The wife and I plan our yearly excursions and regardless of whether its to the Smoky Mtns, or the WS USA or even to the Rocky Mtns…we travel via motorhome and we CAMP.
Now it doesnt matter if you go via bicycle and stay in a tent; pickup truck and stay in a slide-in…or pull a trailer…its “camping”.
We got tired of over priced rooms; rooms that can be “suspect” in cleanliness at best!!!..and having to eat “store bought” chow.
Not counting the 850 lbs of drinking / service water I carry…we have the ability to haul 6000 pounds of JUNK…:mrgreen:…but who knows what 1 ( or the 2 of us) might need??
So who else enjoys the REAL “out of doors” besides us…because “standing in a stream” is just one part of “outside”.
Haven’t done it any other way for almost 30 years. Started with our first pickup camper in 1981. Now it’s a 32-foot trailer. Still visit some of the same places; added a lot more.
Back in the mid 70’s, I had a 28’ Teton trailer I pulled around with a GMC Jimmy (LOTS of load equalizing hitch! )
It became an obsession for my hunting buddies to try to find someplace I could not drag that trailer into. Naturally, on really cold nights, they were glad it was there, but they had fun with it none the less. I wound up welding 10,000 lb casters midway between the wheels and hitch and again on the very back of the frame just in front of the bumper. That cured the high centering problems. The last year I took it out, I had to use a come-along to winch trees to hold them back so I could turn one corner, but that was the worst of it. It sure was great to see the looks on their faces when they pulled into camp to find the trailer there and set up.
If I had something like Sully’s rig, my wife just might go “camping”.
I spent one miserable night in a tent last year and came away realizing I have gotten too old for that.
I keep thinking about motor homes, trailers and even used VW campers, but I just can’t get the math to work out right. I can’t get the costs to be paid out by motel and restaurant savings during the number of years I am likely to be “camping”.
My late wife and I made some 20 annual two-week trips to Wyoming and took everything we needed in either a station wagon or a SUV, and spent only the next to last night awqay from home in a motel for the benefit of a hot shower. The first and last nights were spent in a motel as we were, as Willie Nelson said, “On The Road Again”. Our 3-man dome tent paid for itself the first week we used it. And that little gal could set up, or break, camp as fast as I could. Those trips ended when I lost my companion of 39 years.
With 5 children and 6 weeks vacation how else would one travel. We have been in every state,Mexico and Canada. Wait --never wanted to go to one Hawaii. After I retired and the kids on their own wife and I decided to buy a truck with a fold down truck camper. This time I fished for 8 weeks thru the west and up into Alberta. Told her I was tired of fishing at the farthest point north and fished all the way home. Bill
I spend about 4 1/2 to 5 months/ year living out of my travel trailer in “Montahoming” chasing fish.
When I was young ( a long time ago ) I did LOTS of backpacking and looked down my nose at the lazy bastards in trailers and motor homes :-)… I still don’t quite think such luxury qualifies as “camping” but it is a far better, more in touch with the earth, way to travel for fishing than hotels and restaurants … IMHO
Hmmm?? Ive been chastised here on this BB for calling people a lot less than “lazy bastards”…which you imply everyone that has a trailer or a motorhome is one…???
My wife and I made a 2+ week excursion last summer through mainly SW Montana but also hit Eastern Oregon and Idaho. Hauled everything in the back of the pickup and pulled a drift boat.
Stayed 3 nights in a motel – one out of necessity due to big storm up on the Missouri that blew the shroud off our tent while we were out fishinng and everything inside got wet. We were feeling pretty good about the day until we got home that night and discovered we weren’t sleeping in wet bags.
So, loaded everything in the back of the pickup and all the wet stuff into the drift boat and headed for Helena. Stayed in a motel, hit the laundromat to dry and wash everything and then hit the road again.
All the other nights we camped in a tent.
We found that finding actual camping places - that had some amenities - was not a very easy thing to do. Most of the fish access sites do not have drinking water so you needed to plan ahead. Camping at fish access sites is fine as is camping in some of the RV type parks that allowed camping.
My wife and I generally tent it when on vacation combined with the occational motel night to get out of the weather/get off the ground/get a shower.
How someone chooses to camp seems a personal choice and I hesitate to press my own views on others.
That’s nice … I know you back packers are a hardy bunch, howsomever, you’ll note that in my first pix there was a canoe leaning up against a tree. Here’s another pix showing the little popup camper closed up and where the canoe rides. Now, I’d like to see just how far you can tote that canoe along with your backpacking.
An expert from my Bio page: “Love to camp, but not opposed to the services of a good valet.”
I’ve been CAMPING ( four season - two man tent. ) already this year, in January just below ( what was then ) the snow line in the central Sierra’s. Chilly nights, blistering cold runoff, but Mt. Biking into trout water where no one else is nuts enough to go to this time of year holds it’s own rewards. The visuals alone are worth the effort.
Have a tow-behind. I don’t fill the water until we get to a camping area. Nearly every camping area has at least a water spigot even if it doesn’t have “full hook ups”.
That would save a lot on fuel not pulling all that water around. But I understand having some in a motor home all the time.
