Arizona: the van-dweller’s winter paradise. The mild temperatures and endless riding opportunities make living here easy during the darkest months of the year. One of the major challenges of van-life is abiding by camping limits. Most places require that campers move every two weeks. When it’s time to pack up our living space and workshop to find a new spot for the van, we utilize tools like Trailforks to identify singletrack hot spots, Gaia so we’re aware of public land boundaries and land ownership, and iOverlander to see where other people have camped before.
Our ideal spot has a mountain bike loop from our front door, an easy bike commute to the post office, and is a little ways off the main road for privacy. The last place we parked near Cottonwood ticked all the boxes. Here is a video of our super rad singletrack commute to ship Dispersed bikepacking bags to customers!
That looks like a damn good time. Here in Portland I can often include dirt paths and unpaved streets or alleys when I run errands or go for a ride for no reason, but it’s nothing like this commute to the post office.
This one was special! Most of them don’t justify videos. 😉