Camping/Overlanding Thread

Went camping this weekend and it was a much deserved brake. Tis be the time of year for camping.

 

https://trailandsummit.com/what-do-stacked-rocks-on-a-trail-mean/

 

Had some fun Camping at Merus Adventure Park in Texas....

 

Thats a damn good looking truck. Entirely not needed, but I love how snorkels look. Had one on my XJ back in the day, and an OEM one on my 80 series....may need to buy one for the Tundra.

 

Very basic setup, truck bed tent. Electricity with a portable battery. In Switzerland it is illegal to camp in the wild, thus have to sleep in dedicated campings. But never the less, after a night sleeping in the tent, I feel fully rested and zen.

 

Had a couple places on the South Llano River.
The water level stays constant no matter how dry it gets.
Which I'm sure will change once the area gets developed and the aquifer gets depleted.
Kick Myself in the Ass for selling the best piece of property!!

 

Did a little camping trip in Uwharrie National Forest with a few friends. They did some hunting, I did a little fishing, exploring, and gold panning. Ate better than I ever will at home. Then solved the worlds problems every night by the fire. Wish I could get out there more.

 

What is that camper shell you have on the Tundy?

 

It's an ARE aluminum shell. You can check out the deets in my build thread.

 

Our favorite property had a creek running through it with a bridge you had to cross to get to the river.
When you looked off the bridge there were a half a Dozen Springs Bubbling out of the Creek Bank.
The River would flood a couple times a year.
You'd get a call from the neighbors upriver telling you it was coming!!
We'd go down to the river and watch it come in.
The biggest one I've ever seen was a four foot wall of water coming down the River.
It would Scrub the river bottom so clean it looked like a fish tank afterwards.

 

Back when we bought the place there were only 3600 people in the entire county.
2600 Hundred of them lived in the small town of Junction.
We'd see illegals walking down the river pretty frequently.
Had to leave can goods with a can opener on the porch of our first place and a sign in Spanish telling the illegals there was nothing of value in the cabin.
Had them knocking on the door asking for a hand out pretty frequently.
I always pointed out a house about a hundred yards down river and told them that guy would help em out.
The local Border Patrol agent lived there.
He knocked on my door one day and asked if I was the one sending illegals to his house.
Told Him yeah it was Me.
He told Me "While it was Funny As Hell to please stop doing it"
He was worried about His Wife and Kids.

 

They still use the old Settlers method of defining property lines.
You own the property to the center of the river.
Gained a half acre when the River shifted after a big flood.
Of course you could also lose acreage.

 

Last camping trip of the year
Try again late January weather permitting.

 

Are any of yall going out this weekend? The Geminids meteor shower will peak this weekend Dec 13-14 (Saturday and Sunday). Up to 150 meteors every hour. It's the best meteor shower of the year.

The Moon will be at 35% illumination and will start to rise around 2 a.m. which is perfect for viewing conditions.

https://www.planetary.org/articles/...MIivOQlcWukQMVaTutBh15tTQmEAAYASAAEgLtkvD_BwE

This is where I'll be going.
34.044011, -115.021526

 

Went camping about an hour east of Twentynine Palms, CA, to catch the meteor shower and it did not disappoint. I took about 900 photos, and every other photo has at least one meteor in it. Some have three. It was an incredible night. I made a timelaps video with all the photos.

https://youtube.com/shorts/MkV7JaTvSPs?feature=share

 

How often do yall encounter folks with their access on the driverside? I understand why most are on the pass side, but wondering if that’ll be a dealbreaker. Might wanna turn my popup camper backwards when i mount it to my lowboy trailer, just wondering if i’m missing a different obvious drawback (other than the entrance being on the traffic side when pulled onto the shoulder & maybe limited access at the gas pumps).

 

I guess it depends on where you camp. Every campground I have ever been in is designed where the amenities of the campsite are on the passenger side when you back your trailer in. But if you don't camp in campgrounds having access on the drivers side would not be an issue for you.

Also the electrical plugs and water hookups are usually on the drivers side of the camper when you back in said sites

 

You southern guys and your year round camping.


Unfortunately my camper is parked until May when all the snow is gone.

If I had the money I would buy an Ice Castle for winter.


Winter camping here in MN involves white knuckling a truck and several thousand pound fish house out a couple miles on 3 ft of ice for fishing. Huge industry for trailer rigs that drop down, have fishing holes and large screen televisions that hook up to an underwater camera and depth finder.
Typical interior...

Local resorts plow ice roads for better travel to underwater structures and typically charge 10 bucks. No camping fees since you are on a public lake.
Things go as much as a travel trailer though.
Some folks use them as summer campers also, but harder to level.

 

And here is how my Christmas looked lol

 

Ice castles are nice, in MN they are nothing new, but here in Michigan most people don't know about them. Last summer we were camping in a campground in the UP of Michigan and my Brother-In-Law (from MN) brought an ice castle and a lot of people stopped by to talk to him about it.

 

Snow camping weekend in western Montana with my wife for Valentine’s Day

 

I dig this front bumper. The whole front end looks way better than that stock garbage

 

I was literally looking to post the same thing. Makes the new front end look great. Hmmmmmmmm....let me check my 401k balance....

 

Supposed to get near 80F this week

 

I considered putting an awning on the driver side of our camper as there is no man door allowing a wider awning. Decided against it as every site is set up for the other side and walking around the trailer to access the door would annoy the crap out of me.

 

I took 10 rigs to Palouse Falls WA, last active ice age falls from the Missoula floods (Randall Carlson talks a lot about it on YT) and then hit a camp ground an hour away. Don’t love camp grounds but the mountains have too much snow to get too remote. My Tundra is bottom right on the camp photo, can’t see much of it!

 

Anybody up in the Inland Northwest? At the end of the month we head to Hells Canyon for the weekend. Camping by the Imnaha and Snake River. From the Snake River up to the top is deeper than the Grand Canyon at parts.

 

Damn, I didn't even know these places existed. 3 more years (to the date) and I retire, then I'll be moving up to WA. I can't wait.

 

You’re making me jealous Dave. I live in MT and don’t get out this much.