My Crazy Camping Story

[gan6660]

Ok so this being a long weekend and everything me and 4 of my friends went camping on the Delaware. We went Friday night and had a great time till 10pm on Saturday. Its started raining so we went in our tent and there was two other smaller tents 15 feet from us with no one in them. So at 10pm we see lights coming down the river and its the owners of the tents next to us but instead of 2 of them there was 10 and they brought more tents and starting yelling at us that we stole their campsite and they starting swearing. My friends and I are only 17 and these guys were 30-50. After a half an hour at least 5 more people show up and they start complaining more about us being there. By this point the rain stopped and 3 of my friends are sitting by the fire and me and my other friend are in the tent. Well at 11pm my other friends come in the tent and say we got to leave because these people are pretty much threatening us telling us "things are going to go down tonight." Then they started shining there flashlights in our tent and were walking around touching it. At this point we are all afraid of what these people might do so my one friend calls his dad and his dad called the park rangers. The park rangers then called us and told us what to do to get out of there and that he was waiting for us on the road. We could see his flashing lights and he was shining flashlights so that we could see. When we got to him we heard yelling and splashing in the water so the ranger unclipped he gun which made it even more scary. Anyway my mom came and picked me up and the ranger took our names and said that the police will go talk to them in the morning and that they would escort us to get our tent and other stuff.

So what do you think of this and do you think we over reacted?

 

[robanga]

Combine poor behavior with alcohol ( no doubt in play in the other guys) and you get a bad evening. You reacted right and stayed safe.

 

[gan6660]

Combine poor behavior with alcohol ( no doubt in play in the other guys) and you get a bad evening. You reacted right and stayed safe.

Yes I forgot to put that in my original post they had at least 3 coolers of beer and I am pretty sure they had a keg. I also smelled them smoking pot.

 

[robanga]

Yes I forgot to put that in my original post they had at least 3 coolers of beer and I am pretty sure they had a keg. I also smelled them smoking pot.

Yep and we think society of the 1920s was crazy for trying to outlaw the stuff, sure it was doomed to failure but you can see why many people wanted it gone. Watch an episode of "Cops" and you will see that 90% of the issues are caused by substance.

Not a prohibitionist myself, just pointing the connections out.

 

[gan6660]

Yep and we think society of the 1920s was crazy for trying to outlaw the stuff, sure it was doomed to failure but you can see why many people wanted it gone. Watch an episode of "Cops" and you will see that 90% of the issues are caused by substance.

Not a prohibitionist myself, just pointing the connections out.

I have to say that they started doing this before they started drinking so they knew exactly what they were doing. I think this freaked us out more because I didnt know what they would do once they were drunk.

 

[ethical]

I think you and your friends did exactly what you should have. You reacted calmly and didn't provoke these guys by getting in their face. It's a shame they ruined the camping trip for you!

 

[gan6660]

I think you and your friends did exactly what you should have. You reacted calmly and didn't provoke these guys by getting in their face. It's a shame they ruined the camping trip for you!

Yeah I was afraid the one kid might do that because thats his personality but he didnt and we decided the next camping trip will be to my backyard.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Combine poor behavior with alcohol ( no doubt in play in the other guys) and you get a bad evening. You reacted right and stayed safe.

All this except I'm a fan of paragraphs.

 

[dukebound85]

While you did handle it right, you did steal their campsite by setting up a mere 15 ft away. I too would have been upset if I came to my camp and people were there. Combine that with being drunk, their actions do not shock me but are still inexcusable

Next time, know your camping etiquette to avoid these situations

 

[gan6660]

While you did handle it right, you did steal their campsite by setting up a mere 15 ft away. I too would have been upset if I came to my camp and people were there. Combine that with being drunk, their actions do not shock me but are still inexcusable

Next time, know your camping etiquette to avoid these situations

Yes but there are signs everywhere that say you cannot reserve campsites and if you are not present someone else is allowed to stay. It was also getting dark and raining and considering there were 2 campsites that they were trying to take.

 

[ethical]

Yes but there are signs everywhere that say you cannot reserve campsites and if you are not present someone else is allowed to stay. It was also getting dark and raining and considering there were 2 campsites that they were trying to take.

Unwritten rules are exactly that, unwritten.

Generally, if there's plenty of other available space, you wouldn't pitch a tent that close to someone else. It's like taking the seat next to the only other person in an otherwise empty movie theater...

 

[flopticalcube]

Unwritten rules are exactly that, unwritten.

Generally, if there's plenty of other available space, you wouldn't pitch a tent that close to someone else. It's like taking the seat next to the only other person in an empty movie theater...

This is something that really annoys me. Happens to me in cafes and restaurants too. I have no problem if its crowded but in an empty place, really?

