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Wife and I went camping this weekend after a planning for month we had to go last minute because she said it was too cold this weekend (low 30's at night) to go camping. I suggested a Buddy Heater and Friday morning she agreed to go. By then it was too late to unload all my work stuff from my truck, load all the camping gear, go food shopping, etc. So I looked at Google Earth and found a place not far away that looked promising.
BTW...If you haven't tried using Google Earth and Google Maps to scout out new territory I highly suggest it. (Obviously a good map is still needed but more on that later) You can use the satellite images and maps to see where the roads go and even check out pictures others have taken of the area when available. And, Google Earth will even show you the terrain. Takes a bit of getting used to but it is a useful tool.
Anyway, we headed out to a place that I still don't really know what to call because I have never heard a name for it but it is north east of one of the lakes we have here in AZ. Left with no map but the coordinates in the GPS and confident it would get us to the spot or at least close enough that we could find it on our own. And there WAS a misplaced road on the GPS but it DID get us close enough to find the turnoff. The problem was that the road was closed and I didn't plan a alternate location like I should have.
No problem, we are dispersed campers and just need a clearing to set up our gear so we set off on an adventure looking for a small road off the 'main' road we were on. Just to get away from any traffic that might be headed through. We found one a short distance up the road and headed in. A little rougher than I would have thought but not too bad. The real problem was that there were deep ruts in the road from past rain but I have a truck so even that wasn't a problem. A little ways back we find a clearing with a worn out fire ring and pull in. It was pretty big so I backed the truck into the back and started to unload.
Like I said, the fire ring was pretty warn out and near the road (it actually ended up being in front of my truck) so I just made a new one. After getting everything set up we started to enjoy ourselves and noticed that the only sounds of civilization we heard was planes flying over. I don't think we even heard one car on the road that first day. I felt so secure that after my wife complained that the Portable Buddy Heater didn't work long enough or hot enough on low that first night that we decided to head into town and buy a hose to hook it up to my 20lb tank for the next night. Town was farther then we thought and we ended up being gone for 5 hours. Still no sign of anyone when we got back. I didn't know if it was because that area of the forest isn't used much or that it is still so early in the season...or maybe a combination of those 2...or maybe because we were on private land.
I don't know how I missed it on the first trip in but we passed through a barbed wire fence that someone had cut open. I decided to stay where we were because it is a lot to tear down and move and it was already late afternoon. Besides we are good campers and pack out all our trash so except for the fire ring there isn't really any sign that we had been there.
Fun trip though and using Google to scout out new locations is definitely something I will continue to do in the future. I will just have a couple backup plans and a map before heading out.
I am pretty sure this is where we were:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.92...ed=0CCoQ8gEwAA
BTW...If you haven't tried using Google Earth and Google Maps to scout out new territory I highly suggest it. (Obviously a good map is still needed but more on that later) You can use the satellite images and maps to see where the roads go and even check out pictures others have taken of the area when available. And, Google Earth will even show you the terrain. Takes a bit of getting used to but it is a useful tool.
Anyway, we headed out to a place that I still don't really know what to call because I have never heard a name for it but it is north east of one of the lakes we have here in AZ. Left with no map but the coordinates in the GPS and confident it would get us to the spot or at least close enough that we could find it on our own. And there WAS a misplaced road on the GPS but it DID get us close enough to find the turnoff. The problem was that the road was closed and I didn't plan a alternate location like I should have.
No problem, we are dispersed campers and just need a clearing to set up our gear so we set off on an adventure looking for a small road off the 'main' road we were on. Just to get away from any traffic that might be headed through. We found one a short distance up the road and headed in. A little rougher than I would have thought but not too bad. The real problem was that there were deep ruts in the road from past rain but I have a truck so even that wasn't a problem. A little ways back we find a clearing with a worn out fire ring and pull in. It was pretty big so I backed the truck into the back and started to unload.
Like I said, the fire ring was pretty warn out and near the road (it actually ended up being in front of my truck) so I just made a new one. After getting everything set up we started to enjoy ourselves and noticed that the only sounds of civilization we heard was planes flying over. I don't think we even heard one car on the road that first day. I felt so secure that after my wife complained that the Portable Buddy Heater didn't work long enough or hot enough on low that first night that we decided to head into town and buy a hose to hook it up to my 20lb tank for the next night. Town was farther then we thought and we ended up being gone for 5 hours. Still no sign of anyone when we got back. I didn't know if it was because that area of the forest isn't used much or that it is still so early in the season...or maybe a combination of those 2...or maybe because we were on private land.
I don't know how I missed it on the first trip in but we passed through a barbed wire fence that someone had cut open. I decided to stay where we were because it is a lot to tear down and move and it was already late afternoon. Besides we are good campers and pack out all our trash so except for the fire ring there isn't really any sign that we had been there.
Fun trip though and using Google to scout out new locations is definitely something I will continue to do in the future. I will just have a couple backup plans and a map before heading out.
I am pretty sure this is where we were:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.92...ed=0CCoQ8gEwAA
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