Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 14:19:02 -0700
Reply-To: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: trip out west
In-Reply-To: <20100803163237.E693U.1313770.imail@eastrmwml31>
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Sounds like a terrific trip! Glad you had a good time.
Stephen
--- On Tue, 8/3/10, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET> wrote:
From: Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject: trip out west
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Tuesday, August 3, 2010, 4:32 PM
I just returned to Edmond, OK from a drive to Spokane, Washington and Glacier National Park in my 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon GL Campmobile . It has a waterboxer rebuild (110K miles at time of installation) and now has 155K miles.
I averaged 18.76 mpg (much worse coming than going, around 18 mpg coming home, over 20 going, also around 18 in driving around Spokane, northern Idaho, and Glacier NP). Best leg, from Raton, NM, to Castle Rock, CO, 254 miles, just over 22 mpg. Worst leg, from Grass Range, MT to Ranchester, WY, 204 miles, barely over 17 mpg. Wind made a really large difference. Total miles for the trip = 5807. Prices for gas ranged from $2.559 per gallon at a Flying J in Caspar, WY to $3.039 at a Cenex in West Glacier, MT. Average price paid = $2.8378 per gallon.
In Glacier NP we camped at Sprague Creek campground, a "tents only" (but no problems with the van) small campground on Lake McDonald. From there we rode the free shuttle bus to trailheads along Going to the Sun Road. I highly recommend this to anyone visiting the park and desiring to visit features along the road or hike from it. For one thing, the road is under construction now (long overdue repairs), and traffic is awful. Construction will continue for several more years. For another, if the park could get all private vehicles off the road, buses only, it would be much more visitor friendly, like Denali and Zion NPs are, to say nothing of the reduction in pollution. Besides, it is tough to try to drive the extremely mountainous road and look at the beauty the mountains present at the same time. I delighted in letting the pros do the driving for me! We parked the van at the campground and didn't move it for five days.
We also camped in another small "tents only" campground at Kintla Lake for three days. Kintla Lake is located in the NW section of the park, and requires a 25 mile drive over a fairly rough road (park service recommends high clearance only, but some sedans and mini-vans made it there seemingly without difficulty, and I have driven sedans over worse). The NW section of the park is the area where wolves occur, and where one is most apt to encounter either bears or moose while hiking. Se saw neither, though we did see a moose near Priest Lake, Idaho while camping there with our daughter, son-in-law and grandson. We heard wolves howling on our last night in the park, but a ranger told us they were probably several miles away up on the mountain above the lake. The wolf habitat is closed to private entry to protect the wolves from human disturbance. He'd heard them too, and agreed that the howls, though faint due to distance, were not those of
coyotes.
We spent most of our time in the park hiking into locations several miles from the campgrounds or other trailheads, the only really meaningful way to see such a treasure. At our age and condition, Glacier is a bit rugged for backpacking (which we still do where distance and terrain permit), so day hikes had to suffice, but we put in some long miles (12 miles on one day) over rugged mountainous, high altitude (sometimes through snowfields) terrain.
Van did fine, ran really well, used no oil. However, when we started home we briefly put the heater on to warm the chilly vehicle (temperature in the forties F). Mistake. It now won't turn off, so we had to shut the heater vents for the entire trip home. Any simple fixes? No, of course not. The valve is stuck open, and can only be gotten to by removing the dash. I probably won't tackle this job myself, and so will pay considerably for it.
BTW, after the delightfully cool mountains, we came home to 105 F here in Edmond, OK yesterday. Same today.
--
David McNeely
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