South Lake Tahoe 4th of July

The BRV spent the winter hibernating and then spent the spring hibernating some more. So it was long overdue for a trip when we finally got ourselves organized to take off for 4th of July weekend. We didn't actually do much organizing beyond deciding to go to South Lake Tahoe, so by the time we committed to the trip there were no campsites available for reservations. We found some campgrounds that don't take reservations (and amber did some nerdy geocoding to put them all on one map) and we set off mid-day on Friday hoping for the best.

After stopping at a few places with unacceptable options (the only site available is full of snow, the campground has no water, the available site is the size of a parking space and is paved, etc.) we came to Crystal Springs and got this beautiful space with about an acre of land and a big granite cliff for our campsite.


There was really no one anywhere near us, even the sites across the road were far away. The campground has only outhouses but they were cleaner than most plumbing toilets we've seen at campgrounds. And they have water. The only flaw of the campground....no bear lockers. So Amber climbed a tree and we improvised some hanging bags for our food.



The "town" of Woodfords is right nearby, consisting of a church and a general store and a women's center. The center was closed so we can't report on what's in there, but the woman running the general store (to which the center is attached) was very kind and let us use her land line to call our friends and tell them which campground we got. Patronize this store if you're ever in the area!

We got to test out our new coleman stove for the first time Friday night. After 20 minutes with the instructions, I worked out how to get it running and it performed admirably.



On Saturday we set out for a hike and some climbing at Echo Lake.


After about 2 miles (of not very steep climbing) the hiking trail was covered in snow and it got very tough to continue on without crampons. (Yes, this was July 2!)



So we diverted to Tamarack Lake for lunch (which was still frozen!)



After lunch Scott needed more water so we got a demonstration of his water filter



We met back up with Jeremy and Megan who had left a rope up so that I could do a quick climb



Then we headed back to camp where Scott got a roaring fire going while Amber set up her PVC dome and Jeremy cooked dinner (wondering why we'd want a dome made out of PVC pipes? Stay tuned for future posts on this topic)




After dinner there were, of course, smores, created with our new telescoping marshmallow grilling sticks. These things are amazing! They even have a little dial you can turn to rotate for even toasting on all sides.


Sunday we set out for another day of climbing and hiking, along with the rest of the population of the greater Tahoe area. They all got to Fallen Leaf Lake first, and Cascade Lake, and Emerald Bay, and DL Bliss State Park, but we made it to Meeks Bay with 3 parking spots left. And it was a really beautiful drive up the coast of Lake Tahoe once we got past the crazy traffic jam at the boat launch. We took a hike up to a lovely river spot for lunch



After lunch Jeremy discovered a hidden waterfall, henceforth called Jeremy Falls (don't worry, he didn't)


But the best water was at Lake Tahoe itself, at the Meeks Bay beach where we went for a cold swim.



The swim was partly motivated by our lack of shower facilities: the previous day Scott, Megan and Jeremy had tried to sneak in to showers at a neighboring campground and were asked not to come back, while Amber and I made use of our solar shower and discovered that it had sprung a rather serious leak during hibernation season.

After some beer and wine that night Amber was ready to fly home



But Megan and I held out for more smores.

Winter camping in Calistoga

We planned to take the BRV on an epic roadtrip around California the week of Thanksgiving.


Then we realized we had scheduled 200+ miles of driving most days and scaled that back to a trip south along the coast.


Then we realized we didn't really want to be traveling that whole time and scaled that back to a trip to Big Sur the weekend before Thanksgiving.


Then it rained all weekend.


So we decided we should at least take the van out for a night the weekend after Thanksgiving... and so we took a trip to Calistoga.

Calistoga has wine


And Calistoga has art


Calistoga has a really nice park and camp ground


But this year Calistoga does not have heat. It was below freezing at night, and not all that warm during the day. The BRV has a small trickle of heat when it's running, but no heater otherwise and so our fear of freezing led to the latest BRV gear purchase

A portable heater! This thing was very efficient at heating up the van (with a window cracked to supply air...probably unnecessary with all the holes in the van, but we wanted to be extra safe). We only needed to run it for an hour before bed and we were quite toasty through the night. It runs off of propane, a convenient use of the extra canisters we have leftover after the death of our really cheap camp stove since we invested in a fancy new Coleman stove that doesn't use those.


