Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:40:28 -0700
Reply-To: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ideas for lifting water into the Westy water tank?
In-Reply-To: <00ed01c782ea$eba53760$667ba8c0@main>
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Robert Fisher typed:
> Anyway 110 pounds is a pretty small amount- you could easily get that in variance in
> passenger's body weights, for instance.
Heh -- I probably yo-yo up and down in weight that much myself anyway.
But still, if someone offered to pitch 100lbs of bricks into the back of
the van before I headed up into the mountains, I'd probably decline the
offer. I know which places I go to have water, and which don't. I have
enough sense to bring water into places where I know or suspect potable
water won't be available.
What I don't get is why folk even object to me taking along some bits
and pieces that would make getting new water into the tank easier if I
want more. I have a bucket and collapsible water jugs to fall back on in
case my Rube Goldberg system doesn't work. But the doctors have told me
to avoid carrying heavy loads whenever possible to reduce the risk of
damage to my artificial knee, so I will try to use my goofy pump and
hose idea first.
Probably 70% of my more than 30 years of camping has been in the desert.
Your advice about taking plenty of water is, of course, the most
important bestest advice someone can give. I'm never comfortable without
knowing that I either have, or can get, water, and if I'm not peeing,
I'm not hydrated. Fortunately (or not, depending on how you look at it),
along the 395 and and to the car camping places on the eastern Sierra
never takes a fellow far enough from civilization where he's gonna die
from dehydration before some other people come along (probably in a
giant F350 diesel with tinted windows and a thumpity-thumpity car stereo
if my recent experience is any indication). Backpacking or backcountry
offroad desert camping, now that's another story. I never count on
finding water, always take plenty. I've run low, but never out.
Up 14? We come up the 15 from San Diego through Riverside/San
Bernardino, up to Victorville and catch the 395 there. It's 170 miles
that way from the 15/215 junction to where the 14 meets the 395. The
other way -- going up the 15 to get to the 210 to get to the 14 then to
395 -- is 225 miles. A bit more. Still, if it's easier to go that way
than climb over the Cajon grade, I'm all ears. Is 14 a gentler way to
get up out of the basin into the high desert?
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
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