Its clear from the OP's story that something less than legal was probably going to happen, however.

 

[gan6660]

Yes, but there was no other campsites. they were all taken with even more people and none of them had a problem sharing with whoever was there.

 

[dukebound85]

Yes but there are signs everywhere that say you cannot reserve campsites and if you are not present someone else is allowed to stay. It was also getting dark and raining and considering there were 2 campsites that they were trying to take.

They did not reserve a campsite as they had already set up camp

They were present by the fact their belongings were there

As I said, know your camping etiquette to avoid these scenarios

This is something that really annoys me. Happens to me in cafes and restaurants too. I have no problem if its crowded but in an empty place, really?

Its clear from the OP's story that something less than legal was probably going to happen, however.

And what about those guys who when going to a urinal and there are a ton of them, decide to pick the one right next to you when no others are being used.

That's violating the man law law lol

 

[ethical]

Yes, but there was no other campsites. they were all taken with even more people and none of them had a problem sharing with whoever was there.

Ok well in that case, if there wasn't anywhere else you could have gone, you didn't do anything wrong

 

[gan6660]

They did not reserve a campsite as they had already set up camp

They were present by the fact their belongings were there

As I said, know your camping etiquette to avoid these scenarios

Yes, but they had gone a day early to set the 2 tents up to reserve the spot. they were not staying in them until that night.

 

[dukebound85]

Yes, but they had gone a day early to set the 2 tents up to reserve the spot. they were not staying in them until that night.

All I am trying to tell you is know your etiquette to avoid these scenarios in future trips. I don't really care for the justifications of your actions

 

[Jaro65]

I don't think you overreacted at all. You did the right thing, as you possibly got out of the harm's way. With so many guys there and alcohol, you never know what could have happened.

 

[QCassidy352]

All I am trying to tell you is know your etiquette to avoid these scenarios in future trips. I don't really care for the justifications of your actions

Wow. Just wow.

OP, you did exactly the right thing and were not in the wrong. If you set up in their campsite that's obviously not Ok, but taking the one next to them, especially when there are no others, is not a problem. And even if it were, the other guys were the ones completely out of line with their reaction.

 

[glocke12]

If these were two separate, distinct campsites, and the older guys had tents setup on only one, than these kids were well within their right to setup on the other campsite. If it was one campsite and the kids setup, thats a no-no.

I live close to the delaware, and would never choose to camp at any spot there.

I dont know where you guys are at, but there are tons of great state parks in PA to camping at where you dont have to deal with this ****. Also check out the sunsfish pond area in the delaware water gap, you have to pack your stuff in but its a great area.

 

[Disc Golfer]

Why would you set up where there are already tents? If you want to have a good time camping, figure out where you're going before you leave and give yourself enough time to get there and get set up before it gets too late in the afternoon. Don't decide midway through the day that you want to go camping that night, don't start setting up after sundown, and don't set up where there are already tents.

 

[citizenzen]

Gotta agree about the etiquette thing... people need a little space.

People partying normally don't mind sharing if they think you're going to contribute to their good times.

What I don't get is why the kids just didn't bust out their stash and share it with the other group.

And please, let's not pretend that the kids didn't have their own stash.

 

[bamaworks]

Being an experienced backwoods hiker, backpacker, and all around camping afficionado, I'd have to have more info about this. How far were you from other campers? How far did you set up from these guys? How distinct were the sites marked and did they have any tents or gear whatsover in the spot you chose?

Either way they shouldn't have acted as they did, but there may possibly be a camping etiquette issue as dukebound pointed out. But if it went down exactly as you said and they didn't have any gear whatsoever on a clearly separately marked campsite there would have most likely been a serious altercation had myself and my normal backpacking buddies been on the receiving end of such harassment.

Ridiculous. You may have had better luck packing up when they initially began giving you grief and moving to another location, or even going home if you absolutely couldn't find another location.

 

[Mexbearpig]

Ridiculous. You may have had better luck packing up when they initially began giving you grief and moving to another location, or even going home if you absolutely couldn't find another location.

Why should they have to leave? Like he said it was 2 sites and reserving sites wasn't allowed. They set up on one and when they came the wanted both. It may have been slightly rude, but I think the OP did nothing wrong.

 

[bamaworks]

Why should they have to leave? Like he said it was 2 sites and reserving sites wasn't allowed. They set up on one and when they came the wanted both. It may have been slightly rude, but I think the OP did nothing wrong.

Of course, I wasn't saying they were obligated to move and certainly shouldn't have had to, I was speaking from the position that if I were 17 years old and saw the obvious signs that I couldn't be comfortable there that night amongst a bunch of angry and rowdy 30+ year olds (I'm paranoid anyway), I probably would have left earlier even than they did as to avoid escalation.