Motocamping | GTAMotorcycle.com

Motocamping

pianodude

Well-known member
Really sick of hotels and am planning some long trips this summer. California from Hamilton is just one. What concerns me is that most camping websites say reservations are STRONGLY recommended. I really do not want to reserve ahead of time as I will have no specific agenda. Just pull over around 5pm as is my habit wherever I am. Will i be out of luck finding a campground? Cheers
 
All depends on the campground and time of year. In the best weather months, nice parks are busy. In the autumn, I have planned entire trips around free campgrounds and there are some good ones in the US - easily as good as our provincial parks.

I would suggest that around lunch time, you have an idea of where you are going to be for the night and have a website or app on your phone/tablet that can let you know where the spots are for any region of the US. To try and find a good campground at 5pm, might be cutting it a little close.

This website has most of the public campgrounds in the US: http://www.uscampgrounds.info/

This website has a ton of private campgrounds in the US: http://www.epgsoft.com/CampgroundMap/

You might find some useful tips here: http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/budget-travel-the-jamie-z-way.315322/
 
Do you need to be in a campground? I would just throw a tarp over the bike and sleep beside it on the ground. Park the bike in a driveway/scrapyard/pier/rural road/parking lot/any other location where you are away from traffic. I normally stop around after 2200 and try to be on the road again before 0600 and I've never had a problem.
 
I did this with a car. Slept in my car in Iowa. Second night at the front gate of rocky Mountain Colorado, (A MUST VISIT). I remember ppl were scrambling to secure a spot at this place, and I was lucky enough to get a spot so if you're arriving at 5, I doubt it.

You really have to spend a day at this campsite though, It was 20$ for the night. I spent the entire day driving the entire park with more twisties than I've ever seen. Animals everywhere!

Joshua tree closer to Nevada.

Then yosemite. I was unable to get any spots here, so I had to rent a cabin for the nights I stayed also a must visit. Huge park! Very busy.

Mg gf got me this book b4 I left, called Discover usa's national parks by the lonely Planet company. And that's all I needed. I did no prior research. Just got the book and was on my way and it was perfect. Highly recommend.
 
US National parks also provide a yearly membership which is good for entry, but not for sleeping the night if u wanna check a couple of them out without staying it might be worth it. Like 80-100$
 
Between State Parks, National Parks and private campgrounds, it's usually pretty easy to find camping in the US.

Without reservations it's a good idea to aim to be in an area where you can look for camping by about 4 pm. This doesn't mean that you stop riding at 4 pm, because depending on where you are, by 4 pm you may still have a couple of hours of riding to get to the camping, or to check out a couple of different spots. Usually I would aim for a McDonald's in the afternoon at some point to use their wifi to check out google maps for camping ideas. Just remember that if you're solo, making camp and breaking camp both take about an hour each for a fairly simple setup, start to finish. Setting up camp can be more simple if all you're doing is throwing a tent down, but in my experience it's never that simple, and setting up / breaking camp in either the dark or the rain sucks.

I've camped for some of the trip on several long trips, and to be honest, I have found that solo camping really isn't for me. The tent fly is almost always wet in the am, the gear takes up a ton of space and the shower facilities can be hit or miss (though sometimes it's been great). Bottom line is that camping can save money (if you already have the gear) but it really does cut into the miles you can do in a day.
 
Do you need to be in a campground? I would just throw a tarp over the bike and sleep beside it on the ground. Park the bike in a driveway/scrapyard/pier/rural road/parking lot/any other location where you are away from traffic. I normally stop around after 2200 and try to be on the road again before 0600 and I've never had a problem.

Sure you can do that, but not everyone is interested in roughing it that way. Camp sites can be very cheap and you can get nice facilities that go with it i.e. bathrooms and showers. I feel much better on a long day starting it out with a nice shower and not needing to find the nearest fast-food joint to use the bathrooms.
 
All depends on the campground and time of year. In the best weather months, nice parks are busy. In the autumn, I have planned entire trips around free campgrounds and there are some good ones in the US - easily as good as our provincial parks.

I would suggest that around lunch time, you have an idea of where you are going to be for the night and have a website or app on your phone/tablet that can let you know where the spots are for any region of the US. To try and find a good campground at 5pm, might be cutting it a little close.

This! Riding around in the mountains in the dark and not finding a campsite is not a fun experience - especially for a solo rider. I personally do not feel safe doing "stealth" camping - both for financial security and personal safety reasons. I have never had anything stolen from a campground - I have actually had items lifted off my bike outside a motel room - go figure.
 
subscribed.

I REALLY wanna go moto camping for a weekend or two this summer, BUT the only gear I have is a duffel bag, back-pack and a small tent. I have no motorcycle camp/equipment gear (yet). Will soft saddle bags do the trick, or are hard cases a necessity?
 
Have always just rode till dinner time and than started looking for a camp site. Almost always found a campground with space. Shortest bike trip was a week and longest was a month.

Tent, sleeping bag, Thermarest wrapped in ground sheet and strapped on passanger seat. Clothes and snacks/cereal in saddle bags. I don't bother with a stove and extra dishes, etc.(just bowl and spoon for cereal) anymore. Other stuff like docs, camera and extra $, etc. in tank bag.
 
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I'm not a camper, but I like the concept of stealth camping.

