Tips and rules for desert boondocking

If you follow the rest of the snowbirds to the southwestern deserts in winter, you will find that most of them stay in he same RV resort or campground for the entire season. A small number of RVers decide to so some boondocking in the open desert to really experience the desert in its wildness and beauty.

As you roam around and talk to other boondockers you will find more desert boondocking locations than you ever imagined. Many are just places where an RVer has pulled off onto an unnamed, unpaved desert track and found a nice spot behind a hill, overlooking a wash, or hidden in a grove of desert willow or mesquite trees.

Others become popular simply because one boondocker spots another and decides to join and soon there are half a dozen RVers, though they space themselves apart from each other, but still enjoying the proximity of other boondockers. Iff you would like to try this open desert camping, here are some of the basic rules and tips you need to know.

* The BLM allows free camping for up to 14 consecutive days out of every 28 days on open land.
* After 14 days, you must move at least 25 miles away from your current location and cannot return for another 14 days.
* Camping is legal except where specifically prohibited by signs or fences.
* No camping within 300 feet of a man-made watering hole or tank to allow wildlife access.
* Use existing routes and trails.
* Camp at previously used sites.
* When there is no danger of rain or flash flooding, camp in washes where signs of camping will wash away.
* Pack It In, Pack It Out: Pack out your trash and any that was left by others.
* Leave What You Find: Protect cultural resources by leaving all artifacts as you find them.
* Leave natural objects and avoid damaging vegetation. Pick a spot that has been camped in before.

Learn more about desert camping with my new eBook, Snowbird Guide to Camping and Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts.

Boondocking survey

I have been a fulltimer and boondocker for seventeen years. During that time, boondocking methods and what information RVers want to know has changed and evolved. In looking ahead through 2010, the topics and information that will be written about in RV Boondocking News should represent what you, the boondocker or soon to become boondocker, wants to read about and learn.

That is the purpose of a survey in RVtravel.com and featured in the newsletter, to determine what you want to read. Please take a minute--it won't take any longer--to indicate your preferences to this survey question and to offer your comments and suggestions. The results will provide direction for the year, help to build an information resource for boondockers, and hopefully be an enjoyable read that you will come back to often. Thanks.

Take the 10-second survey here.

Find free enroute campsites

Save your hard-earned dollars on commercial campgrounds while you are on the road, when you would just like a place to sleep safely and quietly overnight before continuing on your way in the early morning.

But if you want to be in a more natural, scenic, and quieter environment than a Walmart parking lot or freeway rest stop, you can spend the night in a scenic quiet primitive campsite on these one-night stops if you do some pre-planning--and are willing to spend a little extra time finding one.

You will have to ignore your GPS system initially, and dig out the old paper map. To do this effectively you will have to obtain the right kind of map, one that shows the public land areas by shading or outlines, which you will have to get from a visitor center or by writing to the state tourist bureau (this is part of the pre-planning).

Plan your route to your destination on two-lane roads that pass through or by one of the following public land masses:

• Bureau of land Management (BLM) land
• National Forest Service (FS) land
• State Forest land
  
• Indian Reservations
• U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) managed properties
• Regional or local parks
• National monuments
  
• US Fish & Wildlife Service managed land
• Local fish and game and fishing access points

You will find the most opportunities on BLM or FS land, but also keep your eye open when near any of the others which, though maybe not free, will cost less than a private campground. You can camp on public lands anywhere where not specifically forbidden or fenced off, which means that if you see a dirt or gravel road--that is a potential location for dispersed camping.

Pull off to the side of the road and walk in--you probably need to stretch your legs, anyway--and often you can find a good, usable campsite within a few hundred yards of the road.

Be sure to record it in your campground guide or on your GPS so you can find it the next time through. Private, quiet, and within easy access to your route. You might even get settled in your camp chair in less time than it would take you to register at a regular campground. And the best part--it's free.

Explore the multi-colored cliffs of Red Rock Canyon

As the winter snowbird season looks ahead to Groundhog Day and an early Spring, will you be heading back north from the desert to your home in the northern states? If so, do the following questions apply to your return home?

