Campsite Rage Cure?

Everytime (few times) I car camp with people, something weird like this happens.
Yelling, gun shots, alcohol etc.

Nothing weird ever happens deep in the Cascades.

If at all possible, I would quickly decamp, hit the trail and hike for about 20 minutes and find a spot to stealth camp, maybe cowboy camp if the bugs aren't too bad and rain isn't likely. If I've already packed and had breakfast by 6 a.m. there is virtually zero chance encountering rangers or other authorities.

I do my damnedest to avoid this situation, but it did happen once years ago and that is exactly what I ended up doing.

I end up in a lot of car camping situations thanks to Scouting (yeah, I'd rather the scouts all hike back ten miles too…not practical for eight-year-old Brownies and Cub Scouts though) and like everything else I find it varies. While I've had plenty of nights with bad neighbors in packed campgrounds, I've had others that were just fine. It seems to be purely luck of the draw: three nights ago at Mammoth Cave it was loud drunken youth till 2AM, two nights ago I was the last one awake at 10PM.

Worst camps: Those glass littered open sites by the river and near the highway. Might as well sleep in Central Park.

Second worst: Reserved, private campground. Safer but still loud.

Best: 30 miles into the wilderness. Nothing but nice adventurers and scenic panorama.

My biggest turn off is when camping at a state park, finding myself next to a class A motorhome, with a flipping generator that runs all night. I don't know which was worse, the noise or the smell. A close second comes when 4 or 5 of the campers let loose their kids on motor bikes on the roads in the camp. Holy cow. My best reaction is to never let that happen again, by not going to state parks.

On the flip side, I take groups of scouts on the trail, and kids 11-16 can be full of energy. Once I was with a few kids and they were throwing rocks down a hill. There were no people below, and no structures, and no trail, so I figured, WTH, no harm done. A person complained that we should not be throwing rocks. I guess we should have been sitting in the lotus position meditating.

If the group is large, I try to go to places with low traffic, and we try to keep the noise level down. We also try to camp away from other campers, but that can't always happen. Some people just don't want kids in the woods, or want them to act like adults. We try to keep them busy, but they can get excited being in the big outdoors. I figure these trips could change the direction of a few lives, and influence them in a permanent way for years to come, so some patience is required for their excitement.

As far a misbehaving kids go, I usually go through two stages. Happens more often in a grocery store than a campground. First stage is someone comes in and they have several out of control progeny that are running around screaming and knocking thing over, ramming into people in a public place, and the parent is doing nothing, and I internally get on my high horse and wish that the parent would teach their kids to behave, and so on. Then the second stage sets in – when I look in their eyes and see the resignations there. They are just overwhelmed, and so used to the chaos they can hardly see it any more. As long as literal fires are not started, and no actual blood spilled they view it as a good day. Yes, they are probably responsible to a large degree, but then I feel a certain amount of pity, if not sympathy.

And also still less of a desire to reproduce – could be a genetically programed in negative feedback population suppression mechanism.

If you run into the motorhome problem, there are ways around it.

Many years ago, some of us would go to Yosemite Valley to car camp before a winter trip. There was a large motorhome and a small motorhome parked side-by-side. The large motorhome had its own generator, which was a huge sound distraction. That way, they generated enough power to watch TV. That's why you go to a car campground in Yosemite Valley, I guess. The small motorhome did not have its own generator, but it had a very long extension cord.

My buddy was there with the family, so the daughter went over to the restroom building. She returned right away. When asked about it, she said that it was too cold inside the restroom because the door was propped open. So, my buddy went to investigate. He found the long extension cord stretched over a distance, holding the restroom door open to reach the wall receptacle, and thereby letting the cold winter air in. So, he simply pulled the plug and closed the door.

An hour later, the daughter went back over to the restroom building and returned right away. Same problem. The door was propped open by the extension cord. So, this time my buddy pulled the plug, chopped out about ten feet from the middle of the extension cord, threw that off into the weeds, let the door close, and all was good.

In the morning, both motorhome drivers got the message and had left.

–B.G.–

Haha, pure revenge! This made me smile – I'm a bad bad person…

If it's a campground where people pay money to someone to be there, there usually is a noise curfew. So my options are:

1. Find a different site.
2. Leave and go camp elsewhere.
3. Ask them to be quiet after the curfew.
4. Ask a ranger to enforce the curfew.

On the PCT I stayed one night at Cibbet Flats and a group of boys was so loud all night long I could not sleep at all. At 3AM I finally yelled at them to shut up I'm trying to sleep! In the morning their dads fed me breakfast burritos as an apology.