Category Archives: Uncategorized

August 27, 2018

Yolo in Yoho

After a decently grueling hike at Lake Louise, I was happy to take the weekend off and leave Banff to the masses. It’s been a common theme this entire trip to lay low for the busy weekends since I have the luxury of biding my time and hitting the trails during the off-peak days. During July though, the weekdays are only moderately off-peak in the National Parks. Thanks to some campfire grilled chicken and veggies, a full recovery was made and we were ready for our next adventure.

In between Banff and Jasper National Parks, I saw that I would be passing by Yoho, and I had heard that it was one of the lesser crowded parks, so I decided I’d take a look. Making an “early” start for me, I headed to Yoho to check out the first-come campground situation. Talking to the ranger at the entrance to the park, I found out that I basically only had one option for RV camping, Monarch campground, as the other campground was closed due to avalanches. The third campground at Takakkaw Falls was pretty cool, it was a walk-in campground where people would carry all of their gear about a quarter mile in to the campgrounds. I was lucky to get a spot at Monarch, as it was fairly small and even the overflow parking lot area filled up every day. That’s one major difference between the U.S. and Canadian National parks, once a U.S. campground fills up, that’s it, keep moving. The Canadian campgrounds will let you park anywhere there’s open ground, and won’t send you packing without a place to sleep like the U.S. will. Another key difference is the fire situation. In Canada, they make you pay a daily rate for a fire permit, and they stock a huge pile of firewood in the campground, and it’s all-you-can-burn. In the U.S., they’ll sell you a $6 bag of firewood that may last an hour, and a Canadian fire permit was about $6 a day, so a much better bargain.

After securing my camp spot at Monarch, I decided to hit up the visitors center in the little town of Field to get the scoop on the backcounty permits and trails in the park. I bought a trail map of the area, and found a single backcountry site available for two nights at Twin Falls. It once again worked out perfectly, I got to take my time, do a hike that evening, and had the whole next day to get ready for my backpacking trip. I did the Burgess Pass trail for the rest of that afternoon, and it was an awesome reprieve from the crowds where I didn’t see another soul for the whole 12km up and down the pass. At the top was a nice little snow bank, and I was able to have a mandarin flavored Yoho Snowcone as a summit snack. The dogs were also pleased to crunch on an unflavored snowcone of their own to cool down after a fairly grueling climb up to the pass. The pass overlooked Emerald Lake at the top, and the solitary views were absolutely stunning. A true hidden gem of a trail, there wasn’t even a sign on the highway denoting a trailhead.

I got my backpack all packed and relaxed the next day, preparing for a two-night trip into the backcountry at Twin Falls Campground. It was only a 5-mile hike each way, and about 1000’ of elevation gain. I started early in order to get up the switchbacks in my RV before any crowds, and it was a good idea. There were a couple of switchbacks that required 3-point turns, wouldn’t have been fun if there had been any traffic. After a little bit of breakfast in the parking lot, and a little bit of fighting with Beans to get him to walk with his backpack on, we set off. Beans is definitely not a fan of wearing his backpack, he refuses to move when I put it on, it’s like he needs a jumpstart every time, and I have to force him to start walking. Once he’s in second gear and drops the clutch though, he seems fine. Thanks for carrying my beer for me Beans, it’s greatly appreciated.

The hike was awesome, and the weather was perfect. We passed by Takakkow Falls (830’ and spectacular) which features a walk-in campground that was all booked up for my visit, but looked very cool. Next were Laughing Falls, which also had a backcountry campground, but was a few miles in. Then I got to my Twin Falls campground, and settled on which site I wanted, which was the most remote one that I could find. The setting was dramatic, with a trickling creek behind my tent to cool my beer down, and a river with a bunch of picnic tables that were our community dining facilities. I set up my tent, had a snack and a beer, hung my food on the bear pole, and packed up my supplies to head up a mile or so down the trail to Twin Falls.

The Falls were a spectacular, 400’ double cascade, with a staircase set of falls at the bottom. This set of falls is second only to Havasupai in awesome waterfalls that I’ve ever seen. There is also an awesome backcountry chalet called Twin Falls Chalet, where you can book a room and get fed from a wood-fired stove , prepared by a sweet old lady named Fran. She has ran the chalet since 1962, and she is a legend. Apparently she still plans all the meals for the guests, handles all the logistics, and even packs in some of the supplies for guests every summer. I learned all of this the next day, when I went on a huge loop hike over the top of the falls and back down the other side of the mountain. When I got back down to the chalet, I chatted with a nice Canadian couple I met at the top of the falls, who treated me to some of their wine and company. They had the chalet all to their lonesome somehow, and had to book months in advance. Since he didn’t have to carry in any of his own food or camping supplies, apparently the husband had hiked in a full case of wine so he could share with the other guests, which did not exist. The couple was awesome; they actually both worked for the National Park, lived in the teeny tiny town of Field, and absolutely loved the lifestyle out there.

