Traveling, Exploring, Boondocking During COVID19

FE

Fernweh

Advanced Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2016
Messages
92
Location
Madison, Wisconsin
What are folks planning for summer travel? Will you be staying close to home? Will you try to travel across country and see the classic sights?

Im planning a few trips here in the midwest. Would love to head west to the mountains of the coast. What's practical, safe and ethical during COVID?
 
Previous discussions -

Go Camping Under Stay at Home Order?

Health Scare and Trip Planning

Things are certainly in flux now with campgrounds beginning to open and an eagerness to bring business back......................now with this spike in cases some states are requiring quarantine for out of state visitors.

What to do is a difficult decision. Take a look at the - John Hopkins US Map -
and look at the rural counties you might be traveling through. When the data is presented in number of cases per 100,000 populations, it can be pretty staggering to see.

Lots of people are out and about, I sincerely hope being safe and following all the safety protocols. There are also a lot of very careless people out there, for whatever the reason. As soon as some restrictions were lifted, it appears the general feeling was the whole pandemic was over, at least by what I've personally seen around here.

Check what states and counties are requiring on their websites.

Also, be aware that many Indian Reservations I've seen have signs up prohibiting any visitors.

It will be a tough personal decision for each of us.
 
Thanks for the links back to folks initial conversations regarding travel. Things are unusual to say the least. We are going to take our time and see what makes the most sense. CDC guidelines seem minimal at best with new outbreaks popping up. We'd be looking for remote places and keep our interactions to a minimum.

I'll keep watching for more posts and get a handle what to do next.
 
My take on life as it is now, and in the future.
I have been part of this forum since i think since 2007.
For myself and my wife we consider it as a online social club and never planed on meeting in person
fellow members.
The whole idea of wander the west is to explore and share experience's learned from such trips.
We have always traveled and explored by ourselves since we never plan on how long or where we go.
So knowing this i feel that letting the media, internet, politicians control our life is giving up, which we
are not going to do.
Once we understood how the now and future is to be we have continued our normal routine.
They say cut out travel, we do not travel (planes, cruise ships, groups, trains ) which to me means
dealing with crowds, people, restaurants, hotels, etc.
when we leave on our trips (average 5-12 days once a month) we are stocked up with all needed
supplies the only social contact we have is at gas fill up time, if you want to call that social contact
its ok.
Except for a couple of months in the summer all of our trips are desert trips mostly remote sites
that we have stockpiled over the years ,yes some have been found by others so we delete these from our
list and seem to be able to find new sites with no problems.
Even in the summer when we do go to the mountains there is no problems as most of you know to find
remote under used sites to spend time and yes if other people show up we do not complain we just load up
and find another spot.

I know our attitude sounds self serving and it might be but it does not infringe on your rights
which is important to us.

Just my thoughts on life as it is now, yours may differ!

Les,lqhikers
 
Thanks Les for your insight. Glad it works for you.You are conscious
of others and your/their health.
Seems like a lot of people don't share that way of life,and it's all about them.

Ski thanks for the info.
Safe travels to all.
Frank
 
Expanding on my earlier post i would like to share some of the reasons we ended up
going the direction we went.

Each of us most likely live in different groups of people depending on location.
We live in a resort area where all the connecting towns are tourist driven.
with this in mind we are surrounded by s.t.r (short time rentals know as air b&b's).
This brings a new group of people on a daily basis that come here to relax and party,
it is their right and i support it as it is what drive's our economy.

Knowing this we have adjusted our daily routine of lifestyle so as not expose us
the coved-19 problem.

We live on the edge of our city next to a vast open desert /mtn area with hiking trails that draw
locals and tourist's, with this happening we no longer hike or walk the trails etc that are poplar.
we have found that people do not respect other's right and to many do not maintain distance or wear face covering.

Our early morning exercise is now limited to walking away from said trails and now we put in our miles
on the streets , hardly any traffic and no tourist's. boring but keeps us in shape.
As life long swimmers lap after lap! our great swim center is closed and i wonder if it will ever open again.
Hope this explains somewhat how we ended up going ahead with our life.
We understand we only have this life to live and we plan on doing it to the max.

Les,lqhikers
 
Les, I appreciate your take on things and I hope we can all figure out what we need to do to make the traveling we love work. Finding isolated places in the desert or on a mountain is of paramount enjoyment. Gaining a perspective on how others do this is the benefit of this site and others like it. To wander is to explore and to explore is to seek places and experiences that make us who we are.
I hope we can all find that place that gives us what we need.

