Distance between home and the start of a trail

In the South Puget Sound area we have one ORV park that is about 40 minutes away. If you want anything longer, more challenging or want to camp you are minimum of 2 hours from a trail head. Once you get there though you have tons of options.
 
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Living in the Central USA I am surrounded by private property. It is a reality for us that requires more research before finding quiet dirt roads. If I am simply looking for a night of camping and dirt roads, I am only 30 minutes away from a small State Lake that allows primitive camping. If a group wants to get together for a weekend of fun, it is not unusual for several of us to drive 4 hours for a meet up. The nice part about being in the predicament is that the only folks we see when out and about are local farmers and ranchers.

I am 8-12 hours away from large National Forests where 'good' overlanding can be found, so it is not feasible to go to those places for a simple weekend trip. However, there is a 15 person group who plan to drive approximately 900miles (1500km) to run desolate forest tracks this summer.
 
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old_man said:
From my home in Northern Colorado, there are tons of places to go within an hour. The problem is that I have done all of them dozens of times over the last 50 years so they are pretty mundane to me now. People still travel days to see them. Personally I find I end up going farther afield over time. Now most things I find willing to spend the effort on are 4-12 hours travel. It is not unusual to knock off 400 miles each way.
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We are NOCO also but have yet to exhaust the local trails. So 1 - 3 hours is our typical distance for a weekend getaway. And we'll venture further when we can get a longer weekend planned. And since we are moving from the camper trailer those times will give us more distance to travel.
 
For outdoor recreation, Salt Lake City is awesome - generally about 15 min to good hikes. For good 4x4 trails probably an hour or so. A 4 hour drive can basically get you to another planet.
 
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I am about 15-20 minutes from trails and camp grounds out in Eastern Oregon. I just found out the Oregon Back Country Discovery Route goes thru my backyard. We have a lot of National Forest and BLM land here. Tons of overland opportunities.
 
I live in South Central BC. I can be on a dirt forestry road within 15 minutes of leaving home. Can either be camped at a remote lake no more than a1/2 hour from there, or spend the next 200+km traveling on dirt roads to find other places of interest without ever touching pavement. I do my best to try not to take living here in BC for granted. There is nowhere on this earth that I'd rather call home, that is for sure. The diversity we have to offer together with vastness and sheer size of our province make it hard to beat. I've traveled around a fair bit and while I love exploring other places I still can't get how fortunate I am to live here in BC out of my head.

This is one of our favorite secret little spots. It's an hour or so drive from home, with about 25 minutes max of off-roading to get to. A few other local types know how to get here, but in all the years we've camped up there we've never ran into another over-nighter.

stemwinder.jpg
 
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Usually starts about six blocks down the hill when my hood latch pops! Mentally, I try to turn the entire trip into the adventure. If I limit it to just the trail, forest, desert, etc., it seems to add a strange urgency to getting there that I simply do not enjoy. I try and start my enjoyment as soon as I twist the key.
 
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Here in Norway, I know of a 3-4 free camp locations (that's what I call them) within 30 minutes from my apartment, the one I like the most is 27km/30 minutes from my front door.
 
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CR-Venturer said:
15 minute drive from my front door in some cases. Depends where I'm going though, could be half an hour, could be an hour.

The trail that leads to this spot starts about 20 minutes from my front door:
View attachment 90747
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Saw your pic first and immediately thought, "Hey, that looks like around here!"
Cheers from Mount Vernon, WA.
-Matt
 
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Jedi said:
For me, 45 minutes will get me to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, with tons of opportunities from there.
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Back in 08 when I separated from the AF I ended up in Bellingham. I had one duffel bag, a new Kawasaki, and a couch to crash on. It was by far the least productive but one of the most enjoyable times in my life...
 
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I’m in N.C. We are about 3.5 hours to the southern N.C. beaches and about 4.5 hours to the Outer Banks. 2 hours to the mountains and Asheville area. 3 hours and we are in the Great Smokies. 3-4 hours and you can be in the Georgia Mountains. I can’t wait to get out West though!
 
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