theboondork's RV blog

Just thinking out loud

4/27/2018

Boondocking sunset elephant Butte state Park New Mexico

the sunset taken from my humble boondocking spot at Elephant Butte state Park New Mexico

By the looks of the traffic coming into the park today its going to be a busy weekend. I was thinking that the weekend was going to be kind of quiet because they're calling for clouds and a chance of rain for both Saturday and Sunday and I thought that would dissuade some folks from coming to the Park, but so far it looks like that's not going to be the case.

Last night I started thinking about something that sounded like a lot of fun but I don't know if it would be possible to pull it off. I got to thinking about when I get to my daughter's house in Denver how cool it would be to take some short trips into the Colorado mountains every once in a while and visit some of the places that I used to be able to go when I had a slide in camper on the back of my pickup truck, and the camper along with four-wheel-drive allowed me to go places in the backcountry that would be difficult, and or scary to get to with the trailer.

Now I love living and traveling in the Arctic Fox, in fact I can't think of any other way I'd rather live and travel, but there's a lot of places in the Colorado mountains where a large trailer simply won't fit especially with my limited backing skills. But on the other hand, just driving a truck to these places is not only easy but fun.

The problem is I no longer have a slide in camper nor the desire to own one. So I would need to find a way to be able to camp comfortably without spending a lot of money and make it an enjoyable experience rather than a test of my survival skills.

The most obvious thing that comes to mind would be to buy a tent, but it's been a long time since I've slept in a tent and most of my memories of tent camping are ones of cold wet misery. And even though it will be summer when I would be doing these mini trips the mountains can get awfully cold above 10,000 feet especially at night and I have personally witnessed snow in August.

So if I decide to do these little short-term excursions into the wilds of Colorado I'm going to have to find a way to do it and stay comfortable. I don't want this to be a test of my endurance and stupidity, I've already been tested for those and passed with flying colors, I just want to be able to stay warm, dry, and comfortable so the whole thing will be fun and not feel like a rerun of Survivorman.

theboondork

Arctic Fox boondocking elephant Butte state Park

the late afternoon sun casts a warm glow on the Arctic Fox.

12 Comments

Barney Ward

4/27/2018 04:39:10 pm

It is called a motel. Fix your own meals etc but sleep in a motel was the solution I used a few years ago.

Tom

4/27/2018 05:22:18 pm

I used to do the motel thing myself Barney, But that was before hundred dollar a night motels were common, bedbug infestations became a problem, and getting a discount just by asking is laughed at instead of accepted.

But the main thing is there are very few if any motels where I would be going, and since it will be the height of tourist season everything gets very expensive and very busy in little mountain tourist towns. In fact even finding National Forest campsites can be a challenge which is why I want to be able to go where most people can't or don't think they can.

I'm thinking of places where I used to fish or hunt Elk, or some of the little ghost towns that are scattered all through the mountains that I haven't been to in many years. Every summer I think about doing what I'm talking about but I've never been able to put all the pieces together mainly because I don't want to rough it, at least not much. So every summer I give up on it and say to myself, maybe next year.

But this time I'm going to figure out a way to be comfortable, in the mountains without an RV, where it's not uncommon to experience all four seasons in one day.

Tom

Tim

4/27/2018 09:43:40 pm

In one of the comment sections in another post, you had recommended that I might possibly tent camp on my way back from South Dakota to here with a new truck. That got me to looking at those tents that fit over a truck bed. I'm like you - I don't want to be cold and wet when I camp anymore, but it looked like those might have some advantages in that department. I haven't ruled it out yet; might be something you want to try (preferably before I buy one so you can let us know what you think).

4/28/2018 10:31:56 am

I spent a little time this morning looking into those truck tents. I looked at places they were for sale, and I looked at some videos of people putting them up and talking about them, because to tell you the truth I had never paid much attention to them before so it never crossed my mind that they could be one of my options. So after familiarizing myself with their concept here's what I think.

Some of the good things are....

They get you up off the ground and out of the mud.

They're very reasonably priced.

They will be a good conversation starter with the younger folks.

They make you look less like a burrito to a hungry bear.

Things that aren't too good....

Getting up on the tailgate and into the tent can be difficult or impossible depending on your state of geezerlyness.

From what I've seen their rather fiddly and time-consuming to put up especially for one person, and for some models you can add difficult to that list.

Once the tent is up the mobility of the truck is extremely limited. [You can't go running into town to get that bag of ice you badly need]

The bed of a pickup truck is rather bumpy and not much fun to crawl around on. Something would have to be put in the bed of the truck to make it smooth.

And lastly, the truck tent doesn't seem to give you a whole lot more benefits than just setting a freestanding two man tent in the bed of your truck, which is something I'm looking into a little deeper. The available bed space you would have in a short bed General Motors truck like mine with the tailgate down would be 102 inches long and 51 inches wide between the wheel wells. There's probably a lot of two man tents that would just fit right in there.

