2025 end of May Moose River Plains camping

Went camping at Moose River Plains again. Drove up Monday (Memorial Day), left Friday.

Nothing exciting really, just journaling for when I'm too old to go anymore 😢

Monday

Jeff and I were able to grab our favorite site. You have to drive over Wakely dam and then bang a right and camp up on the little hill by Cedar River Flow. That site seems to always have wind, so it's not good for late Fall camping (too cold), but early Summer, the wind helps to keep most of the bugs away. You don't really get a view of the water, but you can hear it as it goes through the dam. I only had to wear my mosquito net over my head around dusk when the bugs really came out strong. Our Thermocell insect repellers seemed to work pretty well too when it wasn't windy. It's a short walk to the dam to take photos.

First night we were there, this odd character walked over around 9:30 p.m. in the dark. I was expecting some odd request like do you have a patch kit, my air mattress is flat, but nope, the guy was just lonely...and very very drunk. His camping buddy (housemate) turned in early to sleep in the car, and I guess he got bored staring at his fire by himself. We let him stay, and he regaled us with all kinds of bawdy jokes and life stories. Stuff I won't repeat online. He didn't vote for Trump, but said he liked him at one point. Which surprised me, because he said he lives off Medicaid, Home Heating Assistance, and Disability. He's never had a real job. He was a pot dealer and never got caught, but obviously out of work now that it's legal. Both Jeff and I were shocked when he said he was 49. He looked 60 something easily. Not sure he ever said he was an alcoholic, but it was obvious. Claimed to drink a 12 pack a day, and he was bitching that his 12 pack used to be $8 and now it's $14. And just in the few hours he was sitting with us, he drank 3 keystone lights, 2 strong IPA's (one from Jeff, one from me), and finished off his 2 liter bottle of vodka, which probably had an inch and half left in the bottom when he first came over. Scary to watch someone drink that much. Nothing bad happened, it was just more sad than anything. He has an upcoming dr appt he was nervous about. From the sounds of it, he's dealing with liver failure. I worry if he'll make it to my age, and I'm only 4 years older. Comes off as a funny, happy guy at first, but it doesn't take long for you to see the facade. On the other hand, he loves drinking and he'd rather die young than give that up.

Our nameless drunk buddy shuffled off to his tent around 1a.m. (I never stay up that late but Jeff often does, uggh). Thankfully there were no other campers nearby. He and his buddy drove off around 9a.m. Jeff was shocked that he didn't sleep in more, but my theory is that he was out of booze and needed to go get more in town on his way home. Sadly not joking. Just from his own statements, I think he's at the stage of alcoholism where he'd have serious medical problems if he ever went sober. He'd need a hospital stay to do it I think.

Tuesday afternoon, I did a bike ride from the dam up to the Cellar Mt Trailhead along the cedar river road. My new bike made it fairly easy; it has a huge granny gear on the rear wheel. Still wish I weighed 100lbs less, but C'est La Vie. Took me 40 minutes to do the climb up, and 15 minutes to double back to camp (downhill...zoom!) . Might not sound fun, but most of the climbing is reasonable, not overly steep for a bike with good gearing, but there are a couple hills where i was only going 2mph, with my 32 tooth crank and 51 tooth rear cog.

This is also my first trip with the extra 200 watt solar panel on the GFC roof, so I now have 300 watts total including the 100 watt solar panel/wind fairing over the truck cab. Even though we had a lot of shade, i still got about 500-600 watt hours/day. I'd have to drive almost 2 hours to add that much power to my lithium battery bank with the 30amp (360watt) dc/dc charge controller that runs off the alternator, so i'm quite happy with what the solar adds when I stay put in one place. My battery bank is 12 volts, 200 amp hours, or 2400 watt hours.

The extra solar mostly keeps up with my 1 liter electric kettle, 3qt instant pot, fridge, 750 watt microwave and induction cooking plate. I usually boil 1 liter in the morning for hot tea and dishes, and 1 liter in the afternoon for my sponge shower. I was also using the microwave to reheat things too. Easier to food prep at home, and reheat when I go camping during the week. For dinner, I spritz stuff with 50:50 vinegar/water and wipe out with paper towel. I'll usually burn the towel in the campfire.

Food-wise, I'm very spoiled camping with my truck now, especially when Jeff's along and I can use his Starlink to browse the web. I'm not sure i can bring myself to get a Starlink. I just watch movies and TV I've downloaded to my tablet. I think if I was on the road for more than a month, then yeah, I'd get Starlink. Honestly, it's nice to get a break from the 24/7 news cycle when i go camp for a week

Tuesday night, we had a much earlier night, turned in around 9p.m.

