I just wanted to say hi to everyone. My girlfriend and I were into off roading our 07 Toyota fj. About 5 months ago a friend of ours did about 10k worth of damage to his FJ when he got stuck in a 5 foot deep mud/puddle. I realized I would have been right behind him and been in the same boat as him if I was there that day. We decided to take a few steps back and look at what we enjoyed about what we did. We enjoyed camping on our outings, we enjoyed being outside and we enjoyed the people we met on the way. So after looking at what we enjoyed we decided we would continue camping. First we will camp from the car as we gear up but as we gear up we will be buying gear that will work for venturing from our drive in campsites too our hike in campsites. Oh yea i almost forgot too mention. We will be taking our two dogs along with us as much as possible and if anyone cares we live in Montauk NY.

Welcome to the boards and the great world of backpacking. You'll find alot of good information here.

Welcome MTK! Being in NY, you are not that far from the Appalachian Trail, the Long Trail, the 100 Mile Wilderness plus a lot of state parks and trails.

Tango61

welcome. As you know, NY is home to the Adirondack preserve. Thiss 6.1 million acres is a backpackers and paddlers paradise. Along with the other trails mentioned, there is also the Finger Lakes Trail (500+mile) which connects the NCT and the AT. There are also numerous state forests and 1 national forest. Your choices abound in NY. Have fun exploring.

NY state has some great areas to hike but my problem is is I am at the very tip of Long Island. We do have great beach's and some nice trails but anything realy good is some distance away. It takes me about 2-3 hours to get off the island.

I feel your pain. I live in Chicago, and to get anywhere decent I need to go 2-3 hours and to get anywhere good takes me 8+ hours.

I hear ya, mtk. Best to plan for some multi-day trips to make the travel worth your while. I am 3 hrs from driveway to (~closest) trailhead in the adks. At that distance I still can do overnights but I leave at 5am to make the most of the days.

Sorry, I don't hear ya' . The closest place to go for me is 1.5 miles from my house to the trail head (Oquirrh Mountains). I have never really timed how long it takes me to drive that, but the speed limit is never over 35 mph. Or, I could drive 30 minutes to a better location (Stansbury Mtns). Or, I could drive an hour to a different (about the same) location (Wasatch Mtns). Or, I could drive 4 hours to the Uintas.

By the way, welcome to backpacking and the site.

finally
I'm so sorry that you live so far from the woods and hills. Its .1 mile from my house to the wild and scenic river that divides town from the National forest and the trail system starts on the other side of the bridge. Some times I walk the dog up the street and over the bridge and walk in the National Forest, though admittedly its about twelve miles to the Three Sisters Wilderness.

mtk,
Ya gotta watch out for those mud holes. I 4wd a lot too and sometimes I look suspiciously at a big puddle and wonder if its 5 feet deep, but I always hit it fast enough for my momentum to carry me through, if it is 5 feet deep I'm in deep dodo without a paddle.
Jim oh and welcome.

Welcome! If you haven't already found them, there are lots of excellent how-to articles for beginners and on gear selection listed in the left-hand column of http://www.backpacking.net/, the home page of this site.

Another good site for gear selection is Mark Verber's website. Lots of ideas for gear, including low-budget alternatives.

We do have some nice short trails here and some great wildlife. we also have miles of beach being we have water on 3 sides of us it's just not what I want too hike.
As for gear and the site that you mentioned I did find them already. After going through Marks sight and finding REI-Outlets i got my Gregory z30 for $59.00 instead of $139.00. Granted it is a left over from 08 but it looks the same as the 09 and this years. I might be wrong but don't think so.
Jimshaw it is nice to see some one else that enjoys off-roading as I do. I went 90% of the way through a water whole that we thought was only 2 feet deep to find out it was about 4-5 feet deep. I was able to back out and the only thing I did was rip all my interior out and washed it down and put every thing back. Oh and they warrantied the starter and alternator that went bad .