REPOST: California’s Most Spectacular Camping Spots: Where to Camp in California

California remains a haven for outdoor enthusiasts as it has numerous forests and parks that are great for campers of all ages. Travel writer Tracey Friley lists on TravelChannel.com a few of these campsites.

Image Source: TravelChannel.com

Right here in the Golden State of California, more than 70 years after The Camper’s Handbook was written by a Brit who traveled as a boy 1,200 miles across America’s prairie land by wagon in the 19th century, my family took camping road trips within and across California borders. With a family caravan of motorcycles instead of horses, and a big beige-and-brown RV instead of a wagon train, we traveled California’s roadways to beautiful government and privately run campgrounds for loads of memorable outdoor camping fun.

These days, choosing the best place to camp within California’s 18 national forests is like choosing just one flavor of ice cream at the ice cream parlor. California boasts thousands of campgrounds that range in landscapes from the sierras to the desert, and from the redwoods to the bluffs; with styles of camping that range from primitive camping basics to modern-day glamping. Here are a handful of my regional picks for the best places to camp, whether by foot, car, boat, motorcycle or RV.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Tahoe National Forest
Tahoe National Forest is located in the northern Sierra Nevada and has over 75 campgrounds, yet it is not technically a part of Lake Tahoe Basin, home to the largest alpine lake in North America, covering 150,000 acres of wilderness, beaches, hiking trails, historic estates and just over 20 campgrounds.


Lake Tahoe Basin
Run by both the US Forest Service and the California State Parks, Lake Tahoe Basin camping in North Shore is near the best hiking and fishing; the South Shore is great for RVs and families; the East Shore is near beaches; and the West Shore is near historic sites, bike and hiking trails.

Redwood National and State Parks
The oldest California redwoods in the Redwood National and State Parks started as seedlings many years ago and camping among these 2,000-year-old beauties in this UNESCO World Heritage Site is divine. A 50-mile stretch that starts in northernmost California approximately 325 miles north of San Francisco, ending in the little-known town of Orick, Redwood National and State Parks have 4 campgrounds to choose from; 3 campgrounds in the redwood forest and one on the Pacific coastline at Golds Bluff Beach.

California’s Big Sur
Starting in the Monterey/Carmel area of Northern California and ending at Central California’s San Simeon near Hearst Castle, there’s more magnificent coastline camping on California's Big Sur where 3 tribes of Native Americans -- the Ohlone, Esselen and Salinan -- were first to inhabit the areas and where 3 million tourists visit per year. Camp streamside in the Big Sur Valley or camp ocean view bluff-side in the southern end of Big Sur. It is a stretch of California camping that you won’t want to miss.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
Sequoia National Forest
The Sequoia National Forest, in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, covers a whopping 1,193,315 acres and ranges in elevation from 1,000 to 12,000 feet. It has the highest concentration of giant sequoia groves in the world, covering 196,000 acres and some of the most diverse camping landscapes and offerings, with over 2,500 miles of roadways and 850 miles of trails. There are 14 national campgrounds in both Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Yosemite National Park
The famous Yosemite National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in central eastern California that covers an area of 1,189 square miles of lakes, ponds, streams, hiking trails, sequoia, waterfalls and wilderness, boasts over 3.7 million visitors per year. There are 13 popular and sought-after nationally operated campgrounds within Yosemite for tents, RVs, groups and horse camping.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Crystal Cove State Park
With over 2,400 acres of wilderness and 3.2 miles of coastal beachfront, Crystal Cove State Park is in Southern California’s Newport Beach area between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach in Orange County. Crystal Cove Beach Cottages are an historic seaside colony of rentals within the 12.3-acre Crystal Cove Historic District, which is an enclave of rustic cottages built in the 1930s and ’40s and is a federally listed historic district on the California coast. There are currently 24 sought-after beachfront cottages available for rent, with another 17 to be restored. There is also tent, RV, family and bluff camping available at the Crystal Cove wildnerness area of El Moro Canyon.

