I love paying $100 annually to get something "for free". Jokes aside, I think this concept is cool and I'm not even upset that there is a membership fee to keep people engaged and to support the software component that coordinates this. But $100 per year? This feels like $50 per year TOPS! Really I feel like this should be closer to $20 per year. I think it is going to be tough to get people to pay $100 subscription…
For anyone looking for actually free, no strings attached (and no subscription) camping, check https://freecampsites.net/ instead. It's a community wiki of free camp sites, usually on federal lands of various sorts (National Forests and BLM lands often have primitive campsites with fire rings and not much else). It's great for travel around national parks, especially. But please do leave no trace, pack out what you b…
What this website provides is (and I am sorry to say this to the folk that put hard work into making this happen) lowered friction to camping. And a large number of folks do not understand LNT (see also: Instagram spots) and will be extremely destructive.
I love camping. I think it's an amazing resource. I also think it's a net negative if it ever gets popular.
You can camp for free in all unimproved areas of US national forests that aren't designated wilderness areas or otherwise designated as off limits for dispersed camping. This is something like 98% of the forests. The exact rules can vary a bit from place to place, so always check with the ranger station in that area (don't rely on the website!) for anything special. You usually need to have a permit if you're parking…
Most of that is awesome, thanks! Why no camping in wilderness areas, though? They tend to be some of the best places to go -- if you're prepared with proper gear. I think camping is allowed in the majority of it, though some areas may require permits? https://wilderness.net/learn-about-wilderness/regulations.ph...
Designated wilderness areas are ones that are particularly fragile, or are particularly popular. You can actually camp in them, but you need a permit to do so.
Most actual wilderness areas are not Designated Wilderness Areas. It's a special category. If you're unsure of the area you intend to be in, call the ranger station in that area. They're really very nice, and are eager to help people enjoy the forests.
No, in a lot of areas when you are dispersed camping you are allowed to make fire rings. You could be camping 20 miles deep into the woods. There will not magically be a fire ring there for you. However, if there does happen to be a fire ring close by, use that one and not create a new one.
One of the many idiosyncrasies of the English language. The sentence > Don't make fire rings where they already exist means both: 1. If there is an existing fire ring, do not re-use it. Make a new fire ring somewhere else instead; and 2. If there is an existing fire ring, please re-use it. Do not make a new fire ring somewhere else instead. What they _meant_ was the second interpretation, and not the first one.
I like the stupidly literal interpretation that you should not make a fire ring exactly in the same spot as an existing fire ring, but that any other spot, even abutting an existing fire ring, is permitted.
For anyone looking for actually free, no strings attached (and no subscription) camping, check https://freecampsites.net/ instead. It's a community wiki of free camp sites, usually on federal lands of various sorts (National Forests and BLM lands often have primitive campsites with fire rings and not much else). It's great for travel around national parks, especially. But please do leave no trace, pack out what you b…
This site is so disappointing for the Columbus, OH area - literally the only entries I see are Wal-Mart parking lots.
Put the credits on a blockchain. Allow hosts to accumulate and sell them. When you're in the VC meeting for this keep using the phrase "blockchain meets the road". Once the VCs run out of money to give you, make sure you give your company a big genesis block and buy some tokens with your personal money. PUMP! Profit. Selling the company before the house of cards comes down is a bonus if you can time it right.
Also, you leave out (which the comment you mentioned does) - please respect local rules. For instance, in Death Valley, you can free camp most anywhere (refer to NPS guidelines) two miles off of a designated roadway.
But try to be aware of what you're signing up for: Death Valley Germans [0] [0] https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hu...
I spent 10 days in death valley offroading. You aren't signing up for that if you stay on trails, even ones that are marked for 4x4s. We did 700 miles INSIDE death valley, yet all on real dirt trails. Would I leave an official trail in death valley? No. Is it perfectly safe as long as it's not 110+, even if you have a mechanical failure? Yes.
Couchsurfing's downfall was lack of money (and incredibly poor use of funds) that led to the sale to the bizarre monetizing and "creepy engagement" scheme that ruined it. I would pay $300/yr if it would restore the Couchsurfing community and original site. If this $100 site led to the kind of community we used to have, it's a bargain. But it's not clear yet whether they will foster a community.
I sadly stopped hosting a few years ago. What happened to the community/site? I must've missed that part?
They killed the useful forums, made the login page a "dashboard" so useless you had to bookmark other pages to remember how to get to them, made a bunch of unrelated sections nobody wanted, increased font sizes so you couldn't fit much on the page and thus finding useful information got worse, ignored feature requests, refused all offers of volunteer tech work, introduced a "chat with random people nearby" that led to 30 dudes trying to hook up with the only female in town, and added fees to verify or send couch requests. All of which led to an exodus of any of the active users to random Facebook groups. Now the site is mainly for people to try and hook up while traveling, there's no community to teach people to act hospitably, profiles are garbage, and few people host anyone but the opposite sex. There are still some good people who use it the right way, but way more who don't. It's arduous, inconvenient and sketchy now.
I understood #2: if there is a fire ring, do not make another fire ring (implied: use the existing one).
I understood #3: "Just don't make fire rings anywhere because nobody knows anymore. Even the archaeologists aren't sure where the old ones came from." Besides, we're down to like, what, 4 days a year where the fire risk is low enough? Bring a camp stove and a LED candle :)
Pretty much this for much of the US.
Fire risk is just too high, even if rings exist. Use a camp stove. If you really want a fire pit, go to a non-dispersed/non-backcountry campground that has nice large fire pits in cleared areas (still not zero risk, but less risk than some of the janky small rings I’ve come across).