Looking at doing our first month long trip..

[Uniquely Us Adventures]

Any one have pointers or lessons learned from a month on the road? Or links to some good blogs? We need to work via internet a day or two a week. We have done a lot of two weeks trips.. it I feel a month is much different… pre trip maintenance is also something I’m looking into..
thanks

 

[Alanymarce]

Not much difference in my opinion - you should be doing routine maintenance when required, and obviously if you think an interval is coming up in the month then take care of it before leaving.

For remote working, if you don't have satellite connection then fairly obviousl;y you neede to be somewhere with cellular coverage. We tend to stop somewhere there's good internet access rather than relying on cellular coverage, however we need fair bandwidth.

 

[Uniquely Us Adventures]

Not much difference in my opinion - you should be doing routine maintenance when required, and obviously if you think an interval is coming up in the month then take care of it before leaving.

For remote working, if you don't have satellite connection then fairly obviousl;y you neede to be somewhere with cellular coverage. We tend to stop somewhere there's good internet access rather than relying on cellular coverage, however we need fair bandwidth.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I was hoping it wouldn’t be much difference. I think what I’m most concerned about is the amount of road time and balancing the down time to not burn out. Two weeks is usually a go go go push to hit a bunch of hard points. So I am aging 4 weeks would be hard to push like that and enjoy it.. assume I need to plan for days off/rest days. Catch up on rest and what ever needs arise..

 

[loper]

Monte1,

You're on the right track about the "go, go, go". That's been a problem for us in the past, too much agenda, not enough time. Kinda revised that lately, and it works better.

Our best times have been when we plan reasonable driving distances and maybe one or two events per day. We try to get to our stopping point afternoon to early evening, and usually get an early start in the morning. We like to plan in a down day here and there to break the rush. Leave time for "distractions", sometimes they're the best part!

Think about things like laundry, showers, and resupply (fuel, groceries, water etc.) while you're planning. Trying to pack a month's worth of clothes is a lot!

 

[Redruby]

My plan is to break camp by 9-10 and make camp by 4-5 carry a week’s worth of clothes and food and get a shower every 4-5 days, don’t over planned and just enjoy the trip and stop and smell the roses along the way

 

[John and Mandi]

Another vote for slowing down and planning less. When we were on the road we would put POIs in Maps.Me and pick one to start to head towards. Our plans were so open ended we changed them on the fly, sometimes taking days to reach the first point. For us, that removed the stress of having to reach an arbitrary point in the allotted time. We know some are stressed by not having a plan to execute, obviously do what works for you. We found that having a rough idea of the major POIs then randomly filling those in with others on an as can schedule worked best. We would also have lesser, but nice to visit places, also scattered about to help fill any extra time we would occasionally have. All of our POIs were color coded in Maps.Me giving us an easy to use graphical representation of our intentions. Mandi would even put in restaurants or specialty bakeries etc that we could work in if we wanted.

Regardless of whether you plan it all out or not, we've learned that when making a loop or an out and back run (what you would be doing from a home), it was always better to burn heavy miles in the beginning and not towards the end. We would run hard for a couple of days to either reach or get close to the farthest point to then amble back hitting more of what we wanted that was farthest from our home base...essentially leaving the closer to reach stuff for weekends or shorter runs if we didn't get to it. Also, keeping the zero days flexible would allow you to use them when you need them. You already have experience with starting to burn out by the end of two weeks. If not managed, it does continue to compound so being able to add a day or two to a place you absolutely love or if one of you is a little sick can make a big difference.

All that said, we rarely made any kind of reservations so we always had to locate first come first served places...paid or not. The big caveat is weekends can become an issue when trying to find FCFS spots depending on season. Many weekends were spent doing chores in camp while everyone was running around cramming in as much as they could. If your work is extremely flexible, you could work on the weekend and do your exploring during the week when things are somewhat less busy. Just be mindful that some places are closed during the week so you'll have to plan accordingly.

 

[Akicita]

[

Any one have pointers or lessons learned from a month on the road? Or links to some good blogs? We need to work via internet a day or two a week. We have done a lot of two weeks trips.. it I feel a month is much different… pre trip maintenance is also something I’m looking into..
thanks

Extending a few trips from two weeks to a trip for a month should be a relatively easy transition, but since you mentioned "we," I will offer this advice about extended trips with a significant other or travel partner:

"Frustration are results of mismanaged expectations" . . . with the challenge of longer trips traveling with a significant other in confined spaces, limited comforts, and the challenges of adventure traveling can bring, you should consider focusing more effort on meeting reasonable expectations of each other. Take advantage of the extended trip to exchange typical roles, duties, and responsibilities and use those opportunities to better understand the challenges your travel partner may experience while traveling so you may better meet what's expected of you both in chosen - or - assigned roles, duties, and responsibilities.

