Finding a balance between camping and driving.

[California Overland]

Because the fabric is a tad slippery, especially if you have them piled on each other, I've thought several times of making a thin flannel cover that would fit three or four jungle blankets. That would make a big lofty comforter. Let me know if you sandwich one of them between flannel and how that works for you.

On really cold nights I've used up to three jungle blankets on top of the cheap sleeping bag. For the money (keep an eye on the pricing, it goes up and down), you can buy a few of them and still be less out of pocket than many high-end sleeping bags.

Stay safe, stay clean, stay healthy!

Roaddude - On the Road In North America - ROADDUDE

Roaddude - Traveling Photographer/Writer/Artist On the Road In North America. Gear, reviews, people, places, and culture.

roaddude.com

It's been interesting discussing this and thinking about the options. The point that just came to me is this: rule #1 for backpacking and hiking clothing is to dress in layers which provides maximum convertibility and the ability to be cool or warm in a matter of seconds, depending on the weather. So, why have we all taken a one stop approach to sleeping? A sleeping bag provides the least amount of convertibility- you're hot in it or cold out of it. This is insane.

I bought a Jungle Blanket. I plan to layer it with a flannel sheet underneath, a heavy quilt or Pendleton on top with the option of using a sleeping bag liner if the need arises. This system should provide enough warmth during the High Sierra camping months of June- September. October brings colder weather into the teens, so my Nemo bag used as a quilt might be necessary. We shall see!

 

[MOAK]

Lots of good writing on this one folks! We may be a little strange but my wife and I prefer ground tents. We actually have 3, one for each purpose. A two man backpacking tent, a small 3 man tent for single overnighters, and a large 8x16 or so, for multiple nights. It takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour to set up our base camp, and that’s taking our time and enjoying the task. For single night camping while on the move we can have our awning out, the 3 man tent set up , and food on the stove in roughly 15 minutes. We do mix it up, if we really like a spot we may stay for 4 or 5 days. Between base camps we do overnighters in the 3man combined with a hotel every once in a while.. We also have a tendency to wander in the general direction we think we want to be heading, if that makes any sense. There is No time frame, when it’s time to head home we both seem to know it and that is generally 5-6 weeks.

 

[Narwhal]

I like both, the basecamp and the caravan, but I prefer to keep moving. I enjoy the journey. I like to plan the route ahead, estimating an average of 50 mph for pavement and 10-15 mph for off pavement. That said, once I'm on the journey, it's more important to me to have fun and enjoy than to stay on schedule. Sometimes I don't make it to the end of the planned route, but it doesn't matter to me because I enjoyed the time that I had allotted.

Michael said something in one of his recent videos talking about how sometimes a "plan" can become just a list of things to go wrong. I love this mindset and people should really be okay when things don't go according to plan.

 

[PonoAdventures]

Michael said something in one of his recent videos talking about how sometimes a "plan" can become just a list of things to go wrong. I love this mindset and people should really be okay when things don't go according to plan.

For the most part, I agree with this. My best trip I've ever taken was one with no plan and we flipped a coin to make decision. However, sometimes with a time constraint I have to rely on some sort of plan so at least I can get an outline of what is achievable. Usually for those I buffer a day or two just in case of something going wrong.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Honestly, everyone will have a different answer. Some trips need to be pushed hard to fit in the time allowed. My big goal is to get more time so I don't need to rush as much. I would often come back from an adventure exhausted from trying to fit everything in. I would suggest several things. Look at making camp set up as efficient as you can. Divide up and assign tasks if applicable. Simplify your set up if it makes things better. Check and see what your traveling companions desires are. Maybe it is push hard for a day or two, then set up in a really cool spot for a couple days and explore from camp. Push thru the less exciting spots and linger in the nice ones. My style is evolving from racing cross country on the interstate to start a trip to exploring the lesser roads along the way. Do what makes you the most happy.

 

[Stormcrow]

If it were just me traveling, I'd spend the day driving and then make and break camp every day. We've done backcountry discovery routes with [semi]-set schedules (which you need if you have limited vacation time and need to be home and back at work on a specific day. My wife and boys however aren't crazy about always being on the go during trips. So we've settled on a sort of hybrid trip where we'll stay a couple nights at one campsite, explore around that area on our "down" days and then move to another campsite. It let's me map out and explore routes in between camp sites, and let's my family relax a bit more on our vacations

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

We do mainly two "types" of trip and that determines the way we balance camping and driving.

