Re: [Paddlewise] Sea Kayakers Behavior

Bill Hansen wrote:
> 
> Ralph writes, RE: the question of permission to camp on private property:
> 
> <on the question of asking permission, I made a distinction in the
> book between asking permission to camp of a property owner in a remote
> area (my suggestion is always ask in such a situation) and in a
> populated area (my suggestion is not ask). >
> 
> I'm not sure if , in his letter to PW, Ralph refers only to emergency
> camping, or what he calls "commando" camping, or to camping at all times.
> Either way, I'm inclined to think one should always ask if it's possible to
> ask. And I don't think non-emergency camping should be ever done on private
> property unless we've secured permission in advance (that is, if you can't
> reach the owners, just don't camp there). 

I was unabashedly referring to non-emergency camping as well as
emergency.

On long stretches of paddling waters, it really is hard to avoid camping
on private property.  My first choice is to find some railroad or
utilities property such as we have along the Hudson River or a quiet
sparsely visited corner of some parkland.  While there is a Hudson River
Watertrail, most people who have paddled its length have had to do some
commando camping since the legal sites are not evenly spaced.  It is
hard to figure out places to seek permission.  Again, using the Hudson
as an example, you can plan to cover x miles in a day but nature may
conspire against you so that you won't reach the intended spot in time
where you may have gotten permission or is a legal camp site.  The RR
right of way often has little outcroppings of land where you can pull up
safely.  It is private property, i.e. railroad property, but you are not
intruding on an individual property owner.  Maybe my Jesuit-education
induced splitting hairs is emerging. I am not sure St. Thomas Aquinas
would agree, albeit he was the ultimate hair-spitter in his Summa
Theologica.

What I am driving at are balance and discretion.  It is one thing to
pull up to some individual's private property and camp on a person's
lawn disrupting his/her life.  It is another thing to find a corner of
that person's property, out-of-sight and out-of-the-way and do minimal
impact camping with no noise or disruptive intrusion.  Obviously, first
opt for RR or utilities property owned by a legal person as opposed to a
real person or some corner of parkland.  Then consider the non-intrusive
"commando" camping.  The whole point of using the term commando is to
denote clearly that; like a commando you make your presence unknown
while you are there and no trace of you remains after you leave.  The
term commando was picked with considerable thought.  If one wants to
emphasize the sneakiness of it that is fine.  My point was the invisible
presence a la commandos.

I am just being realistic.  If you do do successful commando camping,
and I codify the approaches that assure that you can, then you are not
disturbing anything and are not creating a bad image for sea kayakers. 
It isn't a matter of not getting caught.  It is a matter of being so
inconspicious that you won't.

For example, on the question of an open fire, I came down hard on that
in the commando camping part of the Camping chapter.  No open fires.  A
self contained camping stove fire is another thing.

Again, what I stated in the book got a lot of comment from real life
people who either have done a lot of multi-day kayak camping or
bicycling.  Perhaps my mistake was in openly discussing commando camping
and codifying it.  But I felt a lot of people don't know about just how
low-impact you can get in camping.  My book has a lot of off-beat things
to say.  Some people get worked up like the author of that webzine piece
I cite.  Others take it in stride and are thankful.

Take your pick.  But I do welcome the discussion.

BTW when I had 10 acres of property in the Catskills I never posted no
traspessing signs etc.  I felt that I did not really own the trees,
rocks and earth in my deed but only a right to build on it.  Obviously I
did not want someone to build open fires and burn down the trees.  But I
had an open fireplace on a large flat boulder that people were welcome
to use.  During hunting season, I would occasionally see signs that some
hunters had used the woodpile to build a warming fire.  I was not worked
up over this.

ralph diaz
-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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