Touring - Florida/Camping

Will go north from Ft. Pierce to Virginia on March 10th following the coast more or less. Since I do not know how far I can go/day(50-75 miles) I don't want to reserve camp sites. What are the chances of finding a place in a camp ground each night ? Has anyone asked to share a site with someone already camping(paying 1/2 of course)? Anyone want to join me? Any Cheap motels aong the way? Gary

join warm showers list (wsl.org). share!

I am totally unfamiliar with both your starting point and your destination, but I tour and I often find there are no campgrounds where I want to camp. When I do find a campground it is full of Winnebagos, their owners running generators to keep the freezer and the AC going. That's not camping.

I'd first take a look at Ken Kifer's (MPBUH) web site (http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/camping.htm)

It is a great site to establish the relevance of stealth camping when bike touring. Although I could never hope to compete with Ken's site, (sadly now a memorial to him) I do offer my stealth camping journal (http://stealthcamping.crazyguyonabike.com ) as a resource who want to give it a try.

Happy touring!

There are plenty of campgrounds in Fl. that cater to all the tourists and snowbirds in RV's.The problem is this is now peak snowbird/tourist season thus the campgrounds tend to stay full this time of year.In addition, the many state parks(and to a lesser extent the federal parks) use Reserve America to handle reservations only holding a few sites aside for walk ups.Since RA requires 48 hours advance reservation this means once the allotment for walkups is gone no more sites will be available even if RA hasn't sold out the rest of its sites(which as I alluded to above is unlikely in itself during winter).Further some coastal hotspots such as Daytona and popular hiking/canoeing areas such as Ocala Nat'l Forest will be further affected by spring break which will be in full swing by mid March.

I have toured around much of Fl. but for reasons Stokell mentioned always prefer to stealth camp.So while I have heard of others sharing sites with people already camped, I have not tried it myself.Cheap motels are plentiful but for similar reasons to those mentioned above it may be hard to find vacantcies in many areas.

Outside of Fl. there will likely be fewer campground options but the competition will also be much less this time of year(their offseason) so your chances of walking up are probably much greater.Plus there will likely be enough cheap motels with vacancies if it starts getting too cold to camp.

If you are taking the Adventure cycling route their maps detail campgrounds etc.,and for the East Coast Greenway you might check their website for what resources they offer.If you are taking your own route, the Delorme state maps offer campground info etc.Also AAA has alot of campground/motel info for its members and for Fl. the Visit Florida website has campground/motel info including a nice campground directory(and much other info) you can have them send you for free.