View Full Version : craziest place you've ever stealthed...
sofaking
05-12-2008, 22:06
where's the most ridiculous place you've woken up at while on the TRAIL? ( let's keep answers trail related )
i ended up hiding under a rock ledge just south of pen-mar this past winter due to the ice storm that was trying to drop trees on my head. the trail was impossible to follow, it was night and everything was coated in ice, snapping, crackling, popping and crashing all around me ..i made it past high rock and had to find shelter, so i holed up under the first available ledge.
bloodmountainman
05-12-2008, 22:27
In the middle of the Logan Turnpike road! It's the blue blaze leading down the mountain from Tesnatee Gap.
2nd or 3rd night on the trail, April 1990, Jarrard Gap. Wind was howling. Inside of my tiny tent sounded like a jet engine all night long. Started as rain early afternoon. No hot dinner, hunkered down with cold Vienna sausages from a can (ecchh--first and last time for that.) Woke up to a "winter wonderland" and walked through light snow (and sun) up to Blood Mtn. summit.
doggiebag
05-12-2008, 22:33
Outside of South Pomfret, VT around October last year; after failing to reach a store in time for a resupply on a cold rainy night. I set up my tarp in a depression on the outside curve of a country road heading into town (I felt like a possum or some rodent sleeping close to a ditch) Thankfully it was complete stealth so only I knew my pathetic choice of campsites. Woke up to more rain and wind early. I must have looked like a real winner heading into town that morning. Good times.
I know of someone who set up camp on a child's slide in a picnic area by the trailhead.
Two Speed
05-12-2008, 23:04
Wasn't really a stealth, as things turned out.
Back about 20 years ago I got a wild hair about kicking off on the AT at Woody Gap, running the AT north to Blood Mountain, picking up the Coosa Backcountry and then the Duncan Ridge Trail.
Somehow I wound up on the Slaughter Gap Trail, and didn't realize how bad my navigation was off until I spotted some cabins. Standard weather for nav screw up in Georgia, light rain, heavy fog and about 40 F.
I decided to find a thicket, set up, get some dinner and backtrack in the morning. After a little stumbling around I found a quiet spot beside a little stream and called it good. Woke up in the morning, struck camp and started back up the hill, and realized that I had "stealthed" in the middle of the camp ground at Lake Winfield Scott.
It was closed for the winter, so I guess it's just as well a ranger didn't spot me. :cool:
Bulldawg
05-12-2008, 23:06
Wasn't really a stealth, as things turned out.
Back about 20 years ago I got a wild hair about kicking off on the AT at Woody Gap, running the AT north to Blood Mountain, picking up the Coosa Backcountry and then the Duncan Ridge Trail.
Somehow I wound up on the Slaughter Gap Trail, and didn't realize how bad my navigation was off until I spotted some cabins. Standard weather for nav screw up in Georgia, light rain, heavy fog and about 40 F.
I decided to find a thicket, set up, get some dinner and backtrack in the morning. After a little stumbling around I found a quiet spot beside a little stream and called it good. Woke up in the morning, struck camp and started back up the hill, and realized that I had "stealthed" in the middle of the camp ground at Lake Winfield Scott.
It was closed for the winter, so I guess it's just as well a ranger didn't spot me. :cool:
Now thats funny right there, I don't care who ya are!!
I was waiting for a package with some new shoes at Franconia State Park and they were full, all the hotels in town were full so I laid out on the front porch of the information cabin next to the highway at the park when it got dark. I even hung my food from my walking stick off the front as well.
Also I was trying to hitch to Katahdin from Portland but only made it to Augusta before calling it quits and just taking the bus the rest of the way. I had a good while before the bus came so I pulled out my hammock at the Augusta airport/bus station and tied it off to a tree and a handicapped parking sign. I dozed off for my nap and the stationmaster woke me up and wanted to make sure I had tickets. I showed him my ticket and he was satisfied and had no problems with it. Not really stealth or on the trail, but still a neat place.
SGT Rock
05-12-2008, 23:15
Benton McKaye Trail. Right outside of a steak house.
I once stealthed under someones computer desk.........and no, I'll not say where it was.
went to sleep on the top platform at bare fence woke up in front of the shelter
warren doyle
05-13-2008, 06:58
Two times in Gatlinburg.