1. When I’m heading home I drive long days until I get there.
2. I never get distracted or stop to explore places I pass through on the way home.
3. When on the road I stop overnight at the campground or Walmart that is closest to the freeway so I can get going fast in the morning.

If this sounds like your travel agenda, may I suggest that this year you slow down, relax to the notion that you are going to spend several days on the road exploring some places that were just too far from your winter destination for day trips or that you ordinarily drive right by. You will still get home in time to see the trees bud, the wildflowers bloom, and to get in your spring planting.

For example, before you leave the desert and cross back over 3,793-foot Tehachapi Pass, take a right (north) on CA14 in the desert town of Mojave for 40 miles to Red Rock Canyon State Park. Here you can camp beneath towering sandstone cliffs, on the crossroads of a Native American trade route thousands of years old, and by buttes and cliffs with colorful white, red, pink, and brown layers (some of Jurassic Park was shot here).

The cliffs are riddled with fun-to-explore vertical slot canyons where Coopers hawks and other raptors nest. Hike to the top for a magnificent viewpoint of the surrounding Mojave Desert, where along the way you will find evidence of the abundance of desert wildlife, tracks of kangaroo rats and coyotes in the sand, steely eyes of Chuckwallas, Western whiptail, and horned lizards watch as you pass, and raptors circle overhead in the never ending search for food.

On one such visit, I stepped from my motorhome to see a drama unfold between a cottontail and a coyote. The wily predator had his eyes glued to the fluffy cute prey and was slowly stalking toward it. The cottontail caught sight of some movement and took off--straight toward me. Seems I was between him and his burrow. he darted right by me, not two feet away with the coyote in hot pursuit--until the coyote caught sight of me, whereupon he applied the brakes in a cloud of dust, and dejectedly lopped off and out of sight, with a final glare at me as he disappeared into the brush.

Close by you can make a side trip to Burro Schmidt's 2,087-foot tunnel. With no way to get his gold to the rail head on the other side of the mountain, Schmidt dug using only hand tools through the solid rock of Copper Mountain to reach the other side. Legend says his gold stash is still buried.

Prepare to boondock at Red Rock, even though there is a campground, there are no hookups and no dump station.

Learn about Bob Difley's eBooks on desert camping and boondocking at RVbookstore.com

Compact portable heater doubles as stove in emergencies

When a heater or stove fails, life on a boat, in an RV, or at home when a winter storm knocks our your power, can get mighty uncomfortable. The HeatMate™ 5200 Portable Alcohol Heater from Contoure International provides a safe source of warmth that doubles as a stove. Conture also manufactures space saving products bot boat and RVs like cook tops, microwaves, and 12-volt LED lights.

As an addition to your emergency supplies, the HeatMate produces 5200 BTU of heat. When the lid of the compact and efficient heater is removed, HeatMate transforms into a cook top that is capable of boiling a quart of water in just nine minutes.

The non-pressurized canister system contains a nonflammable wick material that absorbs approximately 1-1/4 qts. of environmentally-friendly alcohol fuel. Even if turned completely upside down, its unique design prevents fuel from leaking.

Extremely reliable, the HeatMate canister system eliminates the hoses and valves of pressurized systems, as well as the tiresome pumping, priming and pre-heating. Alcohol fuel is easily extinguished with water.

Made of aluminum, the compact HeatMate measures just 11-3/4" H x 11-1/2" W, comes with a carrying strap, and weighs just 5 lbs. 3 oz. The suggested retail price of the HeatMate Heater is $169.95. It is available at Amazon.com.

Lost, have a breakdown, Spot will find you

Nature, solitude, and fresh air, a top priority for boondockers and hikers. Now you can add “peace of mind” to that list without sacrificing your boondocking experience.

When you find yourself hiding away out of cell phone reach, Spot, a personal satellite messaging and emergency communications GPS unit weighing only 5.2 ounces, lets you assure folks at home that you’re OK as often as you like with a “check in” message. Friends can even track your progress, viewing your exact latitude and longitude on Google Maps in real time--if you care to reveal your secret boondocking location.

