July, 2021
This morning I hitched up, said goodbye to my relatives in Darrington, and headed back down the road from Darrington, back downhill to the I-5 freeway. Then just a couple of miles south on I-5, I turned off to the right (west) and wandered in on a two-lane road to the north end of Lake Goodwin. At Lake Goodwin, I turned right (north) on a smaller road looking for my already reserved “Boondockers Welcome” campsite that was on private land.
Here’s a map below that shows Darrington on the right … and my destination on the left. My drive between the two spots took about an hour and a quarter, maybe, or less. It was a short easy drive that’s for sure.
After I pulled off onto the small road to the north of Lake Goodwin, I found the turn into the property where I would be staying.
Hmmm, yep the address is correct. But that’s a very dark hole in through those trees. I hope I’m in the right place. And … there was a deep ditch to the right of that dirt road, and a deep ditch to the left of that dirt road. Hmmm. Aw, what the heck, I’m heading in! 🙂 Come on Towhee the Trailer, let’s go in and see what’s in store for us. Towhee the Trailer said “yes! I’m right behind you! Let’s go!”
Just 30 feet or so in, the light popped through and visibility was great. If I had to back out with the trailer in tow, then I could do that.
The road turned to the right, just as the owners’ directions said. So I followed the road and … there’s their house … cool!
I pulled in towards the house and stopped. They came out and we chatted a bit, then they told me where to park the trailer and the truck. It all made perfect sense, and they were the nicest folks. This was my first “Boondockers Welcome” experience and it felt great.
I backed the trailer around and pulled back and forth a bit until all four trailer wheels were in dips in the ground such that the trailer was level. I unhitched, and then parked the truck beside the trailer. And, for the next five nights, I was home. 🙂
That’s just a storage shed behind me, no humans were in there, so it was super quiet.
I’m in the habit of parking the truck so it blocks the view of my door from other people walking or driving by, when that’s possible. I just like a little privacy. I did that here too. I figured the folks here didn’t need to see when I was getting things out of the truck … and I figured they didn’t necessarily need me to be looking at them either.
The photo above shows how far my trailer was from their home. During the time I was here, I heard their cars drive out/in a couple of times, and they had company drive in once. Other than that, I didn’t hear a peep … and I was careful to be quiet too.
Most “Boondockers Welcome” sites don’t offer electricity or water. But when I arrived, these folks asked me if I wanted electricity. They offered to run a power cord partway out to my trailer as long as I had a power cord that could reach theirs … and they would need to plug their power cord back into their trailer at night. That sounded just fine to me and was more than I expected. After an hour or so, I noticed one of them had put their power cord out on the grass, so I plugged my cord into theirs and then I put a couple of plastic chocks under the connection in order to get the connection off the grass so the following few mornings of dew wouldn’t damage either power cord or short out the connection. When they noticed I’d done that, one of them brought out a blue bucket that got the connection even further off the grass. They told me later that I’d been the only camper (of several dozens who had stayed here) the only one who put something under the connection. They really liked that. That night and every night, I noticed they did NOT disconnect the power cord as they said they would. I had plenty of battery power if they had disconnected it at night, but it was really nice to have full time electricity, especially when I knew they were paying a few bucks to provide that to me. At the end of my stay, you can bet I slipped them some money to pay for the power, even though I was not required to do that.
Off in the woods beside the driveway on their property was this sweet Asian-meditation area. I walked in here every morning with my cup of coffee.
Well, hmmm, the fellow in the photo below stayed right by that bench the whole time, and he didn’t appear to be meditating. But he was pretty cute. I called him the Energizer Moose.
This was a perfect “Boondockers Welcome” first experience. Check out that website if you’ve a mind to. I pay $50/year to be a member and I can stay anywhere I want if there’s room. Some landowners offer elec/water, most do not. A few ask to be paid a certain amount for electricity, usually $5/night. The amount of campsite space varies, depending on the … well, the amount of campsite space. So my truck/trailer of 42-feet overall, might not fit everywhere. Some landowners have room for just one campsite, others may have many campsites on their property. Some places restrict camping to just one night, and then you move on, but most seem to offer at least two nights and up to five nights. People in large cities who have a level driveway offer their driveways. There are just all sorts of options, each one determined by the landowner and their preferences.
The draw for landowners to offer their land for others of us to stay on their property is that they (the landowners) then pay a fraction of what the rest of us do in annual dues and then they too can use this system when they go camping. Of course there are rules … be polite, be quiet, keep your pets inside your rig unless you are outside with them (and they are leashed), etc … mostly just common sense things that most all of us do anyway.
I didn’t feel much trepidation regarding the Boondockers Welcome thing, but you never know about a new experience. This new experience, so far, was super. And it continued to be so.
After a good night’s sleep my first night here, I’ll head out in the morning in the big white truck for some local adventuring. I’ll share what I find. 🙂