I'm looking forward to doing some of that this summer with my new hammock that is on the way.

No food, no camp fire, nothing... pull into the woods at dusk, string up the hammock, at first light pack up and roll on -- just like when I was 17 and hitch-hiked up to the Yukon and back.
 
I'm looking forward to doing some of that this summer with my new hammock that is on the way.

No food, no camp fire, nothing... pull into the woods at dusk, string up the hammock, at first light pack up and roll on -- just like when I was 17 and hitch-hiked up to the Yukon and back.

Did 2 stealth camps this past summer. Was nice, but man the mosquitos were just such a PITA, no fire made me slightly miserable as well-- and the boring stretches to and from the city wore me out quick.

I'm upgrading to a hitch carrier and doing the major slabbing in an suv, setting up a "base camp", camping in the back of said SUV, and riding the EXCELLENT stuff. I have visions of setting up on a beach somewhere remote, but this isn't South America...
 
A friend directed me to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) in Burlington. Buying some gear with each pay. So far I have:
Helinox Cot One... $375
Elixir two man tent... $290
Pocket Rocket Stove... $50
Mat for the cot... $90
Still need a sleeping bag and other small items. The cot with the mat is very comfy. Set the tent and cot up in the basement and slept in it a few nights. Felt like I was 10 years old again and in my "fort". Blew almost $3000 in hotels last summer. Wouldn't have minded so much, but as a former commercial pilot, I really have had my share of hotels both good and bad. Cheers
 
I like to be very comfy when I camp. I am good for 3 days before I need a store. Tent, air matt, sleep bag, pillow, tarp, cooler, stove, dishes, food, clothes, camp chairs (2), even take a small table-top BBQ.
I have one of these. It all fits.
http://thirdwheeltrailers.com/
 
We used to travel a lot with our 5th wheel, have crisscrossed both Canada and the USA several times.

Reservations for weekends are indeed recommended as all the happy campers will be out in full force and campgrounds fill up fast. In popular tourist areas (think Banff, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, that sort of thing) if you don't make reservations weeks, sometimes months ahead, forget about it...even on weekdays.

But, being on a bike, you have some flexibility - if you find a campground full don't be afraid to ask for an overflow campsite, or even a glorified grass patch somewhere - without a fullsized vehicle and no RV they may find a spot you can crash in, trust me. You get more flies with honey vs vinegar though, remember. ;)

As for winging it, use your head - choose wisely and chances are nobody will bother you.....so, camping in a public park in Downtown Detroit=bad, camping in an out of the way spot in a state forest = good. Yes, you won't have bathrooms and showers in the morning, but that's easily enough dealt with - truckstops are a ready made option where you can park safely and shower up before or after breakfast, and most campgrounds also offer day use rates will give you access to the facilities as well, but I'd favor state/federal parks over private parks in that situation as the day use rates are usually less - some private parks are nothing but cash cows and even a request to just come in and use their facilities or just empty holding tanks and pickup some fresh water apparently warranted a $20-$30 charge we often discovered. State parks, usually around $5, and although they might not technically include access to the camping areas where you'll find the showers, nobody is going to bother you for going there and using them.

It all depends on how creative you are. We camped in MANY non traditional areas over the years, although we had the benefit of 4 hard walls and a locking door, so I'd be more careful when tenting, but I'd still do it in a heartbeat.
 
I'm looking forward to doing some of that this summer with my new hammock that is on the way.

No food, no camp fire, nothing... pull into the woods at dusk, string up the hammock, at first light pack up and roll on -- just like when I was 17 and hitch-hiked up to the Yukon and back.
Nice. Which model/brand did you go with? I'm looking at the expedition asym zip from Hennessey. With the price I'm tempted to buy a $10 cotton hammock and string a crappy tire tarp over it.

Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk
 
Nice. Which model/brand did you go with? I'm looking at the expedition asym zip from Hennessey. With the price I'm tempted to buy a $10 cotton hammock and string a crappy tire tarp over it.

Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

I got the expedition classic... if you hurry, hennessy has a 'holiday special' that they are still honoring where they throw in a free kid's hammock. That sealed the deal for me as its specs are good enough to work for my small wife... or if she doesn't use it I could use it as a gear sling.

There are cheap hammocks on Amazon... saw one as low as $25... but once you add a bug net, a rain fly, straps, snake skins if you want them, and you are soon well over $100 for likely a piece of crap. I am getting two decent hennessys for $200 plus tax, free shipping, with all the bits needed.
 
A friend directed me to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) in Burlington. Buying some gear with each pay....

Still need a sleeping bag and other small items. ... Blew almost $3000 in hotels last summer. Wouldn't have minded so much, but as a former commercial pilot, I really have had my share of hotels both good and bad. Cheers
I was about to buy all my gear from MEC then was told about LeBaron for great brand name products for less than MEC. I ended up buying my tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad from Lebaron, and with the money I saved, I had enough left over for everything else I needed including stove, pillows. and more, which I bought from MEC because I wanted some specific items.

The other day, I just bought two sleeping bags from LeBaron for under $200 all in. They were made by Hotcore which I think are Canadian made and supposed to be pretty good, rated down to around -10deg, mate together for me and the wife and pack up really small in their own stuff/compression sack..

http://www.lebaron.ca/header/annual_store_locations_en.html
 

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