Santa Barbara County
Southern California’s Santa Barbara County has plenty of beachfront camping to choose from: Carpinteria State Beach, Gaviota State Park, Jalama Beach and Refugio State Beach. But if you want to get your glamp on, check out the luxury safari tents, fully equipped wood cabins and daily maid service at El Capitan Canyon Resort’s luxury campgrounds right across the road from El Capitan State Beach and a glorious Santa Barbara County beachfront. You can also find bluff camping El Capitan State Beach.

And … Personal Campground Favorites
There’s a California state campground in Malibu that was once owned by movie studio 20th Century-Fox, a private KOA campground in Santa Cruz where you can rent an iconic Airstream, a unique yurt camping experience on Highway 1 and seasonal camping in the middle of the San Francisco Bay at Angel Island State Park. And if the whole camping-on-an-island-bluff-while-being-close-to-the-sea-thing suits you, check out the campgrounds on Catalina Island, where I attended summer camp as a tween.

Salton Sea -- one of the world's largest inland seas and minus-227-below sea level -- is one of many California State Parks where my family and friends pitched tents, cooked on the grill, gobbled s’mores by the campfire and simply enjoyed the great outdoors.

Always fond of waterfront camping, lakes like Lake Powell, Lake Shasta, Lake Tahoe, Castaic Lake and Pyramid Lake were where I camped and boated with friends as a young adult. Whichever campground you choose within California’s 18 national forests, you’re sure to create great memories, too. Pick a spot, pitch a tent and get going. 


Follow Jamie Squillare on Twitter for more related stories and updates.

REPOST: Backpacking Solo in South America

Budget backpacking broadens one’s perspective, teaches countless life lessons, and hones one’s ability for improvisation in the name of survival. This article shares one thrifty traveler’s tips for backpacking solo through South America. 

Millennial Thursdays: Quitting your stable job to backpack around South America sounds like a radical idea, but for Christy Offret, the decision was easy.  After the end of a seven year relationship, the French millennial was bored of her life in Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic, and decided to actualize her long lost dream of long term travel. Working in business tourism, Offret had a sizable amount of money already saved, so the next few months she focused on planning and downsizing her life until January 2014, when she took off for her first stop: Belize.

I caught up with Offret two months into her South American adventure.  The 33-year-old was in Ecuador, after she spent a week in the primary rainforest of the Amazon. Describing herself as “lucky Luke the lonesome cowgirl,” Offret connected with me via Whatsapp, sharing her tips from the road. 

“So far it has been easier and better than I thought it would be,” says Offret.  The French national’s biggest complaint? “Having to carry and do and undo and redo the backpack all the time!”

The French backpacker exploring Caye Caulker, a small
                              coral island off the coast of Belize. (Photo credit: Christy Offert)                           Image Source: forbes.com

“Reality being reality, I had to realize it was impossible or that I could do it rushing. That was not an option,” said Offret. Deciding to dedicate a whole trip at another time to Colombia, she also skipped Costa Rica, citing its high prices.Originally planning to hit Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador in her first two and a half months, the backpacker made some calendar adjustments to her “paper planned trip” after spending an extra week in Guatemala. 

“Forget about plans would be my advice, the details will come day by day,” says Offret. “What was gorgeous in pictures is not what you were expecting, so you leave earlier. Also, you can fall in love with a place you stopped by casually and end up staying there longer.” 

That being said, it is important to plan the budget ahead of time. In addition to saving enough money to live for months without an income, you need to be able to estimate the amount of money you will spend each day.  I’ve recommended before the 20% buffer idea, where you estimate how much you will need for the total journey, and then add 20% on top of that as a buffer in case of accidents or emergencies — or when you just need to stay somewhere with hot water. 

For her eight month long South American adventure, Offret budgeted around $33 to $35 dollars a day. In some countries, like Panama and Belize, Offert found it hard to stick to her daily allowance, but low prices in Guatemala and Honduras helped balance out her total expenditures for backpacking.

