What are your thoughts and opinions on drinking and/or smoking during camping trips?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Even though certain “public” camping areas are strict on drinking and smoking, I understand the possible risks and problems that may occur (if some groups can’t control their consumption levels in a responsible manner)

However, I’ve heard that unless it’s a private camping area, a majority of camping areas don’t allow drinking and smoking, even though some people may ignore the rules, which may or may not lead to them being caught, depending on several factors…

Furthermore, a friend of mine introduced (my friends and I) to a private campground (last summer) located in his hometown (his relatives own private property around his hometown) and even though we all drank and acted responsibly, his relatives expect all family members (and friends) to act responsibly if anyone plans on drinking and smoking (leave no trace)

On an extra note, I’ve also heard that this topic has some mixed reviews, with some people telling me that we shouldn’t rely on alcohol to enjoy a weekend camping trip, while others telling me that as long as our consumption levels are kept “under control” then everything should be fine…

2

In my 20s, 30s, and 40s I did a lot of camping. To me the definition of camping is consuming drugs and alcohol by a campfire and sleeping in a tent.

3

Right. Never been to a designated ‘camping area’.

Hit the road, get on a jeep trail. Get back in there and find a reasonable level spot to pitch a tent. Make camp, cook food over an open fire, and drink beer.

Everything was always fine. I love sitting tending to an open fire, and sitting around it. I can and still do it at my house. Ya do have to worry about fire danger (forest fires).

Most of the time we would have a small stream nearby.

4

Most of my adult camping has been done with the Boy Scouts (Scouts BSA these days), and alcohol/drugs is strictly forbidden.

That said, it’s not an uncommon feeling for me to wish I had a flask of whiskey or some other drink while relaxing around the fire on a Saturday night. There’s something special about that situation which a mild buzz would only enhance.

However, the emphasis is on the mild part of that. Sort of like the cherry on the sundae, if you will. Not the point of the trip, not strictly necessary, but it would be an enhancement.

I’m all against the idea of a bunch of loud, drunken yahoos making noise and carrying on at state parks and the like; while it’s their business to get drunk and party, the distance from civilization and the contemplation of nature is the point of getting out there in the first place. Getting drunk and carrying on is disruptive to everyone else within earshot. Plus, the folks who do that sort of thing tend to be the same ones who litter like fiends, and are generally poorly behaved otherwise as well.

5

Most of my camping was on private property owned by friends. We were loud, but there was nobody to hear us. When we left, the campsite always looked better than when we arrived.

6

Depends on the controlling public authority. In my experience, the majority of national parks allow alcohol at designated campgrounds, but the majority of state parks do not without a permit. I can’t find any rules for national forests, and I assume therefore that since it isn’t prohibited it is allowed. Normally, I’d also assume that national forest property doesn’t even have many people to patrol its designated campgrounds, but the only time I ran into someone checking regulations was at a national forest campground, where the ranger saw the pile of ashes next to my tent and could not believe at first that it was not mine. I’m not sure if he was going to bust me or warn me about safety, but I had only just arrived and hadn’t even set up my tent.

Now, smoking, on the other hand, might be the exact reverse of this. At least at the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park there are warning signs that under no uncertain terms marijuana use is prohibited since the park is controlled by the federal government. I would assume, possibly incorrectly, that there may be state parks where it is allowed.

7

I did a lot of camping in my younger days, and drinking and talking around a campfire was a big part of it. Never got loud and rowdy, and we always left a campsite cleaner than we found it.

I mostly camped in rustic State Forest campgrounds in various areas of Michigan, which allow alcohol, but one time a friend and I decided to camp in various areas of the south. We camped one night on top of Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, where there was a strict and highly enforced NO ALCOHOL policy. We were told that if we were caught, we would spend the night in the nearby Asheville jail. The site had a helper known as a ‘volunteer’, a real character full of stories, who as far as I could tell was a homeless guy they let camp on the mountain perpetually, in return for helping campers get set up.

The volunteer was very helpful, not only for tips on securing our tent against getting blown away by the wind and practical things like that, but also in giving us the scoop on how to get away with drinking if we were in mind to do so.

He said that we were lucky because the hardcore ranger was not on duty that night, who actually would hide behind a tree near campers he suspected would start drinking and listen for the ‘kshhhh’ of a beer can being cracked open. The ranger who was on duty would come check on us maybe 3 times, the last time shortly after dark, he said. After that we were probably safe to drink if we wanted.

The ranger did come check on us several times, warning us about bears and possible bad weather and stuff, and not very surreptitiously getting in our faces and sniffing for any odor of alcohol on our breath.

After he had done his after-dark rounds I thought we were safe, got out 2 bottles of iced tea, drank or poured out a third of each, and was just reaching into the cooler for the Jack Daniels…when I saw a flashlight. The ranger was making a second after-dark visit, because there had been a bear running around the campsite (it had torn the soft top off a Jeep in the campground parking lot) and he came by to warn us. He saw the bottles of iced tea on the picnic table. “What’s that you’re drinking- iced tea?” “Yes, sir, just iced tea sir, that’s all!”. If he had come around just a few minutes later we would’ve been busted.

My friend had had enough of ‘The Man’ at that point and just crashed early. I stayed up with the fire, gave it maybe a good hour more, then I did make myself a couple 'Tennessee teas" free of any further ranger visits.

8

If you can avoid being a public nuisance or creating safety hazards, I’d say do what you like.