Most importantly, if you have an emergency you can send a 911 signal for immediate medical help or evacuation. But even if you just need a hand, there’s a “ask for help” signal that alerts designated friends or family that you need some help.

SPOT provides live feed updates of Google Maps™ so you can save your route between boondocking sites with a seamless breadcrumb trail of waypoints. Send a message to your family when you stop to camp for the night. SPOT can even alert national roadside assistance to your location when you need it.

For hikers, there is a trail and a new experience around every bend. With the push of a button, SPOT’s “check-in” function sends a message with your exact coordinates back to the rest of your camping crew. Or you could ask your fellow campers to meet you with a cold beer--and a foot massage--upon your return with the “Ask for help” button. The product is available at Amazon.com.

How to maintain a safe onboard water supply

There are two kinds of RVers, those that drink raw water right out of the tap and those that don't. If you are one that doesn't, you don’t have to concern yourself with water borne illnesses, Of course, depending on what you do drink—wine, beer, tea, or coffee--you may be confronted with other issues.

For those of us that do drink water, and spend a lot of time on the road and in questionable locations, the following measures have kept me and my wife free of typhoid, diarrhea, pathogenic microorganisms, intestinal parasites, and as explorer Owen Lattimore noted while traversing the Silk Road in camel caravans, “Water alone, unboiled, is never drunk. There is a superstition that it causes blisters on the feet."

• Fill your water tank only from water supplies that are confirmed potable sources, such as municipal, campground, and tested well water sources.
• Every six months sanitize your tank by pouring in one-quarter cup of bleach for every 15 gallons of water in a full tank. Let stand overnight. Drain, fill, and rinse at least twice, or until chlorine odor is gone. Better yet, fill with water and bleach when leaving campground and let it slosh around in the tank as head home.
• Keep the ends of your water hose out of the dirt and off the ground when filling your tank.
• Attach the ends together after voiding it of all remaining water and store in a plastic or cloth bag.
• When possible, use your own water hose to fill your tank. You don’t know how previous RVers have handled the supplied hose.
• Do not fill your water tank from the water supplied at a dump station for rinsing down, unless you are sure it is a safe water supply and you use your own hose.
• Wash your hands after using a dump station before using the water hose to fill your fresh water tank.
• Filter the water coming out of your kitchen faucet either with an under-sink inline filter (such as an Everpure), attach a water filter (i.e.Brita) to your kitchen faucet, or keep a Brita-type pitcher of water with built in filter in your frig. These filters will also remove grit and bad tastes like you get from some desert water supplies.
• If you use the pitcher, remember to use the filtered water for washing veggies, making coffee, tea, cold drinks, or ice cubes, and if you’re slightly nervous about your current water tank supply, for brushing teeth as well.

Learn more about boondocking with my new eBook, BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands.

Beat high fuel costs with wood-burning rig

Here is an old idea that at first glance seems like a viable solution to high fuel prices: A fuel system that burns just about anything except rocks, glass, and broken cement. The fuel of preference for this type vehicle is wood and wood scraps, or cellulose.

You could also burn easily obtainable wood for your other power needs while boondocking out in the national forests.

During WWII wood burning vehicles were commonplace. These cars worked by gasifying wood and burning that directly (see photo of wood burning vehicles, courtesy Low-tech Magazine). Today we call this type of fuel “biofuel.” The process converts “biomass” into biodiesel. Burning wood or scraps also is thought by some to be carbon neutral.

Joost Conjin, who not only built a car out of wood, but toured Europe and made a movie about his trip, says, "You can go around the world with a saw and an axe."

However, when studying this fuel application, it becomes apparent that if the idea caught on we would soon deforest the planet, and carting around the fuel converter (like the modern version in the bed of a pick-up truck) would soon become as unwieldy as cooking inside your rig with a woodstove.

Though on the plus side, since it would take about ten minutes to preheat your rig to drive, chances are you would take your bike instead. And if you had to cut wood for three hours a day to make a trip, think of what good shape you would get yourself in.

National Forest campsite fees rise in Oregon

Camping fees have been increased in Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest campsites in the High Cascades and Gold Beach ranger districts to help pay for maintenance and improvements, officials said.

