Living in the wilderness in a RV
Is this even possible anymore in the USA? When I was younger I always wanted to take a well-stocked RV and do a "Richard Proenneke". Drive off and find some deserted land. No people, no crowds. Ha...
Forum Discussion
Are you talking about being a “hermit” or just getting away from the crowds? And how do you anticipate accessing the internet well away from any form of civilization. If you just want to get away from the crowds get a small TT, maybe less than 20’. A real 20’, not the box. Then you can get well back in on the forest and other unimproved roads. The hunters, tent campers and PU’s will pass you, but it will still be pretty remote.
Forget the idea of a shack or other sort of “permanent” camp. We get squatters and pot heads on the national forests here and the prevalent attitude is to run them out on a rail. As said, if you can work something out with a local rancher to squat on his land you might be able to pull that off. An uncle on my mother’s side did just that. He came to AZ in 1926. He made friends with a rancher in the White Mountains and was allowed to build a cabin on a secluded area of the ranch property and lived there quite a few years. And there’s a little story behind that.
He visited when I was a little boy and I hardly talked to him but felt a very attraction to him. He smoked a pipe and I saved his wooden matches for quite some time. I didn’t see him again for decades until my mother passed away in the early 80’s. When we met again he was totally taken with my little red headed Irish wife and it came out that she looked just like the girlfriend he had broken up with when he was young and that was the reason he came to AZ in the first place. Then I heard the full story of his trip.
He was able to describe the ranch and cabin so well I told him I’d find it for him and try to send him something. And in fact I did find the ranch and cabin. What was mind boggling was the ranch was still there, owned by the same rancher and with the same foreman, who was then in his 90’s. I couldn’t salvage anything that I could send him but some nails, so I just sent them to him with a note that said here’s the nails you put in 60 years ago.
Now if you want a place totally to yourself, forget the RV. There are a lot of opportunities for that, but you’ll be on foot. I don’t want any blacktop, pavement, development, vehicles or very many people around me. But I don’t want to be a hermit, either. If I did, in wandering the western mountains for 50 years I’ve found countless places where I pull that off. And I’m sure you could do that in the Appalachians, too, I used to wander them as a teenager. Again on foot.
Forget the idea of a shack or other sort of “permanent” camp. We get squatters and pot heads on the national forests here and the prevalent attitude is to run them out on a rail. As said, if you can work something out with a local rancher to squat on his land you might be able to pull that off. An uncle on my mother’s side did just that. He came to AZ in 1926. He made friends with a rancher in the White Mountains and was allowed to build a cabin on a secluded area of the ranch property and lived there quite a few years. And there’s a little story behind that.
He visited when I was a little boy and I hardly talked to him but felt a very attraction to him. He smoked a pipe and I saved his wooden matches for quite some time. I didn’t see him again for decades until my mother passed away in the early 80’s. When we met again he was totally taken with my little red headed Irish wife and it came out that she looked just like the girlfriend he had broken up with when he was young and that was the reason he came to AZ in the first place. Then I heard the full story of his trip.
He was able to describe the ranch and cabin so well I told him I’d find it for him and try to send him something. And in fact I did find the ranch and cabin. What was mind boggling was the ranch was still there, owned by the same rancher and with the same foreman, who was then in his 90’s. I couldn’t salvage anything that I could send him but some nails, so I just sent them to him with a note that said here’s the nails you put in 60 years ago.
Now if you want a place totally to yourself, forget the RV. There are a lot of opportunities for that, but you’ll be on foot. I don’t want any blacktop, pavement, development, vehicles or very many people around me. But I don’t want to be a hermit, either. If I did, in wandering the western mountains for 50 years I’ve found countless places where I pull that off. And I’m sure you could do that in the Appalachians, too, I used to wander them as a teenager. Again on foot.
