http://www.mrswagman.com.au/camping-swags-for-bikers.shtml That's a pretty good brand of swag, there are lots of options, you could get one made up at a canvas place. Get amongst it :)
Does look pretty versatile. Can also go the high-tech route for a bit more money and it will be half the weigth and pack-size. It will also acutally protect you in absolutley any type of weather. http://www.rei.com/product/763836/outdoor-research-advanced-bivy-sack http://www.rei.com/product/829851/therm-a-rest-neoair-xlite-sleeping-pad
Rheumatoid Arthritis in the hands and wrists caused me to give up bedroll camping. So I made Spud. http://youtu.be/1z7QnNkMgF0 Bed and Breakfast where ever I park.
Thankyou for this thread. I am new to adventure riding and my previous accomodations have always been in hotels. Now that I am in the Army and have actually been trained on how to camp out in "stealth" doing this while on road trips seems like a economical option.
Just read thru this thread. good stuff. To add to the Lowes Hotel, I know in Canada, Home Depot, Rona, and Canadian Tire have very similar rooms available. Canadian Tire parking lot is always a good place, and where there is a Canadian Tire, there will be food, beer, and Timmy's nearby.
Great thread! I don't do stealth camping any more due to finally belatedly settling into the usual married/kid/mortgage pattern, which does have some joys of its own, but am an alum of many nights on the side of the road sometimes in the "Aerostich Motel" & really, reeally miss the years of shoestring travel in my 20s and 30s. Until a few years ago I travelled probably 1-2months of the year and would only rent a hotel room as a LAST resort or when in desperate need of a shower. The only real drawback is that if you do it for too many nights at a stretch you start to feel a bit desperado/sketchy/homeless. Great for a week or two at a time though! Have travelled a lot by car, bicycle, and motorcycle. Of the three, motorcycle was always the most challenging for stealth camping. In a car (I usually travelled in a station wagon with just the right amount of room to stretch out a sleeping bag in the back) it is very easy to blend in for the night, even in urban settings. I have even stealth camped in the suburban sprawl of Long Island... pulled into the parking lot of a car repair place crowded with old cars after business hours, left before sunrise. Hoped the fence into a state park at dawn, showered, changed into suit and tie and was looking quite repectable in time for a graduate school interview later that morning. Even in the east, it's not too hard to find an overnight car camping spot if you don't wait till its pitch-dark to start looking. As rare as they are, it does get harder and more embarassing to talk your way out of a stealth-camping confrontation as you get older, though... now, in middle age I would hesitate to do this in crowded areas even if I was still single & carefree. On a bicycle, it's so easy to haul the bike into the woods on the side of the road and be completely out of sight. I would not hesitate to travel this way even today. Also on a bicycle you are inherently nonthreatening and approachable to strangers, in a way no motorcyclist can be. I have many times been invited in stay with or camp in the yards of strangers when on a bicycle and obviously loaded for some sort of cross-country trip, something that has rarely happened w other vehicles. Tandem bicycle with a girl/friend along is best of all for relying on the hospitality of stangers! With good judgement, never had a single bad experience this way, and many wonderful ones. Motorcycle is hardest because you don't blend into a parking area, thing's often too unweildy to manhandle into a roadside forest, and are far less likely to get a hositable reception from strangers than on a bicycle (lingering legacy of the whole Hells Angels sterotype, I guess). Have often been forced to resort to a paid state forest campsite or youth hostel bunk when on a motorcycle, especially in the Eastern US. In the western states and in parts of Canada/Scotland found it it easier. Overall, advice given here that resonates most w my experience is to start looking for a site by dusk, plan to leave before sunrise, and don't even think about a campfire. Would hesitate a bit to camp in highway medians near big interchanges as has been suggested due to surprisingly many genuinely transient/homeless and sometimes desperate folks who live in these little bits of land right on the fringe of crowded areas in the US. Patches of woods in walking distance to a crowded area or transportation hub seem questionable to me; in isolated areas, no problem. Stealth camping sounds furtive and antisocial, but it makes for a trip focussed on long days outdoors in the saddle and makes you really feel "out there in the world" not holed up in a sanitized motel room resting on the purchased safety of a credit card; those trips have been the most vividly memorable for me. Cheap was a finge benefit.
I work nights in a hospital and we had a cyclist on a cross country trip taking nap in our lobby. It is a small town hospital with no security guards so we showed him where the ICU waiting room (darker and quieter) was and gave him clean towels to use the shower. He said he had taken many naps in hospital lobbies and waiting rooms.
I recently rolled into Albuquerque NM about 11pm. I went to the airport, parked the bike, rode the shuttle into the airport and spent the night. Found a good 3 cushion couch and slept great. Rest rooms and concessions available. Next morning I rode the shuttle back to the bike, paid the five bucks and rode on. And yes it was a KLR!! Ride safe James
Been awhile since I needed a quick camp spot but it used to be you could stay at a fair grounds. There's at least one in every county here in Iowa.
Beside, my normal sleeping beside the bike included : always took my glasses into the boots, for a better finding in the morning. Till last year, when a fox took my shoe away, to bring it to his "childrens". In order to let them play with it. Never let the shoes outside the sleeping bag ! Hans from the east side off the black forest
Still is in a lot of places in the Northeast. The smaller fairgrounds tend to be better - not as many barriers to non-legal nocturnal entry.