Date:         Sun, 14 Sep 2003 17:48:01 -0500
Reply-To:     Jeremy Speer <jspeer@POBOX.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeremy Speer <jspeer@POBOX.COM>
Subject:      Post Trip Report (short)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Folks,

Well, we made it there and back again... Pictured Rocks National
Lakeshore.

A paltry offering of images can be found here
http://homepage.mac.com/jspeer_mn/PhotoAlbum10.html

Twelve Mile Beach campground is a up on a high bank, so launching our
kayaks proved difficult, but we managed. The weather was clear until
the day we began the return trip, but the wind was kicking up about 30
knots in the mid afternoon which made paddling into it a slow affair.
On our first full day there we managed to paddle down to the "Log
Slide" but had to turn back due to the winds.

We only saw one other Vanagon the whole time... a nice 91 Carat. On our
last day a 70's vintage bus rolled into the campground, but they didn't
stop to talk.

The road to Twelve Mile Beach was the worst dirt/gravel road i've ever
taken a car on. There was some very bad washboard, but there was also a
rocky section that was positively jarring. The steering felt "lighter"
and a bit "floaty" on the ride home.

All in all the van performed fine... the fridge even made ice on two
nights despite daytime temps in the high 80's. Gas milage averaged
about 18.2 even with the boats on the roof, we never went faster than
69 MPH (traveled almost exclusively on secondary roads).

-jspeer
'89 Westy GL, "Mystery Machine"