Camp Gear Inventory

Trying to make an inventory of my camping kit...

Tonight's additions --

A mouse-proof bag; plan is to put that inside a reusable grocery bag for my food. I've had issues with mice in my Jeep and am trying to make sure food can be safe in there without having to lock it in one of big boxes that might be under other stuff.

And a folding utensil set with a spoon, strainer/cheese grater, and spatula.





Thursday addition:

I think this fills a role I've been trying to figure out -- relatively lightweight for cast iron, handles unscrew so it will pack short (and you have two length options). You can use it as a pie iron, or leave them separated as two small cast iron frying pans.

Not cooking for a family, this should work well for me if I want to use a campfire instead of the propane stove.

Got my eye on a Lodge 2 quart camp dutch oven for the trip next year, but don't really need it for the next test outing.







9/12-13 Additions:

Fire poker and LED lantern joining a few goodies I showed before:






Heading out to the Adirondacks for 3-4 days, so way more food than I actually need. But makes for variety :)

-- Rice, canned tomatoes for making dirty rice (have sausages, peppers, onion to go in cooler)
-- Clam chowder, why not
-- Peanut Butter & Jelly
-- 3 Cans Tuna
-- 2 Emergency Mountain House meals
-- Pint mason jars with pie filling (have Crescent roll dough for cooler; will try to make pies in the irons)
-- Pint mason jar with olive oil; wanted to save space & weight. Same reason I didn't bring whole cans of the pie filling. Will need to make a pie with the rest of the filling when I get home though :D
-- Truvia
-- Plastic container has drink mixes sticks, instant coffee sticks, and mayonaise packets
-- (There is hot cocoa mix in the coffee cup in the kitchen box)
-- Granola Bars
-- Oatmeal
-- Bread
-- English Muffins


For the cooler I have:
-- 6 Eggs
-- Butter
-- Italian Sweet Sausage
-- Peppers
-- Onion
-- Apples
-- 2 Yogurts
-- 2 12oz containers milk (coffee)

Photos later:
Extra Clothing for 3-4 days, fall
-- 1 Pair Jeans -- 1 Pair Sweatpants -- 2 Pocket Tees, short sleeve -- 2 Pocket Tees, long sleeve crew neck -- 2 Pairs wool socks -- 3 Pair Underwear Sweatshirt (need to get from Jeep) Job Shirt?

Camping New England (and New York...)

Oh my...there actually IS dispersed car camping in New England!

Green Mountain National Forest: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb5318739.pdf

Unexpected...New York is far more generous with dispersed car camping, as long as you use designated sites:

From this excellent Reddit reply:

Yes, it is possible. There's plenty of free, first-come, first-serve roadside campsites across the Adirondack Park. The best place to do this, as recommended by /u/Drizzle11M, is the Moose River Plains complex- there's 100+ free designated roadside campsites spread throughout miles and miles of old logging roads through a remote area.

Some other options include the following. This is a lengthy list but it is far from complete:
Jones Pond, in the northern ADKs, has about a half dozen or so designated tent sites that are either car accessible or a short walk from the road.

Mountain Pond, in the northern ADKs, has a few designated tent sites just off the road.
Slush Pond Road, in the northern ADKs has a number of car accessible designated sites.
The Lake Kushaqua area in the northern ADKs has a couple of roadside/close to roadside designated sites.
Floodwood Road, in the Saranac Lake area, has a number of designated roadside tent sites.
South Meadows Road, just off the road to the Adirondak Loj, has about a dozen or so designated roadside sites (plus a few more than are a short walk off the road). However, fires are prohibited here and bear canisters are required (see more on this below). There's a small number of roadside/close to roadside sites near the junction of Routes 9 and 73 in St. Huberts. Nearby, Chapel Pond also has a couple of roadside/close to roadside sites. (Note that bear canisters will be required at some of these sites in the near future- see more on this below.)
In the Western High Peaks, Coreys Road has a bunch of designated roadside sites.
Dacy Clearing Road, near Lake George, has a number of roadside designated sites.
The Hudson River Recreation Area, near Warrensburg, has a number of roadside designated sites.
There's a bunch of roadside/close to roadside designated sites along Route 8, adjacent to the East Branch Sacandaga River and along the southern boundary of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness.
There are plans to add about 10 or so roadside/close to roadside sites on the road into Boreas Ponds, on the south side of the High Peaks Wilderness.
The road to the Deer Pond access for the Essex Chain from Newcomb has 6 roadside/close to roadside designated sites.
Both Moose Pond Way and Northwoods Club Road in the central ADKs have a number of roadside designated tent sites.
Mason Lake, just south of Lewey Lake in the central ADKs has about a half dozen or so roadside designated sites.
There's a number of roadside designated sites along West River Road in Wells, in the southern ADKs.
Powley-Piseco Road in the southern ADKs also has a bunch of roadside designated sites.
I believe there's a few roadside designate sites at North Lake, on the North Lake Tract Easement in the southwestern ADKs. Moss Lake, near Old Forge, has a bunch of designated tent sites- some are quite close to the parking lot at the trailhead. Horseshoe Lake, near Tupper Lake in the northwest ADKs has a bunch of designated roadside tent sites.
There's a number of roadside designated tent sites along Bear Pond Road and Number 1 Road in the Watson's East Triangle Wild Forest, in the northwest ADKs.
However, a few things to be aware of:
Make sure you know and understand the so called "150 foot rule." In the ADKs, camping is restricted within 150 feet of any roads, trails, or water bodies- within these buffers, you can only camp at officially designated sites. This means that you can't just pull over the side of the road at any and every spot you think looks nice and set up a car camp- it has to be a designated site. Officially designated sites are marked with a yellow plastic disc that says "Camp Here." Adhering to this regulation is super important as it helps to minimize adverse impacts on backcountry resources.
When dispersed camping in the ADKs, you are limited to a maximum group size of 9 people (8 people in some areas). You're also limited to a maximum length of stay at any campsite of 3 consecutive nights. For some areas, you can get a permit from the DEC for a larger group and/or a longer lengthy of stay (you'd want to contact the DEC several weeks in advance of your trip to ask about getting a permit). Some areas of the ADKs- including areas with roadside campsites- don't allow fires, and/or require the use of bear canisters for overnight food storage. Realistically, no ranger is going to hassle you for not having a bear canister provided that your food is stored out of sight in your vehicle, but you do need to be extra careful with food in these areas nonetheless. And the fire bans were implemented due to years of illegal tree cutting by campers and it's really important to abide by the ban- these areas get so much use that there literally is not enough dead and downed wood to sustain campfires by all users. (The Moose River Plains does not have either of these regulations.)
Many of the options for dispersed car camping in the ADKs are on seasonal dirt roads. In a normal season, most of these roads are open by late May- but after a particularly long winter, some may not open until sometime in June. So if you're planning on an early season trip, you'll need to do some careful research on road closures. (Also, be aware that the Moose River Plains has a regulation requiring either 4WD or tire chains for any vehicle entering the area after Columbus Day.) Opportunities for free roadside camping in the ADKs tend to be popular- and many of these areas do fill up every Thursday/Friday during the warmer months as weekend users make their way into the ADKs. It's worth trying to get a jump on the weekend if you want a solid chance at securing a nice site for yourself. Even the Moose River Plains, with it's 100+ sites, filled to capacity a few times last summer. And even with an early arrival, definitely have some backup plans in mind for if/when every site in a specific area is already occupied.

