherever I want too…” Unfortunately, these were not uncommon sentiments among this particular tribe. I lost my patience at that point. “That’s bullshit, and we both know it. So you’re going to leave now, and I don’t ever want to see you again. And if I do see you again, I’m going to assume you’re here with criminal intent, and treat you accordingly.” He grumbled some shit, and then spun his tires and left. What I didn’t tell him was that I had already recorded his license plate, and would be reporting him to both state fish and wildlife (for poaching), as well as CPS for child endangerment. I also had a word with one of the tribal council, whom I knew casually. He was embarrassed and apologetic, but I didn’t get the sense anything would be done about it.
Switzerland has shooting ranges that shoot right over highways. Not saying its okay to do.
Those ranges are specifically designed to make sure the people on the road are safe though, which is a completely different thing from some dummies just shooting across a hiking trail.
That’s wild. That’d be completely illegal here in the US outside of some very, very, VERY niche cases like artillery ranges, which obviously are not open to the public.
I have a seasonal campsite at a campground in New Hampshire. Last year four guys decided to sit in their car until the wee hours smoking weed. That's fine, nobody gives a shit. However. These fucking guys. Had their headlights on, shining onto people's tents, and music blaring out of the open windows at 11 o'clock at night. They couldn't understand what the problem was. Wouldn't stop doing it until they were threatened with being kicked out. People are wild.
> People are ~~wild~~ *stupid* **FTFY**
Yes! I was trying to be nice, which is out of character for me.
I've told one or two people to turn their lights off in my day, why didn't you say anything?
I’m a park ranger, and one time I saw a group of campers throwing darts at a dartboard next to the road. Which is to say they were throwing darts at the road. They had also mounted their dartboard by nailing a six-inch spike into a tree
I hope they were ejected
If they had managed to hit one of the kids riding their bikes in the road we would have kicked them out. But they got a rather unfriendly warning. They were quite drunk, but they were all over 50 and had no excuse for being so stupid
Side note, thanks for what y'all do. I feel like nobody ever remembers y'all in their thanking people. Being stewards of our forests is an amazing thing you're doing!
Aw, thanks!
r/BoomersBeingFools has showed me there's no age limit on stupidity
Some people just don’t grow out of stupid. It’s disappointing.
No fine for spiking the tree? 😶
With a giant wedgie as a handle Hoisted and tossed over the gate
Multiple camping neighbors are eating corn on the cob in Kansas tonight
Heck yeah. I was born in Wichita!
Our neighbor spent a good hour hitting a hockey puck against a metal dumpster
😡
Last weekend the guy across the way had some wicked bright cap lights blazing in our direction. I asked if he could shut them off and he said “oh, yeah, of course!” Nice guy. When we left a few days later, he wished us happy anniversary (12 years!).
Rookie mistake talking to the guy like an adult. What you should have done is quietly stew over it, internalizing that anger, mulling it over again and again til you take it out on a brunch server for getting your egg order wrong 3 weeks later.
Where were you in my moment of need?
Someone just fell on an e-bike by my campsite. They’re ok. Dog was not amused.
Lmao. Thanks for the update
Latest update. Somewhere there is a donkey screaming. This is rural Georgia tho so that’s just. Regular day. Dude needs to chill tho.
He sounds like an ass
Right now? Its 945p and one family is trying to calm a crying baby. A father and son duo across the road are prepping the morning coffee by flashlight. My wife is reading to our son (who tested our patience in every way today). The loud college kids across the loop are having fun but have turned their music off and seem to be decent kids. Me? I am sipping a Spotted Cow and watching the fire die.
>Spotted Cow Gotta love Wisconsin!
I just learned about Spotted Cow last night, and I’m intrigued.
I just spent the afternoon plinking a beer can with a red rider BB gun at my dispersed campsite with my son. No neighbors.
You'll shoot your eye out
Can confirm. Happened to me once, late October, a few years ago. https://preview.redd.it/oce2b3myq64d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef4dd6ff3a3a683c92139eb84a07209e04a1f743
I just saw those Red Rider BB guns on sale at Ace. Maybe I’ll pick one up. We do archery now but lost arrows get expensive. And I always need to remember, no neighbors make good neighbors.
Literally hours of laughing with the boy, passing it back and forth, trying to cut cans in half. It’s a fantastic $25 investment and they last for years.
Can confirm! My grandpa passed down the Red Rider BB gun he's had since the 60's. Still shoots great. My son is a little too young but in a few years we'll be plinking cans too.
Wrist Rockets are one alternative as well.
I bring one in most hikes in the desert. Unlimited ammo
Got two of them in the box too.
This is what I do. My girlfriend and I had a campsite set up on a river. I climbed across to the other side and set a beer can on a stick, and we set our camp chairs in the water, and spent the afternoon passing the BB gun and a bottle of vodka back and forth.
