We have returned from the AS factory at Jackson Center, Ohio and have the highest regard for the entire staff. Thank you ALL for making this 1100 mile trip from Denver worth every foot of travel... and the 1100 mile trip back.
Now to business. Nancy, myself and Blue Heelers (Blue and Dingo) would like to see if the Forum overseer's would permit a Forum for Rockdocking. Probably the closest definition of Rockdocking is camping without hookups, asphalt, probably cell phone service, NOTHING but living out of your Airstream and what you provided for yourself. From speaking with a number of AS owners at the terra port at Jackson Center, there are very few of us out there (I always say west of Hays, Kansas). Mostly in the area west of the 101st line of longitude to eastern California. This is the LAST of the western frontier and it is getting tougher to find many places that you cannot get a trailer of 25 foot or less into the area. Dirt, gravel and unimproved roads are our domain.
It takes a special kind of trailer owner and tow vehicle driver to navigate these areas. Maybe 10% of the trailer market will be owned by those brave enough to test their equipment the way we do, and special preventive maintenance is a requirement for Rockdocking. I would put this kind of forum in the Western US travel, but would include much of the world that falls into off road trailer uses.
Any ideas, constructive criticisms? We enjoyed the meeting of AS owners at Jackson Center, but they considered a Walmart parking lot as Rockdocking... Our trailer adaptations are unique to off road camping.
My brother and I use to tour in a modified beat up toyota, before we graduated to a Mercedes with the lift option. Some might call it car camping but we considered ourselves punks if we slept within five miles of a vehicle, or in a tent.
What I noticed is that there was very often some kind of barrior, to prevent
vehicles from getting to the really cool spots. The road engineers would either leave a natural obstruction or create a barrior. A few times we
encountered sand pits, that were real easy to get stuck in. I know a few places where Hummers can't fit thru because they are too wide.
We perceived this to be a good thing. RVs can really disturb the beauty and peacefullness of a wilderness area.
One of the fears we had was about the reported thousand and higher dollar tow fees, from some state parks, and BLM areas, to the nearest auto repair location.
My point is that hiking boots should be mandatory equipment for rockdockers.
My personal thoughts are that there is a special forums heading for boondocking already. I don't see the upside of adding another section for the same thing on the basis that what everyone else calls boondocking you want to call rockdocking. Maybe I am missing something here, but since you asked, thats what I think.
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Rodney
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
I've always thought boondocking includes wilderness camping - ie camping out in the boondocks. I never considered WalMart parking lots to be boondocks, that's just parking.
I am trying to understand the difference myself. I boondock alot, but do I rockdock? One spot I went to twice this year has disperse campsites. We had to travel 3 miles of rough but drivable road at 15-25 MPH. There were rocks in the road. The camping was without any hookups. I would call that boondocking, would it qualify as rockdocking?
Look at the pics at this post and the next two that follow it. These are good examples of boondocking IMO. It could get confusing understanding any difference between 'rockdocking' and boondocking with topsoil underneath. Camping at a NFS site with a picnic table, fire ring & pit toilet isn't boondocking to me. To many, pure boondocking means finding a wide spot at some out of the way location. How is that different than rockdocking? Natural vegetation does stand in the way of "going your own way" for most of this broad country.
Our usual practice when setting up subforums is to wait until there are enough threads about a certian topic to populate a new subforum. Empty subforums are kinda depressing. Some recent examples of forums set up to meet need include Global Streaming and Dollars and Cents.
Personally, I think the the regional subsections in the boondocking forum are a questionable use of space. If we didn't already have those I might be more inclined to add more sections. In the boondocking section there are 104 threads total. There are 8 subsections. It's very sparsley populated.
The regional subsections were proposed as a way to ID good places to camp, but we have a reviews sections for that purpose. The subsections (IMHO) fail the sniff test for forum discussion topics. But once a section is set up, it's tough to undo it because there is content there that should be kept.
A better Boondocking section might be:
Boondocking (section header and place for general discussion)
>Urban Boondocking (subsection)
>Boondockingoff the Grid (subsection)
I'm not sure folks know the term rockdocking and might find it confusing... even these (above) proposed sections might be too many for the topic.
