Remote Camping

Camping is one of our favorite things to do in the great outdoors. We camp at various times throughout the year regardless of the weather so we can hunt, fish, or just simply get away from people and have fun. We have a 32-foot camp trailer with two slide outs and a solar panel so we don’t have to worry about power in the summer. These trips usually involve taking both trucks, one with the camp trailer and the other with the car trailer carrying our quads, John Deere Gator, kayaks, and other toys. Our trips usually combine several activities into each trip unless we are hunting big game and then we concentrate on that and usually skip target practicing and scaring the game away.

We may like remote camping, but sleeping on the ground in a tent really sucks, which is why we have a camp trailer. This is our third one and it is winter rated whereas the others were not so that does help. It is longer and heavier than our last two so I am thankful that we both have diesel pickups to tow it with. We also selected this one because it sits higher giving us a little more ground clearance to get into places. The back has a trailer receiver bar mounted below the bumper so that makes an excellent skid plate as we found out quickly. This trailer also had larger storage tanks so we don’t have to pack extra water with us for only a weekend trip. It has an outside kitchen with a fridge that will never get used as its 120 volts for shore power only, a sink, and a stainless barbecue with a propane quick connect option. This propane quick connect was a good idea that someone had and I took it one step further by adding a “Y” connector to it so we can run the barbeque and out big two burner camp stove after a retrofitted the line with the quick connect version.

This trip was purely for fun and to test everything prior to the start of summer so we didn’t bring the second quad or many other items since it was only for a weekend. We are probably among the small group of people whose camp trailers rarely, if ever, see an established campground. Almost all of our camping is exclusively off-grid remote camping where there are no hookups, potable water, or other amenities which is just the way we like it because that means there are very few if any people ever to share the area with. On this trip we didn’t see a single person as we ventured out for our rides.

Since the areas we are in are away from cities and the population in general don’t expect any to have very much cell phone service at all so we got ham radios so we can keep in contact with ourselves and the outside world. This also means that you should really keep all your equipment well maintained too because you don’t want to be broken down in the middle of nowhere without cell service because of some simple fix that should have been noticed beforehand through preventative maintenance. This is something to think about before going and you always want to keep a small tool kit with you when you go.

On this trip we did a little riding and Jessica finally got big enough where she could finally start practicing some hill climbs and descending on her quad. Operating a quad over those terrains is a very important riding skill to have when you spend your time on remote trails in remote areas. I installed a ham radio on her quad so she could keep in contact with us so that helped us relax a little more when she is riding around, usually with her dog Kimber sitting on the back.

I showed Jessica which way to lean and which brake to use depending on whether she had to stop going uphill or downhill before letting her practice. My three kids got together and bought me a drone for Christmas so I was able to practice with it as she was practicing her hill climbs so it was a good day for both of us. She practiced on the small slopes before moving to a bigger one so she is getting more confident and less nervous as she goes. She is up to the moderate trail level and I would like to see her master the difficult trails before I feel comfortable with her riding in several areas that we go.

We bought all three kids Kayaks a few years ago for Christmas so we have to least bring Jessica’s any time we are at the river. She has her own room in the camp trailer and we are very lucky because her kayak fits across the top of her bunk so we can bring the slide out in making it easy to haul around. I got some drone footage of her on the river in her kayak, but I didn’t get too much footage as I was afraid of crashing the drone into the river and that would not be good.

Spending family time by a campfire at night makes a lot of good memories that video games and other things just can’t compete with. It was surprising to hear how many people have never seen the stars at night, which is something that those of us who don’t live in cities take for granted. I have to laugh every year around Christmas when I see that Yule Log channel on TV because we have real campfires and a fireplace at home so there’s no replacing the real thing. Finding dry firewood can be challenging during the fall and winter so we usually hide a few piles off of a road so we can use them later when needed. It works good as long as you can remember where they are, just make sure they’re not in a post that will be visible when the leaves fall of the trees and bushes in the fall.