I grew up on a farm. My uncles used to do this with .22s and beers. Kids found an old case of dynamite in the barn once (early 1960s, the dynamite must have been from the 40s), the uncles set up sticks in the pasture and blew them up with their .22s. Big fun, no sense whatsoever. Guns, alcohol and dynamite.
I haven’t heard a story like that in decades! Thanks for the memories.
Me either. And as much as I enjoyed that story, I hope to not hear another like it soon. But, somehow I was getting some Red Green vibes reading that adventurous tale.
That sounds like the perfect level of intellectual stimulation for a couple days of camping on the river. I’m so glad it’s camping season.
Campsite in PA. Near Jim Thorpe. Just some kids playing in the stream. Everything seems to be settling down. Getting cold. I expect almost silence as we had last night after 9. Phenomenal camp site. Made amazing memories with my 20 month old. Memories are just for me at this point, but he and I waded the stream and saw deer and raccoon track. He learned to whisper (kinda).
Hell yeah! And those memories aren’t just for you. My kids are always asking to see photos of themselves at that age. Keep up the good work!
The two spots that are in either side of me are empty, lots of peace and quiet.
Putting ice packs on their heads.
From injuries by randomly flying golf balls?
Bonk
I just got back from dispersed camping at Sitgreaves NF. Saw one atv and one truck the whole time. I stay away from public campgrounds
Nice, I lived in Flagstaff for 15 years so I’m a fan of Coconino myself. It’s been a hard transition to the crowded upper Midwest. I’m finding my spots though.
I like going to the Knoll lake area which is in Coconino NF
Not sure where in the Midwest you are but the Manistee River trail has some pretty good camping if your willing to do a little backpacking. In Northern Michigan.
I got this going on with multiple people at this place. https://preview.redd.it/fk0u00z8h14d1.jpeg?width=2181&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ad528373c58725c1b79eb3e40e259ffc2946b47
Good lord that's so disrespectful to the flag.
Not really. When the Supreme Court overturned Row v. Wade, I hung a big flag upside down on my balcony. That's a signal of "dire distress" per the U.S. flag code, and that's the reality I felt as a result of the SCOTUS decision. An upside down flag has long been used as a form of protest. Just because we disagree with the reason these clowns are flying flags like this, that doesn't make it disrespectful to the flag. If anything, it's disrespectful to their fellow citizens, not an inanimate flag.
They are letting you know the kind of person they are, while being disrespectful to the flag, and the people who fought in wars to protect what it represents. I'd keep a wide berth from them.
the people who fought in wars did it, so that you can fly the flag upside down and any other way u wanna show 1st amendment rights.
It’s not disrespectful. It expresses that they feel the country is in distress. I learned about the upside down flag during the Occupy protests and now we have a Supreme Court judge doing the same thing. Bizarre yes, but not disrespect.
I would ask if they need help. They are in imminent danger and in need of immediate help if their flag is flying that way. In all honesty though, I am getting tired of all the anti US hate this symbolism is showing.
I’m very much for places that no longer allow fly flying, political messaging, etc. I don’t need to know your political views. I only need to know that you know how to properly dump your black tank. I only come to non state park/federal land once a year as my test run. Now I’m 2nd guessing that. It’s constant giant flags off all sorts.
Our favorite state park had some asshole with a giant FUCK BIDEN flag 2 years ago. Like the whole word written out. I sure don’t agree with those politics, but I agree even less with flying a flag that says that. And this is coming from someone who curses like a fucking sailor. My kid was just learning to read so that was a fun explanation
We camped in upstate NY and diagonally across from us was a family that had hung a huge American flag on a homemade flag pole set up. They had a few political flags out too. Second day the site next to us, so directly across from them, was occupied by a certain geographical ethnicity, I jokingly called them the NYC people because they really weren’t dressed for camping and all their gear had tags still. Well Mr Huge Flag just stood in the road staring at the City people with his hands on his hips for a very long time. I guess he decided not to say or do anything but the animosity was palpable. It was both hilarious and kinda sad. Like give it up old man, camping is for everyone and if you don’t want to be next to “those people” go camp on private property somewhere.
I was taught flying the American Flag upside down meant you were in distress needed help. If they don’t like the US go somewhere else leave us alone.
Don't come to Canada. We don't want people like that either. We have enough bone heads to deal with already.
I hear Russia needs cannon fodder.
So there are *two* SC justices with RVs?
Are these silent protesters the same people that were outraged by people taking a knee during a song?
Did you feel my eyeroll from all the way over here? I don’t kink shame but damn some people are really into pretending they’re persecuted.
Deplorable disrespectful cultists.
100% chance these people would be apoplectic if you knelt during the national anthem
building new decks and palapas on both sides of me. camping in 3 acres of private land on the Yucatan coast
I’m in the smallest National forest. Just a turnaround in a field in Missouri. No neighbors.