Since I had two nights booked at the campground, we had the whole next day to explore, and I estimate that we went about 10 hard miles. We went to Twin Falls, hiked up to the top of them via Whaleback Ridge, back down to the falls on the Marpole Lake Connector, and back to the campground. Along the route I ran into a couple of young lady rangers that had huge net baskets, and I asked if they were catching butterflies. They said no, and were actually looking for a type of fungus that was killing some trees in the park. Over those 3 days in the Yoho backcountry, we hiked over 20 fully satisfying miles, and were happy to get to the next campground for a little R&R.

August 18, 2018

Banff National Park and Lake Louise

Welp, guess I have some catching up to do as I’ve been slacking on my blog writing lately. Last post I had just gotten into Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. I had secured my camping spot before the weekend at Protection Mountain Campground, and was happy to use it as my home base for exploring the area. With the weekend approaching, I knew that I had to get in some hiking at one of the more popular destinations in the park, Lake Louise. I had done my research on the hiking trails, and came up with a 12-mile round trip hike, Devil’s Thumb, rated as difficult, in order to get out of the heavy crowds. Starting as early as possible for me with a hearty breakfast and coffee to sustain a long day of hiking, I left the campground at around 8 just to get to a closed highway 1A, just my luck. Turning around to get on Freeway 1 caused a 45-minute detour, so my “early” start quickly got derailed, and by the time I got to the town of Lake Louise, I knew that all of the good parking would already be taken. So, I pulled over the first chance I got, and scored an empty parking lot at a picnic area about a mile away from the actual lake, oh well. The walk to the lake and trailheads wasn’t bad at all, and I knew I made the right call as I walked past dozens of cars waiting in line to get a parking spot.

After a couple of quick touristy pictures at the beautiful Lake Louise, I set off down the trail at a quick pace trying to get ahead of the hordes. The hike that I picked out was the perfect tour of the attractions around the lake, and featured a couple of other higher elevation lakes, the most scenic being Lake Agnes, the destination of most of the hikers on the trail. The dogs and I waited in line there for a nice cup of tea at the quaint little teahouse on the lake, and some chips and salsa, which I couldn’t recommend. I wish I had gotten the biscuits and jam, oh well, next time I’ll know. It’s probably not all that smart to be ordering chips and salsa anywhere in Canada, I suppose. Hiking past and above Lake Agnes and some daring Colorado hikers jumping in the frigid waters, I headed up to the Big Beehive overlook, but was excited to get headed up the final scramble up to Devil’s Thumb. By this time, the crowd had dwindled to all but the most adventures hikers, and I met the two most hard-core old ladies coming off the thumb, who both must have been at least in their 70’s. Saying something dumb as I’m known to occasionally do, I asked them, “Did you make it to the top?” Slightly offended, but laughing it off, they replied, “Do you even have to ask?” Of course they did, and it wasn’t even the first time they’ve summited. Then they pulled an awesomely classic grandma move, and gave me a Werther’s Original caramel for the summit. I said thanks, told them that they were awesome, and assured them that the dogs would get some licks on the caramel, and headed on my way.

Before the final and most difficult ascent, there was a girl from Mexico there waiting for her friend to get to the peak, who would pick her up on the way back. Apparently, she would only hike as far as her fear of heights would allow, and let her friend continue ahead of her while she waited, sometimes an hour or more. I also spent some time talking to four nice dudes from Ohio State University heading up to the summit. One of them was struggling pretty good on the loose rocks, and he had to laugh at my all-terrain dogs running up, down, and back up the slopes again, never missing an opportunity to make sure my path was clear of chipmunks. Needless to say, the summit was epic as could be, and would be difficult to top the whole trip. I chose to make it a loop hike in order to see the plain of six glaciers on the way back, thinking that they probably need to rename it since all but a couple of the glaciers have unfortunately melted and receded. I came around the back of Lake Louise for the return trip, and there was an awesome beachy area where a bunch of tourists were hanging out and wading in the milky, bright blue waters. Too worn out to do any more sight-seeing, I was ready to get back home. With the added 2 miles to get to my picnic area, I estimate that we did 14 miles that day and it was well worth it. I was happy to get back to my campsite and have a couple of days to rest, eat, drink, make fires, and plan out my next adventure.

July 29, 2018

Canada Ho, Eh

Montana had some amazing free camping going on, but since I was heading in that direction anyway, I had to at least see Glacier National Park. I knew that it would probably be as ridiculously crowded as Yellowstone, and once again I couldn’t take the dogs on any good hikes. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and the place was definitely beautiful. I was able to score the last camping spot at Fish Creek Campground for a couple of nights, and they had showers, so I call that a successful visit. I was able to take the dogs on some of the little paved trails around the campground, and I was camped basically right on the picturesque Lake McDonald. Since I was able to have a good fire at night, I even got up enough nerve to go for a chilly and brief little nakie dip in the lake, totally worth it. I attempted to go over the butt-clenching Logan pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Road (21’ maximum length vehicles allowed), but the weather turned on me as we were getting close to the top, and I got scared and turned around the first chance I got. Skippy is 21’ before the bumper addition, so I’m actually more like 22.5’, I guess I should listen to those kind of restrictions a little more seriously.

