2021-044 | BLENDING

OUTDOORS COMMON SENSE TIPS: Stealth camping is not about blending with surroundings. It is also about leaving everything as it was when you break camp. Leave your camp without a trace, not the Western LNT ideology, but the ones that were and are still practiced by indigenous people.

First seen in Facebook

July 21, 2018

=> => => o0o <= <= <=

 

CAMOUFLAGING IS AN ART. One of the best principle of blending in a natural surrounding is to make yourself unobservable as possible. Never stand out if you want to do stealth camping. Mingle with the terrain or vegetation intimately and unobtrusively. Light, color, shapes, shadows, movements, smell and sounds are the things which attract observation. But, then again, why would you have to do that? 

Let us consider the three scenarios: 

You hunt wildlife. You set up your hidden shelter and wait for wild game that appear in your scope. The shelter is a combination of dead or green branches and grass or leaves that you source from somewhere abundant. You set this up presumably to fool game but not humans, especially hikers or, what you feared most, forest wardens.  

 

By the way, hunting in the Philippines is now discouraged. There is a national law – Republic Act 9147 – which prohibits people from poaching, or hunting wildlife, especially endangered and/or vulnerable species and it carries a heavy penalty of imprisonment or fines or both at the discretion of the courts. 

Additionally, what were once okay to hunt before would now be covered by local ordinances or department orders, such as wild animals and birds, which numbers are not vulnerable. Moreover, it is extremely dangerous if you try this in ancestral domains belonging to indigenous tribal people, with any kind of methods. So, do not try! 

You copied from the Internet. You set up your stealth camp as prescribed in YouTube. You cut there and you cut here and you even outdo the Special Forces by adding vegetation as a camouflaging agent that you sourced from somewhere near. You tried to blend and you succeeded yet you leave a lot of traces but, who wants to know? 

Your life is in danger. You seemed to have noticed that a group of suspicious people had been following your trail from as far a mile away. You were able to leave a few traces to keep them guessing yet you know if you camp the way you camped, you would ultimately be caught. You decide to camp smartly by making use of dusk as your cover.

 

The first two scenarios used a lot of forest resources while the last one did not. The first two left a lot of traces and telltale ones that would lead people to know exactly, or guessed at, where you are and understood how your mind works. The last scenario has nothing to show and kept the pursuers off-track.

So stealth camping has nothing to do with altering the surroundings to suit to your location, although it is a given that you should in case of daylight and you are in a military mission. But, for purposes of leisure, there is nothing to hide from someone unless your activity is criminal in nature. Altering a campsite is not ethical so you could have your 15 minutes of YouTube fame.    

Most people are fully convinced that stealth camping is okay. That would have been alright if you used the same hole over and over again. The problem with that is you cut and leave and start another one on another place. Then you label it “bushcraft”, which gave a bad taste.

The first photo is a good example of stealth camping. A low-hanging branch is used as ridgeline without the need of cutting smaller branches to accommodate a sheet. The ground is sloping but the occupant took advantage of an exposed root to prevent himself from rolling over. It is on a location where one would think that no one would camp. The occupant did not alter nor leave anything. 

=> => => o0o <= <= <=

 

WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.