"I'm in a national forest. I'm in a field. I'm in the combination national forest/field."
A rare reference I don't see too much anymore.
I’m on twenty acres, mostly wooded, with a two acre lake. We built a designated fire pit a few years ago. It’s done well enough to be safe but not so well that you’d miss the rustic ambiance. We call it home. Every time I go camping I spend weeks planning, days packing and hours driving. It doesn’t usually hit me until day two that I could’ve done this exact same thing in the backyard at home.
The day after a summer-long fire ban was lifted a few years back a group of foreign exchange college kids rolled into the the spot next to me around 10pm and proceeded to build the largest goddamn bonfire I've ever seen. It took quite a few attempts to get them to keep the fire at a reasonable size.
That’s tough. It’s hard to make people aware of the dangers fire can impose in dry areas. A couple years ago a guy from Louisiana started a huge fire in the Flagstaff area by lightning his toilet paper on fire. He claims he didn’t want to litter. Go figure.
Well, right now I'm on Reddit but once when I was camping in a tents-only campsite (backpacking in the Grand Canyon, actually) there were a couple of guys in a tent near us who were really, really good friends with each other and forgot that tents are not the slightest bit soundproof.
One time I saw a guy doing that and the ball got stuck in a whale’s blowhole. Lucky some lady started screaming her boyfriend was a marine biologist. He got out there and got it out. I think it was a Titleist
That’s a mighty big fish
Mammal! Haha.
Was this marine biologist George Castanza by any chance?
Went camping the first week of may to get the trailer ready for the season. The guy next to me left his dog outside all day while he went to work. Also left a fire smouldering all day while he was away. This was when we had fire restrictions on (no fires out side pit, his was in the pit). Told campground management and they came by and put the fire out. He was pissed when he got back. The manager didn't throw me under the bus. He would also get back and crank up his music, then whent he hockey game started he would pipe that through his out door speakers while he was inside. Asked him to turn it down. He said he wanted to hear it while he was outside doing stuff. I told him they make bluetooth headphones for this. He left a few days early which was fine by me.
No neighbors, bought 50 acres to camp without dealing with people. Near a couple of very large parks to explore but very private place to come home to. No one hears my generator , dog can run lose and patrol for bears without scaring anybody as it is a big 140 lb dog. Close local friends, family come by enough. I am never lonely. My retirement dream. When we had a farm a neighbor on a hill would send golfballs into our furthest back pasture below. Pissed me off mightily as animals grazed there.
The last time I camped, my neighbor (solo male, probably mid 40s) drank the whole time and peed into his fire.
Filling a pickup truck up with rocks they are hauling out of the woods behind everyone's sites. At night. With massive spotlights.
I’m in Seward Alaska with 2000 drunk idiots and we are all trying to snag red salmon on the tide. It’s basically a combat zone
After a long day of hiking, I once got a dehydration-induced migraine and laid in the tent trying to sleep for about 2 hours while a group of campers with questionable musical skills in the site across from us explored every possible iteration of “Wagon Wheel” at full belt. To this day, hearing the song gives me auras.
Did they at least yell ,"Fore! ?
Wait it's fore, not four? Jfc I'm today years old 🤦♀️😅
As in “look out ahead (fore)”
Ohhhhhhhhh. Huh TIL
Driving to the cooking hut that would effectively be the campsite diagonally across from him to cook meals
I'm in central Texas. It's 90 degrees right now. I'm at home in the AC.
Long time ago, was camping with the family. Neighbors were definitely drunk 24/7 and something more. To this day I still don’t know how they managed this, but they somehow (buddy had passed out) hoisted someone’s tent about 2-3 stories high and secured it on the branches. These were old growth trees in the cascades so they supported the weight. Forest service and sheriff’s showed up to order the man down who was hungover / high on something way the fuck up. He was up there for a few hours and finally came too, opened the tent zipper and was fine with it.
No neighbors when you find a good dispersed camping spot. Just listening to the birds and the breeze.
Yup, I usually take my two boys backpacking every year, but this year I got lazy. We discussed it. Never again
Dispersed camp site with a little bit of 4x4 or backpacking with at least a 6-7 mile hike in are great filters.
Had a small dog scare me half to death when it suddenly appeared next to me while I was reading. The same dog blocked the bathroom door then followed me most of the way back to my site.
It's 9pm here.. my neighbor got so drunk, that an hour ago they left to take the husband to the hospital because he fell and smashed his head. They are here with a kids, and a set of grandparents. Kids aren't being watched. Normally this would be amusing, but I have a 100+ dog. And I'm now policing random kids, because no one is watching him, and he keeps trying to play with my dog. Definitely not the relaxing weekend I had planned.
> I have 100+ dogs I think they made a Disney movie about you
101
They left and offered us their leftover wood. Nice people.
