Canping down hunter trails and such is called 'ninja camping' .
Depending on the Nat Forest of course.........but in some there is
plenty of this.

heck.........i just thought of a place on a back road in Washington- two
lane paved 'nowhere' sorta road, near Mt. Rainer.
The ideal  sort of unofficial ninja camping ,  You turn off the paved
road onto the older road..........go a quarter mile so , get to a spot
out of site of the paved road.......
where others have obviously camped before.............and your view to
the non-road side is an open wild river valley.
Free unrestricted camping. With wild river water view, . and hardly
anyone around.
Nothin' wrong with that !!

Kim Brennan wrote:
> Most  National FORESTS (as opposed to Parks) have policies that allow
> you to camp anywhere not visible from a main road (but check the rules
> as they vary from forest to forest.) My syncro Westy is frequently
> able to travel down hunter trails into nice quiet camping spots.
>
> On May 20, 2008, at 9:24 PM, Slloth wrote:
>
>> with you in that we shouldn't spoil the welcoming but...I have thought
>> about this before.  This country is all about freedom.  Freedom this
>> and
>> freedom that but how many places can you just pull off the side of the
>> road (out of the way) and just set up camp.  Not very many with out
>> getting hassled by the cops or Highway patrol.  We are expected to
>> seek
>> out some lame, crowded camp site and pay money to stay there.  Now I
>> know there are parts of the country where you can stay over night but
>> I'm not talking about the dessert.  Sorry.  I feel better.
>
>