Mike weighs in on moto-camping…and more!

That’s good buddy Mike in the photo above, a very interesting guy I met on our most recent Baja ride.  He’s a former US Army 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper, and for the last year or so he’s been living off his BMW and camping as he goes.    Mike penned a piece on motocamping, and he sent it to us here on ExhaustNotes.

Here’s Mike’s take on this topic…

Camping can be fun and enjoyable for everyone if you plan properly and set realistic expectations. The same can be said for camping on a motorcycle. Over the past year and a half I have made it a point to camp on my moto at least once a week, and for the weeks I have not met this goal there are long weekends and vacations where I more than make up for it.

Throughout the past year I have been frequently asked how I choose a campsite on a moto. In this blog I wanted to answer that question from my personal experience.

For the first couple times using a KOA or other publicly-used campground is a great way to ease into camping. You will be camping, but close enough to stores and facilities that you can begin to gauge what you need and start to define your personal camping comfort zones.

After camping in that environment, and after you invariably get sick of listening to kids screaming and another annoyances from humans, you can experiment with camping for free in National Forests.  A good note to remember is that National Forests are free to camp in, but National Parks are not.

Over the past year I found a number of free remote campsites. I use www.freecampsites.com or I look for National Forests on maps. Once in a National Forest locate a Forest Road (FR) and ride a few miles down it. Many of these FR’s are doable even for street bikes but be aware of changing road conditions as you navigate them. You will often see the remains of a campsite marked with stones from a previous campfire. For me this is the perfect indication that someone has camped here before and is a safe location.

Moto camping is an easy and inexpensive way to escape the rat race with less effort then many would think. Moto camping experiences are some of the most rewarding that I have had throughout my adventures. Being so removed from everything as you sit relaxing in the glow of a warm campfire reflecting off your moto is a fulfilling feeling that few venture to achieve.

At the end of his email to me earlier today, Mike asked if I had any rides planned.  Actually, Mike, the answer to that most excellent question is yes.   I’m thinking about two motorcycle rides, either one of which might involve camping, so your blog today was very timely.

One ride I’m thinking about is another Baja adventure, and this one would involve more dirt riding than usual (at least for me).  I’m thinking about a run up to Mike’s Sky Ranch in northern Baja (I’ve never made that trek, and I always wanted to).  Another variation, perhaps part of the same ride, would include a leg from Chapala on the Transpenisular Highway near Catavina through Coco’s Corner to the Sea of Cortez (a 23-mile unpaved section).   And another possibility is a run from San Felipe down to Bahia de Los Angeles on the Sea of Cortez, which involves about 70 miles on dirt.  I’d like to do this on my CSC TT250, just to say that I did.  I’m thinking maybe December for this ride.

There’s another ride on the horizon that my good buddy Dan the K is setting up, and he was kind enough to extend an invitation to me.  Dan rode with me a couple of times in Baja on the CSC motorcycles, once on his RX3 and once on his TT250.

The ride Dan is planning is a much longer adventure ride up to Inuvik in Canada’s Northwest Territories.   That ride will involve a lot of camping.  It’s coming up next summer, and I’ll keep you clued in on the planning right here on the ExhaustNotes blog.

I’m excited about both rides.  On that Baja ride…anybody want to ride with me?  Hey, let us know here at info@exhaustnotes.us!