Stealth camping

Stealth camping, sometimes called ‘wild camping’,  ‘ninja camping’, or  ‘camping sauvage’ is camping without permission on public or private land.   One reason that Rick and I chose Maine for this kayak trip (second to being able to leave from home), was the availability of free and legal campsites.

The Maine Island Trail Association is an organization that has arranged for public use of it’s 300 plus member islands.  Not all allow free camping, but many do.  (The  MITA islands that do not allow camping, are ‘day use’ or picnic islands.  MITA maintains that camping is a ‘hard sell’ when convincing island owners to join the organization.  While I appreciated that some of these owners might have sold islands to developers, picnic islands are of limited practical use to through kayakers.)  Rick and I made an effort to, if it was at all possible, camp at MITA designated sites.  Sometimes, though, there were just too many miles to accomplish in a day; then we camped in places where camping was not permitted.

Rick and I anticipated that from Cape Cod to southern Maine (and that same stretch of coast on our return) would be the most difficult place to find stealth camping spots.  I was familiar with nighttime beach sweeps on National Seashore beaches near home.  Where would we stay near Boston, or the south and north shore, where mansions lined the coast?  Before we left home we searched for possible hosts on two internet sites that, fall, winter and spring, we host travelers from.  These are Couchsurfing .org and Warmshowers.org. (The last is specific to bicycle tourists, but we figured the kayak wasn’t too far a reach.)  Our kayak was 22 feet long and weighed over 100 lbs; our gear another 100-200 lbs.  I wasn’t interested in a precise weight.  Our gear was reduced to near the minimum that would support life,  and still I could not pick up one end of the boat when loaded.  Unloaded, I could stagger a few feet.  Or, given a slippery surface, slide it a few feet, always with Rick providing 80% of the effort required.  On Warmshowers we limited our search to people who lived on or very near the water.  Of the two sites, only Warmshowers has a map feature that pinpoints a member’s address.  (Couchsurfing, with far more members, gives the town name only.)  We were able to find one very wonderful woman to stay with in Beverly.  One host bowed out at the last moment.  It would seem that few waterfront residents participate.  Rick and were unable, or unwilling, to commit to overnights in particular locations a week or more into our trip.  There is a liberating serendipity to being able to, at the end of the day, say ‘let’s quit here’, although the reality is less easy.

This is why we stealth camped.

Stealth camping encourages long days.  It encouraged many miles each day to minimize the number of overnights necessary till we reached Maine, and discouraged stopping early while there is daylight to avoid detection.  The first night we reached an area just before the canal.   It was a misty cool night early in the season.  We could see the lights in vacation houses just across a tidal creek.  No one seemed to care.