                                           The millennial relaxing lakeside at Finca Tatin in Guatamela.                                     Image Source: forbes.com

Staying in hostels for the most part, the backpacker usually opts for the privacy of a private room over the dorm style rooms where you could be sleeping with anywhere from two to ten other travelers.“Lodging is really the biggest part of the budget you have to account for,” says Offret.  

“You can always find a way to eat for cheap and use your feet to discover things for free.” 

”I can leave my bag opened and not have to always think about locking everything,” says Offret. 

“When there is a huge difference between dorms and private rooms, I choose dorms but otherwise I prefer private.” 

Although she has registered for Couchsurfing, she doesn’t use the site for lodging as she really doesn’t know how it works. She has also decided to forgo WWOOFing or volunteering as she is not spending a long time in any one place. 

One part of the experience Offret was not willing to compromise? The wardrobe. 

“I couldn’t resign myself to traveling with two t-shirts, two pants and two socks and not being able to feel and dress feminine during eight months,” says Offret.  Although her backpack clocks in at 33 pounds (15 kilograms), she is happy she has a little more, pointing out that, “I am carrying my own backpack so who cares?  It is my problem if I carry too much, no?”

Hi! This is Jamie Squillare, nature-tripper and backpacker. For more on adventures abroad or in nature, add me on Facebook.

REPOST: Best Vacation Spots to Unplug

They say traveling to the wilderness is a means to get away from it all, yet many of us are so attached to our digitally connected lives that we can never really do that unless we surrender our devices and be one with nature. The staff at Travel and Leisure mean that quite literally in this list of places to unplug.  

 

Image Source: renegadechicks.com

 

Device-free policies, gorgeous scenery and invigorating activities will leave you feeling recharged.

Pocahontas County, WV

The Place: West Virginia is one of our most beautiful states, full of rolling mountains, deep green valleys, picturesque farms, and endless options for outdoor recreation. Pocahontas County, on the state’s eastern end near the Virginia border, is no exception.

How To Unplug: Pocahontas County is also home to an area known as the U.S. Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile expanse in which wireless technology is banned, including cellphones, radios, and Wi-Fi. The ban is meant to prevent mobile technology from interfering with the nearby government radio telescopes. Cell-phone service is so spotty in Pocahontas County that the local government puts out an info sheet telling you where you can and can’t get it.

Details: If you really want to unplug, you’ll want to get a campsite at one of the many private campgrounds here in the Radio Quiet Zone. But if you want to cheat a little, you can stay at the Snowshoe Resort, one of the few places in the county that does have cell phone service, with rates for less than $200/night at a selection of accommodations including the Rimfire Lodge and Allegheny Springs Lodge. pocahontascountywv.com

Concordia Eco-Resort, St. John, U.S.V.I.
The Place: Among the accommodations at Concordia Eco-Resort are the Eco-tents—a collection of solar-powered wooden bungalows with cotton sofas and beds, canvas walls, and oversize screen windows that let in trade-wind breezes. You’ll get spectacular views of the two nearby bays and can take it all in on the tent’s oceanside decks. There’s easy access to snorkeling with sea turtles at Salt Pond Bay or hiking the adjacent Virgin Islands National Park’s trails.

How to Unplug: You can get a Wi-Fi signal in two locations at the resort, but they encourage unplugging.
Details: Most eco-tents can sleep five. Rates for the eco-tents in the Winter/Spring Season (through April 30) are $175/night double occupancy, and $15/night for each additional person, all ages. Rates start at $120/night in the summer season. concordiaeco-resort.com

Emerald Lake Lodge, Yoho National Park, Canada
The Place: Located in the Canadian Rockies in Yoho National Park (and 2 1/2 hours from the Calgary Airport), the 13-acre property has 24 warm and inviting cabin-style buildings. The rooms have balconies and wood burning fireplaces, which the hotel stocks daily with complimentary firewood.

