Originally Posted by
bikenh
I use Google Earth all the time for finding campsite for numerous reasons.
Whatever floats your boat. I think all your points are valid but I also find camping in the country to be more pleasant and usually more secluded and easier to find a place where you won't be disturbed.
1) I camp out in town. I don't go out of town to camp out. I had three nights back to back in IL where I camped out within a .25 mile of a McDonalds. Two of the three nights were at a church. Most of the time in smaller towns where there was no noise of any kind overnight to deal with. If you watch the size of the towns you camp out around you can limit the noise you hear.
I would never eat at a McDonalds. I'm a veggie health nut.
2) I want to spend the daylight hours riding the bike, not hunting down food. I'll do that in the evening after I get into town. Hence why I camp out in towns all the time. I fess I'm not riding 50-75 miles a day. I'm typically riding 100-200 miles a day so I need to maximize my on bike time and minimize my daylight hours spent searching for food in grocery stores. The more time I waste in grocery stores doing what I could easily do in the evening, the less miles I ride.
You are going further than I am no doubt. 100 miles is on the high side for me.
I make a point of going thru a town sometime during the day and I pick up food while I'm there. Finding a place to get food is trivial on a smart phone, so this is a quick stop. It is a stop during the day time. But finding my campsite is not hardly any investment of time. I just start looking late in the day. I'm not really spending time doing that, since I'm just following my route. I'm not scanning around for a secluded spot on google earth - I'm just watching the scenery go by.
3) Google Earth shows you the secluded spots. Since I'm always changing my route, I never stick with the original route that I planned before I left home, I'm always changing where I plan to spend the night. Last night for example is real good proof. I spent the night in the town I was planning on spending the night in but I thought I was heading for church to spend the night. I got into town and hadn't paid close enough attention when looking at Google Earth to notice the hills were all up on a steep ridge, 15-18% grade ridge. Fortunately I had also used Google Earth and saw another church I poo-pooed on the north side of town in the valley. I went up that and found what ended up being my camp site even though it wasn't the church. Using Google Earth gives you a good idea of what an area has to offer in the way of possible campsite or the lack of campsites thereof. You can plan your route so you don't get into an area and find yourself with no place to camp.
I would use google earth if I were close to anything. Otherwise I'd rather not mess with it. Since I'm out in the country and you're close to a town, the difference between our routines makes sense.
4) I like camping in/around town to avoid having to stealth in the woods with the bugs and poison ivy/oak/sumac, etc. Rarely do I have to deal with bugs. I pretty much never setup my tent. In fact, in the past 5 nights I haven't set it up once. I've just been sleeping out under the stars or chose a nice park pavillon to camp out in when the forecast was calling for the rain the other night. My tent and all my equipment stayed high and dry thanks to using Google Earth to find the park pavillon.
Bugs are an issue. But not a difficult one. I carry some bug repellant and often use some shortly after arriving at my site. Then that's good thru the night.
The funny thing when talking about seclusion...in 4200 miles on the road in the past two months I haven't seen one bike tourist as of yet. Talk about seclusion. I guess that's the value of picking your own route and not using something like ACA to tell you how you should ride across the country. I will fess I did run into bikeandbuild.??? back in June...the Providence to San Francisco group. Otherwise, no tourist at all this year, going either direction. I can go days on end without seeing another cyclist...other than kids out riding around town.
+1