If you want to find the worst of America, go to National Park on a weekend. You can only go to one bad neighborhood at a time, but go to a park on a weekend and you can meet bad people from hundreds of bad neighborhoods. Why do these kind of people come to National Parks? Because there is not a cop every hundred feet to keep them in check and they can literally get away with murder, which is why they come. Not interested with nature.
In 2023, I was run off of my campsite in Gifford Pinchot National Forest by a group of armed poachers. This 2025 Memorial Day weekend, and it’s not over yet, I had another disgusting, dangerous and violent incident, again in Gifford Pinchot National Forest just a short distance from the poacher’s camp.
I am camped in Gifford Pinchot at a spot a normally do not camp at. The reasons are, most of the forest was burned in a large fire last summer, this spot is used mainly by fifth wheel camping trailers that can’t get to other places, and a spot a bit off the main road where I used to camp is now a permanent homeless camp. Because of the fire, camping spots are now limited.
I set up camp on Tuesday. A few vehicles camped overnight or a couple days, but the weather was not very good. Like most decent campers, these people parked as far away from me and each other as possible.
On Thursday morning, a guy walks up to my campsite asking for “Linda Lay” to deliver a porta potty. I thought it may be one of the many horseback riding or trail running events staged here at Gifford Pinchot National Forest. A couple hours later, a fifth wheel trailer parked about ten yards from me. Three dogs immediately ran over to me, barking and snarling. One of them snapped at my leg. I yelled to the people to control their dogs, they blew me off.
Their dogs were digging up my latrine. One of the dogs was sneaking up behind me and snapped at my leg. They also chased a family of deer around, a pregnant doe not as quick as a pack of dogs. I chased the dogs off the injured pregnant deer and again yelled to the people again to control their dogs, a man cursed at me.
A lady came into my campsite and told me that this is the spot of the “Dallas Family Reunion”, there would be twenty five to fifty people here and that I need to move to a different spot. I told here I was not moving, I was here first and not causing any problems. I asked why she chose to park their trailer right on top of me instead of taking one of the other two dozen empty campsites in the immediate vicinity. I also told her that their dogs were trying to bite me, could you please control your dogs? She walked away.
The following morning, Friday, I was standing by the tailgate of my truck when I saw my “neighbor’s” dogs sneaking up on my truck from the woods. After trying to kill a pregnant deer, they already tried to bite me twice and were going for a third try. I took my .22 revolver and fired it, point blank, into a tree stump, hopefully to scare the dogs away. Shooting is legal in Gifford Pinchot National Forest and anyone who comes here unarmed and not prepared to defend themselves should stay home.
The woman and an elderly man came running into my campsite, cursing and making threats. I told them to stop, but the old guy came right into my campsite and took a swing at my head. He told me “a lot more people are coming” and I need to move out. I pointed out that I had asked them to control the dogs, which they did not do. I reminded them that they could have had some minimal respect and camped a bit further away and avoided the whole deal, especially with so many people. I also pointed out that I was here before they arrived, and they and their dogs have come into my campsite to harass and threaten me, I never even walked in the direction of their trailer because of the vicious dogs. They have created and initiated every conflict.
Of course they are doing this because they want this campsite all to themselves on a holiday weekend.
They had the porta potty delivered here before they even arrived, without any regard for other campers who might be here before them on a busy holiday weekend. Their pack of dogs roams freely within a one mile radius of the people’s trailer, harassing everything and everyone. I had hoped to do some hiking this weekend, but between the dogs and the regular threats of violence in order to get me to move, I can’t even walk ten yards from my truck.
It’s Saturday, so I assume the Dallas family will be arriving soon. I have every right to assume that after talking with the people who have been regularly harassing me for the past couple days, at least some of them will be armed. They tried a pack of dogs, the old man tried to clock me, maybe a gun in the face will convince me to move from their private camping area.
These people are extremely dangerous. I mean what kind of person uses a pack of dogs to kill wild animals? Since the dogs try to bite me every time I move ten feet from my vehicle and the dog’s owner tried to hit me in the head after chasing his dogs off the injured pregnant deer, I have every right to assume that this guy will hurt me, if given a chance and I have the right to defend myself from a person who sees killing as entertainment.