What is boondocking?

[Trex]

Originally Posted by Road Geezer

We're still in our first year of "camping" in our AS; so far, we've been out 16 times since we bought it last February. All but five of those trips we have dry camped--no hookups, but sometimes a water spigot and dump station somewhere nearby. We haven't really gone into remote areas as yet, but the variety of camping options available when we don't look for hookups is immense ... and usually more enjoyable ... more like really "getting away" as opposed to parking in a crowded campground. Here's a pic of one such dry camp on the CA coastline.

We typically take long weekends, so managing waste water storage is pretty easy and a 2kw generator allows us to top off the batteries daily. This life style is a combination of very genteel "roughing it" and making some minor adjustments dictated by the lack of unlimited power and water. All-in-all, we love the AS lifestyle and can hardly wait to spend more time on the road.

Hey Mr. Geez....How was Herford Ranch RV park? Did you guys make it to the Subway Caves, Lassen Park, or did you stop by to see if Rowdy Yates, (Clint Eastwood), was at his summer home at the Rising River Ranch? His Ranch is just up the road from the RV park....

[Road Geezer]

TRex, Hereford Ranch was very nice. We liked the remoteness of the camp and the fact that it's nested in a working ranch surrounded by fields. It was all very pastoral; cows mooing during the days and coyotes barking/yelling/...whatever at night. I think we were about the last campers there as they planned to close after this past Monday. We essentially had the entire camp to ourselves and another couple nearby. That was great for us, as we really wanted to chill out and relax. Days were mild but nights and mornings were cold, so we burnt thru a whole propane tank. We didn't do the Subway Caves, but we did visit Manzanita Lake in Lassen NP and Big Lake just north of McArthur. We also visited Burney Falls SP and Fall River a couple times. We were scouting out paddling spots to try and to plan for our next trip to the area. I think October is a really great time to visit the area; we'll be back, maybe next year again after Jackson. A couple fellow late season campers did a lot of four wheeling around the area; there seem to be a lot of dirt roads to interesting places.

I wrote a review of the campground the the AS Forum and included a few pics.

Will you be going to Casini?

[Trex]

Originally Posted by Road Geezer

TRex, Hereford Ranch was very nice. We liked the remoteness of the camp and the fact that it's nested in a working ranch surrounded by fields. It was all very pastoral; cows mooing during the days and coyotes barking/yelling/...whatever at night. I think we were about the last campers there as they planned to close after this past Monday. We essentially had the entire camp to ourselves and another couple nearby. That was great for us, as we really wanted to chill out and relax. Days were mild but nights and mornings were cold, so we burnt thru a whole propane tank. We didn't do the Subway Caves, but we did visit Manzanita Lake in Lassen NP and Big Lake just north of McArthur. We also visited Burney Falls SP and Fall River a couple times. We were scouting out paddling spots to try and to plan for our next trip to the area. I think October is a really great time to visit the area; we'll be back, maybe next year again after Jackson. A couple fellow late season campers did a lot of four wheeling around the area; there seem to be a lot of dirt roads to interesting places.

I wrote a review of the campground the the AS Forum and included a few pics.

Will you be going to Casini?

The Bunny and I plan to go to Casini...yes. We had a great time at Jackson, and I posted photos on that thread. Great people and a cool mix of old and new AS's. Plus, I won $500 at the casino, so the trip was "Free".

So, if you "Checked out" the Fall River area, you got information on the self guided water tours, one can take on the Pit river..? We both love that area, and camp at Hereford Ranch once-a-year at a motorcycle campout/party. Not so quite, when we are there...those damm bikers are really loud!

[Road Geezer]

We didn't see anything on self guided tours. The owner of Shasta Outfitters(not sure of name?) gave us a lot of info including a map of all the waterways in the area. Some look pretty interesting. From what we could see ourselves, the water in this area both on the lakes and the rivers/streams is really FLAT and slow moving. Perfect for kayak sightseeing. I talked with a parked sheriff and he mentioned that there's a guide that works out of Burney; her phone number's on a sign by the theater in Fall River. I think I lost it somewhere between there and home ...

[Sky]

What I hate about boon-dockin' is, it can get crowded sometimes.
Price you have to pay I guess.

Click to enlarge

[TouringDan]

Sky

Now that is a great camping spot and a great picture! Where is it?

Dan

[la nomade]

how long does the generator have to run,a day ???? to keep the batteries going....one hour or more..????to run lights, maybe fridge to save propane,pump etc?,,,

[clicknathan]

The last really good boondocking experience we had was in Pisgah National Forest, Western North Carolina. We had a crazy dog at the time (it's been awhile!) who was preventing us from having a good time in state parks and RV parks in the area, as he was insisting on growling like a ferocious wolf at anyone/thing that walked by...so we found a map of the forest and went as deep in as we could so he could just run free for awhile. I think he was just sick of being cooped up all the time with more traveling than dog walking (our fault...).

We had nothing...our phones died after a night of playing music, we had food that could keep, no generator, plenty of beers (and were happy to drink them warm), and a fire anytime we wanted to build one. We didn't see anyone up there for over a week...until some other folks with their horse trailer and RV train combination rolled up and, politely/annoyingly asked us if we could keep our dog on a leash.

I wondered if they had brought leashes for all of the black bears that would be roaming through their campsite that night.