September 6, 2004—Why We Boondock. We never pay if we can get it for free.

 (If you’ve never boondocked…here’s a compelling reason.)  

Ok, so not all of our boondocking spots are as luscious as this one along the Big Hole River in western Montana, but we do often find fabulous places to stay where we have the entire place to ourselves. Such was our luck yesterday at coming across Fishtrap Fishing Access on Hwy. 43 between Divide and Wisdom, MT. However, I can’t take full credit for finding this place since I had read about it on Norm and Linda Payne’s website first.

We’ve had friends who ask, “How do you find those places?” Well, practice makes perfect! We’ve been doing it now for about 15 years and once you’re in the habit of looking, you automatically zero in on good candidates; even to the point where we go down the highway and say to each other “boondocking spot!” as we pass potential after potential. We also have friends who didn’t realize the extent to which we boondock. When we are on the road traveling, we boondock almost exclusively. The only time we go into an RV park is if we want to stay in a national park (which is boondocking in its way since there are no hookups), visit friends who are located in a park, or there just isn’t any good boondocking available where we want to be—the Oregon coast is a good example. And no, folks, staying overnight at Wal-Mart isn’t boondocking. That’s dry camping a parking lot. 

Why do we boondock? Well, privacy and low cost are probably the primary reasons. Full hookups aren’t important to us since we pack all we need with us. In addition to our regular water tank, we carry two 55 gallon drums of water on the truck. Our Freightliner carries a 10kw diesel generator plus our trailer sports a 2000 watt inverter which we use for power during the day. We have a macerator, which makes emptying the holding tanks into any sewage receptacle practical.  

While others are sitting eight or ten foot from their neighbor in a high priced RV park, we’re sitting in places like this. No one within sight; no one within hearing. I can start my generator for coffee at 5 a.m. if I feel like it since there are no rules out here. Marc can fire up his welder or make other loud work noises and no one says anything because there’s no one around to complain.

For those of you relatively new to RVing, who think you might someday like to try a totally different style of travel; we suggest you give this a shot. Just be sure your RV is properly equipped with the necessary power generating options (large batteries, generator or solar, inverter, etc.) so you can have an enjoyable experience. There’s nothing worse than finding and getting to a great place (a lot of where we park is off road) and you only have enough battery power to keep you going for one or two days; your batteries then die and you end up calling a tow truck for a jump.  

So, the next time that neighbor in the RV park drives you nuts or they charge you $30.95 for the privilege of staying less than 12 hours overnight and you get to listen to freeway noise all night to boot, think about the way the Duske’s do it. It really is better out here!