Fernweh,

Jim
 
We are keeping a low profile at the moment. The virus is surging here in Oregon and all the adjacent states, so we are staying home and doing our many projects here around home. To stay fit my wife does yoga, online and on her own, while we both do pilates with a trusted instructor via Zoom. It is a different life than I had anticipated, but we are both retired and fortunate enough to afford to sit this out. We will venture out to the eastern oregon empty lands once the people that resist facemasks and social distancing have finally accepted the reality of our new existence. But too many people are too slow to learn for us to consider it safe for them or us to go out and about yet.

I do take the truck out from time to time to make sure it is operating smoothly. And I occasionally pop up the camper and run things for a day or two to make sure no faults have crept into the workings.

I think things are not always going to be as bad as they are now. People will slowly learn, but learn they will, most of them anyway. It is hard to change an entire way of life suddenly.

As the late great Merle Haggard once sang: "The good times ain't over for good."
 
Okay gang, I just back from my first trip out this year-in my case , a week long run up to Res."C" on the Devils' Garden on the Modoc NF. It was great to be out-that over, here is what I saw and this is what determined what I did and didn't do! Most of you know I live up here in Lassen County in NE Ca with both Nevada and Oregon with in spitting distance! Every thing I did was determined by the unusual weather , how I felt and what each county and state and the feds said I could do! Everything but dry camping was closed down in all 3 states until the other day.. Being 75, I followed all the rules the best I could and intend to make 76. NE Ca has no recorded Convid-19 cases and only a few positive tests and has missed this outbreak so far.

At res. C, the only ones that were required to use masks were the USFS, although everyone I saw sort of followed the social distancing rules with those they did not know. There was a normal visible USFS presence! The bathroom was clean and well maintained. Most people come here to day fish and watch the wildlife, and I saw rigs from Ca, Or and Nevada. There were never more than 2 other campers there and maybe 2-4 boats on the res. fishing and except for Saturday, I had the place mostly to my self! came home yesterday!

I had planned to go over to the Sheldon NWR next week but there is talk of a new outbreak soon, so I think i will wait the two weeks and see what happens and hope I did not catch anything but at least I got out once!

Smoke
 
Les I liked your "expanded" post.
We also live in a tourist area Monterey Bay.And yes I understand that all
the tourist $s help fund a lot of the great things we have here.
I just would like to see more people be respectful of others health.

Our house is in the "farm" land area close to the ocean.
We are fortunate to have a great walking area,our county streets.
There is a lot of wildlife and only a handful pf people out walking.

Also being retired is a plus.
Stay healthy and fit.
Frank
 
Smoke, how lucky you are to have seen so few people! Here is a much different story. We went for a short drive yesterday to look at an historic site and do some map work. Driving home we encountered well over a hundred vehicles, RV's, boats, trailers coming in. This on a Thursday afternoon. The place is already packed. I don't know where they are all going. Another friend did a loop around one of our major reservoirs with several large campgrounds. She was appalled at the lack of social distancing and no masks when around others. It is summer business as usual.

Our reaction is to double down on safety precautions and stay away from our local businesses as the pilgrims flood through.

This spike in cases corresponds with the careless behavior we've witnessed.

Yes, this is a popular area. That's why we were usually elsewhere.
 
It seems as though Americans have a hard time making change. Our population seems divided and seeking our own resolution to this pandemic. I appreciate folks cautious perspective and patience with 'waiting things out'. Areas around the Great Lakes seem similar to what you are describing out west. While things are closed and slowly reopening folks are making a mad rush to camp and be outside. I don't blame them in the least, but without safety measures its a spike in the making.

I wonder how this will change camping? Will it make us appreciate those places and experiences we just assumed would always be there?
 
Living up here does have its benefits Monte (3 states is better than 1 to play in I always say :rolleyes:) , but luckily for us that whole Modoc Plateau/Warner Mountains area contains lots of places to roam, hike, camp and fish. You can usually avoid big crowds except at a few lakes and reservoirs with easy access and at certain times of the year. It seems of late that Nevada/Oregon have discovered this area(like they did with Eagle Lake a few years ago)and are paying us back for all the time we spend there. People have to go somewhere to play and all we can do is adapt or learn to WTW further out in the boonies; we have had many discussions here on how to deal with that problem and I expect we will have many more over the years to come. But hey, that's why we bought our Pop-ups-right---to get away from the milling masses!

Smoke
 
I'll update this thread on what is occurring here in our backyard.

Julie and I have carefully started traveling again as reflected in our blog posts. On our first trip I mentioned we were driven away from home as we live on the edge of a major National Forest used for recreation and the masses are swarming in.

