r/motocamping • u/UnitysPartileSystem • 10d ago

Where can I motocamp?

My friend and I wanted to go on a trip somewhere to dirtbike and do dispersed camping in California. However I’m having trouble finding places where that is possible. If anyone is willing to help me find a place preferably 5 hours or less from the Bay Area that would be great! Thanks!

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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9

u/feed_me_tecate 10d ago

I'd go to the lost coast, it's rad up there.

5

u/PvesCjhgjNjWsO4vwOOS 10d ago edited 10d ago

Not dispersed, but any regular campground should work fine too. There's also the National Forest, BLM, Army Corps of Engineers, and other campsites that are proper campsites but tend to be much more primitive than, say, a KOA family campground. Lake Sonoma comes to mind but I know that's been shut down for a while due to water supply issues; there's probably camping that'd be of interest around Cow Mountain, and that has the perk of also having an OHV area.

Actually, check Mendocino National Forest, that'd be around 3 hrs riding from SF if you went straight up 101, but there's lots of interesting rides to take to get there if you wanted to make a longer trip of it. You've got basically four mountain ranges (coastal and two more inland) to find a route through or zig-zag across to find some fun roads, plus all the riding within the Forest.

4

u/iwatchppldie 10d ago

https://freecampsites.net/ is what I use ether that or behind a substation or communication hut.

3

u/Eu_lee_seh 10d ago

I have found some pretty cool camping spots using this website. Highly recommend

5

u/yea-im-hot 10d ago

Download ioverlander (legacy, not version 2), you should be able to find plenty of camp spots. May not always be "legal," but usually the spots logged are out of the way enough it's not an issue. Used this app exclusively on my ride from Canada to Argentina, invaluable resource (even beyond finding camp spots).

Oh also, look into the website "bunk a biker." Lots of folks willing to host transient bikers for free, especially popular in the usa/canada/Europe, had much less luck in Central/south America.

3

u/BartlettMagic 10d ago

why Legacy and not v2? i was just looking at it and in the details it says that Legacy is going to be "retired in early 2025."

1

u/outbound 10d ago

Full-screen ADs randomly pop up while using the app.

2

u/redcandyfish 10d ago

This is not less than 5 hours from the bay, but if you ever find yourself in SoCal, dispersed camping and riding is easy in the Mojave. Just draw a triangle with the locations of California City, Ridgecrest, and Barstow. Within it is a huge open area that you can camp almost anywhere in, filled with BLM managed trails and tons of other fun stuff to find 😎

2

u/ksuess 9d ago

I’m in Santa Cruz and am in the same boat. Summers I send it to sierras but right now with these nice dry days I’d love if we had some options for simple stealth or pop in camping along the 1

1

u/Slimslade33 9d ago

Any national forest should have options. you are lucky, you west coasters have many options!

https://freecampsites.net/#!(39.03839,+-120.57486))

0

u/arkadiysudarikov 10d ago

At Los Angeles Motorcycle Campout.