Opinion on putting tenting locations in mapping apps

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

What’s your opinion about showing camping locations in various trail map apps? I admit it bothers me although I know maybe I shouldn’t hold this opinion. I guess I feel it takes away some of the serendipity of the trail and also makes my secret location into a goal for the hoards. I probably am wrong to feel this way, but I think they should maybe stick with telling you where to get water (you know, so you don’t die) but let you find your own place to sleep.

What’s your feeling about this?

[Ken Thompson]

No!

[Paul Magnanti]

Unless it is an established campsite (USFS, BLM, state park, etc.), a hut/shelter ala the AT, etc. I don’t think they should be in the mapping apps.

For one thing, what is a good campsite to others may not work for a person with a completely different campsites parameters. (Shelter or group size, not liking to dry camp…)

And when dispersed campsites are listed, more and more people go there and can possibly ruin the area.

When a few dozen people a year hike a route, it is not an issue as much. But when hundreds of people go to the same dispersed sites, perhaps not the best thing.

But, I think it is a losing battle on the popular alphabet soup routes and trails.

People want to know the exact campsites. And the makers of various apps will give the people the info they want.

 

 

[Bruce Tolley]

Just say No. It will concentrate human impacts that will over time cause damage to the backcountry we all love.

If we can create a list of vendors who are doing this, I can forward it to LNT.org and ask for some outreach/persuasion/etc.  Given the number of corporate sponsors of the LNT.org, there might be some overlap.

Cheers

[Cameron M]

Well it depends on what kind of camping spots you are talking about. Narrowing the conversation a bit, I believe that the LNT position is to encourage already established sites to be used instead of new “secret” ones. I often observe some sites that are disrupted by the rangers because they are too close to water, but they leave others because (I assume) they know that it is better that these sites are used than allowing new ones to be created with equal damage.

[Jerry Adams]

on a popular trail with popular campsites may as well.  Concentrate the impact.

I can see how some people would rather discover on their own, but then they don’t have to look at the app

In a wilderness area with a trail going through it, vast majority of the area is not close to the trail so humans won’t impact that much, but that’s just my intuition.  I wonder if anyone has studied the impact on plants and animals.  Some areas may be different, like a desert area with just a few springs.

[Mark Cashmere]

Looks like most of the responses are West Coast (as well as the OP) so I will give you an East Coast opinion.

LNT and established campsites – absolutely!

That being said, and especially in the areas of PA and WV that I hike, there are some great established campsites that are worth staying at that don’t appear on any official maps.  There have been more times that I can count where I have been leaving an area after staying at an ‘OK’ campsite only to walk a quarter of a mile down the trail to a spectacular one that wasn’t on the map.  Sure, I noted this mentally for next time, but it would have been nice to know it was there.  These definitions – ‘OK’ and ‘spectacular’ are obviously in the eye of the beholder, but it does assist in the trip planning process to know these locations, and whether they are dry or not.

I’ll give you another view – one area that I frequent is on a reservoir and has a lot of fishing, boating and hunting patrons different times of the year.  It is a National Forest and thus free-camping is permitted, but the two campsites on the official maps are both on the reservoir and pay-per-site (with amenities, so fair enough).  The non-officially published campsites are more frequented by the backpacking community (the area is part of the NCT) and I would rather stay at these most of the time and avoid the aforementioned groups.  Not knowing where these campsites are would make it very difficult to plan a trip in this area.

I personally find having established backcountry campsites noted on maps useful – obviously more so when planning a trip to an area where I haven’t backpacked yet.

[Sr Al]

We should fight against it.  I like the idea of forwarding the info on.  Ive seen areas get trashed due to this kind of BS.

One of my goals this year is to trash those fire rings and throw logs and shit in these “spots”.

[Ken Thompson]

Dismantle fire rings,knock down cairns, keep wilderness wild.

[Bruce Tolley]

What KT said: “Dismantle fire rings,knock down cairns, keep wilderness wild.”

[Jerry Adams]

I suppose you’re going to kick down those artistic cairns too?  Or I think it’s on the JMT where someone has arranged small rocks on a big rock to look like teeth on some animal?

I think you should leave fire rings on popular campsites in the wilderness to concentrate the impact : )

[Ken Thompson]

Is theJMT wilderness? I have come across too many misleading cairns. Technically you don’t need a ring around a fire. Too many think a fire ring is a dumpster. Land shark example is not a cairn.

[Jim Colten]

Imagine this press release headline:

Trip Advisor now accepting JMT campsite ratings

substitute the name of your favorite trail for JMT.

[Kevin Babione]

I’ll echo Mark’s point above that when hiking in the mountains of PA it is nice to know where the campsites are when planning a trip on a trail you’ve never hiked.  I do much of the planning when I hike with others and I know that we like to hike a maximum of 10-12 miles a day.  Knowing that, and where the established campsites are, allows me to make sure the expectations of the trip are clear and to occasionally adjust either the starting point (if it’s a loop hike) or the direction of travel (for linear hikes) to ensure that we hit some possible campsites at the point when we’re likely to be ready to stop.

With that said, there are no guarantees that the site will be suitable for the size group we have or that it won’t already be occupied by another group.  By knowing where the campsites are from a map we can more easily (read “less stressfully”) adjust our plans and either head back to the most recent site we’ve passed or, at a minimum, know how far we’ll have to hike to get to the next site.

[Nick Gatel]

Bad idea.

In general, shared trail apps and similar published genre are bad ideas.

[rick .]

I’m of the position that limits impact the most.

Not only locate the RESPONSIBILE ones in apps, but require: “that camping be done where others clearly already have OR not visible from the trail,  both with leave no trace principles”

If you are familiar with Halfmile vs Guthooks you know the difference, most of halfmile’s listed sites are established spots where setting up a tent won’t increase the impact.  Guthooks seems to indicate many more “spots”

In many sensitive areas camping is only permitted in exact established areas, precisely to limit people just plopping down anywhere and spreading out the impact.

The most annoying thing is seeing a brand new spot trashed by people camping where ever they want, usually 5 feet from the trail, so give those people a destination with the app, and allow response hikers (those reading this thread likely) choose an off trail spot with minimal impact

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I guess I share everybody’s opinion on this. I’m not sure what to think.

I just came back from a hike on the PCT and rather than use any resource that told me where campsites would be, I just starting looking for something suitable at the intended hour. I prefer the serendipity of the trail. Even those nights when I wasn’t sure I’d find something in time were pretty exciting and I ended up with some sweet campsites.

In fact, I pretty much kept no track at all of my mileage or anything. Just hiked from day start to day end. Used only the water report to “navigate” and never used that as a list of possible campsite locations. I much prefer dry camping.

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