Originally Posted by
tandempower
Well, think about it. If you get bailed out once, you can show profuse gratitude, but if you keep taking the risk and it happens again, the question is why you continued if you didn't want to set up another bail-out situation. So my goal is to figure out a method to take long-trips car-free and have a solid backup plan that could be used as much as needed without bothering anyone or breaking the bank.
I think self-driving vehicles would be the ideal solution for getting a ride when you need one and then not having to worry about leaving a car parked at a trail head and/or getting back to it any time soon. Plus, they could deliver groceries, pick you up wherever and bring you wherever whenever you needed them to, etc. But judging from the recent deaths that occurred so near to a legislative vote on self-driving car testing, I'm guessing it's going to be slow going getting these things deployed to the point they're available for LCF convenience. So in the meantime I'm trying to think of other kinds of backup plans.
Having self driving vehicles deliver food out on "the trail" and pick you up if you run into trouble, may be a way of not bothering people, but it's going to be awfully expensive. Why not work with what's already available? Plan your hikes to pass by existing resources like towns, resorts and truckstops (where they're accessible by foot), and to cross bus and rail lines. If you're too far off road a self driving vehicle won't be able to get to you anyway, so follow established trails where other hikers or cyclists can stop and help you and you can reciprocate as needed.