One year I bungee-corded myself on a Shoney's sign about 20' high above the sidewalk.
Another time I slept right underneath the gaping mouth of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a miniature golf course.
Gray Blazer
05-13-2008, 07:01
Laguardia.
Lone Wolf
05-13-2008, 07:11
loading dock of the cornwall bridge post office on top of bundles of newspapers
minnesotasmith
05-13-2008, 07:25
Located in a cul-de-sac turnaround, with a young SOBO on the picnic table next to me.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
05-13-2008, 07:25
None of these was on the AT, but all were while backpacking.
I came off a mountain on an unmarked side trail once because the sky had turned nasty and I didn't want to be on top when the storm hit. It was getting dark and heavy fog had set in down in the valley. I found a clearing and set up camp uphill from a small stream. When I work up the next morning, I realized I was in the backyard of an estate and the stream was part of a yard fountain / artificial waterfall set-up.
I stealth on an overgrown lot near a downtown bus station once in my youth. (Two creepy guys in the bus station were scarier than the snakes, skunks and possums in the field) I was enroute home after backpacking so I had the gear.....
chuckbuster
05-13-2008, 07:25
Spent the night at the top of Washington Monument! Washington Monument State Park, MD
sofaking
05-13-2008, 08:21
Two times in Gatlinburg.
One year I bungee-corded myself on a Shoney's sign about 20' high above the sidewalk.
Another time I slept right underneath the gaping mouth of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a miniature golf course.
i need to hear the story behind this...
sofaking
05-13-2008, 08:21
Benton McKaye Trail. Right outside of a steak house.
story? details?
SGT Rock
05-13-2008, 09:21
The BMT passes through a little built-up-area that has a country store with dinner and a nice steak place (they also have lots of other good food too) and I mean it is RIGHT in front of the place. The funny thing is no one I talked to in the place even knew about the BMT, forget knowing it was on the street in front of their restaurant.
I hiked nearly a 17 mile day to get there on the 6th of January and ended up getting there at about 7pm - well after dark and it was FREEZING cold. Now this is a place they are not use to seeing hikers, and I walk in with a pack, smelling like a goat, and trail dirty at about 2 hours before closing. They looked at me funny and asked if they could help me. I told them I was planning to have dinner, I was hiking, and please put me as far away from the normal customers as possible.
I ordered the biggest meal they had and ate a huge salad while waiting, then added in about 6 glasses of tea and 3 cups of coffee while I dinned. I made sure I tipped really well too. Oh yes, and a couple in the restaurant offered me a half of a bottle of wine in exchange for my trail story. Mmmmmm....
So at about 8:30 I finished up and left. It was dark, it was freezing, and I just wanted to sleep. The BMT in this section is about 1/2 way into a 4 mile section of road walk through private land. I sure didn't feel like walking miles to find a campsite.
Across the street at a caddy-corner and over a small bridge was a field that was starting to grow over. There were some briars and scrub pines starting to take over. I walked up in there figuring there was no chance of getting visitors on a night like this and found me a hang on the side of a hill. I stealthed low in the hammock with no tarp up. The only problem was I had to get up about 6 times to go to the bathroom as my body processed all that liquid. The next morning I was up with dawn and out of there before the place was open.
generoll
05-13-2008, 09:28
Not too stealthy, but my cousin and I spent the night on the front porch of a house at Sams Gap about 40 years ago. As near as I can tell the house was where I-26 now crosses the gap. No one was home at the time.
DesertMTB
05-13-2008, 09:36
I was camping on the south rim of the grand canyon, got drunk and decided to take my sleeping bag and go for a little walk. Woke up at 3 a.m. lost and disoriented. Walked about 5 miles to find my campsite. Then I got to walk 22 miles across the canyon! Fun times.
I stealthed on the rim of Crater Lake on my PCT thru.
I had to pick up a supply package, by the time I got it and made it back to te rim, it was getting dark. So I found some pine trees on the rim to shelter me from the dew, laid down my ground cloth and woke to a magnificent sunrise over the rim.
There were fires in Oregon so I didn't see anything during the day. At oh-god-early in the morning, the smoke was temp. cleared out. I was able to see the lake where the morning before I could not.