(note, stove stayed in the box for this trip, we had dinner in a toasty warm restaurant)

In addition to testing out the BRV in extreme cold (anything below 50 is extreme to me!) we inadvertently also tested it out in the rain. We were nice and dry in our bed, but there were a few leaks in the corners of the van. Fortunately Amber has everything so well packed up in plastic bins nothing got wet. Maybe some day I'll try to figure out where exactly the water is coming in and repair it. Or maybe we'll just stay home when we know it's going to rain.

Burning Man

The BRV goes to BRC, Black Rock City, that place in the Nevada desert that exists only one week per year during the Burning Man Festival. It was my (Amber) first time going, and I had a blast. Dawn doesn't have much interest in the Burner scene; she spent the week on the beach in Baja Mexico, so I went to Burning Man with a friend who shared the driving duties. The drive form SF to Reno was fast at about 4 hours, but then the 100 mile trek from Reno to Gerlach, and then out to the playa took almost another 4 hours due to traffic and weather delays. It was raining as we arrived at the gates!



I did a small art project: decorating my van to fit the Metropolis theme. I arranged magnets in the shape of the skyline. The white tape you see covering the black magnets is glow-in-the-dark-tape, so it was visible at night too.



The weather was erratic and extreme, just as I was warned, but somehow it didn't really hit me until it happened. From overcast skies and rain on the first day, getting so cold overnight that I woke up freezing, needing more clothes despite being in my mummy sleeping bag, to being sunny and blazingly hot (over 100 degrees) during the day for the rest of the week. I set out with my trusty cruiser bike to explore.



The city, which is really more like a campground since everyone is in tents or RVs (or vans!), is arranged like a horseshoe, with the opening to the north. The open area in the center is reserved for art installations. Here's one that I really like, something about the shape that I find meditative. I remember seeing at the Pre-Compression (pre-burning man) party in San Francisco, so I'm pretty sure it's a Bay Area artist(s).



The above piece looks even better at night, since the pipes surrounding the circle and wings are burning! I suppose they are carrying some flamable liquid that is set on fire. Much of the art involves fire or other illumination, but my camera isn't good enough to take night photos (I tried). In the center of everything is The Man. He's burned on Saturday night.



The only vehicles allowed to drive around the playa (once you park your car at your campsite, it stays there all week) are the Art Cars, a.k.a. Mutant Vehicles because they can't just be a car with a crazy paint job, they have to be mutated beyond recognition as a stock vehicle. The largest ones are double-decker and carry passengers, along with speakers, a DJ, a bartender.



The art installations and art cars are two of the major components of Burning Man art experience; another is the theme camps. A few of the camps are run by the BRC staff, such as Arctica where you can buy ice and Center Camp, where you can buy coffee. Coffee and ice is all you can buy in BRC; all other food, water, and supplies you need must be brought with you.



The theme camp below has the Rainforest theme and had hoses with water pumping through to create a misting spray within the tent. This was a very welcome way for people to cool down during the hot afternoons. I guess that was the most difficult part of the trip for me, dealing with the extreme heat in the middle of the day.



I was surprised to see a lighthouse in the desert. :) Very cool. People are so creative.



It was a great trip and the BRV performed admirable, starting up on the first try after sitting in the hot sun for a week, and carrying all the gear and two bicycles without any problems. Goodbye Black Rock City.... I have a feeling I'll be back again sometime.

Big Green Van

Spotted in Canadian campground by Heather and Megan (who are clearly moving in the direction of buying a van for themselves and joining the fun).

Tuolumne Meadows

Who knows how to spell Tuolumne Meadows, or for that matter, who would guess that it is pronounced toowallame meadows from seeing that spelling? Perhaps that's why we've never gone there in spite of many visits to Yosemite over the years. But this past weekend we discovered we like Tuolumne Meadows even more than Yosemite Valley for camping and hiking. Thanks to Megan & Jeremy (aka Megalor) and Amy and Joel (aka Joelry?) for inviting us on this fabulous camping trip!