How to Unplug: There’s really no choice but to unplug here. There’s no cell reception on the property, or in Yoho National Park, except in the town of Field. Get out and enjoy the nature around you—go cross-country and downhill skiing, snowshoeing and more in the winter; in the summer, try white water rafting, mountain biking, hiking, and canoeing. Or, just sit back, relax and enjoy the stunning setting at this luxe getaway retreat.

Details: Rates at this property start at $170/night in winter (and start at $385/night in summer). crmr.com

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
The Place: The Grand Canyon in winter may not be your traditional season to visit, but it has a number of advantages over summertime—most importantly, the lack of crowds. The services on the South Rim are open all year, including restaurants, hotels, and campsites. During the day you’ll hike, visit Indian ruins, and learn more about the canyon’s history at the geology museum. And because Grand Canyon National Park protects dark skies to limit light pollution, every night you’ll have some of the best stargazing of your life.
How To Unplug: The original off the grid American vacation remains a great way to get out of the data stream and into the wild. Despite heavy tourist traffic, Grand Canyon National Park is isolated enough to have very dodgy cell service.

Details: There are a variety of lodging choices in the park, but we like the El Tovar Hotel, which was built in 1905 and has hosted the likes of Teddy Roosevelt and Albert Einstein. The hotel, where rates begin at $186 a night, will be open during an upcoming renovation, and guests can take advantage of a 30 percent off discount from January 4 to March 6. nps.gov/grca

Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, PA
The Place: Rooms at the Renaissance Pittsburgh not only have 12-foot high ceilings, but also have beautiful views of both the Allegheny River and the downtown skyline.

How To Unplug: The Family Digital-Detox package is aimed at families that want to ditch the digital baggage and get to know one another again without all the electronic clutter. All family members’ laptops, cell phones, and digital devices must be surrendered upon check in, and will be held until your departure. Before you get there, the hotel will remove the room’s television, phone, and iPod docking station and replace them with board games and playing cards. The hotel claims this package is one of its most popular deals.

Details: Weekend rates are $289 per night. This package includes overnight accommodations in Deluxe Queen Riverview Room. marriott.com

Camp Grounded, Anderson Valley, CA
The Place: This retreat is designed to recapture the summer camps of your youth, with an emphasis on wholesome fun and games and a boycott on tech devices. The site is a former Boy Scout camp about three hours north of San Francisco in the beautiful Anderson Valley, and features sing-alongs, swimming, archery, even a prom. And just like at camp, you’ll be sleeping in bunk beds in rustic cabins.
How To Unplug: Upon arrival, campers are asked to hand over phones, tablets, watches, and other technology. Guests will take part in a “human search engine” by posting questions on a bulletin board to tap collective knowledge. They even write letters home on vintage typewriters.
Details: There are three sessions planned for June 2014.  Three-night weekend program costs $570 per person. campgrounded.org

Lake Placid Lodge, Lake Placid, NY:
The Place: On the luxury end of the scale is the Lake Placid Lodge, an old-school Adirondack camp on the lakeshore in one of the most attractive and lively small towns in America. Each of the guest rooms is spacious, with polished wood furnishings, cozy stone fireplaces, hand-built beds, and Adirondack-style design elements.

How To Unplug: The Lake Placid Lodge offers a “Check-in And Check Out Package,” for guests who want to get off the mobile merry-go-round. You leave your cellphones, PDA’s, laptops, and other electronic devices at the front desk when you arrive. Your only in-room entertainment is the fire in the fireplace, maybe a board game, and, of course, the company of the one you’re with.

Details: The two-night package costs $1,340—which, granted, isn’t cheap, but includes your guest room or private cabin, complimentary boating, yoga, hiking on the grounds, fishing, and a one-hour cooking lesson with the resort’s chef in the Teaching Kitchen. lakeplacidlodge.com

Ultima Thule Lodge, Alaska
The Place: The Ultima Thule Lodge is about as remote as you can get and still be in the United States. It sits next to the 13 million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, a hundred miles from the nearest road, and the only way in or out is by bush plane. Instead of worrying what's going on back at the office, guests at Ultima Thule are encouraged to hike in the mountains, learn to fish, and as much as possible get in touch with nature, and themselves.