Life was(is) good!
http://www.pmags.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=4431&g2_serialNumber=2&g2_GALLERYSID=9b7269e0127675108ae6001d1d0952b4
In one of the barns in Hensley Settlement at Cumberland Gap NP. It was about 34 and raining straight down for about 4 hours when I got there. It was a no brainer.
doggiebag
05-13-2008, 10:45
I spent 2 days just outside Palmerton, PA after my dog got bit by a rattle snake and after checking him out of the veterinary clinic at Walnutport - we stealthed in some bushes near the guard shack of the local dump 10 yards from a major road, while I waited for him to recuperate.
4074
The attachment shows Aldo still a little swollen. We dropped by to say thanks to Barbara for getting
us to a vet after he got bit. She was a real sweetheart.
Footslogger
05-13-2008, 10:57
In the weeds on the south side of the Carabasset River just before Stratton. Crazy rain storm had raised water levels about 3 feet and blew out the plank used as a foot bridge earlier in the day. Walked up and down the river a couple hundred yards and couldn't find a suitable spot to attempt a ford.
We decided to clear a spot, set up the tent and hunker down for the night. Next morning the water levels had dropped back down. I was able to ford and then re-set the foot bridge before continuing on to Stratton.
The Carabasset was reallly running hard that night. Hard to believe we actually got used to all the noise and actually got a good night's sleep.
'Slogger
Evil Eye
05-13-2008, 12:12
Not too radical but tenting on top of the Bromley Mountian Observation tower might have been my favorite last year. Great 5 state views, great ventilation & just a couple/three miles past Manchester Center/VT 11 - amazing solution to a very late start out of town.
Another not to miss - the city park in Unionville, NY - perhaps the most hospitable town on the trail - good pizza, good bagels, good bar, next door to the PO & the mayor host hikers for showers & laundry in his home.
RITBlake
05-13-2008, 12:25
Front Royal Virginia
With permission from the owners....we slept on the staircase landing outside the door of the 2G Restaurant. We got to town after a very long day and couldn't find anywhere to stealth. We ran in to the owners and they brought us upstairs for a free dinner and gave us a warm place to stay. The restaurant was locked all night, and in the morning we cleaned up, and quietly left as the sun came up.
http://www.maine2georgia.com/VApics/slides/P9090045.JPG
http://www.maine2georgia.com/VApics/slides/P9090046.JPG
max patch
05-13-2008, 12:32
I stayed in former New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson's barn. Interesting man with some unique -- to say the least -- political views. His wife gave me a tour of their maple syrup processing operation and then made some awesome pancakes.
Bare Bear
05-13-2008, 14:50
I know a few hikers that spent a rainy night inside the fenced off vending machine area at a large NY Park.........they ate icecream all night and dodged the local cops. They finally figured they were setting off a silent alarm. :)
I was doing 27 miles one night on the AT and a steady rain made me give up makingthe next shelter which I figured was still 2-3 miles away so I stealthed in a briar thicket that turned out to have a few million ants trying to get above the water that night so they chose my tent. The next morning I broke camp early and after about 200 yards reached the shelter...funny how you miss judge miles sometimes.
best one that I have heard of was from this weekend at Big Meadows - a thru stealthed in one of the showers at the campground - these are individual showers with a locking outside door - the weather was rather nasty with cold and very wet conditions
saimyoji
05-13-2008, 15:19
Wasn't there a thru that "stealthed" in a privy?
Footslogger
05-13-2008, 15:27
Wasn't there a thru that "stealthed" in a privy?
====================================
Not sure I'd call it "stealth". We were headed for the Roan High Knob Shelter but heard it was overloaded with hikers so a few of us stopped short and set up tents in the open grassy area on Roan High Bluff. A killer thunder/lightening storm came in and we high-tailed it into the brick outhouse. The storm looked like it was gonna last for a while so we all spread out our ground sheets and called it a night.
'Slogger
hopefulhiker
05-13-2008, 15:41
Once I cowboy camped right on top of a bunch of moose tracks near a watering hole in Maine....
max patch
05-13-2008, 16:27
Wasn't there a thru that "stealthed" in a privy?
That was funny.
TIDE-HSV
05-13-2008, 17:16
The next morning I broke camp early and after about 200 yards reached the shelter...funny how you miss judge miles sometimes.
