The Big Piney Woods and the Muddy Mississippi

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Our drive out of the Texas Hill Country yesterday was pleasant. We enjoyed our stay even though we didn't see much of it. We will go back in the future when we can avoid the spring break crowds! We continued on back roads and skirted south of Austin. Then we continued east. Gradually the hills flattened out again and we saw lots of ranches, farms and small towns until we reached the town of Crockett. Guess who that was named after? We were traveling on the Camino Real, the early route taken by the settlers and Mexicans coming to claim this part of Texas as part of Mexico. I find Texas history a bit confusing. What part belonged to whom and when, and who fought with whom for what part?! Anyway, Davey Crockett traversed this route on his way to fight and die in the battle of the Alamo in San Antonio.

The nearby Davey Crockett National Forest is named after him, (of course...) and we climbed a bit into the Texas version of more hills. The lakeside campground was closed due to the drought of the last few years. There are so many dead trees that it is unsafe to be in parts of the national forest if the wind is blowing. Trees are falling down. We found out that dispersed camping is still allowed in other areas, as long as you stay away from the areas slated for prescribed burns. After determining that we could dry camp near the trailhead for the Neches Overlook, we took a dirt road off the paved route and found a private spot away from the few tenters there. The wind was not blowing, and the trees in that spot looked safe, so we backed into a previously camped in area off the dirt road.

Dispersed or dry camping, or boondocking is allowed on Bureau of Land Management Lands, National Forests and some other public lands. As long as you abide by the rules, meaning; staying just off a roadway and not too close to water sources, and pack out your trash, you can stay for 14 consecutive days. We've boondocked twice on BLM land at Quartzsite, AZ, but this was our first national forest experience. It was lovely to be back in the pines with no neighbors and lots of quiet.

This morning we left our peaceful site and got back on the road to cross over into Louisiana. The environment got greener and wetter the farther east we drove. We stayed on the back roads and thought we would disperse camp again in a Louisiana national forest, but we passed them all too early in the day. There are some other public lands in the eastern part of the state, but we were having trouble accessing camping information. Backroads mean poor cell coverage and thus no web. Our paper sources weren't very helpful either, so we made the decision to keep going over to Natchez, Mississippi and see if we could get into Natchez State Park. We still didn't know if we would run into more campgrounds full of spring breakers.

We crossed back over the Mississippi River during rush hour and found the campground just as the office was closing. The ranger told us to go find a campsite and pay in the morning, so after a good look around we took a space in the less crowded campground that isn't on the lake. There is just us and one tent on our loop, so it is quiet. I expect that last night will be the last of our boondocking for a while. Now that we are back east there are very few places to boondock on public lands, though we may wind up in some more truck stops or WalMarts again!

A week ago we were driving through Joshua Tree National Forest headed for a boondocking camp at Quartzsite, Arizona. Two weeks ago we were camped on the Pacific Ocean at Montana de Oro State Park in California! We just turned over 10,000 more miles on the RV during the four months we have been on the road. A year ago we hadn't even considered selling the house and traveling. Life takes some crazy twists and turns when you step out and take risks!