Camping Tips

Are Bikers Welcome at Campgrounds?

The overwhelming consensus is yes. It is all about attitude. However, if you have loud pipes, you may be less welcome than others.

Campgrounds

• We've always had good luck with the KOA campgrounds (whether we had advanced reservations or not). It's sorta like going to Denny's, it's not the greatest, but you always know what your getting. The wife has to camp where there are showers so we are kinda of limited in our options.
     
• KOA has food, laundry, showers, pools, etc., but these campgrounds are typically on the edge of a park, not in them, which is where you really want to be. I'd skip the shower and stay in the park where it's beautiful.
     
• At a KOA, I was forbidden to erect my tent on the GRASS, I had to set up on the PAD as if I were an RV, WEIRD, glad I had an inflatable with me, the sleeping bag surely would not have cut it on concrete!
     
• We usually stay at state or national/corp parks. They usually have a bath house w/ showers & such.
     
• Canadian Provincial Park campgrounds are the "Cadillac" of campgrounds as compared to KOA (Ford) for aesthetics. Some even have showers etc. Private campgrounds mostly squeeze as many sites into their space as possible for economic reasons where the parks mostly have unlimited space.
     
• However, given the opportunity, I would ALWAYS chose a park campground. The scenery is typically nicer, and the camaraderie and traveling spirit is more intense. None of the private campgrounds were as clean, uncrowded and natural as the parks.
    
• We stopped at an advertised site late in the evening. We could not see much from the gate house. There was little flat camping ground, as in the grass was not smooth, more like clumps. The sites owner had a dog that had never been in a bath. I would not have minded, but it has too friendly in a scary/smelly sort of way. Lesson being, have a look around the site before you pay your money. This place took your money at a 'gate house' aka their own house, before you could ride in.
  

Set-up

• If I have a choice I pick a space where I can get away easily and quietly in the early AM..I travel at first light and so have little traffic until noon. Get to see more wildlife that way. And quit early in the day while choices of camp sites are optimum.

Tents, Gear, and Packing Tips

In addition to the tips below, be sure to check out:

• Pre-pack your bike with all the gear you plan on attaching to it and head out on the road for a 100 mile local ride. This will let you know how the load will affect handling as well as how well the load is going to ride.
      
• The wife and I use a 3 person REI tent and it has been GREAT. Be sure and get one big enough for however many people you want it to sleep plus gear. I can't stress enough to buy a good tent. We used a cheap one for years and were miserable when it rained. Here is a link to ours on the REI web page. http://www.rei.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=8000&prrfnbr=9153264
      
• I carry a cheap nylon no-brand, 2-man dome-tent. Easy up, easy down, self-staking in protected areas, light, and if it touches my pipes I think I'm out $29.95. I also have an even cheaper, even lighter pup. I prefer the dome for its headroom.
     
• I use to travel all over Europe with my 2 man rigid tent. Hardly ever erected it. I was always tired after the ride and slept under the tarp. There were very few bugs compared to the States. I stopped anywhere when I felt tired, instead of pushing for the next official camp site. Some gent came up in the night and kicked my feet. Kinda scary. He thought I had come off the bike and was dead.
  
• The wife and I use mummy style sleeping bags and each one is in a small waterproof rafting style bag we bought at Wal Mart. Our tent is a 3 man, 3 season tent. The tent, air mattresses and ground cloth fit in the same size and style sack each sleeping bag is in. We also carry a hand air pump for the mattresses. Our stove is a small backpacker style one that has a separate fuel tank and burns gasoline. That way the fuel can be used in the bikes in an emergency. We have a 2 person backpack type cooking set up. Each of us takes an empty pillow case and we stuff it with our clothes, which makes a nice pillow.

  We pack differently on longer trips than on short ones. If we are only going to be gone a couple days everything fits on my bike. The sleeping bags are bungeed on the back seat and the tent on the trunk
  rack. The camping gear fits in 1 saddle bag and clothes in the other. And the rest fits in my trunk.

  On out 3 month trip I still carried the sleeping bags and tent along with all the clothes and things that had to stay dry. She carried the rest of the stuff. We had lots of clothes as the temperature ranges we from well below freezing to the high 80's.
    

• I don't have a tourer bike, so the packing was somewhat of a challenge. All of the clothes and maintenance items fit in my two vinyl saddlebags, except the siphon hose, chain and lock and funnel, which I crammed on a small luggage rack with the tent's ground tarp. All of my camping gear and any riding gear that wasn't in use that day went into a duffle bag strapped sideways over the saddlebags. The sleeping bag was bungeed on top of that. My extra helmet was strapped to the support of my backrest. The rain gear was stuffed in various areas in bungees that held the sleeping bag.
    
• Not all camp sites are created equal. You may have to drive quite a # of miles to get supplies that you could have carried with you.
    
• A good paperback for a heavy rain, not going anywhere, day.
    
• If you bungee a duffel or sleeping bag across the passenger seat it can be a useful backrest.
    
• I carry a couple of decks of playing cards.
   
• I also pack a factory repair manual. even if I wasn't going to be doing any repairs, some tech at an indy repair shop in Bumphuk Idaho may find it useful. Also if it snows/rains long to hole up and ya get bored enough it can be a "fun" read
  

Last Edited 11/27/2003

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