Do you want to know how I spent the plurality of my time sleeping on the road during my 38 day trip around the US? It was camping, but not just your average run of the mill – pull into the established campground and pay $15 camping. I called it Ninja camping, but I have also heard terms such as stealth camping and guerrilla camping.

Why Ninja Camping?

First off, I think it’s ridiculous that most every campsite I saw was charging $15 or more for a camp site! Sure that may be a fair price when the Clampetts come down from the mountain with their trailer or 4 tents and setup a complete house, sit around the fire throwing garbage and beer caps around, and taking multitudes of trips to the toilet… This all costs the owner of the campground money to take care of.

But what about the bicyclist with a single one man tent, or the backpacker, or the motorcyclist? There should be a deeply discounted rate for such circumstances. But there isn’t and so the smart minimalist camper heads off into the woods by themselves, pays no-one, and comes away with an even better experience than camping around the aforementioned family.

Imagine being sung to sleep by nothing more than the rustle of the wind through the trees, and being woken up by the gentle morning sun and all types of birds twittering around you. It’s all yours, for nothing more than the price of a little bravery, and some willingness to do away with a few trappings.

How do you Ninja Camp?

The steps are easy and I’ll explain each below:

• Camp out of sight on public land, or unfenced and unimproved private land
• Camp Minimalistically
  
• Setup late, and leave early
• Leave no trace behind

Camp out of sight on public land, or unfenced and unimproved private land

This is the center point of Ninja camping, because the rest can be done anywhere and is in support of your choice of campsite.

Your whole goal in Ninja Camping is to remain unseen and unnoticed. You want a safe, clean, dry spot to sleep for the night without being hassled during the night.

The easiest choice is to camp on public land. In the USA it is legal to camp anywhere in the National Parks, National Forests and BLM land that doesn’t post a notice against it, if you follow a few rules like: not having a fire, being at least 1/2 mile from a main road and a few other common sense ones. What I found to be the case though, was that all the National Parks had a sign prominently posted to camp only in designated areas. This left me with National Forests as the easiest target while I was in the Western half of the US.

There are huge swaths of National Forest and State Forests that are extremely easy to locate and to find a nice clear fire road leading off into the dense growth. This was my favorite and easiest way of Ninja camping. I would wait until dark, drive up into a National or State Forest and find the second or third dirt road leading off into the forest. I’d take that road on my motorcycle about a mile or so back, confirming as I went that it was deserted back there, find a relatively flat spot, and setup camp.

But, sometimes you can’t find a readily available bit of public land to camp on. What then? There is always private land. From what I have been able to learn, it is not trespassing if there aren’t signs prominently posted to stay out. So even if you do get caught, they can ask you to leave (which you should immediately) but can’t press charges. And unless you’ve damaged something, it would be more of a hassle for them than it would be worth.

Although as we are practicing Ninja camping, you shouldn’t be getting caught in any case. You should be selecting hidden spots that are unlikely to be disturbed during the night, and be out of there before anyone would be arriving. You’re a Ninja man! Act like it!

I was forced to camp once on private land which had “No Trespassing” signs posted, because after an hour of searching, it was the most ideal spot. So I definitely broke the law, but by choosing a good site at night, and being out very early, the risk was minimal and I slipped away into the sunrise.

Camp Minimalistically

You want as basic of a setup as you can possible handle for a few reasons. First it’s an easy setup in the dark or when you’re tired. Second it’s an easy tear-down, which means you’re up and out of there quickly in the morning or if anyone is hassling you. Third it makes you harder to detect and thus avoid having any disturbances.

Although I used a small two person tent, it was a tent that sets up in about 2 minutes and can be taken down in even less time. I do have a hammock with a bug screen and all, but never have tried it. A hammock really looks to be an ultimate way of Ninja camping if you have trees available, as you really don’t have to care much about what the ground is like, just that you are far enough off of it.

Setup late, and leave early

If you come into your camp site at night, you’re much less likely to be seen and with an appropriately chosen site you will be peaceful all night. As an added hint to avoid detection while you’re setting up your site, use a filtered or shielded light. I personally used an LED headlamp with a red filter on it. This helped to keep my night vision and it is hard to see from more than a few feet away.

The second part to this is to pack up and head out at your first opportunity. It’s not going to do you much good if you sleep in until noon and people are up and about, easily seeing you exit your camping spot. Like a true ninja, your goal is to go unseen and unnoticed.

I found that when I camped in an area where the sun could strike my tent, I was up with the sun. But when I was in shaded woods, it was harder for me to come awake at sun up. Something to consider when choosing a spot.

Leave no trace behind

This is for your own good, plus the good of whomever owns the piece of land you’re occupying for the night. You don’t want to start any fires, or damage any part of the land as this could greatly complicate things if you are discovered. Plus if you leave no trace then no one is the wiser for having loaned you the place to sleep and everyone is happy. Leave the world a happier place.

And if you don’t use the area for anything other than a place to quickly bed down for the night, then you won’t be forgetting things or have to unpack and repack items. Just come in, bed down, get up and go.

You’re now on your way to being a fully accredited camp ninja!

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