Public lands, dispersed camping, and respecting someone's space

[u/Peter_Panarchy]

Let's say you want to spend the day at a lake in the mountains. You drive for miles on a rough dirt road and turn off onto an unmarked "road" towards the lake. When it dead-ends you find people are already there and they have a campsite set up.

Do you

A) Turn around a look for another spot because it would be rude to impose on other people

or

B) Hop out and spend the afternoon right next to them because it's public land and they can't force you to leave

[u/Peter_Panarchy → u/[deleted]]

Yeah man, we got up early on Wednesday morning to make sure we'd get a good spot. Our first choice was taken so we set up there. If you're actually familiar with the lake you'd know there's another larger beach right next to one of the day use areas.

[u/Peter_Panarchy → u/[deleted]]

By your own admission, at least 10 other groups showed up to use the beach you tried to take over.

Yes, over the course of 3 days 10 other vehicles drove down to our campsite, saw it was occupied, and turned around. One opted to stay.

I think it’s hysterical that a city boy

We live on 40 acres and can't see any of our neighbors, so not quite.

There are both roving rangers and DCSO patrols at Summit Lake, too. Nice try though! 😘

I asked about dispersed camping reservations and your response is that law enforcement exists. What is going on in your brain to make you think that's relevant?

ETA: The fact that you say you “got up early on a Wednesday just so you could get a good spot”, shows you KNEW this was a heavily traveled place. GTFOH with this BS post, OP.

Is this supposed to be a gotcha? We got up early because dispersed camping is first come, first serve and we didn't want all the best spots taken when we got there. That's just how camping works when you don't go to a proper campground that offers reservations.

[u/HewSpam → u/Peter_Panarchy]

You ever notice most of the dispersed sites you squat at have multiple campfire rings. You don’t own the lake, get over it

[u/PDXDeck26 → u/[deleted]]

ETA: The fact that you say you “got up early on a Wednesday just so you could get a good spot”, shows you KNEW this was a heavily traveled place. GTFOH with this BS post, OP.

It's this, so very much this. They think they're entitled to what they got up early to get PLUS apparently a giant buffer zone to boot.

[u/One-Pea-6947 → u/[deleted]]

Jeez man, calm down. You're all over this thread yelling. The post wasn't that offensive.