After Glacier, I was ready for some free camping where them dogs could roam free once again. So, I found a spot near Eureka, Montana, that had one good review on freecampsites.net, and decided to check it out. If it didn’t work out, there were other options nearby. This spot was AWESOME. I was camped right at the mouth of the Tobacco River, so I had a river, a lake, a mountain view, a level, graveled site, and a pit toilet within a 5-minute walk. It got warm during the day, and I had to chase the shade and take a dip in the frigid river every once in a while, so it was totally manageable. Actually a nice reprieve from all the rain and clouds I’ve been seeing lately. I even busted out the generator and ran the AC for the first time this trip, and it worked great, glad I decided that it was worth the extra cost and weight. We could have just hung out outside all day and chase the shade around the campsite, but Sierra woke up one morning walking on 3 legs, and after a close inspection, I found a nice sized hole between her paws and I had no idea how it happened. My biggest worry was that there was still a thorn stuck up there and it would get infected and have to find a vet. So, I played doctor, got out my nice first aid kit, cleaned it up as best I could with rubbing alcohol, put some antibiotic ointment on it, wrapped it up with gauze and tape, and ordered her to bed rest. That only lasted a day before she decided that she didn’t want a bandaged foot anymore. After taping it up 4 times in one day, and even resorting to taping a sock on her foot, and losing said sock, I gave up. She was getting better; I just had to keep an eye on her for a couple of days to keep her from licking it. After 3 nights at the Tobacco River and a full paw recovery, we were Canada bound.

Upon entering Canada, I needed to re-supply, so after a quick stop at one of towns near the border, I figured I needed a place to stop before we headed into Banff and unknown camping situations. The documented free camping sites are few and far between, it seems like Canada is more dependent on developed, paid camping, but I was able to scrounge up a free site on Findlay Creek that was WAY off-grid. But oh well, I’d take what I could get so off we went. The sites were hard to come by, and there were tons of back-roads to wander. I found a nice field where a bunch of trailers were already parked, so I decided to go back to the first site I saw, and it was way off by its’ lonesome, right next to the raging creek that would’ve definitely been classified as a river in the states. The site was decent, quiet, and had a plywood box to poop in, so we stayed a couple of nights since it was a pretty good drive to get to Banff. Probably the coolest feature of the site was the little piece of history tacked up to one of the trees. It was a picture of a couple of good-ole-Canada boys showing off their kills, a couple of deer carcasses hanging from the very tree sitting in the campsite. It looked like the vintage of the old truck was late 80’s, early 90’s, very cool.

I forced myself into an early start after two peaceful nights at Findlay Creek, the first time I’ve had to set an alarm in months by the way, and headed towards Banff, not knowing whether or not I’d be able to score a camp site in their developed, first-come, first-served campgrounds. I was due for some groceries, so I made a pit stop in Invermere and grabbed an obligatory cup of Tim Horton’s. I had good cell-phone reception here for the first time in a long while, so I decided to check out Canada’s campground reservation service to see what’s what. Luckily, I was able to score a spot right before getting to Banff, Redstreak Campground in Kootenay National Park that had showers and was within walking distance to some trails and a hot springs, not too shabby. Anxious to get into iconic Banff, I only stayed a single night, but had time to get a good hike and shower in.

My first nights in Banff were every bit of incredible as I could’ve hoped for. Once again getting an early start out of Kootenay, I stopped at one of the first campgrounds that I got to, not knowing how fast they fill up every day, and the weekend was approaching. It was time to hunker down for the weekend and wait out the crowds. I ended up at Protection Mountain Campground and was pleasantly surprised at how many open spots there were, so I was able to actually be picky and chose a site with nice afternoon shade. It was a wide open valley surrounded by looming giants, snowcapped peaks and severe cliff faces. It was a pleasure to sit there in my trusty camp chair and just take it all in, but I knew that I had to act fast if I wanted to avoid the hordes of people on all of the popular hikes. So, with my spot secured, I braved Johnston Creek, a popular hike with waterfalls, and plenty of options for hiking beyond the crowds. I didn’t get there early like you’re supposed to, so the flocks of tourists had already amassed, but somehow I got VIP parking with someone pulling out as I pulled in. Somehow I’ve been lucky in this regard for this whole adventure, I’ve consistently gotten the last camping spot, the only parking spot, and the very last reservations. I can’t help but think it’s not random, and some force in the Universe is looking out for me.

The easy hike up Johnston Creek to the two waterfalls was a shit show, I barely got glimpses of the falls through the sardined tourists getting their Facebook pictures in. Sierra was a handful as we were walking over narrow gangplanks suspended over the river bolted onto the Cliffside. It was barely wide enough for two people to pass each other, and there I was trying to wrangle two dogs attached to each other by a two foot lead… It was a mess, but funny now looking back at it that I was even able to coax an anxious dog over these things without any incidents. While I tried to wrestle Sierra the edge of the walkways to let people pass, she resisted, resulting in an interesting little dance of wills. Once we get past the easy parts of any hike though, the crowds dwindle, so it was only about a mile and a half of this embarrassing choreography. Beyond the falls were the Inkpots, small pools of different shades of blue and green, which for some reason I guess I didn’t get any pictures of, but there are already thousands on the Google. I think I was more impressed with the surrounding jagged peaks. This post has definitely been delayed due to the lack of any reliable internets while in the parks. There are still tons of great adventures to tell about from the parks, so stay tuned. I am now actually driving through Canada to get to upstate New York, which is a funny story that will have to wait for the next episode. This is the most driving I’ve put Skippy through, so wish me luck!