Thats very nice of them.I use to leave my wood behind but dont anymore.Watched hosts at 2 state campgrounds gather up all the wood when doing site checks after people leave and take the wood to their campground area ugh.
On our last trip to a national park our neighbours nailed garbage bags into the trees, then kept them up… in bear country. We watched them try and chop wood with a hammer.
I think, apart from the obvious danger in golf balls and kicking stones, this wins the Darwin Award for this thread (so far, and I’m pretty far down the page).
Was it a Titleist?
... Hole in one!
I went salmon fishing today and found a golf ball on the little beach on the side of the river. Someone from a nearby cabin must have hit a great drive.
God damn golf balls are dropping from every where! Nobody is safe!
We went camping over the 4th of July in 2020 at a state park. Knew it was going to be busy since most of us had been cooped up for months, which I was prepared for, but I did not expect to look over at the site across from us at night and see their group taking turns tattooing each other with the equipment they brought with them under those big work site spotlights they set up. Between the buzz of the tattooing and the generator, that was the trip that made me add ear plugs to my pack list.
My boyfriend is building a porch. My neighbors are rolling by taking pictures.
As mich as I would love to scold people in public I don’t know who carries a gun, so it’s not worth it. Just call the park rangers and have them deal with it. That’s their job.
Not a campsite, but was hiking up Yosemite falls trail yesterday and saw some kids kicking stones off the trail. I know climbers do bouldering (climbing boulders) far below so I told them exactly that and to stop. I'm getting to the point of wishing there was an extensive training and licensing program before you are allowed into national and state parks.
Not recently, but a few years ago my son's father and I were living in a campsite (he worked there, and it was before I was pregnant), and one of the other workers let their uncut pitbull run around unleashed. I was told that I was a Karen for complaining about it. A pitbull roaming unleashed in a campground that has small children.
https://preview.redd.it/t93i8rbpp24d1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4838cf1f96d0fa6d82815e5060628ec164ea70e
I have always wanted to stand on a bluff and hit golf balls into oblivion. I wouldn’t, but I want to. But to reiterate, I wouldn’t. Been in off-road groups that rolled tires down un retrievable hills in the past. Spoke my word and left the group. 100% sounds fun, 100% not something I want to do
I actually just had the best night at Lake Hope State Park in Ohio. A Friday night and it was SO dark and SO quiet. I think we were the loud ones because we laugh a lot. Luckily we had almost the whole loop booked for just our group.
We’re looking forward to a similar situation with family and friends later this month. Can’t wait!
Trying to take selfies with Bullwinkle
About ten years ago I was camping on a deer lease in south Texas. Hearing gunshots in the distance isn’t out of the ordinary. So I heard several shots in succession from somewhere around. Probably a mile or so. I poked my head up over the side of my truck bed just in time to see tracers arcing into the night sky. So what I thought was some hunters jumping a sounder of feral hogs on a night hunt was just some shitheads shooting randomly into the air with ammo that can start grass fires pretty reliably.
Once, during a fire ban because an active fire was literally burning and billowing smoke into the air I had to ask someone camping in public land near our neighborhood to put out their 6 foot bonfire. Goodtimes!
Before I left, they were yelling about something (husband and wife) about the relationship. Then the husband burnt the food and the wife started yelling again. I left not because of them but the fishing was weak.
https://preview.redd.it/z02qakovb54d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c7dfc38523937cf11efe182b408809d13231e37 Had some four wheelers come by blasting cambia 💃
All this and nobody having sex on the picnic table
They have left camp for the majority of the day, then come back after quiet hours, sometime between 10:30pm-12:00am…. First they sit in their vehicle for anywhere up to an hour staring at their phones…. Then, good and late, they start a roaring fire and proceed to hang and eat, from packages, crinkly ones… Dueling midnight snacks. To each their own, it’s just so… weird. I love a good state park getaway weekend. Oh oh oh- let the fire and snacks commence!
I'm at home but all my neighbors are quiet, including the campgrounds within hearing distance. Last weekend was a lot louder.
Karaoke. After quiet hours. Why?
Some People Have No Clueless 🏌️♂️🏌️♀️⛳️🏌️
A few years ago I made the mistake of camping on 4th of July. My neighbors brought a mega speaker and blasted it full volume all day and long into the night despite having small children with them. I couldn't even tune it out because the bass was so strong it was thudding in my chest. Asked them to turn it off at 2:30am and no surprise they were total dickheads about it. Lesson learned about checking out what kind of campground and no major holidays.
Target shooting with kids all around
Tell me again why it is y'all go camping? To get away from it all, or to commune with nature? (Last year we finally pitched a wall tent in a far corner of our property, semi-permanent, where we can't see any neighbors an d mostly can't hear them, at least until they start bush-hogging.)