Or ... we could reduce the number of existing sections, by combining some of the regional areas and settle on 4; Eastern US, Western US, Canada, South America so the Boondocking Forum could look like this:
Boondocking (section header and place for general discussion)
>Urban Boondocking (subsection)
>Boondockingoff the Grid (subsection) >Eastern US (subsection) >Western US (subsection) >Canada (subsection) >South America (subsection)
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77 Argosy Minuet, 6 metre
77 Argosy 24, Rear door
AIR 3181, WBCCI/VAC # 5575
Boondocking is properly considered to take place in non-urban areas (see below) that additionally are not established/formal campsites. Confusion is added by the desire of some to bring hookups into the definition. While boondocking by definition excludes hookups, the lack of hookups does not imply boondocking. Futher confusion arises from the tendency of people who are prone to boondocking also being prone to non-hookup established sites (national forest for example) and sharing information about those sites in bookdocking conversations. Despite the inclusion of parking lot camping in some peoples discussions, it is not really boondocking. For this reason, I think the cheap or free designation for that type of camping is better than urban boondocking.
Frankly, I fail to see how using the term rockdocking can do anything but add further confusion to the topic while adding nothing of further merit.
From the free dictionary:
boon·docks (bndks)pl.n.Slang1. Wild and dense brush; jungle. 2. Rural country; the backwoods.
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Rodney
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
Thank you for the input moderators. All new concepts are looked at as an alteration of something that already exists. Birds fly, people do not in the 19th century thought until the 1880's... There is a difference in Boondocking (today's definition) and the new term Rockdocking. Boondocking has been degraded into having no HDTV hookup...
Tree huggers, environmentalists, hikers, survivalists all want to protect their way of experiencing the out doors. My father was a Montana Forest Service employee in the early 1950's. I know what a cabin without ANY services is like as a kid. I am more comfortable in a cabin than living in an apartment building somewhere talking about roughing it in a tent for the weekend.
It is a bit embarrassing for an avid back country hiker, tent camper finding a trailer following their footsteps into the wilderness. The west is full of wilderness areas. Once a road has been opened, "they will come". They are RV's, trailers, ATV's, tent campers, fisherman, hunters and so on. The one forum post has the impression that tent camping is the only Rockdocking option. I have to admit, tent camping does meet ALL of the necessary lacks thereof... Hiking boots. Yikes! What kind don't I have in foot attire for the out doors. I can do pretty much what my Vasque boots with Vibrum soles (3 pairs from 1972 to 1985 still being used and resoled) with the much improved sandals available today. I am a geologist and went where I need to be. Usually further away from the lights of a town than most people can imagine.
I saw the trash, plastic bottles, cigarette butts left by the friendly environmental hikers in the wilderness. I see the trashed camping spots left by hunters. I see the National Forest camping areas trashed by the local kids drinking and raising hell... and then leaving it sit there. I see the bullet hole riddled signs. Lets not fool yourself that if you are living by the rule of "you carry it in, you carry it out" that everyone does. Many do not. Most of the environmental persons are younger, college age people who think they have discovered something "new". My trailer is our base camp. It was similar in 1804 as 1849 and 2007. Just there is less of it to discover.
Rockdocking is NOT Boondocking. The idea needs to be defined by the people who do press the envelope a bit more. Rockdockers must distinquish themselves from the majority who consider it "roughing it out" at Yosemite or Yellowstone. There is a common bond between the people who do know the outdoors, fight insects and can make repairs on the spot. Like hearing the hollow sound of a counterfeit coin dropping on to a hard surface, the real Rockdockers know at a glance. You cannot be an imposter when out where nobody else dares to travel with a trailer, by yourself.
This in no way demeans the tent camper and back country hiker/camper that does push Rockdocking to the ultimate level. I have been there, seen it, done it and since 2006 leave the tough stuff to those who are still pushing... pushing on the envelope. I have paid my dues and now wish to make the best of it with my Airstream. Some may not like it. But there are pioneers to be found, even today. Share this space and accept the fact that others are going to be following your trail, no matter how simple or how primitive a start. I appreciate the vigor and miss the company.
. . .Rockdocking is NOT Boondocking. The idea needs to be defined by the people who do press the envelope a bit more. Rockdockers must distinquish themselves from the majority who consider it "roughing it out" at Yosemite or Yellowstone. .
You made up the word, so I guess you can define it anyway you want. Go over to Wikipedia and make an entry.
It also sounds like you want to write a book about how to camp in the wilderness. I think you should do that, I would like to buy the first edition.
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n
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)pl.n. Slang 1. Wild and dense brush; jungle.
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