Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

30 Sep 2015
10 Comments

It Hurts So Good Dept.

Care for some unique, anyone?

Care for some unique, anyone?

Reader David R sent in a couple of photos of his latest conquest, a 1965 Avion C-10, a ten-foot truck camper that fits in an eight-foot bed. He claims it’s “in surprisingly good condition for the age”, which is now fifty years! Who says they didn’t build ’em to last back then?

David is one of those gluttons for punishment who enjoys taking basket cases and refurbishing them, and then on to the next. But it’s possible that this old 1,700-pound beer can might stick around for awhile, since Read more…

Posted in Camper Nirvana
30 Sep 2015
15 Comments

It’s Time to Comment

The BLM is charged with protecting our public lands for free access and use. This is to make it possible for all American citizens to visit all BLM-administered land free of charge, so that access is not restricted only to those who can afford to pay for it.

The BLM is asking for public comment on its plan to allow the state of Colorado a long-term lease on its Salida East dispersed campground area, so that the state will be able to charge fees and use them to supposedly upgrade the grounds and enforce policies. The BLM lacks the ability to carry out enforcement on its own, and claims that some vegetation has been damaged, that some campers have overshot the 14-day stay limit, and that the area is noted for some drug and alcohol abuse.

That is unfortunate, but I feel that allowing Colorado to effectively commercialize access to Read more…

Posted in Campsites and tagged ,
28 Sep 2015
8 Comments

Extra Evelo Explorations

The entrance to whatever this is, is high clearance only, due to one dive off the main trail, and a larger one just ahead.

The entrance to whatever this is, is high clearance only, due to one dive off the main trail, and a larger one just ahead.

Some trails just lay there, while others seem to beckon with the challenge, “Where do I go? I must be here for a purpose. Wouldn’t you like to find out?” I guess I’m a sucker for the ones that head over to the top of a distant ridge, as if to promise a full Read more…

Posted in Campsites and tagged , ,
26 Sep 2015
13 Comments

Evelo Explorations

High over Green River, Wyoming are loose strings of trails that are great to explore on a suitable bike.

High over Green River, Wyoming are loose strings of trails that are great to explore on a suitable bike.

Given some delightful weather and a mild breeze, it looked like a good a time as any to discover an alternate way to get to town, other than Wild Horse Canyon Road, also referred to as White Mountain Road on some devices. I figured that an alternate would probably be preferable, since passing vehicles produce huge plumes of enveloping dust on the main dirt road in. A recent pass by a grader on the nicely-graveled top section has made the surface so loose that biking it takes considerable care and power – you’re better off riding the wide dirt ditch on either side.

At this elevation, that look leftward is quite a treat.

At this elevation, that look leftward is quite a treat.

My online map of the area showed that there was a trail branch that dropped right into the middle of town. The Defiant is encamped right at a trail intersection leading to it. Considering that a vehicle occasionally turns in to head down it or return, it seemed like a possibility. But it wasn’t a certainty. Both GPS and online map accuracy is Read more…

Posted in E-Bike Pack Mule and tagged , , ,
23 Sep 2015
6 Comments

A Miss and a Hit

You know, if I had a fishing license...

You know, if I had a Wyoming fishing license…

The trip to Green River, Wyoming was uneventful save for the beginning and the end of the 245-mile jaunt. The dirt trail going into Vedauwoo is bad washboard, as I’ve whined about before. My camping spot was just short of a couple of miles past the paved entrance. On the way in, I’d taken it at a crawl, the F-250s stiff springs making it jerk about, while the Defiant bounced up and down on the pronounced ridges with a sort of whaka-whaka rhythm. I noticed a hard-side truck camper idle in the following day, bouncing and rocking something fierce, too.

Since that time, the many passing vehicles appeared to be taking it at about 20-30 MPH, and although the ones with various kinds of trailers made a horrendous noise, that seemed to be the style of the locale. So, running solo later on a couple of errands to Laramie, I tried it. The trick was to get up to speed as quickly as possible in order to minimize the rather alarming judder. Not that bad! It was also not bad in that it chopped the trail time from a half-hour to a few minutes. All I had to do on hitting the pavement was to shove the GPS’ power plug back in. On the way back, slowing down to take the turn into my camp was unique, in that slowing on the washboard steered the back end right as the rear tires, inflated to their towing pressure of 75 PSI, made only occasional contact with the ridges. That aided my left turn, but the resulting door shake was disconcerting.

in the right type of RV, this place would be quite a treat.

in the right type of RV, this place would be quite a treat.

When departing for what promised to be a 5-hour drive – four hours to get to Green River, and maybe another hour to take Wyoming 530 and then nine miles of 012, marked as the “Lost Dog” Use Area – I decided to man-up and pull the Defiant over the washboard at speed. What the heck, why not try it? To crawl out again would just take too long, and the manly approach usually Read more…

Posted in Campsites, The Defiant, Travelin' Man and tagged , , , ,
21 Sep 2015
7 Comments

Last Days at Vedauwoo

This is a hundred yards of so further down my front yard. Odd shapes on that right one.

This is a hundred yards of so further down my front yard. Odd shapes on that right one.

Well, I haven’t seen hardly any of what I’ve planned to, so the struggle begins for whether to delay my departure awhile. Thing is, if I leave, I’ll have all the more reason to return to “the same old campground year after year” to try to grab another tiny fraction of all there is here. It ain’t just rocks. That’s just what I’m fascinated by on this trip. So, here are a few more snaps of nearby areas, just as I snuck up on them during walks. If you want better, you’ll have to get ’em yourself – something I most highly recommend! Like a few other areas I’ve been to, this place feels like “home”.

