bike trip and camping

[deniski]

Based on comments I've read on this board, it seems like most of the campgrounds in the eastern half of the US are private ones (maybe this is a bad assumption?).   I know that there must be SOME public ones (owned by state or federal govt), but I haven't done much camping in the east.  

My husband and a friend of his are doing a Pacific Ocean to Atlantic Ocean bike trip this summer (northern route), and doing a lot of camping along the way.  They are both methodist ministers and have a lot of contacts along the way, so I'm not TOO worried about them traveling that far, but I AM worried that they won't find enough public campgrounds during their 2 1/2 months trip.  Is that a realistic worry?  Will they have to make reservations ahead of time in order to camp?  They are obviously tent-camping so they don't require hookups etc., just a campground to lay their weary bodies down in and rest!  They are planning to stay in a hostel or hotel once a week or so.

By the way, the methodist church is allowing them to categorize the trip as "spiritual renewal" which I think is pretty cool!

[Gone-Camping]

Your assumption is way off the mark! I think you'll find all 50 states have their own version of what a state park is all about, plus all of the Canadian Provinces have Provincial Parks.
 
The SP's (State Park's) are widely considered to be among the best places for camping where a good outdoors feeling, big site's, usually heavily wooded/shaded, and well sperated are. The vast majority of users here on this board tend to prefer them.
 
Ditto for National Park Service, US Forest Service, and US Army Corp of Engineer's campgrounds. There are plenty of them, and most are among the best available. We even have cities here in the east that operate some very attractive campgrounds.
 
By contrast, the private/commercial campgrounds are very common too, but usually not nearly as scenic, usually cramped with site's real close together, but they generally have all the hook-up's where State & Fed campgrounds are lacking. Most of the State Parks have added electric & water, but few have sewer hook-up's, and only a handful offer a cable hook-up.
 
So when heading east, you have to figure out what you want from a campsite, and take it from there. If you're dry camping, and like it rustic, head for the National Parks. If you want basic hook-up's (Water & Elec) then head for the SP's & Municiple parks. You want it all, head for a commercial campground!
 
I haven't update this page in over a year, so not even sure all the links are still working. But most of them should be, this page will provide links to most State Parks and some Provincial Parks too...
http://www.gonecamping.net/links/stateparks.html

[Gone-Camping]

Yep, was just checking some of the links and most are working, but several are no longer working. The one for Maryland is going to Mississippi...go figure!

 
That's one more project I gotta work on now!

[barbjeff]

Deniski,

If your husband is not a member of Adventure Cycling have him check out //www.adventurecycling.org Adventure cycling is a organization dedicated to the cycle tourist. The have maps and other gear and information that proves to be vital to the touring cyclist. The maps in particular are excellent and they do have a Trans-america map for the Northern Tier route as well as for the Southern Tier. The maps are detailed, easy to read, and can be updated for changes on the web site.

[deniski]

thanks for the info!  

He is a member and has ordered maps from Adventure Cycling but I haven't yet seen them!  I didn't realize they included campgrounds!   His buddy has the maps at the moment, and we are so busy with easter preparations that I hadn't even thought about them for a while!