Truck Camping Photo Thread

It's really at the park/site admin level. Most try. But when you have new campers nearly every night, I think rangers just go insane saying the same things over and over and over.
We (I) do Preventive SAR here and in just a few hours I'm ready to lose my mind telling people 'the waters cold. It's deep. It's fast. It's strong enough to sweep an adult off their feet. Don't touch the deer. Quit feeding the squirrels. You're starting hiking a 10 mile trail at 5pm? In flip flops? And you don't have a flashlight or water?
The list goes on.
There's little peacefulness in a parks organized campground.

BUT! I will say there's a few TWers that I would love to camp and chat with if ever I had the chance!

 

The last 2 trips I had to clean other folk's site after they left ....

It's unbelievable how grown men/women (with kids) disregard common etiquette. Setting a bad example for their kids. Fkn useless human beings

 

It's a hard problem. You don't want required LNT/wilderness/camping training and you want all this to be completely accessible to everybody, but at the same time education can go a long way if done right.

It is a joy to see people experiencing the wilderness for the first time, and to help people struggling to come outside their comfort zone. But I cry some times when I find damage done from inexperience and lack of awareness.

 

I think people need a permit to go camping. I try to avoid developed sites, but with kids and needing to use our pop up with the heater, right now there isn't much choice.

Anyway one time I was camping in RMNP with some friends. I'm chilling in a hammock and the next thing I know I'm seeing a huge fireball go up in the air, then someone yelling and then running with an on-fire container of kerosene, dripping fire along after him as he ran.

I get up and grab my shovel to go help, and when I get over there they are pouring water on the kerosene fire, simply spreading it around. Then they are beating it with towels, the towels are soaking up kerosene and are now on fire and they are waving them in the air.

I just start shoveling dirt on it and put it all out. I really don't want to think about what would have happened if I had not been there. I wish we could have kicked them out.

The guys wife decided that to get the fire going again, she would pour kerosene directly on it from the big can....

Also, the same family their kids were bored, played the playstation in their Escalade and ran the battery down so I had to jump them to get them out of there.

 

What type of foam pad are you using in your set up?
full size or queen cut to fit by any chance?

 

I spend a few weeks each Summer as a "Wilderness Information Specialist" for the USFS in SW Colo. Although I'm primarily answering questions about climbing routes, hiking trails, and why my pack is so small. an inordinate amount of time is spent trying to get people to camp responsibly. Trash, campsites too close to water, almost on the trails, it never ends. Our wilderness here is the largest in the state, and its not permitted, so people aren't talking to a land manager or getting LNT info in advance. One of my daughters did a 4 day tour up high last Summer and she hadn't been there in many years. She was shocked at the numbers of people and their general ignorance, even though they'd made it 9 miles up the trail to camp between 11-12,000' under their own power.

 

With the boom in population and "adventure" culture, I see a lot of alpine wilderness areas being pretty well destroyed in the next 5 years unless we can find a way to teach and train new people. Really good on you for giving your time, this is something I need to find more ways of doing wherever I am.

 

If you're truly interested, all national parks have a VIP program (volunteers in parks). (And I'm sure most state parks have something comparable)

Drop in for a day, week, month...
SAR, PSAR, LE, Trails... they can all use your help!

 

I'm just happy to see others on here as interested in conservation as I am. I have often found the off-road or overland crowd to be lacking in that gene, but have always thought an overlander must be a conservationist first and foremost.

All overlanders are conservationists but not all conservationists are overlanders?

 

I dunno, the groups I travel with for off-roading are very conscious about it. Stay the trail is huge for us, even if it means hours of extra time digging through some snow vs. taking an illegal route...or simply turning around. We want to keep access to our trails open. I also enjoy target shooting and there are a few places that got closed because people just trashed them. Taking out TV's to shoot and leaving them there. Brass everywhere. It's super easy to collect your brass. Put down a big tarp, and when you're done, use it to funnel the brass into a container or trash bag. Might have to grab a few stragglers here and there but it takes no time at all.

 

Been to most of these, the whole area is amazing!
We're just across the Sierra from all this and spend every free moment on the eastern Sierra when we can get across Tioga Road.
Less crowded hot spring, Antelope. It's due east of Mammoth on a FS road past the chalk mine.
There's a small FS campground at Lake Sabrina, but worth the breakfast at the lodge on the lake in the morning!

 

it's a friend's. very cool, very jealousy inducing. mercedes sprinter 4x4 sportsmobile with kitchen, queen bed, pop top, duratracs. not much more needed, maybe could be smaller to fit in the tight trails

 

If you ever make it up to Yosemite, hit us up! (Husband is Ret LCDR and his best friend/Best Man at our wedding just retired as Capt.)

 

2nd weekend I had her, still had paper plates

 

LOL... If I had that set up I'd have to make sure I was the one who was well behaved, my wife has a set of keys!
Wouldn't want to see what happens if someone moves that truck fast, forward or backwards.

 

We both love our hammocks so much, this wasn't even a concern!

But it was fun to use non-traditional places to hang from.

 

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