Not, AT, but I had to chuckle at that one. While biking the Blue Ridge Parkway, I ran out of daylight and had to stealth in a pulloff to a viewpoint (no views there in the dark). All night long, cars pulled through, which I hadn't expected, headlights raking across my tent, but no rangers. The next AM, I found I was right at the Devil's Pulpit and the Mt. Pisgah Inn, my original destination for the night, was only a few minutes further...
spittinpigeon
05-13-2008, 18:08
Wasn't there a thru that "stealthed" in a privy?
Coppertop did in '06, at that campground south of Whitecap in ME. He also stealthed on the train platform in NY, and up under a bridge where the pigeons sleep in Pinkham Notch.
I stealthed in a Graveyard and on that insanely thin bench on the second floor of the Doyle.
RITBlake
05-13-2008, 18:21
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/PfaffVWseller/AwesomeThread.jpg
In high thicket next to the road connecting N. Woodstock and Lincoln, NH.
sasquatch2014
05-13-2008, 22:00
I forget who it was but I heard of someone climbing into one of the goodwill donation boxes. they said sleeping on top of the clothes made for a soft and warm night.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
05-13-2008, 22:02
I forget who it was but I heard of someone climbing into one of the goodwill donation boxes. they said sleeping on top of the clothes made for a soft and warm night.That a trick the homeless sometimes use.
sofaking
05-13-2008, 22:05
only when they don't have their cardboard tents and newspaper blankets...and those crazy metal wheeled backpacks...
Bootstrap
05-13-2008, 22:21
When I was first married 25 years ago, we went for a week's canoe trip down the Conewongo and the Allegheny. I hadn't thought about this ahead of time, but there is a city park, open only during the day, in the middle of Warren where the Conewongo flows into the Allegheny. And a pizza joint about 1/4 mile from there. So we pitched our tent on the point at the end of the park and went waltzing in for a pizza, then returned to our previously scheduled trip for the rest of the week.
Jonathan
Kerosene
05-14-2008, 09:01
4/8/74: Under a highway overpass 16 miles south of Pine Grove, PA in misting rain (didn't get much sleep with all the trucks downshifting)
3/29/75: Under the bleachers in the Kent School (CT) outdoor Hockey Rink during a torrential downpour, dodging the security guards making their rounds
6/3/79: Under the Burgmeier Bridge (north end of the old Cumberland Gap walk in PA). It rained all night and I had visions of the river's water level swamping us.
6/7/79: In the middle of the nature trail in Caledonia State Park (PA), between the park and US-30. We set up the tent after the park officially closed and were out just after daybreak.
bigmac_in
05-14-2008, 11:34
When I was MUCH younger, I camped out less than 100 feet from my girlfriends back door. It's a long story, involving alcohol and an unexpected parental visit, but I got away with it.
Ah - to be young again.
sofaking
05-14-2008, 11:36
When I was MUCH younger, I camped out less than 100 feet from my girlfriends back door. It's a long story, involving alcohol and an unexpected parental visit, but I got away with it.
Ah - to be young again.
i've lost socks and underwear on a few occasions because of that...
in march, right above the greenleaf hut on lafayette. we were in a wind tunnel, camped on top of ten feet of snow. we kept walking around camp and falling into snow up to our armpits. at night a ridiculous blizzard blew in and was tearing our tents down, so we packed up at like three a.m. and hunkered on the leeward side of the hut until the sun came up and we hiked out. mcdonald's never tasted so good that morning.
Blissful
05-14-2008, 14:32
When I was MUCH younger, I camped out less than 100 feet from my girlfriends back door. It's a long story, involving alcohol and an unexpected parental visit, but I got away with it.
Ah - to be young again.