How To Unplug: There's no telephone service. The resort makes its own electricity. It does have an Internet connection, but it’s very slow (think AOL dial-up, circa 1999) and limited to one computer.
Details: Rates are $1,700 per person, per night and include all your meals, all bush plane flights, veteran guides, and outdoors equipment. ultimathulelodge.com

Has technological addiction finally met its match? You decide. Never let minor things get in the way of immersing yourself in your getaway adventure, not even the wires of your smartphone. And while you’re *still* wired, drop by the Jamie Squillare Twitter page for more travel adventures.

REPOST: 20 Things I Learned From Traveling Around the World

Would you spend 365 days traveling around the world? Clayton B. Cornell did just that, and he shares in this Huffington Post article the things he had learned during his 12 months of journeying.

Night train from Belgrade to Sofia. | Image source: huffingtonpost.com

Travel for long enough and one day you wake up to realize: This is no longer a vacation, it's your life.

Over one year ago I quit my job and decided to travel around the world. This was both a dream 10 years in the making and one of the best decisions I've ever made.

In the last 12 months I learned a lot about long-term travel, what I need to be happy, and how to survive outside of the U.S. Many of these things can't be learned at home or in a book, and while reading about them on the internet can only get you so far, a lot of people have asked me to explain how I've done it.

Well, here's part of the answer.

"There's no substitute for just going there."
-Yvon Chouinard

My trip hasn't been about sightseeing (although I've done that) as much as just being somewhere. The simple challenges of daily routine can be overwhelming: trying to eat, drink and sleep in a place where nothing makes sense, you don't speak the language, and where none of the basic comforts of home are available. It's not easy, but if you want a fast-track to personal development, get on a plane.
When I was younger my dad often said, "The hardest part is just getting out the door." And that may be the most important lesson of all: it's too easy to get complacent at home and if you aren't at least a little uncomfortable, you probably aren't learning anything.

If you've already traveled extensively, you may get a kick out of this. If you haven't, here are some reflections, tips, and advice about long-term travel on my one-year anniversary of life on the road:

#1) Most of the world's people are friendly and decent.
Except for the French*.

Some stereotypes really hold up, but on average, most of the people I've met around the world are extremely polite, friendly and helpful. They are generally interested in why I chose to visit their home. They are eager to assist if it's obvious I'm lost or in trouble. They'll go out of their way to try to make sure I have a good stay in their country. And, contrary to what most Americans tend to think (see #3 below), they often don't know much about the United States (or necessarily care).

Don't be convinced before leaving that "everyone there is _______". Show a modicum of respect to people and their culture and you'll be blown away by what you get back. Try picking up a little of the local language. Just learning how to say "thank you" can make a huge impact.

* Sorry, I couldn't resist. To be fair, France is like everywhere else: most people are decent. It's just that France has a particularly large proportion of bad apples that give the place a well-deserved reputation. I've met a lot of wonderful people in France, but also a disproportionate number of a**holes (not travelers generally, but residents of France). This isn't based on a single trip nor is it restricted to Paris. Almost every non-French local in Europe agreed with me on this one.

#2) Most places are as safe (or safer) than home.

I remember confessing to my mother recently that I had a big night out in Budapest and stumbled back to my apartment at dawn. Her reaction was: "But don't you worry about being drunk in a foreign country?"

Ha ha, not at all mom! I've never felt so safe!

The only place I've been violently mugged was in my home city of San Francisco. Many of the people I know there have been robbed at gunpoint, and on more than one occasion there were shootings in my neighborhood.

In one incident just a block away from my apartment (Dolores Park), a man was shot five times and somehow escaped, only to collapse about 10 meters from our front door. You can still see the blood stains on the sidewalk.

Turns out we actually live in a pretty dangerous country.