Wednesday morning

Cooked pancakes with the electric induction burner. Loved how easy I could control the pan heat, but I should have made larger pancakes. Used 30 amp hours, 360 watt hours cooking pancakes just for myself. Yikes! need to bring a bigger spatula next time.

we packed up and moved down to Otter Brook, snagged a primo site right by the brook Jeff likes. It's a narrow site, but we made it work. I backed my truck in first, and Jeff parks parallel to the road, blocking me in. Here's a 20second youtube short showing the setup

https://youtube.com/shorts/DYiSkk8DUxo?feature=share

After setting up my bug tent and eating lunch, I did a bike ride to the no-motor vehicles allowed gate at squaw lake. Much more buggy at Otter Brook and on this ride I had to wear my mosquito net over my bike helmet during the ride. On the way there, there was a massive blowdown tree, so I had to double back to the truck, grab my collapsible bow saw, and double back to the mess (adding about 1.5 miles to my ride). there was still a large tree (15" thick) on the road, but i got the smaller tree (8" max) cut out of the way and all the branches. I didn't double back again to return the saw, it was light enough to keep on me. so I finished the ride, about 3.5 miles out, and then doubled back.

Later that day, around 3-4p.m. a guy driving a Subaru with an ebike on a hitch carrier and a canoe on the roof drove by and a few minutes later came back. He was complaining/asking about the blowdown blocking the road, and I explained that I cut and moved everything i could but didn't have a proper chainsaw for the big tree lying the road. after a little back and forth, we realized he just had bike up the hill after the treefall, and then he'd be right at the trailhead he wanted. I cleared enough stuff he could easily get his ebike and canoe over the tree, and then he could tow his canoe with his bike from there. He came back around 9pm. He'd caught a 16" trout and thanked me for all the clearing work i'd done, so he could get across. that was nice

One thing that he did say, is that he was lucky it didn't happen a day later. I think he'll be bringing his chainsaw with him from now on. What if he'd been parked at the trailhead, he wouldn't have been able to drive out. When you're going deep into the woods, bring a chainsaw, or at least a satellite messenger, so you can ask for help.

Thursday

had a lazy morning,

took a short hike up the brook to the swimming hole. Here's a short video of that

https://youtu.be/nxTOF5Kt2E4

we had sprinkles all day, but in the afternoon i got a ride in from Otter brook to Hell Diver's pond. At our campsite, we scavenged wood people left behind from the campsite across the way. So we had plenty of firewood, and started a fire mid afternoon and burned everything up by 9'ish. All except one big log, see photos.

Friday

i packed up before Jeff (very unusual), probably because I just made a protein shake for breakfast. So I just hung out watching movies/tv on my tablet until he was ready around 9:30a.m. We doubled back via Wakely Dam, aired up our tires at the snow plow turnaround, and then split up after that. Uneventful drive back. Mass pike sucked from Springfield onward, but I sort of expected that on a Friday afternoon. Everyone heading up to Maine/NH after quitting work early. Traffic never fully stopped, but probably about 10-15 miles of going 30-40mph because things were backing up.

Summary/Thoughts/Conclusions about the trip.

I think I'd definitely go early in the season again. My Eureka Bug Shelter worked well. It gave me a spot to hide from the bugs and occasional sunshine. A comfortable place to sit and eat, read, or watch tv/movies on my tablet. I also need to bring a tarp, so I can rig something Jeff and I can sit under close to the campfire when it's lightly sprinkling all day. I have extra tarp poles, so I just need to rig something up. These adjustable tarp poles are awesome https://a.co/d/5nYO3ez And I have extra rope rollers to use up. https://rollercam.com/collections/roperollers And I'm talking like a 10x10 blue tarp from homedepot. Excess heat and embers will damage it I'm sure, so I don't want anything nice. Something < $20.

Next time, I'll bring my big splitting maul. there was lots of treefall to scavenge along the road. precut to log sizes, just not split. i had my electric corded saw and 25ft cord (runs well off my Victron 2000 watt inverter and 12v/200amp hour battery bank). I could have harvested stuff along the road and saved some money. Just bring some dry kindling to get things going. Jeff and I often use a duraflame to start when the wood is wet/green. Most of the stuff you buy is pine/spruce and burns way too fast.

Going full electric for camping will work with the extra Solar. I was worried it'd be a fail. But it mostly keeps up with my electric needs when I stay in place for a couple days, assuming I get some sun during the day. Having the fridge up behind the driver seat also worked fine. when cooking it's better to have the fridge in the rear truck bed area, but it ate up so much good storage space there. Also when road tripping, it's nice to have the fridge easier to access for cold drinks. Unlocking my rear bumper swing arms, then opening the tailgate and rear GFC hatch, and finally sliding the fridge out... got old quick when i just wanted a cold soda at a rest stop.

Also, with the rear truck bed area opened up, I can load it up with firewood and extra gear more easily which is worth having the fridge further away when cooking. I have that fancy wolfbox rear mirror camera display, so i don't have to worry when I completely obstruct the rear view packing things up in the back of the truck bed.

photos in reverse order, sorry. Newest to oldest. If you double click on one, a slideshow starts. Use arrow clicks or click your way through the slideshow. On a phone, just click on the thumbnails at the bottom.

last campfire, we had one big round log. we debated if it would be gone by morning, it wasn't. we used a cooking grate someone left as an ember shield. It'd been sprinkling all day, everything was wet.