Motel vs. camping

[huntnnw]

always camp. Not effective use of time for me in almost every place I hunt. My last ID hunt I was 17 mi from several motels and it would of been a 2 hour drive one way every day to just stay in a motel. On extended hunts Ill get a room 1 night in middle of hunt to shower, get more supplies and wash clothes.

[Wazntme]

I think you should camp, we camped in Montana last year and it was 2 degrees and I loved every minute of it, if you are totally comfortable and cozy you won’t even remember the trip in a few years. Embrace the suck and you will remember it forever!

[Karl Blanchard]

2014 we had several nights that it got sub negative 25.  Required multiple restocking of the woodstove.  I always pack 3 days of wood if I am unsure of availability. 

Takes 20 min to set up a wall tent. If you are worried that setting up your whole camp is going to eat up precious hunting time then slap the tent up, pitch all your crap inside and go hunt. You can situate camp in the dark so it does not interfere with hunting. Lot more time efficient than driving back and forth. 

Keep the saw in the truck and snag wood if you find it.  If I have a good tree I can cut a whole cord in an hour so enough wood for camp won't take more than that.

 If you are going way east I'd think about pellets instead of wood as it can be hit or miss.

Don't over think camp.  I see the mountain of crap guys take for camp and just shake my head.  If camp life is a big part of it for people then bring the bells and whistles but otherwise you really don't need very much stuff. 

Just some random  and general thoughts on this subject

[dvolmer]

I'm 53.  No more sleeping on the ground for me!!!  We hunt 7 miles outside of Evanston Wyoming and I can get a hotel for $50 a night.  Split with your hunting buddy, that's $25 a night and you get a hot shower every day and a bed to sleep on!!  Nothing fancy but it beats packing all of the gear and stuff the 10-12 hour drive over!  They even have outside plug in's for your small chest freezer in the bed of your truck.  In Montana we rent the ranchers second house (past deceased parents home).  $1200 for the week split between 4 guys the second week of November.  It comes along with 12,000 acres of private ground!  That's $300 a piece for an entire week of lodging and high quality deer hunting.  The ranch I  hunt here in Washington is 45 miles from my house.  Just a hop skip and a jump away!  No hard ground for me!!!!!  I must be getting soft in my old age!!!!

[Jpmiller]

Pretty much the only nights I sleep well is on the hard ground in the freezing cold so I'm all for camping. Used to set the wall tent up and wood stove and we could get the thing hotter than we wanted in no time at all but don't like being that tied down to a spot. Like to keep camp with me now unless I'm really familiar with the area.

[wooltie]

I think the lodging could depend upon how you intend to hunt.  Drive/glass/hike/stalk/blow stock/hike back to truck, then repeat -- you could camp wherever you find yourself at the end of the day I guess.  Setup tent and stove.

Or you could drive to the motel, if it's not far away.

If I knew where I was going in MT this year and was familiar with the terrain, and intended to hunt the area the entire time, and intended to go several miles in and stay in the area, then I would camp obviously.

And I don't know where we'll hunt MT this year.  First year we stayed at two separate motels.