July 6, 2018

Montana Monsoons

Wyoming flew by in a blink, the few free camping spots were great along the way, but Yellowstone was a bust. The dogs weren’t too impressed with Old Faithful, and I wasn’t too impressed with the crowds. It amazed me that people were in such a rush to get through such a beautiful place, tailgating poor Skippy through the mountains, but now I understand. 20 minutes within driving into the park, I was ready to leave. Between not being able to park anywhere, and the mass of tourists there on a Thursday, most of which had never seen an elk before, I was ready to be out of there myself. Fortunately, one could spend months exploring the public forests around the park without ever growing tired of it, despite the never ending rain going on at the time. Needless to say, since I could hardly find a spot to park in the park, I decided against trying to find a campsite. Then before I knew it, I was in Montana, in the little town of West Yellowstone. A seemingly cool little town, but I was ready to be in my own little secluded piece of the forest again.

After a quick stop for essentials like Coors and Benchmark (thanks for this delightful combo Grizzly), it was a short drive through forbidding mud to a little campsite along Red Creek in Montana. I’ve grown fairly impressed at the off-road capabilities of my little Skippy. I don’t think I’ve ever been as relieved to find a beautiful little valley and creek campsite to myself, despite it being sopping wet. Donning my ski gear, I proceeded to collect and saw through soggy wood to get myself a delightful campfire going. That’s when I drew some attention to myself from a visitor, we’ll call him Eli, but I can’t remember his name, just that it had a bunch of vowels. Eli was going through a hard time in his life, and I did my best to try and help him talk through it, but in the end I was just trying to shake him. He drew me in because I thought he was just your average friendly vagabond. He had lived on the road for the last 25 years, and worked every random job imaginable. I’ll always remember this quote, “I’m not gay, but I hate women”. He was currently working as a handyman at a campground just down the road from where we were camped, but didn’t know if he had quit his job or not, so he was stressing about whether or not he was going to head back that night. From what I gathered, he was at the end of his shift the day before, when his dog, Rupert (this name I do remember), was wandering the campgrounds and stirred up some trouble with the owner’s dog. Rupert was not on any length of leash that I could see, but got along well with my dogs, as much as they could get along with an adolescent 1 year old Aussie with boundless energy. One lady on a bike came by and said his dog had followed her from the highway, which was not close by.

I was having fun talking to Eli about life, until that conversation took random turns of depression and racism. It was time to try and depart, so I said I was going to eat some lunch and go for a hike, to which he replied that he would join me for the hike. So he rolled up to my campsite about a half an hour later to go for the hike up the creek. He lasted about a quarter mile, saying that he had been, “hibernating all winter and hadn’t gotten his legs working again”. So he turned around and that was the last I saw of Eli. I went to go check on him after the hike, and he was sleeping in his car, which I figured was a good thing so I let him be. In the morning he was gone, so I figured he had returned to his job as I had advised. It’s funny how abrupt the relationships you make on the road are, but still leave a lasting impression. I hope Eli works out his demons and remembers how much he loves the forest and camping in his old Suzuki station wagon.

After Red Creek, I made some headway, filled up on supplies on a cool little mining town Ennis, and found a remote little hot springs spot, Potosi Hot Springs. This was one of my favorite spots so far. The hot springs was nothing special to take pictures of, but felt amazing. I met an awesome little naked family there from somewhere in Southern Oregon that offered me a job on their farm. They were on a road trip to Michigan where they had family, and it was the first time they had left their farm to the tenders. They were rightfully stressed having no cell signal and trying to handle business on the road. They were the most well-seasoned campers I have ever met, had the process down, and obligingly fed me some fire-roasted zucchini fresh from the garden. Their 10 year-old boy had definitely done more traveling than I have in my 30 years, and I was impressed with his educated curiosity. He even accompanied them on their trip to Cuba, an adventure he was ecstatic to tell me about, and I was just as excited to hear about it. Also worth mentioning are the two girls that were going to college at Montana State University in Bozeman, I couldn’t tell you their names. One of their dads had lent her a tent for the camping trip, failing to tell them that the tent poles didn’t have any bungee cord. I spent an entertaining hour helping them set up their tent, since we didn’t know how many sections made up each pole, and figured it out through trial and error. It seemed like a top-of-the-line tent though, from 1972.

After Potosi, I was due for a shower, so I spent a night at Bozeman Hot Springs, soaking in the resort, doing some laundry, and feeling like a king with amenities like hot nacho cheese and ice cream. Well worth the $70 for an RV spot for the night, I highly recommend it. There were definitely some characters rolling through there, including some hippies on their way to The Gorge from New York, but I was too tired and had too many chores to hang out with the people much. I was just happy to relax in the pools.

