Field Notes

The whole shelf

The camps are the tool. These are the field notes — short, plain-English how-tos from five decades in the field and hundreds of nights on free public land, plus the story of how it started.

Every one is honest about the narrow thing it knows and quiet about the rest. The rules for the unit you're in, and what you actually find on the ground, outrank anything written here. They're still drafts — Dave's fixing details as he goes.

Getting started

Your first dispersed nightThe order of operations for your very first night camping free and dispersed. Picking a dispersed spot from the truckHow to choose where to actually camp once you've driven in. Dispersed camping, the honest versionStraight tips for living on free public land, from decades of doing it. How long you can stay — stay limitsThe camp card's ~14 days is a planning guess, not the law — how to find your unit's real limit before you settle in. Dispersed camping: USFS vs. BLM vs. state landOur camps sit on 17 agencies' ground. On USFS and BLM land camping is allowed until it's closed; on most state land it's closed until it's allowed. How to tell which one you're on. Camping near a reservoirThe dam's owner rarely runs the camping, the shoreline moves on purpose, and the nearest shop is a marina store with an unpublished season. Reading your camp pageWhat the six instruments on a camp page tell you — and exactly where each one stops. How to read a camp page on this site13,520 of our camp pages are built from public records, not visits. What each instrument on them is honest about — and the four ways they get misread.

Water, power, and waste

Water on public landWhy the blue "W" on the map is a claim and not a creek — and why you treat every source, every time. Finding water when the camp has noneTwo in three camps here have no drinking water mapped within ten miles. Where to fill, why the tap may be off, and what the creek isn't. Boondock powerWhy the card leaves your battery to you, what actually drains a bank, and the generator's CO rule. Dumping grey and blackYour tanks are half the clock. A real dump station, nowhere else — and how to empty without a mess. The town runResupply without wasting the trip: batch the core list and go by what runs out first.

Roads and reading the land

Reading a NAIP aerial before you goHow to read the summer aerial on a camp page — and the handful of things a photo from the air can't tell you. Reading a forest MVUMFind and read the Forest Service travel map: where a motor vehicle is actually allowed. Reading a Forest Service road number1,456 camps here are named for a road number. How to decode one, and the four things the number will never tell you. How the road changes with the seasonThe road decides whether a camp is reachable at all. Snow, mud, and summer water. Fire restrictionsCheck the current order for your unit before you light — a ring on the ground is never permission.

Weather and terrain

Cold-weather campingHow cold breaks the water clock, and the carbon-monoxide rule you can't afford to blur. Hot-weather campingThe card never raises your water use for you. Why shade and timing beat gear you can't power. Altitude campingWhat altitude changes on the card, and why the only real fix for altitude sickness is to go down. When the high country opens and closes276 camps here sit at 9,000 ft or higher. What that number costs you in months — and why three sites at the same height melt out ten weeks apart. Bugs and crittersStore food by the unit's rules so the card doesn't lie, plus plain habits for bugs, ticks, and snakes.

When it goes wrong

When your first night goes sidewaysWhat to do when the spot doesn't work, something runs out early, or the weather turns. The tools plan; they don't rescue. Getting unstuckThe site can't pull you out. Prevention is the real recovery — and why kinetic gear can kill. Not a recovery course. Assume you'll lose signalLeave a plan with a real person, treat cell as a bonus, and know what a satellite messenger really does.

Living light and gear

Leave no tracePack out every scrap and leave the pad cleaner than you found it — trashed spots are why free camping gets closed. How I think about a rigLoading a rig for living out here: jugs vs. tanks, a 12V fridge, and keeping fuel simple. Camping with a dog on public landNone of the tools here know you brought one. Whose rules apply, and the hazards a dog finds that you won't.

Why this exists

Free Run of the WoodsHow an Illinois kid with free run of the woods ended up with nearly 500 nights in a rooftop tent — and why he built this.