The Zen of Boondocking Part XI – Additional public lands camping options

By Bob Difley Now that we’ve looked at the responsibilities of a boondocker toward his campsite, as stated in last weeks Part X, let’s look at some often missed public lands and their boondocking possibilities. And in previous posts in this series I wrote mostly about boondocking on the public lands managed by the BLM, that manages the most land, and the forest service also with a large amount of land available for boondocking. But there are other public lands that are also open for boondocking, though with varying restrictions from one to the other. NATIONAL GRASSLANDS (NG) The 20 National Grasslands administered by the Forest Service cover nearly four million acres of waving fields and rolling hills of prairie grasses in thirteen states, with more than 82% of the total land area in nine of the NG located in the Great Plains states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The largest is the sprawling one million plus acres of the Little Missouri NG in North Dakota and the smallest the 1,449-acre McClellan Creek in Texas. Camping and boondocking is limited on NG, though some do have primitive camping. If you are passing near a NG, check it out for recreational and camping possibilities. US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS (USACE) The Corps manages and conserve the land and waters of several water resource projects and provides public recreation opportunities in all states. Recreation at Corps locations can include fishing, boating and water sports, and camping... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking Part X – Campsite responsibilities

By Bob Difley In last week’s blog, Part IX How to find boondocking campsites, I offered some tips on how to find campsites on public lands. Once you find a suitable campsite, it becomes your responsibility to follow certain unwritten rules of boondocking. I’m sure you’ve seen some trashy campers in your travels, practicing behavior that gives a bad name to RVers, boondocking, and the RV lifestyle. Most rules are just plain commonsense, which you wonder sometimes whether that gene was left out of some people’s gene pool. But anyway, here they are, and feel free to add your own in the comments section. Pick a campsite away from others. Many boondockers value their solitude and privacy, and prefer not to have neighbors close enough to hear their generator, TV, and conversations, or to be lit up by unwanted porch lights. That is why they are not in campgrounds. Upon arrival, walk the site with a bag and pick up any man-made trash left behind by previous campers. It won’t take you long, will infuriate you, but will bring the point home–anything that will not burn to ashes, carry it out.  And it will make your campsite that much more enjoyable. Find ways to hang things other than driving nails into trees. There are plenty of ideas for clothes drying hangers or racks or poles that clamp onto your picnic table to hang a lamp. Slide in hooks for your awning rail can be used to hang lights, a bird feeder, trash bag, etc. Keep your campsite neat. Put... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking Part IX – How to find boondocking campsites

By Bob Difley Just knowing that you can legally boondock almost anywhere on public lands, such as those managed by the forest service and BLM, as I wrote in last week’s post, does not tell you exactly how to find these dispersed campsites (meaning not within the confines of an organized campground). You won’t find any signs saying “Campsite Here” or numbered posts designating campsites.  No hosts in golf carts will lead you to an open site. No, you have to find them for yourself. Since finding dispersed campsites is more difficult than finding campgrounds, it is one of the features that makes boondocking attractive–there won’t be a lot of RVers competing for the same campsite. First, become alert so that you notice when you enter public lands. You will recognize national forests or national recreation areas by their familiar brown signs (photo below).  Seldom, however, will signs identify BLM lands. Much of the  land in the Southwest used by snowbirds in winter is BLM land. Maps are available from visitor centers in states that contain public lands and on the Public Lands website where shaded areas define lands managed by the BLM, Bureau of Reclamation, National and State Forest Services, Fish and Wildlife Service, Indian Reservations, etc.  However, the BLM and some other agencies do not necessarily post signs so you can determine when you enter and leave. Sometimes the only way you can recognize  when you are on public land is the... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking Part VIII – Boondocking on public lands