Hey I did that too - at my hubby's place on his back concrete patio before we were married. A little 3 AM stint - I was praying, please, please God make this man marry me! (I was crazy about him) He never knew I was there. When I told him about it after we were engaged he thought I was nuts. But hey, it worked! :D
sofaking
05-14-2008, 14:55
not really stealth, more like an emergency bivouac story, back in '93 i was ridge running/trail maintaining at mt. rogers- that's the year we had the blizzard the first weekend of march? anyway, i got a call from hq to go find some hikers at grindstone campground. snowshoe there, radio died on the way, it's dark and these guys are nowhere to be found. they had broke into the registration booth and used the table top radio to call for help-me(poor guys). found them in the maintenance hall in one of the bath houses, where we had to stay the night b/c they were already thawed/wet and didn't want to hike back to the u.s.f.s.house... i had 1 and 1/2 poptarts, 3/4 quart of water and a dead radio...we slept in garbage bags, had astro turf for pads and propped extra stall doors between the plumbing and walls to get off of the gravel floor, which was a brisk 30ish? degrees, we 'jumpstarted' the heater and had it around 70 degrees from 3 feet off the floor and up...took us all the next day to hike the 4 or 5 miles back to the house, me on snowshoes, baby stepping and trying to break trail for these two guys. the other runner had brought back 6 other hikers from the fox creek trailhead and old orchard shelter. we had a houseful for a week and a half until the roads were cleared. played a lot of spades and poker that week.
TIDE-HSV
05-15-2008, 01:16
took us all the next day to hike the 4 or 5 miles back to the house, me on snowshoes, baby stepping and trying to break trail for these two guys
I remember a trip from Cades Cove up to Spence field in a long-ago January. The snow was crotch-deep at the top and I had the only set of snowshoes. I tried breaking trail but I finally got fired. Even though my smallish shoes were depressing the snow about 6"-8", the snow was so dry and powdery, when they stepped into my foot prints, they immediately sank down another foot or so...
sofaking
05-15-2008, 01:24
I remember a trip from Cades Cove up to Spence field in a long-ago January. The snow was crotch-deep at the top and I had the only set of snowshoes. I tried breaking trail but I finally got fired. Even though my smallish shoes were depressing the snow about 6"-8", the snow was so dry and powdery, when they stepped into my foot prints, they immediately sank down another foot or so...
these poor guys were swimming behind me, waist deep...we saw a deer 'run' across the road, well we saw a deer's head bob across... the drifts on the road bed were at least 6 ft. took the vdot crews more than a week to open one lane of the road. a memorable blizzard.
Bare Bear
05-16-2008, 01:09
In Florida near the eastern end the Greenway just east of I75 I hit a park at sundown. A kindly Park employee let me know it was going to be 19F that night. Then he remarked that he was old and forgetful so if I found a restroom door open please don't let anyone know he forgot to lock up. I spent a wonderful night, hot water to wash up, flush toilet, the concrete was a little hard but hey it beat the outside temps by about 45 degrees.
Ladies restroom @ Clingman's Dome.
Time To Fly 97
05-16-2008, 09:09
Fire towers on Killington and Stratton. Sunrise at both was stunning.
Happy hiking!
TTF
In the back of a public rest area .... found a little depression, pitched out the groundsheet and bag, went to sleep.
sofaking
05-16-2008, 14:19
In the back of a public rest area .... found a little depression, pitched out the groundsheet and bag, went to sleep.
don't get depressed because you're sleeping behind a rest stop...heh heh
I've got two, one doesn't really count as trail related...
Stealth "camped" up in the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse one night during my tenure as a graveyard shift custodian at Disney World...
Up under the Anna Ruby Falls viewing deck in my hammock. Awesome!
Shhh...don't tell.
spittinpigeon
05-16-2008, 15:05
Stealthed in a dugout. Tried to get out as early as I could but the groundskeeper beat me. He didn't care, was just wondering why there was a sleeping bag hanging on the fence.
RITBlake
05-16-2008, 15:27
the groundskeeper beat me.
what did he beat you with?
No Belay
05-16-2008, 15:56
Bivied 2 nights in a composting out-house a mile below the North Rim in the Grand Canyon. Got way laid by a blizzard while ascending from the bottom. It was blowing to hard to get my tent up so I kept post hollin until I got to the Supai tunnel. After digging out of it I found a brand new 3 stall composting privy on the other side. The door was unlocked on one of the stalls so I sat up camp and finished a Nevada Barr book until the storm passed. Only bad part was having to wrap around the stool to sleep. Burped farts for three days afterwords. Still can't stand the sight of cold fiberglass.:p
don't get depressed because you're sleeping behind a rest stop...heh heh
Good one!:D
This is one of the best threads! Thanks for the laughs:sun
Last year underneath the I-26 overpass at Sams Gap. There's a ledge about 4' wide on the NC side just underneath the road. You have to climb up a 40 degree concrete incline to get up there, but it's pretty secure once you're there.
the goat
05-18-2008, 13:54
just down from the summit of mt. washington on a large flat rock.
although, stealthing the summit of little round top in gettysburg was a little more creepy.