After Bozeman, I wanted to get rid of my pistol since I was getting close to Canada, so I stopped by a pawn shop in Missoula to get it shipped back to Farmington. Missoula seemed like a pretty sweet little town, kind of reminded me of Durango, CO. Next time around I’ll have to stay a night or two there. Free camping spots were getting slim in this area of Montana, but I wound up finding a pretty remote spot 10 miles down a dirt road, Gold Creek Rd. When I got there, the road to all the campsites was gated up and wouldn’t open until mid-July for some forest restoration. I read that this site had been well-used, and I could see plenty of evidence of careless, littering assholes. So, I went down another dirt road, another gate. But there was a nice pull-around area, so I parked er and called it since I didn’t want to drive all the way back into town. I ended up staying two nights there, and it was surprisingly a great, peaceful spot. I hiked down the road I was on, and ended up in a beautiful meadow with giant, 500 year-old Ponderosas, Primm Meadow. It had an amazing history, including surviving a fire that burned down the entire surrounding forest, and was home to couple of homesteaders until the 70’s. “Imagine living here alone without electricity, phone, neighbors, or a passable road in winter. When a cow kicks you in the leg, the only option is to grab a cane and keep up with the chores, which is exactly what Mahala Primm did at age 74 in 1972.” I had a little picnic while Beans cooled off in the creek. I explored a good while around the behemoth Ponderosas, until I found a huge steaming pile of doodoo, which I could see nothing but a big ole grizz pooing out… and it was still warm….yep, I touched it, necessary under the circumstances. Needless to say, I didn’t linger.

June 24, 2018

Head in the Wyoming Fog

By now, I’ve made my way well into Wyoming after a longer than expected respite in Fort Collins to visit an old friend. It’s been a cold, wet day, and it’s beautiful. This is the first stormy day of the adventure, and it’s a welcome change of pace, although the dogs don’t appreciate it as much as I do. So, here I am, no internet, but dry and warm with plenty of supplies to sit and wait out the storm without anything to tell me how long it’s going to last. I watched an incredible documentary this morning called Faces Places about French photographers who tour the countryside, highlighting the townspeople through their portraits pasted to the sides of their homes or old, sometimes abandoned, crumbling buildings. It was a unique way to tell the story of a town through its people on display for the world to see. Even if you don’t know the people in the portraits, they weren’t famous before the photographs and don’t always like the attention, there’s always an intriguing human story behind them.

Surprisingly, the hardest part of my journey has been deciding what to do with each day to make the best of my time out here in these incredible locations. Some spots have been challenging to get to, due to the limitations of Skippy, so I see every camping spot as a gift that I celebrate, just take in my surroundings for a bit, maybe listen to some stories on my phone, or sit in my trusty camp chair and read. The hours and days have been passing so quickly that I have to constantly remind myself to take some pictures and write something down about every place I go. I set a goal to create something, anything, at each spot to remember it by, and so far I’ve been fairly successful, except for the Smoky Skeeter spot on the lake. Even there I managed to take some sweet pictures of the smoke and the stars. It’s funny how even the worst camp spots can yield something sweet. I haven’t painted or drawn as much as I would like to, but it’s a strange mood I have to be in and big commitment required for me to sit for hours that day with a pencil and paper. I love doing it once I get out my pencil and watercolor kits, but there’s always some excuse not to.

I’ve been in Wyoming for only three nights so far, and I’ve already made some decent progress. I’m currently in Lander Wyoming, and it has been some tough driving with the wind through these plains. The camping spots are few and far between in Southern Wyoming, and there was a large fire burning on the Colorado – Wyoming border. The spot that I’m at now is amazing, I have my private little cove surrounded by thick, heavily wooded forest. It’s called the Loop Road on Highway 131, and it leads to a ghost town called South Pass City that I may have to check out before I leave. This has to be the largest stretch of free camping that I’ve come across yet, and the weekend was busy, but I have an endless forest behind my little cove and the dogs get to roam free. Currently, both dogs are sleeping out the storm burrowed in their blankets. We had a little doe visitor yesterday, right outside my window, and it was the first time this trip that I’ve been able to check out some wildlife without some dogs ruining it. I guess if I were a dog, I wouldn’t want to pass up the chance to chase a deer through the forest either.

I’m finally settling into the life on the road after a month, but the planning is a little overwhelming at times. I’m greedy and try to get the best weather at the most beautiful, and free, locations, with planned stops for supplies in between. I also have to make all of my plans around the weekend, due to all the increased traffic. I’ve been successful at staking my claim to a campsite on a Thursday or Friday and wait out the weekends. The stress of being alone where anything can happen also weighs on my mind at times. It mostly sets in when I’m on an isolated trail, and take slip on a wet rock, or my ankle slides out from under me, with no people or cell phone service nearby. These dogs are cool and all, but they’re no Lassies.

