Happy 4th of July everyone!!

Summer is officially here. I made some plans during this spring, hoping to get a few nice trips in. Mostly just day trips. I think this August will be a nice time to do a weekend camping trip. We got a ton of snow this year so all the streams, creeks and lakes will be deep and clean. It's been a while since I took a camping trip. I've got some cool gear that works great. Self inflating bed roll, worthless. Air mattress with a small battery operated pump, priceless. I got a tent I can actually stand up in, and its the same foot print of my old coleman tent. I've got fold up water jugs that hold 5 gallons. I have a solar shower now. Fill it with water, let it sit in the sun for a while and you have some hot water to clean up with.
Camping off the bike is more fun and at the same time more of a pain. When I take the van, I have everything including the kitchen sink and a working toilet.... I better explain. I have a table with a basin and a toilet that I made out of pvc pipes. I dig a hole about a foot wide and a foot and a half deep. I take my "toilet" which is just a pvc chair with a toilet seat. I take a doubled up heavy duty black garbage bag, tape it to the frame work. Now when you sit on the seat the garbage bag catches everything. When I pack up I take the bag and deposit it in the proper dumpster on the way out.
When camping off the bike - I have a folding shovel - an "E" tool to those in the know. I use it to dig a hole and then use it to sit on. My buddy that was in the army taught me about the e tool years ago. Easily fits in my bike gear. I have a long spear fork and a pair of heavy duty leather gloves. The fork is perfect of hot dogs and marshmallows. I use the gloves for everything in camp. In this example I use them for oven mitts. I cook my can food by opening the top but leaving a small part to hold the top on. Place the can in the fire pit and wait for it to boil over. Pull it out, use a fork to bend the top up and with the glove you can easily pick it out of the fire pit and hold it until you can wrap it in a paper towel or such. I bring a small hatchet, a old roofing hatchet a dear old friend gave me. He sharpened it to a knife edge, told me to be careful. I can cut wood or steak with it. I use the back of it to hammer in the tent pegs. I bring my blue enamel cowboy coffee pot.

I was just day dreaming about how nice the mountain air is. August it the best time to go IMO. Where I go - August almost never rains. The days aren't at hot and the nights are nice and cool. The place I have is a location I found almost 20 years ago as my 2nd choice. Over the years my #1 choice has been over run with people that found it. So now I ride a few more miles out into the forest. Even nicer but just farther to go back for supplies and water.

It takes a full day to ride there and get set up. As soon as I get there I unload the bike. I set up the tent and get the gear stored in the tent. Get all the water jugs and straps/bungees packed and do a water run to the rangers hose about 6 miles back. Get everything I can filled with water and then back to camp, and unload. I bring a couple days worth of can food. The general store is a 20 mile ride from camp, I pick up some bread and cold cuts and hot dogs there. I have a small folding cooler but it doesn't keep things frozen.

So after all this effort it's nice to chill out for a few days before I have to clean, fold and pack everything back into a couple of saddle bags and the back seat of the bike. I have the t-bag and I have the luggage rack so I have some real space for all this stuff. Still - I really don't like having to pack up at the end of the stay. Always seems something doesn't fit back.

My beef is 2 days is just about 2 days too short for a real camping trip. I don't know yet if I'm going to be able to get the time off from work to go for a real 4 day trip. As much as I'm looking forward to going camping this summer, I don't know if I want to put all that effort into spending a day getting there and turning around and going home the next day.

Let's see how this summer shapes up.

I hope the rest of you all get some great rides in this summer.

Had a great 4th of July. Ate too much.....

Enjoy, DEERSLAYER

uote="roadking"]Happy 4th of July everyone!!

Summer is officially here. I made some plans during this spring, hoping to get a few nice trips in. Mostly just day trips. I think this August will be a nice time to do a weekend camping trip. We got a ton of snow this year so all the streams, creeks and lakes will be deep and clean. It's been a while since I took a camping trip. I've got some cool gear that works great. Self inflating bed roll, worthless. Air mattress with a small battery operated pump, priceless. I got a tent I can actually stand up in, and its the same foot print of my old coleman tent. I've got fold up water jugs that hold 5 gallons. I have a solar shower now. Fill it with water, let it sit in the sun for a while and you have some hot water to clean up with.
Camping off the bike is more fun and at the same time more of a pain. When I take the van, I have everything including the kitchen sink and a working toilet.... I better explain. I have a table with a basin and a toilet that I made out of pvc pipes. I dig a hole about a foot wide and a foot and a half deep. I take my "toilet" which is just a pvc chair with a toilet seat. I take a doubled up heavy duty black garbage bag, tape it to the frame work. Now when you sit on the seat the garbage bag catches everything. When I pack up I take the bag and deposit it in the proper dumpster on the way out.
When camping off the bike - I have a folding shovel - an "E" tool to those in the know. I use it to dig a hole and then use it to sit on. My buddy that was in the army taught me about the e tool years ago. Easily fits in my bike gear. I have a long spear fork and a pair of heavy duty leather gloves. The fork is perfect of hot dogs and marshmallows. I use the gloves for everything in camp. In this example I use them for oven mitts. I cook my can food by opening the top but leaving a small part to hold the top on. Place the can in the fire pit and wait for it to boil over. Pull it out, use a fork to bend the top up and with the glove you can easily pick it out of the fire pit and hold it until you can wrap it in a paper towel or such. I bring a small hatchet, a old roofing hatchet a dear old friend gave me. He sharpened it to a knife edge, told me to be careful. I can cut wood or steak with it. I use the back of it to hammer in the tent pegs. I bring my blue enamel cowboy coffee pot.

I was just day dreaming about how nice the mountain air is. August it the best time to go IMO. Where I go - August almost never rains. The days aren't at hot and the nights are nice and cool. The place I have is a location I found almost 20 years ago as my 2nd choice. Over the years my #1 choice has been over run with people that found it. So now I ride a few more miles out into the forest. Even nicer but just farther to go back for supplies and water.

It takes a full day to ride there and get set up. As soon as I get there I unload the bike. I set up the tent and get the gear stored in the tent. Get all the water jugs and straps/bungees packed and do a water run to the rangers hose about 6 miles back. Get everything I can filled with water and then back to camp, and unload. I bring a couple days worth of can food. The general store is a 20 mile ride from camp, I pick up some bread and cold cuts and hot dogs there. I have a small folding cooler but it doesn't keep things frozen.

So after all this effort it's nice to chill out for a few days before I have to clean, fold and pack everything back into a couple of saddle bags and the back seat of the bike. I have the t-bag and I have the luggage rack so I have some real space for all this stuff. Still - I really don't like having to pack up at the end of the stay. Always seems something doesn't fit back.

My beef is 2 days is just about 2 days too short for a real camping trip. I don't know yet if I'm going to be able to get the time off from work to go for a real 4 day trip. As much as I'm looking forward to going camping this summer, I don't know if I want to put all that effort into spending a day getting there and turning around and going home the next day.

Let's see how this summer shapes up.

I hope the rest of you all get some great rides in this summer.[/quote]
HEY RK,you seem to be well organised,and the planned camping trip sounds great ,have a great time ,ride safe and enjoy.hope all goes well,wish I could join you.Rod.

Thanks for the positive input!!

So far the summer has been really nice out here. The coolest temps in years... go figure. Just the finish up to all that rain we had before.

Looks like the camping trip is still up in the air - so Rod, I'll keep ya posted.