Bob Difley Now that we’ve solved the problems of dumping, water, and electricity and you’ve had a few nights of tether-less camping at non-hookup campgrounds or at a Walmart, let’s tackle the essence of the heart of boondocking–camping out in the boonies. So just where can you camp legally outside of designated campgrounds? That’s the good part. There are millions of acres of public lands which are open to all forms of recreation, including camping and boondocking. Wikipedia defines and identifies public lands as, “The majority of public lands in the United States are held in trust for the American people by the federal government and managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the United States National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, or the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department of the Interior, or the United States Forest Service (FS) under the Department of Agriculture. Other federal agencies that manage public lands include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Department of Defense, which includes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” Most of these public lands are open for recreational use, though the type depends on the managing agency. On Forest Service and BLM lands restrictions are minimal (BLM alone manages 253 million acres–one-eighth of the country’s landmass, but most of it is in the eleven western states), though more controlled in national and state parks... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking Part VII – The yucky part of boondocking

By Bob Difley Though we dealt with water  in last week’s post we did not answer the question of what to do with waste water from the sinks and shower (the somewhat yucky part) or with black water  from the toilet (the really yucky part). So bear up and let’s face it now. The main difference between boondocking and hookups regarding waste tanks is the length of time the yucky stuff stays in the tanks. Hookups, very short. Boondocking, long. That means that when boondocking you should: Monitor the levels of each tank. Have an idea of the tank levels just to affirm that your gauges are correct. Determine how fast your tanks are filling and how much time you have left before you need to dump. Install a venturi-type roof vent (photo) to your black water tank to extract odors. No chemicals needed. Move to a dump station before your gray tank bubbles up into your shower. Use conservation habits to empty as little into your holding tanks as possible. Dump your tanks into a portable holding tank (sometimes called a Blue Boy – see photo) and transport it to a dump station rather than moving your whole rig. If you are in a no-hook-up campground with a dump station, you can tow the Blue Boy for short distances. The difficulty is loading  a full tank into the bed of your pick-up or the trunk of your dingy. The other trick for extending your boondocking days between runs to the dump station requires new ways to deal with water usage. The black water tank will not likely... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking Part VI: Water

By Bob Difley We finished with electricity in last week’s blog and now move on to potable (drinking) water, a natural resource that will limit your consecutive boondocking days unless you are Moses and can strike a stone with a rod and water gushes forth. If you run out of water you can’t make coffee, spaghetti, or jello,  brush your teeth, flush your toilet, wash and rinse dishes, shower,  or have a nice cold glass of it. In fact, you are probably so used to just turning the spigot that until nothing but a drop or two dribbles out do you realize how thirsty you are. That’s why boondockers have to plan, curbing the natural instinct (and wasteful habit) of unconsciously turning on the spigot without thought. It’s the same as flicking on the light switch and not considering the amps fleeing your batteries. You don’t have to be paranoid about it, but if you adopt the habit of thinking about the consequences of  your actions, it becomes much easier–almost second nature–to mentally monitor your resources. And, of course, there’s your water level gauge for you techies. There are basically two rules for managing your drinking water: carry more, use less. Carrying more is the easy part. There are a variety of ways to carry additional water and can be loaded into your tow or toad for a water run without having to move your rig: One gallon plastic jugs – cheap, disposable or refillable, stow several in nooks and crannies 2 1/2 gallon... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking – Part V: Upgrading your electrical system

By Bob Difley Last week in Part IV we looked at ways to conserve electricity by limiting our actual usage. Today, we will flip in the other direction and look at ways to increase the available electricity and add alternative sources of power. Lower wattage and Energy Star appliances will take less energy to run, pull fewer amps from your batteries, and run more efficiently–in other words, they’re greener than your older appliances. However, it is not practical or economical to tear out your old installed appliances and replace with Energy Star (until they need replacement), but you can check before you buy a new RV whether the appliances already installed are in compliance. You can also vastly improve your electrical system–actually more than doubling your storage capacity–by installing additional or different batteries. Here you have choices. Buy an additional deep cycle flooded lead acid RV battery like the one your rig came with, only don’t add a new battery into a system with older batteries or the older battery will draw energy from the new one. A newer type battery option is the absorbed gas mat (AGM) type, which has no liquid in the cells that must be monitored or refilled. Or you could install two or four 6-volt golf cart batteries. To help you decide as well as learn more than you probably ever wanted to know about batteries go to this text of a presentation by Greg Holder, owner of AMSolar. I use four Trojan T-105 6-volt golf cart batteries,... Read more

What’s in your toolkit?