June 10, 2018

Solo Backpack and City Pit Stop

After my longest stretch of 5 nights in the same beautiful spot at Foose’s Creek, CO, near Salida, I was ready to get out of the motorhome for a while, so I looked up some backpacking trails nearby, and ended up deciding on Brown’s Lake near Buena Vista. It was six miles of steady uphill and I felt all of them. I got there, and immediately settled on a sandy beach of lake-front property. The wind started ripping across that alpine lake though, and I made the prudent decision to pick up my pack again to move further inland to a spot with better shelter from that brutal wind. There were no fires allowed in the area, so it turned into an early night after some generous servings of dehydrated chili mac for all. After only one night in some frigid 12,000’ climate with rain in the forecast, I was ready to be off of that mountain, so I cut the trip short in favor of cold beer and cheeseburgers at the motorhome. At least with roadside camping, there are neighbors to talk to, I was little too isolated up at Brown’s Lake to enjoy it as much as I should have. Those 12 miles straight up and straight down kicked my ass and knees fairly thoroughly, so I decided to pick up and drive just a few short miles down the road from the trailhead to my next destination, Raspberry Gulch.

After the grueling hike, I was happy to find a nice quiet place to relax for a couple of days. There are a ton of camping options in the San Isabel Forest, I could have easily camped in the area for a couple of months without seeing everything. Them dogs were just as happy as I to take a breather for a bit, eat junk food, and catch up on some Bering Sea Gold and Bob’s Burgers. Poor little Beans wasn’t too happy to test out his new backpack this trip, and refused to jump over some of the logs and rocks he knew he could manage. Instead, he opted to look at me with a sour grimace until I lifted him over the obstacle with the handle on his backpack. It never failed to make me laugh though. We did some exploring in the Raspberry Gulch area, and found the Colorado Trail for the 3^rd time this tour. It looked like some of the trailers parked in the area had been there for quite some time, I’m guessing that they don’t really enforce any stay limit in the area, and I don’t blame them for setting up shop, that place was beautiful with all kinds of activities.

After a couple of days recovering, it felt good to go into town (Buena Vista), have a good meal, hot shower, and get some laundry done. I ate the first gyro sandwich I’ve had in months, and it was glorious. Then I was able to find a nice double-whammy stop at a laundromat with showers! The showers were clean enough, and it was nice to take care of a majority of the main stench offenders, except for Beans, out of the Yoterhome. After a quick stop for groceries and water, we were back on the road… for another hour or so to the next stop at Twin Lakes. I’ve enjoyed taking my sweet time getting through Colorado, I love it here, and everyone that I’ve met so far has been completely awesome.

The next stop was at Twin Lakes is between Leadville and Buena Vista, and the views were stunning. The camping options were plentiful, as I was able to get there on a Thursday. I opted to stake my spot there for the weekend, with a pleasant visit from an old homie on Saturday night. On Sunday, I was offered a place to stay with a real bed and indoor plumbing in Denver, so I couldn’t rightly refuse. It’s fantastic to have friends along the way on my journey, it provides the perfect opportunity to refresh, regroup, and get a little city time in when I’ve been in the forest talking to (but mostly yelling at) dogs for too long. It’s just too bad I don’t have any friends in Wyoming and Montana, but North we go, as long as Skippy decides to keep firing along, which is up in the air at the moment…

May 30, 2018

Shirlene, Martin, and a Moose

I’ve been on the road for two weeks now, and so far, so good. It hasn’t been without minor bumps, of course, no adventure would be complete without them. My main problems stem from a cantankerous, old motorhome, and two stubborn dogs who can’t grasp the fact that they don’t own every forest we park in. Currently I’m sitting off the beaten path in the San Isabel National Forest, and I’ve seen exactly one car drive by, so for now the dogs have free roam of the place. The downside to that is if anyone were to regretfully stroll by, the dogs would surely not be happy about it. The more isolated we get, the more territorial these dogs get, and it’s going to take this entire trip, the limits of my patience, and all the jerky treats I have to try and break them of it, if it’s even possible. In this short two weeks of adventuring, they’ve chased and barked at everything from cars to bikes to friendly hikers to a moose, and a couple of goats.

I’ll start where I left off last, in Telluride. After a glorious $5 shower (it was $3 for the first 5 minutes which I knew I’d surpass) and filling up on essentials in town, we headed to a mid-way stop to where I need to get by June 1^st for a backpacking trip, in Gunnison National Forest by Red Creek. This was the worst spot I’ve been to so far, and for some reason I still spent two nights there, I guess because it still had some perks. It was quiet and isolated, with comfortable weather, where I was camped right on the creek. Sounds great, right? That’s what I said at first. The downsides were the tolls exacted on ole Beans and Skippy. It was a dirty camping experience. The trees that I was parked under (maybe Cottonwood) dropped these sticky, smelly seed casing thingies that got stuck all over unfortunate Beans, and in turn, all over my unfortunate Skippy. Beans also collected a few ticks at this spot, so I’m sure we were all relieved when we packed up. Before we left I made sure to do a little exploring up to some cliffs and a cave, which I was skeptical of hiking to because of mountain lion sign in the area…

Next stop was Foose’s Creek in the San Isabel National Forest. I actually ended up staying 5 nights at Fooses, my longest stretch so far. It was almost perfect, we had a lake, a campsite creek, friendly neighbors, an indoor pooper, a trail, fishing, and your “friendly” neighborhood moose. I got there on the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend, and I had to make the decision whether to squat on my awesome camp spot, or brave the holiday crowds and try to relocate. I made the wise decision to hunker down where I was satisfied with my situation at Fooses.