HOKA HEY!!!
Akicita

 

[Uniquely Us Adventures]

Monte1,

You're on the right track about the "go, go, go". That's been a problem for us in the past, too much agenda, not enough time. Kinda revised that lately, and it works better.

Our best times have been when we plan reasonable driving distances and maybe one or two events per day. We try to get to our stopping point afternoon to early evening, and usually get an early start in the morning. We like to plan in a down day here and there to break the rush. Leave time for "distractions", sometimes they're the best part!

Think about things like laundry, showers, and resupply (fuel, groceries, water etc.) while you're planning. Trying to pack a month's worth of clothes is a lot!

That’s exactly what I was thinking. I was gonna try to find may be a down day that was in a location where all those things are possible as well. Thanks for the input!

 

[Uniquely Us Adventures]

My plan is to break camp by 9-10 and make camp by 4-5 carry a week’s worth of clothes and food and get a shower every 4-5 days, don’t over planned and just enjoy the trip and stop and smell the roses along the way

Sounds like allergies.. JK good advice.. having a time window is a good idea as well..

 

[Uniquely Us Adventures]

Another vote for slowing down and planning less. When we were on the road we would put POIs in Maps.Me and pick one to start to head towards. Our plans were so open ended we changed them on the fly, sometimes taking days to reach the first point. For us, that removed the stress of having to reach an arbitrary point in the allotted time. We know some are stressed by not having a plan to execute, obviously do what works for you. We found that having a rough idea of the major POIs then randomly filling those in with others on an as can schedule worked best. We would also have lesser, but nice to visit places, also scattered about to help fill any extra time we would occasionally have. All of our POIs were color coded in Maps.Me giving us an easy to use graphical representation of our intentions. Mandi would even put in restaurants or specialty bakeries etc that we could work in if we wanted.

Regardless of whether you plan it all out or not, we've learned that when making a loop or an out and back run (what you would be doing from a home), it was always better to burn heavy miles in the beginning and not towards the end. We would run hard for a couple of days to either reach or get close to the farthest point to then amble back hitting more of what we wanted that was farthest from our home base...essentially leaving the closer to reach stuff for weekends or shorter runs if we didn't get to it. Also, keeping the zero days flexible would allow you to use them when you need them. You already have experience with starting to burn out by the end of two weeks. If not managed, it does continue to compound so being able to add a day or two to a place you absolutely love or if one of you is a little sick can make a big difference.

All that said, we rarely made any kind of reservations so we always had to locate first come first served places...paid or not. The big caveat is weekends can become an issue when trying to find FCFS spots depending on season. Many weekends were spent doing chores in camp while everyone was running around cramming in as much as they could. If your work is extremely flexible, you could work on the weekend and do your exploring during the week when things are somewhat less busy. Just be mindful that some places are closed during the week so you'll have to plan accordingly.

This is great, thank you. You’re definitely right about having to find the first come first serve when you don’t stick to a time frame. I think that’s one of the hard parts about some of the busy national parks and how busy are forest services roads are getting .. and Yeah, we typically plan our trips for major POIs during the week and try to find the lesser populated places or down days to be on the weekends. And I totally agree with making the push the beginning. You can see why that would be even more important on longer trips. I like the idea of color coding places on Maps. My wife would totally be fine and coffee shops and bakeries. Lol

 

[Uniquely Us Adventures]

[

Any one have pointers or lessons learned from a month on the road? Or links to some good blogs? We need to work via internet a day or two a week. We have done a lot of two weeks trips.. it I feel a month is much different… pre trip maintenance is also something I’m looking into..
thanks

Extending a few trips from two weeks to a trip for a month should be a relatively easy transition, but since you mentioned "we," I will offer this advice about extended trips with a significant other or travel partner:

"Frustration are results of mismanaged expectations" . . . with the challenge of longer trips traveling with a significant other in confined spaces, limited comforts, and the challenges of adventure traveling can bring, you should consider focusing more effort on meeting reasonable expectations of each other. Take advantage of the extended trip to exchange typical roles, duties, and responsibilities and use those opportunities to better understand the challenges your travel partner may experience while traveling so you may better meet what's expected of you both in chosen - or - assigned roles, duties, and responsibilities.

HOKA HEY!!!
Akicita

Well said and a fantastic point! Thank you!