By Bob Difley From many years of RVing I have discovered that if you don’t follow the rule “if you bring something aboard, something has to leave” then soonor later you will either be way overloaded or will be looking for a new –and larger–rig. Your RV, if you hadn’t noticed lately, is limited in carrying and storage capacity. You have to make decisions of what you will carry and what you will eliminate when something new comes aboard. And when you will get rid of something if you haven’t used it in a while–like a year or more. Which brings me to my “things that I have had for more than a year but which will NOT go” list. I know that someday I will need these “things” when boondocking, which will justify the time I have carried them, mostly unused, hidden deep in a locker somewhere. Folding shovel. Folds into a compact shape. Can also be used as a hammer, pick, scoop, scraper, and along with a bucket often required by the forest service (FS) during dry seasons if you are boondocking and plan to build a campfire. Available at my Amazon aStore and at outdoor and Army surplus stores. Bucket, plastic or canvas collapsible. Also required by FS (see above), for putting out campfires. Myriad other uses: carrying water, collecting kindling, as a step stool (not canvas one), emptying a bucket of gray water–never black water–to dump on a thirsty plant when you accidentally fill your holding tank and are... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking II: Boondocking vs. dry-camping

By Bob Difley The activity we RVers refer to as boondocking is made pleasurable by a combination of learned skills, adjusted or changed habits, a desire to stay out in the wilderness as long as comfortably possible, and a curiosity about out-of-the-way places, nature, wildlife, and what is around the next bend. But not all boondockers match this profile. Some of the differences can be attributed to the semantics of the words “boondocking” and “dry-camping.” They are the same in that both refer to camping without any hook-ups–water, electricity, or sewage. With even one of these appendages, we would have partial hook-ups. But the difference is in where we do it. Dry-camping can be at an RV rally, Wal-mart parking lot, highway rest stop, or a primitive campground where there are no hook-ups. True boondocking is camping away from civilization, out in the boonies, where no camping amenities exist. The word “boondock” comes from the Tagalog “bundok” meaning “mountain.” Answers.com gives the definition “rural country; the backwoods” while MSN Encarta also includes “place remote from civilization.” A reader suggests that the word boondocking has become synonymous with dry-camping and there should be a new term “wilderness camping” for camping in the boonies. Whatever you want to call camping without hookups, where you do it and why is the driving force for practicing boondocking skills. For instance if your style... Read more

ANSWERS TO YOUR QUARTZSITE QUESTIONS

 By Barry & Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers  We’re packing up this morning, but before we head out of Quartzsite to get on the road again, there are some questions posed in last night’s  comments section that I’ll try to answer: “To be happy you must be free; to be free you must be brave.”  This seems like an appropriate occasion to repeat that Norse adage. Some of you are taking this place too seriously.  You can make reservations and you can research everything there is to know about the area and local events, or you can do it like we did.  You drive anywhere within five miles of town, look around, find a place near other RVs parked in the desert and turn off the engine. Your neighbors, who were once as timid as you about the RV experience, will tell you more than you need to know.  It’s that simple. Now, in answer to Chestnuts, the best way to find information about the place, other than putting in “Quartzsite” in your Internet browser, is to call or visit the Chamber of Commerce.  And don’t worry about our landlords, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  They aren’t going to tell you anything that your neighbors can’t. To Drew, who is apprehensive, I refer you to Paragraph 2 above (the one with the italics).  As commenter Thomas said, “It’s truly an experience that should not be missed.”  As for the honey wagon, the service that visits campgrounds to drain the tanks, we’ve heard that it has been available in past years but... Read more

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