Ok Wanderingvets you have your tent and sleeping bag. Now where is the nearest campgrounds. They are everywhere in the city. My favorite ones personally sit high above the road and say “Commercial Property for Sale” and are a vacant lot along a busy road. They are normally within walking distance of decent panhandling locations, grocery stores, truck stops (which are important and will get into later), and other shopping. camouflage and discretion is important. You must strike camp every morning. There is no laying around though it is a good place to hide your gear sometimes when you do not want to take your pack to work (aka panhandling). Another good place is behind churches, they really do not mind as long as you are not building campfires and leaving beer cans behind there. The few times I have done this were emergency situations only, and not to be done often. Also the edge of state parks, though you have to get up really early, and other high grown fields. Fires have to be maintained but are good for keeping insects away and to cook over. Some places they are not feasible though. Also remember sometimes light and noise discipline is important. Do not share you location with unknowns. Do not become a victim. There are desperate people out there. America can be camped on pretty easily.
25
Sep
07
Stumble It!
Wanderingvets.com 
Thanks 4 the tip on commercial properties I would also like to mention for urbanmetro area avoid known skid rows many homeless folks are PREADATORY often drug additcted who just as soon smash your face in take what you have including the shoes on your feet better off camping discretely in the suburbs and suprisingly the police hassle me less in the nicer quieter areas of town
Yeah well here in Los Angeles the “downtown” area is also known as skid row and every piece of excess property is locked up and/or patroled by private security and because there are so many homeless, who spread out to the nicer areas, even areas 20 blocks away are fairly hard to get into without cutting open chainlink fence or climbing up and over. So my solution has been to either stay several dozen blocks away and get back by bus or walking or to go in the other direction and find a place in the “very nice” section of the city. This includes a few medians, the occassional piece of commercial property (often high up,) and the very few houses that have a large unkempt section either in front or in the alleyway (if they have one.) If you don’t plan to travel or can get one cheap (stolen) you can use a bicycle to save your money on getting back and forth but then you need to have the gear to lock it up. Also if you have a VA Medical ID you can flash that as you get on the LA Metro buses and you only have to pay the handicapped fare ($.25off peak/ $.55 peak.) Hope this helps, Mikel