Bama... How do you find your campsites? I've been wanting to do a trip, but finding enough legitimate campsites along the way seems difficult at best. Also, no national forests to camp in either. Did you you ever make it to CA? How were the roads there?
"Leave nothing but footprints" is the guiding rule.
If I was going to list my priorities doing this solo touring, the top 5 would be:
1. Security - don't want anybody throwing the bike on the back of a truck, leaving me afoot.
2. Privacy - I'm not going to be singing my lungs out, so once I'm 100 yards off the road, rarely does a passing car notice.
3. Weather - if there is a chance of rain, I look for an abandoned property, with a porch I could use, a barn I could duck into. In super-windy Kansas, round hay bales provided the break.
4. Dry wood - I build a small Indian-style fire at 50% of the camps, and I make sure every indication of me being there is erased the next morning, washed away with the next rainfall.
5. Possible bike inspection/tuning/servicing - one time I rotated tires, another I rotated the belt, last trip fixed a brake pad. So I look for something with exposed rafters to sling the rope, or a good sturdy low branch.
Notice I'm not looking for shower privileges or handy vending machines. Parks or KOA campgrounds would be crowded and full of potential bike thieves. I stayed in one park in Oklahoma, and had a sheriff's patrol car come up, they didn't bother me, said they were looking for teenaged rowdies.
I will use a park during the day, but for pitching the tent, it has too many minuses. A ranger in the Okefenokee let me use their facilities, national forests seem more accessible, less traffic'd than parks & monuments.
I'm not looking for scenic postcard vistas either, 90% of the time in camp is in the dark, and I'm packing up when the pre-light of the sun appears, usually on the road when it first rises. I've gone up to an hour in the earliest mornings, barely seeing a passing car, truck, schoolbus or tractor, that's how ready I am to get moving.
The day of the week is important, I know Saturday and Sunday mornings will be the best days to tackle big cities, and plan accordingly.
Here in the south timber properties are abundant. Buncha carpet baggers are only paying a $2-3 an acre property tax, re-lease it to hunting clubs, so there is a very low guilt factor searching down a logging road.
That picture above, my pup tent in the green, green sudex grass?
That was 8-10 miles from Watkinsville, GA, a newish subdivision with 5 brick McMansions on the right, and empty 1.5 acre lots on the left. I hit it about 5:00 p.m., scouted it by going to the dead end, then chose the best "lot for sale". I heard the residents pass by, but then twas quiet after 7.
You gain more confidence by experience. Since I'm already on the rural two lanes, where the population is lowest, I might come to another narrower un-striped paved road, shoot up that a few minutes and come across a dirt road with no mailboxes...Eureka.
It used to be 50% of the time I'd pat myself on the back, found perfect situation, like a small holler protected by hills on three sides.
Nowadays, 75% of the time I'm very pleased with what I find.
