saschmidtski

June 26, 2016April 6, 2017

Glendo State Park

First visit after reading a lot of glowing reviews of their mountain bike trails and how it’s the next Curt Gowdy State Park. Plus, Fred’s driven passed the exit for it a million times on the way to / from South Dakota.

While there are a lot of camping sites, Twin Moon Campground promised to have the most shelter from the wind (it IS Wyoming and they have a lot of wind farms there for a very good reason) and had some bike trails running right through it.

We found a nice sheltered spot with some decent privacy. Campground was not crowded. A short walk to a very nice view.

Our site.

Words to live by… Ok, it’s from a quirky podcast called “Welcome to NightVale” but still!

Definitely getting tired of cold and windy camping trips but I will say this, our site was, indeed, sheltered. We could hear the wind blowing but for us it resulted in that lovely rustling tree tops sound and a slight breeze blowing through the site. Nice.

Saturday morning we were up and ready to go biking. We kept hearing these ‘boom!’ off in the distance but figured, “We’re in Wyoming… mining?” Sound died down around 4pm and then a squad of these guys flew over our site around 5pm… Uh oh…

Guess what?! The somewhat nearby military training area was having a week-long, multi-state exercise with lots of heavy duty military equipment. Those booms were target practice… Apparently one of the exercises was night bombing. Those booms! went on all night. Uggghhhhhhhh. Note to self, check the “Guernsey Training Center” Facebook page for events before planning our return trip.

The good news is we had a nice ride on Saturday. Lula leads the way on the trail that went right by our camp site. We even had our own little spur right to our camper.

Had some sunshine on Sunday for our parting view. We will definitely go back in the Fall for more riding.

May 18, 2016April 6, 2017

Fruita

Finally! Fruita! Looking like mostly good weather except for the weekend. We were looking forward to the campground we could finally get to, biking, and using the water in the camper.
Wrinkle number one: our chosen campground was full. Dang it. Seems like they reduced the number of sites out there since we visited in October. All dispersed sites were full too. Luckily the main campground still had spots. Not our first choice but better than trying to find somewhere else to camp.

Thursday morning was lovely. Got a nice ride in.

Lula and Fred at Jabba the Hut rock after taking a quick break to let Lula cool down a bit.

We really picked a good spot, it turns out. Wrinkle number two: The winds started whipping up Thursday afternoon bringing in the weekend’s snow storm. We were at least a little protected here. Our usual “favorite” spot would have been a lot more exposed to the wind. Inside the camper was nice and cozy (as we learned from Curt Gowdy) but outside was unpleasant.

We added Brophy scissor steps which has made getting in and out of the camper easier (and safer) for everybody. Lula’s a pro at it now! Having running (and hot) water in the camper is simply luxurious. Some day it will be warm enough for us to use the external shower…

Lula was being a most uncooperative subject during our afternoon walk in the wind… so here are other vistas around our campground.

Finally a good shot of pupster!

We knew a storm was heading into the mountains and was expected to sit and dump snow for 3 days. Wrinkle number three: Since the weather in Fruita was overcast, rainy and cool with more chances for wind, we opted to “beat the storm” and get outta dodge and over the passes before it got ugly.

Near Glenwood Canyon. At this point the snow is still lovely. Wrinkle number four: Then we hit Vail… and our plan to beat the storm was… futile.

The snow, while still lovely to watch fall, was no longer lovely to be driving in. It was falling about 2″ / hour and near white out conditions. Vail Pass was closed for about 3 hours. We had to move around Vail a bit while we waited and hoped it would re-open. Seems like Vail PD doesn’t like people parking anywhere but in their parking garages (which you have to pay for and we probably wouldn’t fit in). The picture above was from Vail Pass to Copper… we had plows ahead of us until the Vail Pass summit and then… this. Yuuuuuck. Luckily this was the worst of it and we were able to get home. We probably would have been better off staying in Fruita until Saturday but alls well that ends well.

May 16, 2016April 6, 2017

Curt Gowdy State Park

Time for camping trip number 2. Since it was March… We needed to stay low (elevation-wise) and try to avoid snow. Plus we just got a Swing Daddy bike rack so the bikes needed to go for a ride. Curt Gowdy State Park in Wyoming fit the bill.