Camping fees, which had ranged from $5 to $10 per night at each site, have been increased to a range of $8 to $15 per night, according to forest spokesman Paul Galloway.


"We needed to increase the fees to be able to do some backlog maintenance at these sites and make them sustainable into the future," he said.

Many of the forest's developed recreation sites are 30 to 50 years old, he said, and most have received little in the way of basic maintenance or improvements over the years.

The new fee structure, which went into effect on Friday, is one of the results of a 2008 recreation facility analysis of more than 200 developed recreation sites in the forest.

"These were locations we identified during the analysis," he said of the sites selected for increases.

Ninety-five percent of the funds collected from the recreation fee sites will remain in the forest to help fund needed improvements, he added.

Roseburg, Oregon BLM District seeks campground hosts

The Roseburg District of the Bureau of Land Management is seeking campground hosts for the 2010 camping season.

There are currently host openings at Susan Creek Campground, Scaredman Campground and for roving hosts.

Roving hosts fill in as needed in all eight campgrounds and will have a varied work schedule. Susan Creek and Scaredman hosts will work a regular schedule and are asked to attend host training in early April.

Susan Creek is open April 16 through Oct. 25 and Scaredman is open from about mid-May through late-September, weather permitting.

Hosts receive a site with full hook-ups and a small subsistence payment in return for their work in the campground.

Duties include cleaning restrooms and showers, greeting visitors and answering questions, cleaning campsites and fire rings and stocking brochure racks.

Information: 440-4930.

Forest service to reduce senior discounts

The combination of a suddenly coming of age baby boomer population coupled with the current fiscal climate is resulting in lots of people retiring.

This is alarming the U.S. Forest Service (FS), that says too many people are getting old all at once, and soon too many will be taking advantage of big discounts offered to senior citizens to camp in national forests.

Consequently, the service is proposing to slash the existing discount of 50 percent for those with with the Federal Senior Pass to 10 percent.

The FS posted its proposal in the Federal Register in December and the public has until Feb. 1, 2010, to comment on it. John Heil, a regional spokesman for the service in San Francisco, said the agency hasn't set a date to put the plan into effect.

If this change takes effect, those that use FS campsites can expect to see their camping budget take a big hit. And you can expect that concessionaires, that operate about half of all the national forest campgrounds and over 80% of reservable campsites will be rallying for the change. According to the service, discounts cost concessioners $4 million in 2007 and will cost $6 million by 2022.

In the year 2000, 7 percent of campers were receiving senior discounts, according to the Federal Register notice. By 2007, that percentage had grown to 11 percent. The FS says discounts will grow to 17 percent of the total by 2022.

According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, the proportion of U.S. residents 62 years old and older will surge 50 percent from 47 million in 2008 to 70.7 million in 2022, with seniors' representing from 15 percent to nearly 21 percent of the population.

You can comment at www.regulations.gov.

$100 fine for sleeping in your RV in Boulder

In Boulder, Colorado, you can be fined $100 for sleeping in your RV. The ordnance, passed in 1980 and listed under miscellaneous offenses, states that no person shall camp within a park, recreation area, open space, or other property without permission. In 2009 353 tickets were issued for camping without a permit.

A homeless woman is bringing this ordnance up for debate at this Tuesday's city council meeting (4 - 6 PM, Boulder Municipal Building, 1777 Broadway) where she plans a rally urging the council to decriminalize sleeping in public parks or other places.

The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder is supporting the effort.
"Sleeping is a human need," said Carolyn Bninski, a member of the center. "If you don't have a place to live, you need to sleep outside."

This is an issue that could affect boondockers, since the definition of camping is not defined and is at the whim of the police. If a homeless person sleeping in a park can be defined as camping, then certainly a person sleeping in an RV anywhere within Boulder city limits could be considering camping.

This practice could set a precedent for boondockers, since to some police they may appear as well-off travelers that could be readily tapped for a hundred bucks to help pay the city's bills. Could they start ticketing RVers that spend the night in the local Wal Mart or K-Mart parking lot? That could make an enroute overnight stay in Boulder--and anywhere else where this idea conjures dollar signs in the eyes of city officials--an expensive way to spend the night.