Haven't found a good list like that, but did find that the Catskills follow the same "Yellow Disk" designated camping site system :)

Jeep Trailer

So...I did a thing.

Picked up a 1967 Stevens M416 trailer.

To be named Going Places (Jeep is waiting for the "Been Places" hood decals).

It is going to be a long term project, and it won't be super fancy.

I want some sort of lockable cover. May end up making it from wood since I can do that myself. Maybe the wood would be a prototype for eventually aluminum diamond plate? Seems like there are a lot of good welders who are bad businessman and/or get overwhelmed when a weekend hobby gets too many orders for commercially produced lids...so I can't find one to order :/

Either swap the axle or get hub adapters so I can run the same wheels I do on the Jeep. That simplifies spare tire issues. Probably leave the track as narrow as possible; may require new fenders to cover the wider tires or some sort of mud flaps?

Switch it from the Pintle hitch to a lock-n-roll hitch.

I think that's the major stuff and see how it goes from there.

Not even sure I'd bother using it if I do a trip out west next year. But I need something to dream about, and if I manage to retire and go on a three month trip it'll make a really good base camp.

It was in condition I could've towed it home, but I felt safer to doing a new-to-me trailer on my utility trailer. The M46 is 60-1/2" fender to fender, my trailer is 61-1/8" wide :D so since it would fit might was well use it. Had to haul it home from Middleborough, MA -- back roads would have been an excruiatingly long ride through a lot of small cities like Taunton, Attleboro, and Smithfield all at the height of Saturday morning everyone running errands traffic. The ride home via 495/95/295 was made enough at 90 minutes.









Spec dimensions:

Lid:

I will probably do this, as I have the skills to work in wood, plus would kind of suck to have something metal fabricated and decide I want to change it.

Instead of the tent like this guys did in the thread, I'd probably just put some tie downs and Thule roof rack in case I want an external load.

I also like a lot his extended tongue.

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/m416-build-up.215238/

Wheel Adapters:

https://www.uswheeladapters.com/shop/m416-to-jk-wheel-adapters/
(I suspect this will also requiring re-locating the axle to under the springs which probably means new shocks. Fenders should also be wider...)

Stuff to convert from Pintle to Lock-n-Roll, plus tongue extension, available from these guys:

https://compactcampingstore.com/products/m416-trailer-receiver-tube-tongue-retrofit-kit

Tongue Jack:

This may be a bit of overkill, but looking for a large wheel to help manuever on dirt, stone driveway:

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Jack/Ark/ARK57FR.html

And finally (?) a roof rack -- can probably re-use the Thule bars from the Volvo & black Fusion :) Why? Eh, why not? Gives options if I need to carry something oddball? I hope I never need to actually add a roof top carrier to the storage already in the trailer...

The tongue tool box would be handy too...

I really like this tongue set up...but it would require extensive fabricating and welding since it replaces the whole original front:

Kind of liking both the Harbor Freight tongue box (though looking on line the Tractor Supply version looks better made...) and the jerry can mounts. Although I don't think I'll need the side mounts, I like the use of square tube. Makes me think even without a welder I could just bolt through the tub using square tube as a spacer if I do need side mount of something.

From Facebook

Possible containers for inside it:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-30-Gal-Professional-Duty-Waterproof-Storage-Container-with-Hinged-Lid-in-Red-252246/317446011?

Of course it is discontinued...for roof top tent style I've seen that would work with my bad knees, and give me an annex directly accessbile from the sleeping area so I could use a chair in the rain or setup the portable toilet. Oz Trail (Oztrail?) Outer Ridge 375 Offroad.

From Facebook