Today we got up at the crack of dawn to drive up to 7,000ft for a sunrise viewing of Crater Lake. It was spectacular!
Crater Lake
Old Friends
We decided to take a westward turn and visit old friends on the Oregon Coast. It was great to spend time and catch-up!
Van Life (a catch-up blog)
Also known as “Shit! I Hit my Head Again Life!”. While the Wee Rover was getting her ‘heart transplant’, we rented a U-Haul van to give Van Life a try.
Pros:
- My head is now bigger from hitting it so many times and Darrin says it knocked some sense into me (wishful thinking on his part).
- You can sleep inside…good for Grizz Country.
- We didn’t have to set-up a tent
- More people than usual gave us weird looks…and a wide berth
- It would have been nice if it had rained, but it was hot and dry.
Cons:
- It is hot and stuffy
- See 1 under Pros
- It is claustrophobic
- Did I mention my head?
Caveats:
- We didn’t have a raised roof van
- We didn’t have our fridge (had to use a cooler which was awful, our fridge was well worth the money)
- We didn’t have any windows for ventilation
- Etc., etc., etc…..
So, in conclusion…I don’t think we will be switching to a van any time soon…at least a U-Haul low roof van (I think I still have a few bumps on my head), but maybe we will try one of those fancy Sprinter vans someday😁.
As Fun as Watching Paint Dry!
Actually I was able to help…M let me hold the can of paint while she worked her magic! She had the great idea of painting a message on the “junk drawer”, after seeing a similar bumper sticker, informing trailing vehicles of our status. I think it looks great!
The wee Rover Grew Wings!
One thing we have been needing was a bit more work space while in camp. Remote camping without a table means things like shaving, food preparation, and cooking mostly happened on the rear door’s folding shelf. It’s worked fine, but some improvements were needed. The problem was our loose rule that most things need to have more than one use. I had thought about bolting a simple plywood sheets to the side of the rover prior to leaving, but couldn’t justify the single use as a table. So, we found the waffle traction boards. Good for bridging a ditch, recovery from being stuck in sand or mud, as well as a table for cooking, shaving and drying clothes!
And I thought Hammock Camping was Fiddley!
So D’s bud Mike gets him into hammock camping several years before we hit the road. The reports were that hammock camping was comfortable, with the following caveat…you have to fiddle, adjust, level, refiddle, readjust, relevel, over and over! Then if everything came together, it was super!
This week, we camped at a major launch point for raft trips on the Rogue River. Coming from a canoe camping background our first thought was how much crap they were piling onto each raft. The 40 mile trip, for a single rafter, from what we observed, may require: (2) 5 gallon jerry cans of water, instead of a simple water filter, a 4 inch thick waterproof mattress, cot, tent, chair, bbq, a couple of coolers, and several bins of food and gear…well you get the idea (aka ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ as one rafter told us laughing)!
All of this is piled on the beach, then the real fun starts. It seems, from our observations, that everything from the pile, must, go into, and out of the raft at least 3 times before the raft is ready to launch! In, out, lashed down, unlashed, removed, replaced, lashed down.
The people who we spoke with who were “really, into rafting” would start the process the night before. They would get the raft all set up as noted above, then repeat it all over again in the morning. The key take away was, on a raft that could carry 4 to 6 people, a single person can bring as much as they could pile on. On a river without any portages, that may not be too bad…no weeks of canoeing on pb&j for this crowd! Perhaps they have the right idea!