I had to make a run into town (Salida, CO) to get water and propane, and I left watch of my campsite to my trusted neighbors, an awesome older couple from Canon City, CO, Martin and Shirlene. The first night I met Martin, he had realized he had lost his $2,000 hearing aid, and obviously not happy about it. They had just spent the day sitting with their worms in the water with no fish to show for it, their persistence paid off eventually though. Shirlene found the hearing aid when she was cleaning out the camper two days later, and surprised Martin with it, I was happy to see the instant relief on his face when she told him. Martin was bummed out that his knee had worn out on him, but was happy to relive his adventures with his adventure partner Shirlene, they were incredible people, an experience I’ll never forget. Him, his wife, and their dog at the time were doing some cross-country skiing one winter, and going on a through-trail from town to town, ending up in Sargents, CO, thinking they would get a hotel there for the night and head back in the morning. The problem with that, was the lack of hotels in Sargents. They both laughed looking back at the phone booth all three of them were crammed inside, trying to figure out what to do since it was too dark and cold to ski back. I’m sure they weren’t laughing about it at the time, they said that phone booth was miserably cold. They were able to hitchhike back to their car that night, but what a story to tell. Martin had his fair share of adventure in his life, but said, “it wasn’t enough”. I guess it never is, that look on his face broke my heart when he told me he couldn’t do it anymore, and his wife was on oxygen from a lung disease. But they were still out there strong as ever in his old, finicky, diesel Ford with a nice truck camper mounted up. He was sure not to accept any help I offered him carrying stuff around. Man, did he want to go backpacking with me again. It was with a heavy heart that we had to say goodbye, it’s incredible how fast you can make a lasting connection with such cool people. I should have gotten a picture with them, just never thought about it. Oh well, next time I’ll remember, as I’m sure that won’t be the last.

Fond memories made at Fooses. The dogs charged at a moose, which scared the hell out of me. The moose was unfazed, stamped once, Sierra came sprinting back to me with her tail securely tucked. Beans came back about 20 seconds later, unfazed, it blew my mind. I really hope that the dogs are more wary of bear if and when we come across one…

May 23, 2018

Giddyup

So, the journey has begun. The ole Yoterhome is running fairly strong, with the exception of a few minor details… like keeping warm at night. The furnace doesn’t want to fire up when it’s cold outside, which is inconvenient. While I can’t keep the inside warm, the engine is plenty warm. I’ve conceded to the fact that sometimes I’ll just have to go 30, or even 20 MPH over these mountain passes in Colorado and sweat the whole time… oh well. Tiny engine pulling a home packed to the walls don’t necessarily make for smooth sailing, but I think I’ll manage just nursing Skippy along. Oh, I decided to name the Yoterhome Skippy, after a character in a book series that I’m currently listening to while on the road, Expeditionary Force. Skippy is an ancient alien artificial intelligence device, in the shape of a shiny beer can. He’s the most advanced and powerful computer in the universe, and a world-class asshole, but he has the best intentions for saving the human race from alien invaders that want to mine the planet for resources. That’s why I find it an appropriate name, because although my yoterhome will get me to my next destination, it won’t make it easy on me.

My first stop leaving out of Farmington, NM, was Priest Lake, CO. What an amazing free campsite that was. It was empty all weekend save for a few fisherman coming and going, and a few college kids from Cortez who stayed the night next door, and I was happy for the company, big shoutout to you guys if you end up reading this, thanks for the hospitality. As much as I enjoy talking to the dogs, it’s mostly a one-sided conversation.

After 3 nights at Priest Lake, one fish, and countless squirrel chases, I made massive headway on my journey, and drove about 10 miles into Telluride. After an amazing jalapeno popper cheeseburger and a cold beer, I decided that I didn’t really feel like leaving T-ride, because it’s such a beautiful little Colorado town that I haven’t seen in a few years. So, I sucked up a $28 campground fee (with internet and a shower) for a night. That day w

e hiked up Bear Creek Falls, which was fantastic. It’s a nice campground (Town Park Campground) within walking distance to town, next to a river, but the dogs don’t appreciate the restrictions on free travel due to the proximity of the neighbors.

Next stop after filling up on water, propane still looks good, and I haven’t had to poop in my car yet so no dumpage, is near the Gunnison River on the Red Creek. This place is quiet, and a little warmer, all in all a great place, except for some scary-looking poop on the road. It looks like it was from a huge dog, except with fur in it…. The part that worried me was that there were multiple piles of dooky, and the piles contained poos of different ages. This makes me think that there’s a big kitty out here patrolling the road every once in a while, slightly disconcerting. I don’t think Sierra will much care for seeing those kind of cat videos.

March 12, 2018

Solar Powered Yote

So, I slowly pieced together the necessary parts to add 200W of solar and 200Ah of battery storage over the last two years… There was such a long delay between buying each solar panel that they changed the design and now I have 2 slightly different solar panels. Oh well, they seem to be working.

