Albert&Hush Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 As we have come across several areas while hiking and geocaching, where unautherized camping (tents or other improvised shelters, clothing hung in trees, adult beverage containers, mattresses, and other weird stuff) or hobo type activity has been occuring. I wonder what others think of this subject. Question: If while geocaching, you discover an unauthorized camp or other hobo type articles, what do you do? Quote Link to comment
+welch Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 i cant say ive really found any hobo camps. the closest would be when i found a mattress, but it was half buried in muck next to the river, so i doubt anyone was living there. Quote Link to comment
+travisl Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 My travel bug found a homeless encampment, and decided to move in for a few days. Fortunately another set of geocachers took the ''explore the camp'' option and recovered him. "If a boy has enough intelligence, he ought to go into the ministry, except that if when he enters college he is given to carousing, drinking, and wenching, then in that case he should enter the law." - Harvard Student Review, 1796 Quote Link to comment
Eric O'Connor Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Every park around here has at least a few sleeping bags. It took me longer than I care to admit to hide my first cache because of this. This is actually one of my biggest complaints about this area. Because the city has a tolerant attitude, few of the businesses allow non-employees to use the restroom...etc. If they give access to the nice old lady, or someone like my five year old daughter whose bladder must be the size of a hummingbird, the people-of-roofless-living will complain that they're being discriminated against. A buddy of mine makes a couple hundred thousand US dollars each year. He busts his keester cranking out translations of technical documents from Russian, Chinese, and Japanese into English. He looks exactly like a homeless guy and I can never get over all the dirty looks we get while eating at a pizza joint or whatever. The guy bathes and is polite, but he hasn't seen a razor or barber in 20 years. I've been trying to bring him with me to some geocaches but he's afraid that exposure to fresh air and exercise will kill him. Even here in the Peoples Rebublic of Berkeley, drifters are treated with scorn. I vote we ship them all to Kabul, but then I've always been a softy. Quote Link to comment
+sbukosky Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Wisconsin is pretty strict about this and I'm thankful for it. Depending on the circumstances, I may or may not call them into the police. Steve Bukosky N9BGH Waukesha Wisconsin Quote Link to comment
+The Cheeseheads Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 Heh. Read the last couple of logs here. Heck knows what they were doing back there. Meth lab? I hightailed it out of there when I heard voices. No cache is worth getting killed over. I haven't heard back from the park supervisor yet to see if they found anyone. I'm going to be annoyed if I have to archive my first cache... Quote Link to comment
+Bear and Ting Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 ....little shelter on a beach in Hawaii, but here in Indiana, it bothers us. We've seen "homeless huts" in a few areas and in one area, where they are cracking down, we did report it. Bear & Ting Geocachers don't NEED to ask for directions! Quote Link to comment
chloew Posted June 30, 2002 Share Posted June 30, 2002 I've seen quite a few of these 'camp sites' in the parks and woods around Austin. It seems like they are being tolerated as these are not very far off trail and in areas where there is quite a bit of foot traffic. The warmer climate down here makes these sites livable year round. When I stumble upon one of them I usually just make a wide circle around them as not to disturb or raise any miscontent, and keep on caching. Quote Link to comment
+headmj Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 Don't see much of it here in Cantral, PA. LOOONNNGGG cold winters, bears and snakes help to keep the boys moving. There aresome locals living near survivalist lifestyles but they are part of the local community. Quote Link to comment
+GatoRx Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 I found something of a "hobo camp" a couple of weeks ago while looking for a cache in the woods next to an interstate on-ramp. There were clothes, tarps, and lots of empty adult beverage containers laying around; combining that with the mosquitoes and our lack of bug spray, my girlfriend and I decided to leave the area alone. I would have contacted someone, but I wasn't sure who would handle such a thing... Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 I can't friggin stand business that won't let the public use the bathroom. I really don't give a rats a$$ that if they are nice to a little old lady that they might have to be nice to the homeless. Give me a break. Do you really want to walk through the encampments bathroom zone? Hobo camps don't bother me. They have to live somwhere. In this perfect nation that is the USA there are people who do not function well working for 'The Man'. Thanks to 'The Man' I'm looking for work myself. In 6 months if I don't find a job I'll be living in one of those camps wondering where to go to take a leak. As as for the original question my answer wasn't on there. "Pick up a little trash and leave it cleaner than I found it, but leave their stuff there" Quote Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 This thread reminds me of this cache that I looked for last month. I didn't bother to tell anyone (except in the logs here). Those people have to live somewhere. As long as they're not bothering me -- and logging a "not found" doesn't bother me -- then I let them be. Lil Devil Quote Link to comment
mortonfox Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 quote:Originally posted by Albert&Hush: Question: If while geocaching, you discover an unauthorized camp or other hobo type articles, what do you do? In New York City, I've been to a few caches that are near homeless encampments. I'd say leave those alone and turn back, or continue if you feel it is safe to do so. I must say though that it is pretty weird hiking past homeless guys with their boxes of stuff right next to the trail. Quote Link to comment
+KYtrex Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 Make a "homeless person" locationless cache and then we can all benefit from these people. I'm surprised no one has already thought of this. Or perhaps, it was submitted and turned down KYtrex ----------------- A "Buckeye" is just a "Hillbilly" that ran out of money on the way to Michigan Quote Link to comment
+KYtrex Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 Make a "homeless person" locationless cache and then we can all benefit from these people. I'm surprised no one has already thought of this. Or perhaps, it was submitted and turned down KYtrex ----------------- A "Buckeye" is just a "Hillbilly" that ran out of money on the way to Michigan Quote Link to comment
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