Free Tent Sites?

[X-LinkedHiker]

I will be looking for a few spots off the AT to setup a tent without cost or such. I will be testing out some land off of Bake Oven tonight and hopefully I find a nice spot to fit 4 people and a SMALL fire. Doesn anyone know of any other spots?

[Alligator]

The vast majority of the AT is free.

[X-LinkedHiker]

What are the fire regulations? I figured you couldn't build a wood fire off the trail?

[Alligator]

What are the fire regulations? I figured you couldn't build a wood fire off the trail?

Very often you can, where are looking to go in PA? There's 200+ miles of trail there. There's a few regular posters here from PA that could of greater help if they knew about where you were going.

Camping along the trail is free in PA, but there are some different rules I think by land manager, for instance the PA Game lands.

[X-LinkedHiker]

Plan on going to Bake Oven Knob, North lookout area. I know there is a spot right off the trail there, but I wasn't sure who it was built by and if it was even legal to use without permit. Because I live so close, they were always day hikes. But this particular spot has a small fire ring and is blazed for a tent it looks like.

[Alligator]

You might want to invest in the AT map set (with guide) for PA. An easy place for finding tent sites are the shelters along the trail. These generally but not always have tenting spots. There's generally water at the shelter sites too, barring drought conditions.

There are no camping permits necessary in PA. I looked on the PA forestry site and there were no burn bans in place at this time.

[Strategic]

Camping along the AT in PA is always free, but you do need to know what land management area you're in to know whether or not you're legally allowed to camp there. Most of the trail north of the Susquehanna to Lehigh Gap is on State Game Lands and is managed by the PA Game Commission (including the area around Bake Oven Knob.) You can, as an AT hiker, camp anywhere along the trail on the Game Lands, even though no one else is supposed to (i.e., hunters, which always seemed kind of odd for Game Lands.) The site you found is almost certainly one of the numerous campsites blazed by, you guessed it, hunters. These sites are technically illegal, but you using one is legal (as long as you didn't blaze it yourself, that's still a no-no.) Just make sure if one of the Game Commission people comes along that you tell them you are hiking the trail.

There are, of course, rules for the Game Lands and it is wise to follow them, if for no other reason it avoids trouble. Here's the list from the Game Commission:

1) Camp within 200' of the trail.
2) Camp one night only at any given site.
3) Do not camp within 500' of a water source or public access.
4) No open fires during times of fire hazard.

The first three are easy to follow and #4 you won't have to worry about this time of year.

I'll also note that there are two established and official sites near Bake Oven Knob: Bake Oven Knob shelter is .6 miles to the north and has a good spring, camping around the shelter (if you don't want to use it) and a very nice fire ring. There is also New Tripoli Campsite, 3.5 miles south of Bake Oven Knob. It's more primitive than the shelter area but still nice with a spring, good sites and a fire ring.

Hope all this helps. Good hiking!

[map man]

Hey, Strategic, thanks for all the useful information about the policy on hikers camping on Pennsylvania Game Lands. I had read some other places, apparently in error, that no one, even hikers, could camp on this land. I had come to the conclusion that the only places I could stay in these areas was in shelters, and I'm glad you set me straight, because I prefer not to use shelters. This is really going to help when the day comes when I hike the AT in Pennsylvania.

[fiddlehead]

My brother owns property right near where you are talking about. Most of the trail in that area is surrounded by state game lands and i believe their policy is camping for thru-hikers only (however they define THAT, i am not sure)

There is Hawk mtn area (no camping i believe) not far south. There is a fairly big campsite near Eckville on the north side of the road there that i don't know if it's legal but definitely a used site.

How long are you planning on camping there? (days, weeks, months, indefinitely?)

[dperry]

I had read some other places, apparently in error, that no one, even hikers, could camp on this land. I had come to the conclusion that the only places I could stay in these areas was in shelters, and I'm glad you set me straight, because I prefer not to use shelters. This is really going to help when the day comes when I hike the AT in Pennsylvania.

Camping is only allowed for AT hikers, in those game land areas the AT passes through. It isn't allowed anywhere else or for anyone else. This is often a pain for hikes on other PA trails, because they often go through game lands for long stretches.

Most of the trail in that area is surrounded by state game lands and i believe their policy is camping for thru-hikers only (however they define THAT, i am not sure)

You don't have to be thru-hiking in the sense that term normally has on this site (i.e., all the way from one end to the other.) To reduce the highly bureaucratic definition to words of one syllable, you have to be starting from one point and ending at a different point. You can't start from point A, go out a ways, camp, then go back to point A the next day, i.e. no loop hiking. How they would know, unless they caught you coming back, I don't know, but that's what the rule is.

[X-LinkedHiker]

Thanks for all the great info guys. I ended up looking all of the same information. I was only looking to stay at any given place for a single night anyway. Once again thanks for all the info and I hope others will find this thread as useful.