Toolshed
05-18-2008, 20:27
Smarts Mountain Firetower in '98 or '99
The rest of them ovewr the years were stealth but not crazy.
Jim Adams
05-18-2008, 22:59
on the tower at Clingman's Dome.
geek
No Belay
05-18-2008, 23:08
Jim, That ones on my bucket list. Did you bivy on the walkway or did you make the roof? Always thought the roof would be the place. No way anybody can look down and see you.... well He might but I doubt He'd count it as a sin.
Jim Adams
05-18-2008, 23:17
Jim, That ones on my bucket list. Did you bivy on the walkway or did you make the roof? Always thought the roof would be the place. No way anybody can look down and see you.... well He might but I doubt He'd count it as a sin.
It was 1990. Mule and I arrived there at about 1:30am and slept on our mats and bags at the top of the walkway......woke up in fog and diffused light, packed and started to walk down and met a ranger..."you boys got an early start!"...it was a VERY close call.:eek:
geek
Bare Bear
05-19-2008, 09:51
I know a guy that disappearred one night at Gator Growl (there was alcohol involved) and the next day he showed up about noon. It seems he had climbed up on the roof of the fabric basketball dome (Gainesville, Fl) and slept up there. Very lucky he didn't die as a result of a fall.
High Life
05-23-2008, 13:16
i stealth'd in stecoah gap at the top of the stairs flat spot on the right ( sobo ) .
tinker cliffs in a thunderstorm ( yes ' that was stupid ! , didnt know the storm was coming) front lawn of the exxon in atkins/rural retreat VA ( w/ permission)
SunnyWalker
05-23-2008, 19:36
There I was, hiking the PCT, and I took a side trip to Seattle Space Needle for dinner. Well, I stayed to late and so went outside and hung my hammock off the deck. Great night, what a view! Wow! Good thing I didn't have to leave the hammock during the night, it's along way down. -SunnyWalker
middle to middle
09-19-2008, 10:47
Skyline Dive Va. where the trail is very close to the road I just dropped down late one night. Slept like a baby and woke up to the smell of fresh baked donuts ! Of course I tracked down the smell and I was right behind one of the restaurants there and the early am delivery was stacked outside rear delivery door. You know I had to just take one !
OldStormcrow
09-19-2008, 10:58
on the tower at Clingman's Dome.
geek I tried to sleep on top of the tower at Clingman's one winter night, but my stuff kept blowing around. When my wooden hiking pole started to blow and roll across the concrete I decided to climb down and camp under the ramp.
gravityman
09-19-2008, 11:09
You should have camped in the 'bunker' there. At least in 2005 the door was open... But not a great place to spend the night, unless you're in that situation.
OldStormcrow
09-19-2008, 11:22
You should have camped in the 'bunker' there. At least in 2005 the door was open... But not a great place to spend the night, unless you're in that situation. Actually, (I wasn't going to admit it) I did camp in the "bunker" under the tower that night after almost getting blown off of the top of the ramp. There were more mice down there than in any shelter I have ever been in. It was kind of an Alfred Hitchcock experience. They gathered in a circle around my sleeping bag, just out of the candle light. Some were poking their little heads out of the cracks between the cinder blocks, etc. Thousands of the little buggers. The walls were covered with crystal ice and it felt (and smelled) like camping inside of an old refrigerator.
1) In a tent inside a forest service cabin posted "No Trespassing, Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." on the top of Whitetop Mountain in VA. Spent two nights waiting out a blizzard.
2) Under a blown down spruce tree that had landed on the front porch of a locked cabin in Caledonia State Park. Again in the midst of a snow storm that dumped about two feet of snow. LONG post hole hike out of there.
3) In a roadside ditch along a county road in KY.
4) In a rock quarry in KY. Awoken in the am by the sound of near-by blasting.
