Tips for TC Boondocking
DW and I have been TCing every year, starting with a 2003 trip to Alaska. Not counting Wal-Mart, we have never boondocked. Now we are considering renting a self-contained hardside as an experiment. Af...
Forum Discussion
There are reasons that boondocking is more difficult. I think it's abuse. Trash, litter, vandilism, bullies, noise, entitlement, etc
Even backpacking is more difficult... all over the east... and far west
At one time you could hike all day and see very few people if any one else at all.
Our friemd and moderator reddog1 and his wife took us to the Muir Woods National Monument near San Fransico. We hiked the trails, an endless line of people... at any point we could see more than 20 or 30 people in front of or behind us. When people finished their bottled water they threw the empty onto the ground within sight of the trail. Same with cig butts.
Here in the Big South Fork are of Tennessee there is a huge parking area where hundreds of people can park and hike or even back pack to the Angel Falls Overlook high on a mountain. There is one area about a mile from the parking lot where there is a wide area along the river. You can smell the unmistakable odor of feces and urine, and see toilet paper where it's been thrown on the ground. I have seen more than 30 tents crowded into the area... with no designated place to void their waste. The parking lot has vehicles from all over North America... it has high curbs and barricades to keep people from driving the trails.
The Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia is fantastic. There is a 4.5 mile hiking trail on top of a mountan to allow people to go to a high point and see the ocean and the whales. The hiking trail has been widened enough to allow a service truck to get halfway in order to service a rest room pavilion.... Nice... but it means that we have to hike a couple of miles on a road. I picked up and carried water bottles back out. (The road is barricaded)
Why do I mention these?
RV people are just as bad, if not worse sometimes.
There are no pull-offs or remote dispersed places for RV's in the Smokey Mountain National Park. very few places in east have much more than parking areas for hikers... the Smokies rangers brought up the subject of fees for back packers and hikers... to off set trail amaintainence and clean-up... people were out raged.
About 10 years ago, in Pigeon Forge (Gatlinburg area), a 5th wheel, a pop-up trailer and a couple of MH's circled up like old timey wagon trains in the Walmart parking lot... with a fire ring in the middle placed directly on the blacktop and they had a fire. That was the end of that...
We saw a MH owner open his holding tanks in the parking lot of the Wild Horse Pass Casino in Chandler, AZ. Beaudry RV across the highway had a free dump station. The Casino folks were in a rage.
The same people do that where ever they are...
Now, shopping centers have height barriers, high curbs, even security patrols to keep RV'ers out.... they don't even want us as shoppers.
Government Lands are becoming more restricted all of the time.
The east coast is much harder to boondock in... possible, but not the exact place you'd like to be. It's the population density, the trashy, litter spreading folks that put the cross hairs on us.
Janet and I get by sometimes because we look like we are parked... no slide out, no furnitue out, no dog pooping in peoples lawns, just park, shower, go to bed. We do have a slide out but our 1161 is designed to be fully functional with the slide in.
Just practice finding spots... and ask yourself... am I offensive, would I want someone like me in my neighborhood?
Sleepy
Even backpacking is more difficult... all over the east... and far west
At one time you could hike all day and see very few people if any one else at all.
Our friemd and moderator reddog1 and his wife took us to the Muir Woods National Monument near San Fransico. We hiked the trails, an endless line of people... at any point we could see more than 20 or 30 people in front of or behind us. When people finished their bottled water they threw the empty onto the ground within sight of the trail. Same with cig butts.
Here in the Big South Fork are of Tennessee there is a huge parking area where hundreds of people can park and hike or even back pack to the Angel Falls Overlook high on a mountain. There is one area about a mile from the parking lot where there is a wide area along the river. You can smell the unmistakable odor of feces and urine, and see toilet paper where it's been thrown on the ground. I have seen more than 30 tents crowded into the area... with no designated place to void their waste. The parking lot has vehicles from all over North America... it has high curbs and barricades to keep people from driving the trails.
The Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia is fantastic. There is a 4.5 mile hiking trail on top of a mountan to allow people to go to a high point and see the ocean and the whales. The hiking trail has been widened enough to allow a service truck to get halfway in order to service a rest room pavilion.... Nice... but it means that we have to hike a couple of miles on a road. I picked up and carried water bottles back out. (The road is barricaded)
Why do I mention these?
RV people are just as bad, if not worse sometimes.
There are no pull-offs or remote dispersed places for RV's in the Smokey Mountain National Park. very few places in east have much more than parking areas for hikers... the Smokies rangers brought up the subject of fees for back packers and hikers... to off set trail amaintainence and clean-up... people were out raged.
About 10 years ago, in Pigeon Forge (Gatlinburg area), a 5th wheel, a pop-up trailer and a couple of MH's circled up like old timey wagon trains in the Walmart parking lot... with a fire ring in the middle placed directly on the blacktop and they had a fire. That was the end of that...
We saw a MH owner open his holding tanks in the parking lot of the Wild Horse Pass Casino in Chandler, AZ. Beaudry RV across the highway had a free dump station. The Casino folks were in a rage.
The same people do that where ever they are...
Now, shopping centers have height barriers, high curbs, even security patrols to keep RV'ers out.... they don't even want us as shoppers.
Government Lands are becoming more restricted all of the time.
The east coast is much harder to boondock in... possible, but not the exact place you'd like to be. It's the population density, the trashy, litter spreading folks that put the cross hairs on us.
Janet and I get by sometimes because we look like we are parked... no slide out, no furnitue out, no dog pooping in peoples lawns, just park, shower, go to bed. We do have a slide out but our 1161 is designed to be fully functional with the slide in.
Just practice finding spots... and ask yourself... am I offensive, would I want someone like me in my neighborhood?
Sleepy