The first type is a more traditional "overland" trip, where we just go for a bit of an exploration around a place. For those, we stop when we feel like it and let the trip decide for us. Some days are 1000 kms +, others are only a 75kms, and others (if we really like a spot) we'll just hang out for a day or two.

The other trip is more "Expedition" style, where we have a specific objective (i.e. drive to Prudhoe Bay) and a specific amount of time to do it in. The joy of the trip is the journey, not the destination -- but the destination is the excuse. After some practice, we know that we have a daily average milage that we are comfortable with. For our Prudhoe Bay trip, we were a bit ambitious -- we did 600 kms per day on average. That may not sound like a lot, but that's for over 30 days straight and I'm on a motorbike. Some days we'd want to stop in one park or another so we'd only do 200 kms, which meant the next day had to be 800 kms, and we didn't allow for rest days (We wanted to, but we didn't have the time). When we do bike and car trips, we prefer to stick around 500kms (that extra 100 kms makes a huge difference). In the 4x4 alone, a 600 km average is just fine. Both of these numbers give us ample time to "Stop and smell the roses" -- we can check out parks, attractions, historical places, trails that catch our eye or even the occasional restaurant, and still have time to get into camp and relaxing before dinner.

Some trips the average is decided for us. If we only have 5 days and we want to do a 5000 km loop -- well, that's a thousand clicks a day, no matter how we slice it. But even still -- it might mean some days we do 1200 kms, others we do 800, and everyone will have their own 'average' that is most comfortable for them. I recommend if a person is just starting out, aim for that 500-600 kilometre mark for your first few trips and then decide to increase it or decrease it as matches your preference; this gives you a good baseline for future planning too. With this system, if you know you want to go on a 10,000 kilometre loop, and your own "comfortable average" is 500 km/day, it helps guide other decisions -- like how much time away from work.

I also suggest building in a few rest days anytime a trip is going to be longer than a week. We now do 1 rest day per week (lesson learned from AK). Laundry, drying out equipment, servicing vehicles, etc. are all jobs we need to do on our longer trips, and we try to do all the "chores" on the same day.

 

[rgallant]

My trips always have a destination, but is more about heading in that direction than getting there. I can do about 8 hours driving if I want but mostly I limit myself to 6, which gives an bit of time if the campsite choice turn out to unusable or I just want to check some place out.

That is easier when you are solo, as soon as you added other vehicles you need some kind of plan.

I had a planned trip to Tuk, but I have put that off to next year. That one is planned thoroughly as it is 3 week trip and has to fit everyone's schedule. I have each days route planned, 3 spare days in the event of vehicle issues and tried to keep each day to 6-7 hours max.

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

My trips always have a destination, but is more about heading in that direction than getting there. I can do about 8 hours driving if I want but mostly I limit myself to 6, which gives an bit of time if the campsite choice turn out to unusable or I just want to check some place out.

That is easier when you are solo, as soon as you added other vehicles you need some kind of plan.

I had a planned trip to Tuk, but I have put that off to next year. That one is planned thoroughly as it is 3 week trip and has to fit everyone's schedule. I have each days route planned, 3 spare days in the event of vehicle issues and tried to keep each day to 6-7 hours max.

Good point that I didn’t address — the route your journey takes you through will have a huge impact on how detailed your plan needs to be. While you can use time (as you have, which is great) or distance to determine your driving time, in the North with one vehicle it’s very easy to hit that target and then just find a place to camp. Wild camping abounds in the north. However, if I was in the eastern part of the lower 48, I think it would be a bit harder to go for 6-8 hours and simply stumble upon random campsites, and therefore that might need a lot more planning. The same is true when you start adding extra vehicles as you’ve pointed out!

Tuk is on our list too, but we’ve got to finish building out our rig first. We’ve are about 18 months behind due to some changes in our lives, but hopefully in the near future we’ll get back on track and get up to Tuk!