Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2024 21:02:43 -0400
Reply-To: Eric Caron <ericcaron96@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Eric Caron <ericcaron96@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: camping trip, long and mundane
In-Reply-To: <CACvdLxMFCp=LXFOJhBjk+CP1R5TrCrB=Z=K+Arz5S5GcWOxX0A@mail.gmail.com>
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Hi David,
I just read your trip report. Great write up with realistic info.
My 84 came from a couple in their early 80’s they used it for decades, basically living in it for half the year and then on a boat the other half.
But, they found a European small camper for the time they spend in Europe and it was modern and more comfortable and even had better gas mileage. Only problem, it is not available in the US. So they use it half the year and are hoping to find something like it in the US.
I’m enjoying every vanagon season I can knowing they don’t last forever.
Glad you had a nice trip.
Eric
> On Sep 29, 2024, at 11:57 AM, David McNeely <davmcneely40@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Just got back from the first camping trip in a while. These are getting
> less often as Bonnie and I age (I'll be 80 in February). We went to Sheep
> Creek, a Washington Department of Natural Resources campground about 5
> miles from British Columbia north of Colville, WA. The van did extremely
> well, no problems whatsoever with anything on this some 300 mile round
> trip. The camping was more difficult than I anticipated for reasons of our
> age related infirmities. Just all the lifting and moving things about.
> And sleeping. Like most our age, we have to get up in the night. The bed
> just requires more effort to do that than home beds, with the AC console
> above and the need to crawl in and out.
>
> I intended to fish, as Sheep Creek is a great trout stream. But, it is
> high gradient, and I found that the rubble and boulders made wading
> difficult, even dangerous for me now. But the stream was beautiful, and we
> saw seven American dippers, birds that frequent rocky and fast flowing
> streams. They walk about in the water, diving under and walking on the
> bottom, where they forage for invertebrates like caddisfly and other insect
> larvae and snails. A pair of them were feeding fledgelings in a nest under
> the campground bridge, a very late nest.
>
> The first couple of nights there were no other campers, but two other
> groups showed up on Friday night. Kudos to Washington Department of
> Natural Resources for the excellent campground conditions, including a
> sparkling clean vault toilet, a well with a hand pump for potable water.
> The campground was full of large but second growth mixed conifers,
> including Ponderosa and lodgepole pine, western larch, Douglas fir, grande
> fir, and western yellow cedar, as well as both paper and western river
> birch. A few of the Ponderosas and cedars were nearly 3 ft diameter,
> nothing giant, but healthy appearing trees. The understory included
> huckleberry, though of course no berries this late in the year. Rocky
> Mountain maple was also abundant as understory. We saw old but still
> fairly clear mountain lion tracks along the trail on the opposite side of
> the creek from where we camped. Signs stated that lions and bears were
> active in the area, and to remain vigilant. We also saw where something
> (bear?) had torn into a ground yellow jacket nest.
>
> Well, we probably will need to switch to a camper that is easier to use
> than the Vanagon. After all these decades, there are things that just make
> us old folks have a hard time, especially the bed. We definitely won't go
> back to tenting, and no motor home or trailer for us, but we may get a
> better fitted out van, but one that can still negotiate back country roads
> like that into Sheep Creek or typical FS roads.
>
> David McNeely
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