[Krystoff]

What is your opinion? How do you mitigate the risk of losing your gear? Anyone out there lose gear at a base camp?

For me, I've gone on plenty of backpacking and camping trips but I have never done a day hike away from my camp while I was out unless someone else was at camp to watch our stuff. The farthest away that I have gone was out on the lake away from camp but I was still able to see the camp (sort of).

Chris

 

[Salmo_g]

Depends. A friend of mine once had his tent and sleeping bag stolen while he was day hiking from a base camp in the ALPS Wilderness, but that place gets a lot of traffic. I'm partial to stealth camping anyway, so that minimizes the chances of anyone stumbling upon my camp. Or I've set up camp at a lake that no one else is hiking to that particular weekend, so there's no one to worry about. The only popular hiking area I've done a long day hike from was along Mt. Rainier's Wonderland Trail, and fortunately no one messed with anything. I see it as calculated risk that could ruin a weekend, but that I'll have enough stuff in my daypack/hip pack to make it out safely.

Sg

 

[scottflycst]

Something like that is always in the back of my mind. I often base camp then day hike, usually fishing another lake in the area. Never had any camp messed with, hopefully it's a rare occurrence. I'm willing to take the chance though, my high country experiences are too important not to. The more our local population grows, the greater the chance of that happening I suppose. Tweekers beware! The arm of the law only reaches so far.

 

[slim]

I grew up backpacking into lakes and rivers leaving my gear for the day and never have had anything tampered with. Of course these days I see more people in the "remote" areas that I like more often than not. I still have the faith in those fellow back countryman that will leave your stuff alone. I think that If I were in area that was easy to get to and saw lot's of people, I'd just keep a clean camp off the trail with all my stuff in the tent and hope for the best.

 

[Grant Richie]

If you are hiking in somewhere, chances are someone else doesn't want to pack your stuff out. The places I hike into usually involve a 1500-2500 feet elevation change on the hike out and I don't want to carry anything more out than I have to. In these places, people leaving there stuff because they are too lazy to pack it out is more of the problem. As I was getting ready to hike out last weekend, I stopped at my favorite campsite to see how the inhabitants had treated it. Besides leaving their feces all over right in camp, they left a pile of bear cans, a sleeping bag, hatchet, bags of candy, shoes, and the "community" saw thrown out in the grass instead of hung on the tree like everyone else. I packed all of their stuff out except the feces. It really pissed me off though, they are lucky they weren't at the top when I got there. I might have used their hatchet on their vehicle.

 

[jumbo215]

I take a note with me and leave it in the open, it says "there is a game cam in the area taking pictures right now, I know what you look like" havent had a problem. I also put the note in the front window of my truck when I leave it near the road. I also will leave an empty pistol holster on my dash, maybe they will think twice.

J

 

[Jon Bial]

I bought a container of lice spray and I leave the box out in my tent. That way, if they want to steal stuff, they're more likely to take my buddy's tent!

 

[Steelheader69]

LOL Jon.

I don't do any overnight hiking anymore. When I did, I just hoped that it was there when I got back.

BUT, I do have basecamps while hunting and fishing. My basecamps are usually accessible by auto. I've left my camps many a times where I'm on a river for hours or out in the field for hours with no way to run back really quick. To date, haven't lost anything.