Every year, I usually kick off the camping season with a big road trip somewhere. Here are some of the trips I’ve done in years past:

2016: Finger Lakes National Forest

April 2016 was a relatively cold month after a relatively warm winter. The first night I camped at Stony Pond in Nelson. It got down to 15 degrees.

I visited the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge then camped off of Chicken Coop Road at the Finger Lakes National Forest.

Rather cold weather up on Hector Backbone, so I strung up tarps to block the wind and built big campfires.

Rather gray as things hadn’t really greened up yet.

But in lower elevations, especially along Cayuga Lake, things where starting to bud up, like as seen with this picture of Taughannock State Park.

2015: Balsam Pond, Long Pond and Chenango County

Rained a bit during the day but camping was great Balsam Pond.

Beautiful sunrise on Balsam Pond.

Nice afternoon fishing on Whitney Point Reservior, but I didn’t get many bites.

2014: East Branch of Sacanadaga River

In 2014, I camped on the East Branch of Sacandaga River. It was a pretty night.

I used my solar panel a bit under the sunny skies to keep the accessory battery charged.

2013: Balsam Pond, Long Pond and Chenango County

In many ways my 2013 trip was similiar to my 2015 trip. I camped at Long Pond, which was very much so still frozen this year.

Hiked up the Berry Hill Firetower.

Visited Rogers Environmental Education Center.

2012: Crane Mountain and Harrisburg NY

Hike both Crane Mountain and Hadley Mountain and camped off of Harrisburg Road in the Adirondacks.

My truck didn’t have a cap then, so I camped in a tent.

It was fun camping in my then new truck.