Community Forums

Ray Eklund · 12-31-2015, 11:25 AM

Base Camping is what the military has done since there were Armies.

A location is found that is convenient and is strategic, where you want to be. It could be a RV Park, Boondocking or Off the Grid... or all at the same time.

Once your trailer is set and secured, the tow vehicle comes and goes to this established Base Camp. Most often these Base Camps are at the "last" convenient campsite before the road deteriorates into an ATV trail up the side of a mountain.

A true Base Camp is a place that each individual decides on their own. Myself... I like to get as close as we can to the designated area of interest, Base Camp and use our tow vehicle into tougher terrain. Some individuals carry an ATV, motorcycle or bicycle from Base Camp. Each Base Camper has a specific idea of what this spot should offer.

What is yours?

JFNM · 12-31-2015, 12:04 PM

Good shots Ray! From the looks of it, our base camp "requirements" may be similar. Mine generally include no people (or very, very few), no man-made noise, good hiking/mountain bike riding, sunshine for the solar panels, and cell phone signal (I am still a working stiff and gotta be connected).

Ray Eklund · 12-31-2015, 01:14 PM

What a view and I could probably see the trout jumping in the distance....

Most trailer and RV owners find Boonockers/OTG campers... misusing their equipment and should be told that it is not possible. Ask anyone at a RV Park what they think about camping... gasp... in the woods with "lions, tigers and bears". Also no television reception.

There have to be more photographs of these beautiful campsites that only a few have marked on their DeLorme Atlas with the comment "wonderful campsite". We mark each and every one. Some might say... "Good camp, nothing to do, too many mosquitos".

Where ARE the Base Campers, Boondockers and Off the Grid campers or is this site primarily for those who shower every morning and beer is too cheap and beneath their tastes?

Nothing like packed together at a RV Park listening to a couple fighting over how close they should be camped next to the showers and rest room facility. A charcoal grill closer to your trailer than theirs... soaked with starter fluid being drawn into your window vents. Yep... they should feel sorry for you heathens that camp out with some friends and sit around a campfire and grilling burgers how they should be grilled. The scent of the campfire smoke in your hair and all of your clothing. That is the scent of pure... FUN.

The day my Blue Heelers need to be tied to a tall pine tree in the National Forest camped by ourselves... I am selling my trailer. Those of you younger campers or trailer owners... well, under 45 is a just a Babe to some of us, had better make the best of our National Forests and Bureau of Land Management aka BLM open country this coming season. A day will come when you have to pay through the nostrils for a permit and per person, pets on board.

Try camping in Europe. Ho, Ho, Ho. Try camping in Tasmania. Ho, ho, ho. Try... well you are now thinking. North America... still has the west open with the the scent of sage blowing across the prairies, or the scent of pine sweating out of the forests. Europeans are absolutely... SHOCKED... that you can drive off a dirt road and pick any camp site. I should know. My Dutch relatives are actually TERRIFIED with the thought of Base Camping or Off the Grid camping. His wife actually cried when at my parents home in Independence, Missouri. Independence... was making her home sick to go back to crowded Valkenburg (Limburg). Boo hoo hoo... And they camp in Turkey to get away from northern Europe... because it was cheap.

If you cannot smell your good friends sitting next to you... I am afraid you may not make the cut. The most threatening smell in the forest is not a bear, deer, elk or moose... it is you the hairless Ape. I sometimes scare myself... but that is why we do it.

dix39 · 12-31-2015, 02:22 PM

You folks think a lot the same way we do. The photos are a lot like some of ours, and we have a lot of them. When I figure out how I'll post some. Some of the best memories are of that kind of camping, usually by ourselves in some out of the way place anywhere across the US. Our RVs, from the late 70s until the current "new to us" 26' Flair, have always been diesel 4WD trucks with 11.5' campers and for the last 15 or 20 years with a Samurai or more recently a Tracker in tow carrying 2 Honda CT 90s, one on each end. We also alternately towed around a 22' Reinell cabin boat or 14' Klamath aluminum fishing boat. Back in the 80s we spent several weeks "boondocking" around the San Juan Islands with the Reinell spending our nights tied up at the dock of one of the many smaller islands and some of the larger ones too. We ate a lot of fresh fish. Whatever time we've spent away from home has generally been spent "boondocking' in one form or another. IMHO, it's the best way.

Steve

1bigmess · 12-31-2015, 03:01 PM

You're pulling that heavy Airstream with a Toyota? Hey, you can't do that!

Ray Eklund · 12-31-2015, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1bigmess

You're pulling that heavy Airstream with a Toyota? Hey, you can't do that!

******

Only downhill to save fuel.

Ray Eklund · 12-31-2015, 04:41 PM

Dix39... Go Advanced and have the photo(s) you want to add on your desktop. If I can do it... you have to be able to do better!

dix39 · 12-31-2015, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray Eklund

Dix39... Go Advanced and have the photo(s) you want to add on your desktop. If I can do it... you have to be able to do better!

Thanks Ray, but I wouldn't bet on it. I will give it a try though.

Steve

mbridinger · 01-01-2016, 07:17 AM

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f38/boond...es-238892.html

Downwindtrac · 01-11-2016, 07:16 PM

If there is a base camp, there must be a spike camp. If you can get a some sort of camper there, it's not a spike camp, it's a base camp.

Scottybdivin · 01-17-2016, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Downwindtrac

If there is a base camp, there must be a spike camp. If you can get a some sort of camper there, it's not a spike camp, it's a base camp.

We used to fly to get to where we used spike camps. Now we drive the RV to use as a base camp to get to the spike camps.

1) Grand Canyon
2) Grand Canyon
3) Middle Fork Salmon River
4) Yampa River