Date:         Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:28:08 -0700
Reply-To:     Jeffrey Vickers <jeff@VICKERSDESIGN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeffrey Vickers <jeff@VICKERSDESIGN.COM>
Subject:      Re: vanagon Digest - 26 Mar 2007 to 27 Mar 2007 - Special issue
              (#2007-325)
In-Reply-To:  <20070327175722.45FEE51383D@vickersdesign.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

I don't think you would have gotten away with camping there if it
were summer or thereabouts. The cops along CA 1 are pretty adamant
about roadside camping when the teeming hoards arrive. There are some
really nice dirt roads up above Big Sur that gliders launch from that
make excellent camping spots and are often above the summer fog and
cold. You can access one of them, Plaskett Ridge Road, by turning
left shortly after the Sand Dollar campground as you head south. I've
camped up there a few times and never seen another person. It
eventually runs into a military base so don't go too far in to camp.
Really pretty up there and you can't beat the view.

Jeff
On Mar 27, 2007, at 10:48 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Date:    Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:03:19 -0800
> From:    Nathaniel Poole <myth.wright@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: camping spots at 9:00 PM
>
> A universal problem in the west is the fear the authorities have for
> the unauthorised human body. If you leave home, you are expected to go
> to approved overnight parking spots, for which you are supposed to
> pay. Anywhere else you are suspicious - perhaps a hold over from the
> Depression when so many vagrancy laws were passed to deal with the
> movements of desperate people. It's very frustrating to pass perfectly
> good stopping-over places in the westy with gates across the road or
> signs forbidding access except during the day. It's the same in
> certain Canadian provinces (mostly Ontario). Fortunately in BC, Alta,
> Sask, you can usually pull over pretty much anywhere you want.
>
> Anyway, we found a great spot of the highway at Big Sur -there is a
> road to Pfieffer beach rec area. Closed at night of course, but just
> before the ferociously forbidden parking area there is a big gravel
> turn around, and we pulled off there. The silence was absolute, the
> stars gorgeous. No traffic noises, nothing. And coffee at the
> Ripplewood cafe the next morning where we had the best breakfast since
> leaving BC.
>
> As for Van Island I haven't done much bsides Victoria and Long
> Beach/Tofino, but I heartily recommend the series of backroad
> mapbooks. They will show all the forest service campsites and old
> logging roads to small lakes and such. A must if you want to get away
> from the crowds.