In over 365 days on the road, staying mostly in dormitory-style hostels and traveling through several countries considered 'high-risk,' the only incident I had was an iPhone stolen out of my pocket on the metro in Medellin, Colombia. I didn't even notice and deserved it for waiving the damn thing around in the wrong part of town. Most people think that in a place like Colombia you'll still get kidnapped or knocked off by a motorcycle assassin, but that's not true. According to the locals I talked to (who grew up there), things have been safer there for at least 10 years.

Caveat: This doesn't give you a license to be stupid, and some places really warrant respect. Guatemala and Honduras, where there are major drug wars going on (and the Peace Corps recently pulled all of their volunteers), or Quito, Ecuador, where everyone I talked to had been robbed, are reasonably dangerous (I had no trouble in any of them).

In reality, based on the sort of mindless binge-drinking that happens in most travel hot spots, you'd expect travelers to get knocked off a lot more often. But if you pay attention and don't do anything stupid, you'll be fine.

#3) Most people don't know (or care) what America is doing.

I think the whole America vs. the rest of the world debate has been summed up perfectly in this post:

=> 10 Things Americans Don't Know About America

I couldn't have said it better:

Despite the occasional eye-rolling, and complete inability to understand why anyone would vote for George W. Bush, people from other countries don't hate us either. In fact -- and I know this is a really sobering realization for us -- most people in the world don't really think about us or care about us.

I've met people that didn't even know that San Francisco (or California even) had a coastline (now there's a sobering conversation for you. So much for thinking that's the center of the world eh?).
One thing is true: Americans are not well represented on the travel circuit. It just doesn't seem to be culturally important to us, unlike say, the Australians, who never go home.

#4) You can travel long-term for the price of rent and a round of drinks back home

My favorite question from friends at home has been: "how the hell are you still traveling?"

Well, for what you spent at lunch I can live on for a whole day in Indonesia. That's all there is to it.

- Monthly rent for a shared apartment in San Francisco could be: $1,100 per person.
- My average monthly expenditure during the last year of travel: $1,200 / month*.

That's $40 / day, and includes some ridiculous and totally auxiliary expenses. For example:

• 10 days of Scuba diving in Utila, Honduras - $330
• Kitesurfing gear rental in Mancora, Peru - $100 for two days
• Flight to Easter Island (50 percent subsidized by my dad) - $400
• Acquisition of 4 Surfboards, + Repairs and Accessories over the year - $750
• Purchasing a bunch of gear, like a new netbook ($380), wetsuit ($175), boardshorts ($55), camping gear ($100), a SteriPen water purifier ($125), summer sleeping bag ($55)
• Riding the NaviMag Ferry through the lake district of Chilean Patagonia from Coyaiquhe to Puerto Montt ($200).
• Taking a total of seven nearly cross-continental flights (like Brussels=>Greece) during my four months in Europe.

And so on. I also went out, a lot, and spent way to much money on alcohol.

Before I left home, my original budget projection was $50 / day, which I would consider lavish in many parts of the world. In some places, I spent as little as $20 / day (including lodging, all meals and booze) while living in relative luxury right on the beach. Generally, I shot for $30 / day which gave me a buffer of $20 for travel and miscellaneous or one-time expenses.

Countries visited on this budget: Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Easter Island (Chile), Argentina, Uruguay, Santa Cruz (California), North Shore of Oahu, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey

Totals: Six months Central/S. America, two months U.S., two months Western Europe and two months Easter Europe).

Obviously, some places are cheaper than others, like Guatemala, where you can get a room for $4 per night. You have to be a lot more careful in Western Europe, where I got a little bit loose with my budget and spent $2,000 per month for two months. But I also spent less than $900 in the month that I biked (pushbike) through France.

You might be blown away by how cheap some "expensive" places can be. The second cheapest hostel I stayed in (after Guatemala) was in Berlin, Germany, at €6 / night (~$7.43 USD). Beer in Prague was as cheap or cheaper than any other country I've been to (it was $1.43 for 0.5L in ultra-touristy downtown Prague). You can rent a decent downtown apartment in Budapest for $200 / month.