An auspicious beginning to the trip...a new annual national parks pass: the possibilities are endless!

The terrain is different from the valley, more rocks, less plants. Really gorgeous.


On Saturday we did an epic 16 mile hike. We got dropped off at the trail head to Sunrise Camp and then hiked in to the backcountry camp (5 miles, mostly uphill) and then along the JMT (cool people know that stands for the John Muir Trail)



past Cathedral Lakes and then back down to our camp site.

We ran into this guy along the trail.


Amber interrupted this poor dear's private time



She was not very happy about that


We were very impressed with our total miles hiked. This is the longest hike either of us can remember doing, and it was our first day at 9000 ft so we were definitely feeling the altitude.


The scenery on the hike was gorgeous, but it was just as beautiful at the road next to the camp site


After the hike we had a gear adventure. Someone misplaced the hose to the solar shower, leaving a hole in the bottom and no good way to deliver the water. But fortunately we had duck tape:

And Amber went to heroic and comic ends to make it possible for Dawn to take a dripping shower and get some of the pollen off. Picture Amber standing on the bumper of the van, holding up the shower bag with one hand and holding the shower curtain on the rod (running between the two back doors) with the other. In the end we both got rather wet but at least one of us was cleaner after the "shower".

There are bears in Yosemite and both nights we were woken up by people banging pots and shouting "bear". So we had to store everything that smells in the food lockers.

I kept wondering how so many people had pots to bang on at 3am. If I saw a bear at that hour it would be on my way to the toilet and I don't generally take a pot with me to the bathroom. Nonetheless, the wakeups were kind of exciting.

There was the obligatory climber slack line in our camp


And more food than I have ever seen on a camping trip: some cooked over the fire and some over the 3 camp stoves we had (we were very well prepared for a group of 9)


A moment of special pride for me was when I was able to provide a few cooking items that Joel, Mr. camping gear, didn't have: a strainer and a pot holder. There probably wasn't room in the car for these items.


We're still working out the optimal organization for the BRV. On Sunday as we were packing up we switched the direction of the futon so that it faces out when set up as a couch, and tried to better pack things up so they will be easier to find in the future.


We were all nicely packed to leave, got in the van and drove a few feet from our campsite, over a big pothole....and it stalled. And then it wouldn't start again.



We figured out how to open the hood (not as obvious as one might hope), and after some troubleshooting including an attempt to jump it, we got a bunch of people and pushed it up a small hill off the road. And then we called AAA and sat down to wait for a tow. Fortunately Danielle had given us sack lunches, and we had some cold beer still in the cooler. There are much worse places to be stranded.


There's a garage in Yosemite Valley (who knew!) and since there were no tow trucks available to get us out of the park, we agreed to a tow there. After 2 hours the tow truck arrived (it really took him that long just to drive up). He also tried to get the van started, couldn't, and so loaded it up on the truck.


And then we drove back down, another 1.5 hour tour of Yosemite in a tow truck with a very nice driver and comfy seats. This may actually be the best possible place to break down, if you're not in a hurry to go anywhere.

We got to the mechanic just 45 minutes before they close for the night, unloaded the van and pushed it up to the garage door. The mechanic agreed to look at it right away in the hopes that he could fix it and save us from being stranded in Yosemite Valley for the night. And so he turned the key....and it started. He spent about 30 minutes trying to find anything wrong with it but couldn't. A few theories include altitude issues messing up the fuel to oxygen mixture, a failing ignition, and a flooded engine.

To make up for the difficulties getting out of Tuolumne Meadows, the BRV drove very nicely all the way back to San Francisco, and we got home around 10pm.

Unfortunately the adventure of the day didn't stop there, because our bathroom at home is being remodeled and so we have no shower



and we were pretty dirty by then. At 10pm on a Sunday there weren't a lot of showering options. We went to 24 hour fitness where Amber has a membership and Dawn had to convince the guy at the desk to allow her in (they don't do day passes after 9pm). Fortunately he was sympathetic to the camping dirt sob story.