Here's the facts. The number of visitors is up is THREE times the usual summer numbers. Surveys are showing up to a third of the visitors have NEVER been in the mountains before in their lives. That means the first time away from a flush toilet or where somebody else is not picking up the trash they drop. They know nothing about campground reservations or even what a campground is. No outdoor sense at all. A friend answers the Forest information line and tries desperately to explain rules, regulations, fire restrictions, etc. It is basically a foreign language to these newcomers. They come up anyway, unprepared, and many times with brand new toys - boats, personal watercraft, rv's, tents, drones, atv's, guns.

They find no room at campgrounds and it is shocking where they end up. Day trip people are blocking roads with unsafe parking because all parking areas are filled.

Now add in the people who have been up before, especially the ones with an attitude that they own the place. And, I can add, believe they know better than to have to follow any of the rules such as fire restrictions and no campfires.

It is unbelievable. Now add in the current pandemic and little to no safety precautions. Everyone has left home and headed for the hills to leave all that behind.

Be ready to find the same in your backyard or at your destination. Be careful out there.
 
That about sums up our take on the issue.
We ,living on the coast have a longer way to the mountains.The nice SPs
that we would go to near home are closed. This is a tuff camping season.
Actually we aren't "summer" campers.Our best times are the shoulder seasons.
Maybe by fall things will be more reasonable.

We are getting our share of crazies here but with beaches closed it does keep huge crowds away.
Strict parking is enforced. I don't see how the CHP lets the side of road parking get out of hand.
A few tickets need to be written.
Oh well there's hope for the future,I think.

Thanks for the views Ski.
Frank
 
Well if things go right, by mid week I'll be either over in the general area you two were in on your run up here in this neck of the world and/or hiding in some undisclosed cg (fire restrictions and red flag warnings may keep me from dry camping) somewhere between here and the Sheldon NWF. I plan to first head up 395 to Alturas, then Lakeview then East to Adel and just play it by ear (lot's of choices and with no real time limits and with many locations of your latest trip reports marked on my maps). I also hope there still are as few people about as when you two were there! Hopefully, I'll make the Sheldon.

Last week or so, Modoc County had there first positive Convid-19 cases and we here in Lassen County have had several additional cases (mostly in the State Prison); We also have had several major fires up here too, so lot's of things going on so it might make my trip more interesting!! Supposed to be hot out there, and I sure hope I don't run in to all the problems some of our fellow WTW members have run into of late down south and other places. Hope I don't have to have to run for the hills or press that "Help " button on my brand new Spot X!

Smoke
 
I read ski's posts on his blog and here and confirm that it is insane out there. We live in the central valley down the hill from ski's place and have decades of experience in the Sierra Nevada. I'm pretty sure I know the roads/area that he describes close to his place. I can attest to the cluelessness of the newbies... who among us wants to camp on a little spot on the side of a busy, paved road?

We've been getting out in the camper every other week, MID-WEEK ONLY, so our trips all been short in duration and in distance, never more than 3-4 hours. We started in mid-May so we've been out six times around Northern California as far as the southern edge of Mt Lassen, usually deep on FS roads. With a lot of pre-trip google earthing and planning we have not shared a campsite with any other party. Needless to say we have avoided the campgrounds like the plague. It all feels very safe other than gas station stops where people seem to believe there is some magical, virus-expelling bubble shielding them but we rock our masks and sanitizer. We always get home by Friday afternoon so we can watch the hordes commuting up into the mountains on our way down.

We also have resumed our backpacking careers that over the decades (I turned 66 yesterday) eventually brought us to our truck camper. It is the one guaranteed way to leave virtually everyone behind even if our hike to our campsite is measured in minutes, not miles. As long as a lake is not involved (which we won't risk) there will be no one else.

We're scheduled to head out again tomorrow, likely to the Stanislaus NF in the hopes that it is not as insane as the Eldorado. I've picked out some places to camp and/or backpack but the key is definitely flexibility to react to the situation. If things don't go our way we will have no problem just high-tailing it home. My fervent wish is that come fall things will only be twice as impacted as normal compared to the 3x we're seeing now. Then maybe we can head for further afield locations/states.

Stay safe everyone!!
 
Anyone thinking about camping/driving the dirt roads around Big Sur?
They have been closed and if caught in the closed area fins are steep.
Will be closed all fire season. Another place the crazies have overrun.
Tourists with "road" cars were driving in getting stuck then destroying the road to get unstuck.
Frank
 
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