Tom

4/28/2018 10:52:59 am

I went through two truck mounted tents. They worked well and ;you can drive around with them up at lower speeds. They were good for getting you out of the mud when it is wet. All of your thoughts on them were very valid. The only real benefit was keeping me out of the insects like scorpions. I would not prefer one over a good Eureka Tetragon 7 if I were to be FOOLISH enough to tent camp again.

4/28/2018 11:38:28 am

Since I've never been in one before or even seen one in person I was just wondering how did you handle getting into the tent, did a stepstool have enough height? My lowered tailgate hits me just about an inch below my belt so the stepstool I have wouldn't help me very much.

And how did you solve the bumpy floor problem? When I have to crawl around in the bed of my truck its really tough on my knees. And if I have to do any work in the bed I wear kneepads.

I checked out the Eureka Tarragon 7 tent you mentioned because I'm also looking at larger tents that I could use if I'm going to stay someplace for a couple of days, and that is a nice tent but it's only 52 inches high and if I'm going to live in something for more than one day I want to be able to stand up to get dressed.

Camping in a tent is near the bottom of the ways I prefer to sleep in the woods. Naked covered in barbecue sauce is the absolute bottom. I would far away prefer a little slide in camper but I have no place to store it and it would get too little use to justify the cost.

And this is the reason I never manage to take these little excursions into the mountains, it always comes down to how do I sleep, how do I eat, how do I keep my computer working, and somewhere in all of that I can never make it all come together. But this time due to modern technology and an increased desire to accomplish this I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it work

Tom

4/28/2018 01:08:16 pm

I had a four foot step ladder for getting into the truck bed. I have always used a self inflating sleeping pad as thick as I could buy one for sleeping. The truck floor was not fun.To have a tent tall enough for you to stand in would require a huge tent. All in all I recommend that a person decide to be miserable or stay away from tents in my experience.

4/28/2018 02:22:02 pm

The little ladder is a good idea. That would have to be a pretty thick self-inflating pad to hide the bumps in the floor my truck, I'm thinking more like an inflatable mattress.

You hit the nail on the head when you say it takes a huge tent to stand up in, because that's been one of my major problems. A lot of tents that have 6 feet of height also have a 10 x 10 foot print which is way too much tent for one person to deal with.

When I was hunting, my hunting buddies and I stayed out in the mountains in different ways, we've stayed at motels, in a class C motorhome, and in tents. And one time we used two four-man tents for the four of us and we were actually very comfortable. We were all sleeping on cots which helps a lot and with only two of us in a four-man tent there was plenty of room for our gear and to move around and I remember the tents had an 8 x 8 footprint with plenty of room to stand up.

So keeping that in mind I've been looking at tents that are about 8 x 8 that I can stand up in and so far one of my favorites is the REI kingdom 4 person tent. This looks to me like it's big enough to live in for two or three days but not so big that its hard to set up. I haven't seen one in person yet but when I get to an REI I'll check them out.

Tom

John link

4/28/2018 02:52:42 pm

Have you looked at the Spring Bar tents? They seem to be well made. There was a lady on Bob Wells' youtube channel who was living in one.

4/28/2018 03:54:57 pm

Thank you for that information John, that's just the kind of ideas I'm looking for. I had never heard of Springbar tents before so I looked them up and read some things about them, and they certainly do look strong.

But for my situation I'm not sure if they would work. The smallest one I could find which I could stand up in was the Campsite 3 model but it was still 10 feet long which is pretty big.

Another problem for me would be these tents aren't freestanding, they have to be staked out before you can set them up. Which is sometimes difficult to do in rocky soil which is pretty common in the mountains. And it also precludes the ability to move or turn the tent if the need should arise.

The other problem is a mental one for me but powerful nonetheless, and that is it looks exactly like the old tents that my parents took me camping in when I was a little kid that gave me the memories of being cold and wet while camping. Now I know this tent is way better than that, but were dealing with childhood memories here that are hard to overcome. In fact somewhere I've got a picture of me at five or six years old standing outside a tent that looks just like that.

I do like the fact that its made in America, In fact it may be the only tent that is, but unfortunately that's just not enough to overcome the childhood memories I have of leaky wet tents.

Tom

4/29/2018 11:56:29 am

I'll add one other con for the truck tent: I was reading somewhere and someone had wrote that you had to be careful with the tent poles because it's very easy to jab them into your truck (especially when camping alone) leaving a scratch. Not something I wanted to risk with a brand new truck.

4/29/2018 12:57:09 pm

I'm pretty much off the truck tent idea there just seems to be too many problems associated with it to outweigh the benefits. But the truck tent idea made me start thinking about putting an ordinary two man tent in the bed of the truck and I'm in the process of getting more information to see if that would work for me.

And the reason I'm exploring that even further is because I'm considering the possibility of using two tents. Leave it to me to make things as complicated as possible. A decent quality 4 man tent to use when I'm going to stay someplace for a few days. And an inexpensive, quick to set up one or two man tent to use for overnight stays, which can be used on the ground or in the back of the truck if the need should arise. Always keeping in mind that comfort is king.

Tom

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