Source
r/overlanding•
atomhunter

Welp california is on fire, can you help me figure out what I can do with the overlanders I rented?

Hey Y'all,

I'm renting an overlanding rig in the bay area this weekend.

We had planned to hit up Grouse Ridge and surrounding areas in Tahoe Nat Forest, but the world is on fire and all national forests statewide are closed...

We cannot cancel the rental or we are out $600, any suggestions for alternatives that aren't an 8+ hour drive (like death valley/Joshua tree).

So far our plan is to just go up the northern coast and crash on beaches.... I guess.

Edit: Thanks y'all for the suggestions, we've been able to work with the vehicle renter to adjust our rental date (towards the end of oct). I'll definitely be looking at some of these later.

Posted Sep 10, 2020, 3:37 AM UTC · edited

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pt6062005 Toyota Tundra AC, 2016 Ford Transit LWB MR•

Bodie Ghost Town near Bridgeport. The hills above Bridgeport aren't NF land. Travertine Hot Springs in that area, as well. Farther south on the 395 is Alabama Hills, which is BLM.

This is roughly my plan for the near future because the fires have had an impact on my plan to go to Lassen Volcanic NP as well.

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redapplesmokes•

its pretty smoky around those parts too. the creek fire has covered much of the 395 north of mammoth

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superprime95Back Country Adventurer•

Also if you go north of bridge port about an hour you can camp in Desert creek. Beautiful area

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blueblur1984•

I second Bodie. Cool ghost town, tons of abandoned mines to see and you can swing through Myers on the way most likely.

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superprime95Back Country Adventurer•

TIL you can rent an overlanding rig

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atomhunterOP•

Haha, yep.

There's about 5-7 companies across the nation that do it, CO has the largest amount.

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superprime95Back Country Adventurer•

My god i just went down a rabbit hole! Basically if you have the coin there's a company that will rent a vehicle no matter how extravagant your specifications are.

Now id like to see a company where you can rent gear ie a fridge or RTT. For example id like to have 2 extra fridges for burning man. I will never need more than 1 fridge any other time.

4
atomhunterOP•

Sounds like you need friends to borrow from 😏

I'm in the bay area and only have a sports car and another car not really suitable for overlanding, but I couldn't fit a rig with a RTT on it in our car stackers. I know a bunch of people without cars, so it's not really surprising that they rent them.

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superprime95Back Country Adventurer•

I honestly didn't think overlanding was THAT popular lol. I just bought an old jeep and built it up. Its just like those ones you can rent but its an old hunk of shit lmao.

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AntiGravityBaconFJ Cruiser•

Camping gear rental is available online or in most big cities so you very well may find that you can rent those fridges!

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macs_rock•

If it exists you can rent it.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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Bork_King•

Pismo is the only place you can see a Mexican flag on one RV, and Trump flag in the one next to it, and see the occupants of the two getting blasted on bud light and cheap tequila together.

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s0rce•

Carrizo plain?

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bob_lala•

nice area but don't really need 4wd

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s0rce•

Some roads in the temblor range are a little rough. Most places in California aren't too far from pavement...

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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Pathological-quest•

Just go to anywhere that is BLM land.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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Chanklas•

USAL campgrounds, I’m headed there this weekend.

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atomhunterOP•

Mendocino/Humboldt counties have evac warnings atm, but I'll add that to our list for future destinations.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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atomhunterOP•

Haha, yep.

There's about 5-7 companies across the nation that do it, CO has the largest amount.

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macs_rock•

If it exists, you can rent it. Some things this is a good financial decision, others not so much.

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lurking-constantly•

Hollister Hills SVRA, though it’s more off-roading and less overlanding.

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iridescent_essence•

We went near here out of sheer corona desperation once... ended up driving around the Idria ghost towns of the area and found a half empty box of cremated remains. 2/10.

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Bork_King•

I thought they blocked Idria off really well in the last couple years?

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iridescent_essence•

Nah we were easily able to get through! It’s overrun with dirt bikers though

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iridescent_essence•

Mendocino/humbolt ?

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camperrobin•

They have an evacuation warning at the moment

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bob_lala•

Anza Borrego would be good. Or head over the the Black Rock Desert NE of Reno?

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s0rce•

OP didn't want to go 8+ hour drive

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guydeborg•

too hot this time of year

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in-jail-out-shortley•

Im also from the Bay Area because of the fires my go to favorite place is Leavitt Lake. From San Jose to the lake its like 4.5 - 5 hours. You can go through Sonora and take 108 up then turn off of 108 onto a 3 mile dirt road to the lake. It has great fishing and is fun to hike around. If you want to do a multiday travel head to mono lake after.

This link has a good description (I would not call the road white knuckle not even close: https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/7018-leavitt-lake.html

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amped96•

We rented one in Oregon a few years ago in September. We planned to explore the interior a bit, but being noobs to the west, we didn’t realize this time of year is fire season. We spent most of our trip on the coast and still had a great time. We even got pointers for sea kayaking rentals from our hosts. We have no regrets at all about that trip. Good luck!

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