5) In the midst of heavy logging equipment at a logging camp in Colorado. Had to leave at 5 AM to miss the loggers coming to work.
6) Not really stealth, but wrapped around a tree on the steep slope behind Brown Mountain Creek shelter in VA. Literally had to hug the tree all night to keep from rolling down the hill.
Plenty more, but these are the ones that come to mind.
Gray Blazer
09-19-2008, 12:38
I know a guy that disappearred one night at Gator Growl (there was alcohol involved) and the next day he showed up about noon. It seems he had climbed up on the roof of the fabric basketball dome (Gainesville, Fl) and slept up there. Very lucky he didn't die as a result of a fall.
That's called O'Connelling. Since you brought up Gainesville, I would like to see someone stealth hammock in the Devil's Millhopper.
Hitching through Yellowstone late at night. No spot to setup camp so I climbed up on the roof of the shower/restroom building. Laid out my bag and passed out. Thought I was stealthing until I woke up and looked down at all the campers looking up and pointing at me. It was stealthy in the dark,not so much in daylight. I planned on wakeing before the sun came up.:o
Gray Blazer
09-20-2008, 00:22
Stealth "camped" up in the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse one night during my tenure as a graveyard shift custodian at Disney World...
People don't know there's a city under there. I never saw so many Mickey Mouses walking around holding their big head.
middle to middle
09-20-2008, 16:17
As a volunteer in a homeless shelter we had a guest one night in a Brooks Brothers suit and no shoes. That was 7-10 years ago when cocaine became big on street. I had dinner with him and found out he had been "camping out" in a local park for a week. Stealth camping as it were. The cops brought him in to the shelter. He had lost everything wife left and emptied the house which had been closed down locked and was for sale. We were able to get him shoes and he left the nest day.
Bare Bear
09-23-2008, 00:24
On the Florida Trail I figured the map was wrong after three or so miles and went out into a muddy wet field behide a gas station, where I thought it was brushy enough to hide my tent. It was raining and pitch black but for the lightening. The next morning I was awakened by the traffic lines about 40 yards away with all the people gawking at me getting out of the tent. At the gas station/C store next door the clerk laughed out loud and said that a trucker got snake bit the day before "That field is full of em".
Jim Adams
09-23-2008, 00:53
Top of the tower at Clingman's Dome.
1990 with Mule.
geek
Hard to call it "stealthing", but I passed out halfway underneath a blue spruce in the front yard of a funeral home. I bet that must have been a sight to the early morning commuters, a pair of legs sticking out from under a tree at the mortuary!
Good thing I'm "civilized" now and can afford to call a cab!
Jim Adams
09-23-2008, 11:19
Hard to call it "stealthing", but I passed out halfway underneath a blue spruce in the front yard of a funeral home. I bet that must have been a sight to the early morning commuters, a pair of legs sticking out from under a tree at the mortuary!
...are we related????????
geek
Cheesewhiz
09-23-2008, 12:27
I hung my hammock from the swingset in the town park of Unionville, NY by permission of the Mayor himself.
sofaking
09-23-2008, 14:02
i recently spent the night 'down by the river' next to the railroad tracks in bangor...all of the amatuer hobos were at the homeless shelter. in the morning, i decided that i was going to drop some weight and left my bivy tent on site for some lucky bum to find. i left a note in it reading,'congratulations hobo, now you're a homeowner'
Pedaling Fool
09-23-2008, 14:05
i recently spent the night 'down by the river' next to the railroad tracks in bangor...all of the amatuer hobos were at the homeless shelter. in the morning, i decided that i was going to drop some weight and left my bivy tent on site for some lucky bum to find. i left a note in it reading,'congratulations hobo, now you're a homeowner'
That's too funny:)
mtnkngxt
09-23-2008, 17:23
Thanks. The IRS tracked me down and said I had to pay taxes on it. Do you know what insurance is on a bivy these days?
Nicksaari
09-23-2008, 18:06
blatantly "stealth" camped on plenty of no camping areas. cold mtn, hawkbill, cedar cliffs, john grisham's property in albemarle county, the edge of the woods outskirting big meadows. just to name a few. camping always seems more fun when its illegal.
...are we related????????
geek
Dad?!?!?:D
summit of lafayette and right next to the cog coming off washington