With that being said, people are generally very poor judges of whether they’re doing those things. Smokers don’t care who they’re smoking out, especially when they’re a bit buzzed. They’re not great about picking up cigarette butts. Drinkers can be oblivious to safety or their own noise levels, they can actually provoke altercations which is a bad thing around camp stoves, campfires, wood cutting tools, etc. So in shared campgrounds, I fully support a ban on tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs.

Whatever you do on your own property with your own friends, I hope you’re safe, but it’s not my business.

9

Hehe, I remember playing lawn darts in the great outdoors while stinking drunk, playing offense and defense…

10

This brings up a huge aggravation I had with other campers when I used to camp a lot. Never mind thoughts and opinions on drinking or smoking-- if you’re being discreet about it, it doesn’t bother me at all. But the sheer amount of litterbugs…

I’d see litter everywhere in all but the most remote wilderness. Hiking a trail along the cliffs of Pictured Rocks National Park-- absolutely beautiful, except for all the candy and snack wrappers, even used diapers, along the trail. I once visited a public beach by a gorgeous inland lake in Michigan’s U.P. The sand was a giant ashtray, with thousands of cigarette butts everywhere.

Once hiking a trail in the Smoky Mountains we came across a camping site for backpackers. The remnants of a campfire had a half-burned instant camping meal package in it. Not even the backpackers respected ‘leave no trace’! Wherever I camped, I not only cleaned up my own mess, but the leftover mess of previous campers. I left every campsite spotless.

11

A friend has property in the mountains overlooking Shawnee State Park. He likes to take people hiking from his property, along a dirt road, then through the woods on a trail with car tire tracks going into the woods.

You emerge from the woods onto the side of a mountain overlooking a beautiful vista. But whatever you do, don’t look down. No, not down at the scenery, I mean down at your feet. All the cars that drive back there have ignorant pigs in the car who toss a spent prophylaxis or two before driving off.

One reason my friend likes to take visitors back that trail is so he can suggest they clean up the dozens (hundreds?) of condoms. So far, everyone has declined politely.

12

In that case I unfortunately would be looking down, all the time, in order to not accidentally step on any biohazards, to the point it would spoil my enjoyment of the view. Yeah, what disgusting pigs people can be. Actually, calling them pigs is not fair at all to real pigs.

I would need a ten-foot pole version of one of these…

13

Littering REALLY pisses me off. Here in Colorado it’s a $1000 fine.

We have a very clean state.

14

How large were the properties? as in, how far to the neighbors?

Does he offer them gloves and/or a pickup tool, and provide trash bags? Does he pitch in and start picking them up himself?

15

When we camped there it was all unimproved property. The nearest “neighbor” on a given night would be a few miles away, in a tent or camper van.

No!!! It is just a bit he does for effect. We walk to the spot on a trail parallel to the car tracks. Once you see the scenery your jaw drops. When he mentions cleaning up the spot behind us where the cars turn around, people gasp when they see the condoms. He acts like he wants everyone to grab a handful and carry them away.

In reality we were trespassing and did not hang out long.

16

Ah. You’re probably actually right that they couldn’t hear you, then.

(I’ve run into people who think you can’t hear them at half a mile. Out in the country, you sure as hell can. I can hear my neighbors’ dogs barking from further than that (and vice versa, I’m sure.)

Yeah. He might get a different reaction if he offered proper cleanup equipment.

(If I were you, I’d be tempted to bring such along next time you go with him, hand him a set and call his bluff --)

17

As long as no one is getting hurt and the campers pick up their trash and pack it out I do not care.

My friends and I go camping on private land. It is very annoying when we arrive at their private campsite and find other peoples’ garbage. So far we have not surprised anyone else there, probably because it’s remote enough not a whole lot of people get back in there so it’s not a frequent occurrence.

Last summer we did have some off-roaders get lost on the property. Well, at least they were polite and aplogetic. And didn’t leave garbage behind.

18

Based on my experience in California (before having kids) drinking was absolutely 100% part of the camping experience. I was amazed to discover there was the odd site that didn’t allow alcohol (the Mount Diablo campsites IIRC, I had a “Waaaahhh?” reaction a friend told me he’d been on a camping weekend with his kids there, and wasn’t allowed booze)

19

Never been to a designated campsite. So never an issue. But things have changed a lot since the late 70’s early 80’s. At least in Colorado. Lot’s of 4x4 trails have been shut down. I don’t totally disagree. The population in Colorado has exploded.

Even outdoor concert venues don’t let you bring in your plastic jug of margaritas. But they sell booze so that’s ok I suppose. Ya get to wait in line in traffic jams though.

Some of this is support the the booze vendors. If everyone can bring their own, it’s not gonna be very profitable.

Last time at Red Rocks, My Wife and I were told “ya can drink it, or throw it away” We were pretty hammered by the time we found our seats. And then, of course, the entire crowd lit up J’s.

20

Anyway, my opinion (regardless of whether drinking is allowed or not).

I’m all for it. Only occasionally am I disturbed by other campers, and given that they sometimes are preteens, in approximate proportion to their percentage of the population, not all of them are drinking. I only rarely need to go to sleep early, anyway, so unless they quiet down by 11 I am fine with revelry.

I don’t think drinking is an inherent part of camping with other people, though. Sure, one of the nights it’s sort of fun to have a few drinks, but it’s not fun for me to drink every day around other people.

When I’m alone, that’s another story. Drinking alone at a campground really enhances the pleasurability of nature. I guess I don’t multitask well because it’s hard to simultaneously enjoy the nature, and other people, and the campfire at the same time, and other people’s company isn’t enhanced very much by drinking anyway. The only reason I don’t drink every single day when I’m camping is because drinking more than 2 days in a row really messes with my sleep cycle.