Bottom line: If you're careful, you can travel on $1,200 per month or less. Rolf Potts, the author of Vagabonding (highly, highly recommended whether or not you're planning to travel) claims to have circled the globe for years on $1,000 per month. Budget $1,500 per month and you should be totally covered. You can do this even in Europe if you go slow, stay with friends or in cheaper hostels, fly on discount airlines (as opposed to taking the train), cook or eat street food, and don't buy booze at the bar (which I did and somehow survived).

The best budget rule of thumb I've learned (can't remember the source) is to take the price of your nightly accommodation and triple it. That will be about your daily minimum to survive, so $30 per day where a hostel runs you $10 per night.

*Note that my monthly total budget does not include transcontinental airfare (like U.S. to Europe) which was free (see How I flew around the world for $220). Since I typically travel overland and all flights are one-way tickets I haven't flown as much as you'd expect.

#5) Saving for a big trip is not as hard as you think.

Most people think I'm rich because I've been traveling for a year. What they don't realize is that, although I didn't leave at the time (this was five years ago), I was able to save enough money for this trip within a year and a half of graduating college.

My first salaried job paid $29,000 per year -- not exactly ballin' by U.S. college-grad standards. But by pretty ruthless budgeting , I was able to save $1,000 a month for the 15 months I worked there.

Guess what? That's $15,000 or 12.5 months of travel at $1,200 per month.

Are there sacrifices to be made? Of course. But it's worth it.

Btw, I am by no means the first person to discover or write about travel budgeting. This post is from 2009: Travel full-time for less than $14,000 per year. Don't think it's just us either, because all of thesepeople are writing about it.

I plan to write more about how to save money in the future.

For the rest of the list, click here.

Isn’t it amazing how many life lessons you can pick up while on the road? I’d love to hear the ones you've had. Drop me a “Hello, Jamie Squillare!” message on Twitter. Don’t forget the hashtag #lifesajourney!

REPOST: Outdoor Adventure: Hunting with dogs

Outdoor adventurer Mitch Mode writes about his hunting experience with his two dogs, Thor and Riika, in this article for Star Journal.

Image Source: www.jsonline.com

 The dogs know; they always do. I pull on the worn brush pants, the canvas shirt, the leather boots and the dogs know I’m going to hunt. They watch with ageless eyes; deep amber eyes, seemingly all-knowing. I case the shotgun; they stand at my feet, Thor and Riika, my two hunters. I find the collar, the whistle; look around the room to see if I’ve forgotten anything. The dogs wait, eyes bright, tails wagging. They know; they always do.

They are hunters, Thor and Riika. They love the hunt; the formal ceremony of pre-hunt preparation, the drive down dusty roads in the time of autumn. And they love time in the woods, noses seeking scent as their kind has done since the dawn of their time; seeking scent and the source of that scent, the grouse and the woodcock and whatever bird that takes rise ahead of them. They have no choice but to hunt; that desire is so deep in their heart and their blood and their DNA that there is no other way for them.

We had hunted the day prior, a morning heavy with humidity that lay like a weight upon the land even as the sun rose. We saw birds, a few, but no shots. The dogs ran hard.

We rise now to a cooler dawning; sun rising but air near chill. And the dogs know; it is a day for the hunt.

I walk to the kitchen, shotgun in one hand, gear ready, truck keys and coffee cup making an awkward handful. Then I open the door, let Thor out, turn to Riika and tell her to stay. Then I close the door on Riika.

She has hunted with me on every one of her years. She hunted when she was too young, only 6 or 7 months old, but she hunted still and she found birds that other dogs could not find. Everything we knew said she was too young but nothing about Riika fit the pattern. She hunted from the time she could stand and run and fill her nose with scent.

She ran wild for in those early years, ignoring my pleas to come and to stay. She would run into deep woods and I would hear her barking and hear the barking fade to silence and I would stand there, gun in hand and whistle mute at my lips. I would stand and wait and fear for her.