Might be a little windy… Although I guess we should have known when there is a huge wind farm just to the east. Also a little cloudy. But hey, we found a petty good spot right by the water.

We are the eternal optimists and put the awning up… Which we had to take down pretty quickly before the winds took it ;). There was still a little snow around.

Not a bad view around sunset.

The overnight winds were crazy. Blew the chairs over and one of their covers over to the next cove. The morning, however, was sunny.

If she stares at the ball long enough she is SURE it will move.

Enjoying the views.

Not a bad set up. Sort of an odd playground across from our site but Lula enjoyed climbing around the “truck”.

At least the sun was out but the wind was relentless so we packed up and headed home. We did learn that our camper holds up great in the wind so we’ve got that going for us… Our long-awaited trip to Fruita looms in April. We’re hoping to be able to actually put water in the tanks and fully utilize our camper, weather permitting.

January 23, 2016April 6, 2017

And you may ask yourself Am I right?…Am I wrong? And you may tell yourself MY GOD!…WHAT HAVE I DONE? – David Byrne

Not sure why the Talking Heads song “Once in a Lifetime” goes through my head every time I think about how we got to where we are with the new camping rig… But there it is. So… How DID we get here?

I’m not much of a camper, honestly. I was never that comfortable being in tents and sleeping on the ground. Fred was definitely more so but was getting tired of sleeping on the ground as well. We aren’t getting any younger after all.

Still, we gave it a go a few years back… and while the day was gorgeous… The night brought rain and the creative cooking challenge of how to not get everything wet or cook in the tent.

So now what? We started looking for a pop up trailer. We figured it would be affordable and lightweight. Neither of us had any experience looking at RVs or campers of any sort so we were in for a surprise. These things aren’t cheap! But, we found an used 1984 Skamper that didn’t leak and would get us started.

It was a definite improvement. I could stand up to change clothes and with a little propane heater we could be quite comfortable when it was cold or rainy. No more sleeping on the ground!

Best of all, Lula loved it. It opened up possibilities but had some drawbacks. Mainly, we were pretty restricted to campgrounds. You need a mostly level spot with enough room to maneuver the car and trailer. Plus… this little trailer was not very off road capable so we couldn’t get to some of the places we’d rather camp. We started looking at off road trailers and found the U.S. options somewhat lacking. Lots of cool trailers made in Australia and Europe but not many imported or made here. We found a few we liked but we also discovered that our desire to be in campgrounds evaporated after our last trip to Fruita. The campground was packed full Friday night and we had less than considerate neighbors. We longed to be camped further down the road where there were less people…. But also less established campgrounds. We actually cut our trip short so we wouldn’t have to go through another night with the other campers. No good. The other challenge with a trailer is when you are traveling to / from your destination you’ve got, well, a trailer to pay attention to. Parking for meals, gas stations, even changing lanes on the highway all become a little more challenging.

How do we get to camp here?!

So our desire to be more self-contained, mobile and all around freer led us to 2 options… An off road custom van or pickup truck with in bed camper. The vans can be quite awesome but are also quite costly. A truck with camper seemed our best option. At first I was worried that they would feel small and cramped (and some do) but once we started looking, we found some to be quite lovely. As soon as we went to Four Wheel Campers and looked at their floor models we just knew they were the ones. Then we just had to pick our options (huge thanks to Chris at Rocky Mountain Four Wheel who helped us every step of the way and is just all around helpful and knowledgeable) and wait for it to be built and delivered. We bought a used 2006 Toyota Tundra in remarkably good shape and then had to get the suspension beefed up to support the camper since it was at our payload capacity empty. We may need a 3/4 ton truck at some point but we’re in good shape for now.

Now we just have to throw a dart at a map of Colorado and go! Bring on camping season!!

January 17, 2016April 6, 2017

Maiden Voyage

WHO goes camping in the middle of winter… honestly?! Ok, I know plenty of people who do but why would WE go camping in the middle of winter?! Well, when you get your new camper in January and sitting in it at night in your driveway just doesn’t quite satisfy the desire to actually use it… you do what you have to do.