Hard to see, but there's deer peering at me in the bushes at center.

Hard to see, but there’s deer peering at me in the bushes at center.

Read more…

Posted in Campsites and tagged
18 Sep 2015
33 Comments

Setting a New Course, Mateys!

Camped near the Bonneville Salt Flats to watch some land speed record attempts. They were there for a week, I stayed for about 2 and a half months, to see other events too.

Camped near the Bonneville Salt Flats to watch some land speed record attempts. They were there for a week, I stayed for about two and a half months, to see other events too. This was last year, and this is what the Defiant does best.

When it comes to RVs, or living mobile, I think one of the reasons that I harp so insistently on figuring out what you want to be doing in what kinds of places ahead of time is because that level of self-awareness is not all that easy when the span of those activities or kinds of places begin to go Jekyll/Hyde on you. RV rigs each come with inherent things that they do well, and things that they don’t. Thanks to the Internet, such limitations can be perceived ahead of time – mostly, anyway. My time to mull things over and reflect was very limited, as was my camping experience. But, I knew I’d rather be living out there than renting a room someplace. It’s kinda like life, I suppose. You do the best you can with what you’ve got, and start doing course corrections when you find that it’s necessary. Having gotten some full-timing experience under my belt since 2012, it appears to be that time now.

As a vehicle to actually live in, with no home or secret rented storage space(s) somewhere to keep overflow in, the travel trailer USS Defiant did and still does work very well. At 26 feet, it just plain works wherever it is, in any weather short of temperature extremes or very high winds. It is a home which can be moved from place to place, which is what I had envisioned. I enjoy getting out to quiet, solitary areas, but have no particular interest in having to battle flies and bees while I’m attempting to cook every meal, having my meal choices depend on what the weather is like, huddling bored inside a cold, dark box or tarp to escape bad weather, moving because of biting gnats, or cleansing my digestive system behind a bush, day or night. “Camping” or “outdoor living” is refreshing for me – for a day or two.

As a permanent lifestyle, that’s not for me. I’m just not an outdoorsy person. I like going outside when it’s nice, just to be outside for awhile. Go see things, feel the sun’s warmth on a cool day, bike around, walk around. I like staying inside when it’s not nice, or when I’ve had enough of the sun, wind, cold or heat, or when I have something to get done. When push comes to shove, Read more…

Posted in Navel Gazing, The Defiant and tagged , ,
14 Sep 2015
11 Comments

Scouting Campsites

Care to camp here? It's a camping circle, not a trail.

Care to camp here? It’s a camping circle, not a trail. (These are all cellphone pics.)

Yesterday, I decided to hop onto the Aurora e-bike and see what other campsites existed, and how they may relate to the Defiant’s peculiarities. The first time I came here, it was immediately before sunset and the pickin’s looked pretty limited. I had driven about a mile further than where I ultimately settled – where I am now – and almost had some excitement as darkness settled in. A trail branch I could use to back into and turn around with was slightly downhill and surprised me with deep sand and pea gravel. It took 4WD and considerable wheelspin to ease the 7,000-pound tub forward again. I considered myself fortunate to find a workable space at all.

This is just one direction in a rather large campsite that is not quite accessible to the Defiant, but would be to anything else.

This is just one direction in a rather large campsite that is not quite accessible to the Defiant, but would be to anything else.

Now, wandering the same trail in broad daylight, it didn’t seem like the same place at all, apart from the cozy familiarity of its brutal washboard surface. There are actually many, many campsites, several of which are fully adaptable to the Defiant’s needs. Accessibility or slope carve off Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, E-Bike Pack Mule and tagged ,
12 Sep 2015
7 Comments

Veedauwoo Walkabout

There comes a time when the view of your new front yard is not enough. Time to get out for a stretch of the legs.

There comes a time when the view of your new front yard is not enough. Time to get out for a stretch of the legs.

When not working on or through necessary tasks, I took the opportunity to explore my immediate area one evening before sunset, and then take a real walk the next afternoon. Medicine Bow National Forest varies from rolling, grassy plain to impenetrable forest on both “normal” mountains and mountains made of massive boulders. I have not tried to make majestic keepsakes here. These are simply snaps that show some of what presents itself before you at every turn, at any time of day.

Stumbling around just before sunset can produce some visual memories that become like icons of a place.

Stumbling around just before sunset can produce some visual memories that become like icons of a place.

Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life and tagged ,
10 Sep 2015
12 Comments

Bullwinkle, Not

This moose got with about thirty feet of the camper as he walked by.

This moose got within about forty feet of the camper as he walked by.

Yesterday morning, I was up not long after sunrise and was working on my writing and a cup of coffee in the office when my peripheral vision signaled something moving out the side window. A full-grown moose slowly ambled by, stopping now and then to look around. Never saw one before! I discreetly scrambled for the Pentax on the dining table, and took the above shot through a side window. I would have liked to sneak outside, around one end of the trailer to stick my head out, but the door sticks and drags on the bottom of the doorframe, so that opening it makes plenty of noise from the door flex and drag. All I’d get then is a distant butt-shot. I can tell you, that critter is taller at the shoulder than he appears in the photo. My guess: my height at 6′. I doubt I could look over him. It’s too bad I could not get a shot of his approach, because that was impressive too, with the antlers and all. He wandered across the nearby trail and up the hill – notable because that trail gets quite a bit of traffic all day. I’ve even seen a FedEx truck go past on it! (No shot of that, though. Sorry.)

Posted in Campsites and tagged ,

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