She would come back, always. She would be muddy and she would be scratched and cut and she would rest at my feet and roll her eyes back to meet mine. She would rest. Then she would hunt again.

I have hunted more years without dogs than I have with dogs, more without than I suspect I will ever hunt with them. Riika was really the first I had; Thor came two years later. I have hunted with them now for near a dozen years since Riika was a puppy and too young, really, to hunt.

There were times when I left Riika at home, days when she was lame from ache or cut or pulled muscle; days when she was treated for Lymes. And on those days she would walk to the door and look at me with the eyes of one betrayed by one that they had trusted. I would feel sick at heart even though I knew it was the right thing.

There were times of injury or illness when she stayed home. But never was there a day when I did not hunt her because she was too old to go for more than one day.

On this morning I left her because she is too old now and I know that if I take her she will run as her wild heart tells her to run and I know that I cannot ask that of her. I took Thor, younger by a brace of years and still able to go.

We loaded the truck and I climbed in, started it and turned to look behind me as I backed up. And when I turned I saw Riika in the window. It was dark inside the house and she blended with the shadow but I could see the gray-white on her muzzle; only that, the gray hair on the face of my dog as she watched me pull away. Was it my imagination or did I see the spark in her eyes as well?

Thor hunted hard. He does not have the drive that Riika does but he loves the hunt nonetheless. We pushed into thick cuts of young popple and birch and balsam and we put up woodcock on a morning as beautiful as anything you could imagine. I watched Thor as he turned sharply, angled into deep brush, ran 30 yards and put up a woodcock. The bird rose steeply on whistling wings then veered into cover before I could shoot.

Then another. Another. We pushed half a dozen birds in the first fifteen minutes of the hunt and I never put the gun to my shoulder; it was still too thick with leaf for a clear shot. But watching a dog work the woods for birds, that alone is reward enough.

Thor flushed the next bird from fern and sapling and it rose at an angle then leveled off and I killed it. The bird folded its wings and fell as a book is closed with finality at the end of a story.

I do not know if I will buy another dog after these two are gone. They can be a handful and a headache and a bother and a devilment. And those are the good ones; the ones that aren’t like that aren’t worth the effort. But I do not know if I will go on with dogs.

I thought of that as I walked to where the bird fell. I think of that often this season. I called Thor to where I thought the bird had come to earth. It was thick with fern and balsam and weed. Somewhere in this was the bird. I looked, bending the fern back as I bent over, looking at the ground. Thor moved a ways off and seemed interested but did not bring out the bird.

I went to where he was and looked close and after a moment or two if saw the bird; it was lying tight to a small tree and the feathers on its back matched the fallen leaf and the light and the shadow and I knew as certain as I was standing there that I would never have found the bird had Thor not been there.

That’s happened a lot in the past years; birds have fallen like ash from a fallen star and blended so well that I could not see them. The dogs have found them. I never would have.

I hefted the bird and thought to myself, To shoot a bird and never find it is a sin and a crime and for this the dogs are worth everything and if I do not have a dog can I really hunt the way I wish to? I held the bird to the light of the day and thought of this. Then I pocket the bird and Thor and I hunted.

We hunted for 2 more hours and never killed another bird. Thor hunted hard and well and I am proud of him. We drove home under a high sun that lit the yellow leaf as if it has fire inside. I drove slowly and took it all in.

I drove down the street where we live and pulled into the driveway and shut the truck down. I looked at Thor who sat in the passenger seat and I told him he did well and then I looked past him, looked past him to the house and the dark window.

It is dark behind the window and for a moment all I saw was the black shadow. Then I saw a movement and I focus on it and I saw it for what it is; the gray-white hair on Riika’s muzzle as she sat alone at the window and watched Thor and I come home from the hunt.

An outdoor adventurer herself, Jamie Squillare seeks extraordinary experiences in the wilderness. Follow her on Twitter for more stories on outdoor adventures.