Here is my parts list for the project:

The first thing I did was run all the necessary wiring, which I oversized just in case I wanted to increase the solar capacity at some point in the future. Then, I waited until I had the cargo bumper and batteries installed on it to put up the panels, so that the panels had something to charge… which took a bit to get all painted up (refer to previous post). I then mounted the charge controller, bluetooth dongle, and fuses on the new closet shelf that I made to hold the drawers.

I wired my panels in series, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but it’s still up for debate. My reasoning is that a series configuration with a higher voltage than parallel, there will be less voltage drop through the cables, therefore gained efficiency. At double the voltage (18.9Vx2 operating) there will also be half the current than a parallel configuration (5.2A operating), which is a safer configuration. I’m also a cheap ass, and wiring them in series requires more connections and wiring. Better efficiency and less work… sounds like a great idea, right? Well, maybe not. The problem I didn’t think about is shade, seems kinda obvious now, but oh well. When one panel is shaded and the other is in sun, the output sucks, sinks bad. Theoretically, the problem wouldn’t be as bad if they were wired in parallel, but I haven’t tested it yet. If I have a problem keeping my batteries charged on the road, I’ll consider re-wiring it, but for now I’m happy with the output. I could see it becoming more of a problem when parking under trees, but not much I can do about a cloudy day.

The charge controller was connected to the cables running up to the panels and the two 6V batteries (wired in series) on the bumper. The batteries on the bumper were then connected to the original 12V coach battery (in parallel) with 4 AWG cable and a 30A fused disconnect. This also may not be the best idea, but I really wanted the extra battery capacity, and I’m lazy. It was easiest to do this since the original battery was already wired into the Yote’s fuse panel. Technically, you aren’t supposed to connect mismatched batteries together, but they both claim about a 200Ahr capacity, so I feel like it will be fine.

The panels were simple enough to mount, I just drilled the holes for the Z-brackets, and made sure to seal it all up with ProFlex caulking before bolting it all down. Then I secured the wiring with Eternabond tape, which will make it difficult to ever re-wire, but at least I know that it isn’t going anywhere.

I splurged a little on the inverter since I got a $70 Amazon gift card for signing up for the Amazon credit card (how I justify things), figuring that it’s probably worth it getting a nice inverter. So far I’m very pleased with what it can handle, not knowing if I’ll ever find anything I need to power to max out the 1000W. At the moment, I don’t plan on bringing my hair dryer and curling iron, so the biggest power suck I can think of right now is my 400W angle grinder, which runs without a hitch. That nice-lookin sine wave also satisfies my engineering nerdness. Supposedly some power supplies don’t like the step waveform of a modified sine wave, as well as my Makita battery charger, so I think it’s definitely worth the splurge. For the most part, I’d like to power as much as possible off of 12V.

Being the nerd that I am, I’m super pumped about the bluetooth capability of my Victron MPPT charge controller. It lets me see the real-time output, voltages, and consumption through an app on my phone, and tracks 30 days worth of data. Note the first day of charging, where the batteries were at about 5.5V each from sitting for too long.

February 3, 2018

Cargo Carrier/ Ladder Build

Now that I’m FINALLY done painting this thing, I’d like to show it off a little and give a huge shoutout to my favorite front-yard fabricator @1toyhero for hooking it up big time with the design and fabrication of the coolest addition to the ole Yoterhome, the pièce de résistance. Hit him up on Instagram if you’re ever in need of some fab work done in the Phoenix area:

https://www.instagram.com/1toyhero/

First off, we had to decide whether to remove the old, crusty 4×4 tube bumper or weld onto it, and I’m glad we decided to cut er off, knowing that I’d have to find a different solution for the poopoo hose storage. We fabricated the basket by welding it all up beforehand with thick steel that we had laying around that was way overkill, but at least I know that I’ll win if people/ trees try to tailgate too close. While I was still trying to dust off my trigonometry and figure out the necessary angles, Kyle was already cutting, and I trusted his eyeball more than I trusted my math, so I let him do his thang.

The new 2×4 base tube was welded directly onto the frame right in place of the old bumper, and there was plenty of surface area to hold whatever I need to put on there, which is mainly my (2) 6-Volt golf cart batteries and 2000W WEN Generator, totaling about 100 lbs.

The ladder was welded directly to the 2×4, and bent to match the sexy curves of my old lady’s ass:

Once it was all welded up, I basically left for Farmington the next day without ever getting a chance to put any paint down, so I had a tad bit o’ rust to deal with by the time I got around to painting the naked steel. After enough vinegar to almost make me not like pickles anymore, and hours of scrubbing and scraping with steel wool and a wire brush, I laid down 3 coats of Rustoleum Automotive Primer. Then I took 800 grit sandpaper to it for a nice, smooth finish to paint over:

For the color, I wanted something that stood out, so I went with Rustoleum Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze, and applied around four coats or so. It’s basically a satin black with some bronze flake in it that only really shows in the sun, and I’m real happy with how it turned out. After the paint was dry, I applied a couple layers of spray-on protective clear coat, and that made all the difference. I like how it hardened and added a glossy finish.

All in all, I’m extremely happy with how this project turned out, and have already put it to use by mounting a new pootube holder, and it bolted right up easy peasy: