Flutterby™! : few notes and a bunch of pictures on 2012-09-04 19:56:13.132906+00

few notes and a bunch of pictures on

2012-09-04 19:56:13.132906+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

A few notes and a bunch of pictures on this weekend's trip to some big trees: http://www.flutterby.net/2012-09-01_Calaveras_Big_Trees_Park

Yeah, we've been a little spooked about camping off the grid up in the Mendocino National Forest because of collateral damage from the drug war, there have apparently been incidents of violence when people wandered across pot farms out in the hinterlands, but now that our camping setup is getting pretty refined, if we're in a place where the bears aren't too aggressive we're probably gonna go off the grid.

And, yes, we definitely need to take a few weekends other than Labor Day to go find some of the national forest campgrounds, 'cause they should have decent bear coolers and pit toilets and be relatively uninhabited.

I find that State Parks tend to be more raucous than National Parks. We were at the campground at the oddly named State Forest State Park a couple years ago. The campground surrounded a nice mountain lake. It was basically us and one camper-trailer who insisted on running his generator. At about 8pm, Asha and I decided either we would just pack up and go home or get the generator to stop. We knocked on the door of the camper to ask if they mind turning it off. The guy said, "The rules say I can run my generator until 10pm. But since I'm the campground host, I guess I can turn it off after my TV show."

Most state parks (especially in Florida) have 30-day limits because retirees use them as cheap plots to park their RVs/retirement homes. They aren't there to enjoy the outdoors.

BTW, State Forest State Park is supposed to have the largest population of moose south of the Canadian border. We didn't see a single one despite getting up at dawn and heading to what is supposed to be the ideal viewing spot.

I've found BLM land to offer the best isolation from families and retirees. You do have to be careful not to end up in the middle of an ORV playground. My favorite, so far, is the Little Grand Canyon along the San Rafael River in Utah. The trick there is avoiding the river rats.