Video: 10 Boondocking Do's and Don'ts

Lwiddis wrote:
Too much face time with host. Intro too long. Boring.

How to watch Youtube:
Click to get yourself at least one minute in, as the first 30-60 seconds of 99% of YT vids are pointless ramblings or intros. Click further if there is still an intro. You may need to click up to 4 or 5 minutes into a vid to get to the meat.
With cursor over the YT little screen see the cog-looking icon. Click it and increase speed to 1.5 times, or 2 times faster (for a slow talker). You will understand it fine and the vid goes by faster getting to the point, if any, faster.
Or click to the middle of the vid and see if there is info you want coming out, sometimes not, but if so just go back to one minute in and start from there, at higher speed preferably.

YT vids are best at 3.5 minutes long, and keeping the intro material at the end - getting immediately to the point within 2-3 seconds.

Another real handy mapping tool - if you're using a laptop with Windows 10 - is the free built-in Microsoft mapping tool called "Maps". I have it's icon pinned right to the taskbar at the bottom of my laptop's screen.

It's kept current along with Windows 10 updates and it's database resides entirely within your laptop, so no cell tower access or satellite access is required. You can download map databases into it from the U.S. and other areas all over the world. I currently have the U.S. and Canada map databases for it stored in my laptop's memory.

You can use a streets view in Maps or switch to a view in it very similar to Google Earth which shows terrain features that you can zoom in on just like Google Earth. Unlike Google Earth and sometimes very importantly, Maps does not require an Internet connection - so you can use it anywhere.

Maps has useful features such as Measure Distance, Directions, Ruler, etc.. We use Maps right along with: Google Earth (when we have an Internet connection for Google Earth), Benchmark hardcopy atlases, our satellite based LM3550 Garmin navigator with over 400K POIs loaded, and our satellite based InReach device.

ItsyRV wrote:
In all fairness, to some "boondocking" means anywhere there are no hookups. They can be in a pack-em-in campsite with no hookups and consider that "boondocking". A Walmart parking lot is "boondocking". A interstate rest stop is "boondocking". If they can't plug something into something, it's "boondocking".

I think there is a continuum starting with parking your rig at home all the way to camping in the middle of the desert.

10 - Sleeping in your rig at home
9 - KOA with 50amp service and cable TV
8 - Hook ups
7 - Forest service campground with water and power only
6 - State park with no hook ups
5 - Camping at a public campground with no hook ups
4 - Walmart
3 - Just off the highway in a remote area
2 - Full desert remote location
1 - The Moon

2oldman, you are right about the difficulty of seeing forest roads on Google Maps -- sometimes they show up, and sometimes not. The solution (which is not so easy) is to have at least two monitors for your computer.

I then divide one of my monitors in half, so now I have three screens. On one screen I have Google Maps, with the contours. On the second screen, I have Google Earth. On the third, I have the MVUM (a pdf), zoomed to the area of interest.

Now, by looking at all three screens, I have topo maps, I have ground imagery, and I have the national forest road network.

Fun!!

profdant139 wrote:
2oldman, you actually can get that info from Google Maps -- just hit the three horizontal bars in the upper left corner, and then click terrain, and then zoom in to the area you are studying. The topo contours should pop up.

Thanks, I'll try that. Side roads usually aren't all that clear to see.

In all fairness, to some "boondocking" means anywhere there are no hookups. They can be in a pack-em-in campsite with no hookups and consider that "boondocking". A Walmart parking lot is "boondocking". A interstate rest stop is "boondocking". If they can't plug something into something, it's "boondocking".

ppine wrote:

gemsworld wrote:
I don't know of any boondocking areas that you have the luxury to be "hundreds of yards" away from other boondockers.

You need to get out more. I camp in plenty of places where I cannot see a light. No one within 10 miles.

The real trick is to get way out there over non-rock-crawler but somewhat rough roads with all the comforts of home, such as ... a tall enough interior shower for a 6+ footer, a dry bath, air conditioning, a comfortable furnace system, an oven, a microwave, at least 60 lbs. of on-board propane, at least a 450 mile traveling range, coach seating for five, at least 45 gallons of fresh water, an outside shower, a surround sound system in the coach, two sleeping areas with at least one of them being queen size, two large outside lounge chairs, an outside table, a built-in outside entertainment center, a large enough portable propane fire pit to actually cook on and warm folks sitting around it, a full spare tire, fishing gear, and a whole bunch of just-in-case equipment. ;)

gemsworld wrote:
I don't know of any boondocking areas that you have the luxury to be "hundreds of yards" away from other boondockers.

You need to get out more. I camp in plenty of places where I cannot see a light. No one within 10 miles.

profdant139 wrote:
2oldman, you actually can get that info from Google Maps -- just hit the three horizontal bars in the upper left corner, and then click terrain, and then zoom in to the area you are studying. The topo contours should pop up.

What he said! ;)

profdant139 wrote:
But there is a catch -- Google Earth won't show you the actual condition of the road, due to the limits of the resolution of the image. All roads look pretty good on GE, even if there are rocks the size of pumpkins.

So true.

profdant139 wrote:
So you are right -- there is no substitute for boots on the ground.

Oh, but there is! It's your phone! Call the local BLM Field Office or National Forest Ranger Station, and simply ask. I've also had surprisingly good luck by Googling the Forest Road number or BLM road name, and seeing other folks' trip reports with photos. They're not always (or even seldom?) campers, but I can usually get what I need from even ATV'ers.

2oldman, you actually can get that info from Google Maps -- just hit the three horizontal bars in the upper left corner, and then click terrain, and then zoom in to the area you are studying. The topo contours should pop up.

On Google Earth, the elevation is listed in the lower right corner -- so you can take a reading at the start of a road and fly along it, watching the elevation rise and fall.

But there is a catch -- Google Earth won't show you the actual condition of the road, due to the limits of the resolution of the image. All roads look pretty good on GE, even if there are rocks the size of pumpkins.

So you are right -- there is no substitute for boots on the ground.