3 Day Challenge

[seansmd]

Hey folks, I was hoping to discuss this at meetup, but covid....

I was watching @Michael recent 3Day adventure challenge, which looks awesome and what I would like to try.

I am totally new to this and the part that has me nervous is knowing where the plan where night 1 and night 2 will be. How do you all know you will have a good spot, and not be already occupied, and spend hours finding a spot that is adequate and not pushing into others space?

 

[grubworm]

Hey folks, I was hoping to discuss this at meetup, but covid....

I was watching @Michael recent 3Day adventure challenge, which looks awesome and what I would like to try.

I am totally new to this and the part that has me nervous is knowing where the plan where night 1 and night 2 will be. How do you all know you will have a good spot, and not be already occupied, and spend hours finding a spot that is adequate and not pushing into others space?

good question. the wife and i generally just wing it and take off to a general area and see what happens when we get there...sometimes we find a nice state park to stay in, sometimes we end up sleeping at a rest area or ever so often, we end up having to get a room just because there aren't any other options. we mainly check out an area initially and if we like it, we'll look more for boondocking areas we will come back to. some of our trips are for recon to check out new areas, so we focus on that and sleep where ever and then when we plan to stay in an area for a while, we will plan for it and reserve camp spaces, etc. we don't plan much because things can change often and quickly, so we pretty much keep things very open. luckily my wife is very easy going and doesn't mind sleeping at a rest area or truck stop if needs be...if youre traveling with people who won't go for that, then you will have to have better plans

 

[DaleRF]

Hey folks, I was hoping to discuss this at meetup, but covid....

I was watching @Michael recent 3Day adventure challenge, which looks awesome and what I would like to try.

I am totally new to this and the part that has me nervous is knowing where the plan where night 1 and night 2 will be. How do you all know you will have a good spot, and not be already occupied, and spend hours finding a spot that is adequate and not pushing into others space?

I always do a good Map Recon before heading out, and have at least three spots located that look promising. These are not campgound locations, but boondocking, BLM land spots that look promising. Good luck!

 

[Arepas]

I always try to have a site "A", "B", "C", etc... the times where spot "A" was taken we had pleasant surprise with the other options. I do explore google maps (satellite view) and gaia (mostly to see public lands from private land and altitude) before heading there.

For this weekend we have 3 spots located but it is a web of forest roads so if all 3 are taken then we find some other place. We are toying with the idea of heading somewhere else on day 2 but only found 2 spots there so this might be tricky.

 

[DaleRF]

If your in Europe there’s no such thing as BLM land sadly as most plots of land are private property, due to the dence population per Km in Europe

WoW! Bummer...

 

[seansmd]

That leaving home without knowing where I will camp will be a mindset change for me and quite a bit of anxiety inducing. Having A,B,C options is a good idea, thanks.

 

[grubworm]

That leaving home without knowing where I will camp will be a mindset change for me and quite a bit of anxiety inducing. Having A,B,C options is a good idea, thanks.

yeah, you'll find what works for you. bottom line is that it has to be enjoyable, otherwise what's the point? no matter how you do it, when you return home after a trip and you can't wait to go on another one, then you did it right!

 

[rgallant]

Here in BC that is just load the truck and go, I could spend 3 days just getting to the Kamloops area and that is 3.5 hours hi-way drive from home. It actually describes a lot of my summers, I tell my wife I am heading for some place give her the general route and go. I camp where I find a place, although I do a map recce a head of time just in case of road closures.

 

[Kilo_17]

Research, recon trips and reaching out to assets in the intended area are important but half of the adventure is going into the unknown and seeing what is "just around the river bend"

 

[Speric]

Just did this last week. Had rough idea of where I was going to camp but hadn’t been to any of them before. And actually one of the areas turned out not so great, so then drove around and found another great spot. Pics of the 2 camping spots. Also “discovered” a nice road that wasn’t in Gaia in the process.

 

[DaleRF]

Just did this last week. Had rough idea of where I was going to camp but hadn’t been to any of them before. And actually one of the areas turned out not so great, so then drove around and found another great spot. Pics of the 2 camping spots. Also “discovered” a nice road that wasn’t in Gaia in the process.

Nice!

 

[TheGreyhound]

I’ve found doing lots of homework with google maps satellite view really helps.you can zoom in far enough on forest roads to see where people before you have made clearings and even stone fire rings. I spend a lot of evenings on the couch on the tablet doing recon. I drop a pin and save all my prospective campsites to a google maps layer, which I can then share to the gf or friends!
If I show up and one is taken I have quick reference to other pre identified possibilities nearby and can set off toward them!

 

[TheGreyhound]

For example....

 

[DaleRF]

For example....
View attachment 157386View attachment 157385

Yep! It's such a good planning tool.