Speaking of, I decided to tow the mini camper for this outing. Having both the truck and minicamper just for myself feels ridiculous, but I may do it more often. Anyhoo, i brought the mini camper because it's going to rain all day Saturday. I'm actually writing this on Saturday (time jump!). I think maybe when I'm camping locally in the northeast, and especially if I'm going to just go find 1 site at a campground or Moose River, towing the camper makes sense. it's like a giant lockbox for all my toys. And.....it gives me a warm dry place to sit and hang out when there's a crappy weather day.
The mini camper has a rear hitch for a bike rack, so I have my saris rack on there and brought my Salsa fargo on the back of the mini camper. I think in retrospect I could have brought my surfski and left it locked to the top of the mini camper. I think i've been too nervous about it being stolen, but I don't think it's the sort of kayak that's easy to steal and pawn. I was talking to the local ranger about it, and he said that it's the dirt bikes and quads that get stolen. Often people leave their canoes/kayaks completely unlocked, and they're fine per the ranger. I know there are anecdotes about people having their boats stolen right off their cars, but I think not many people want a tippy, fast kayak like mine. If it was a fishing kayak, it'd be more of a problem. And I usually put a cable lock on it, so they have to run an angle grinder
Another reason i wanted to bring the mini camper was to make it easier to haul pre-cut and split firewood from a roadside place right on the way up to Wakely Dam from Indian Lake. For $20, I can buy enough fire wood, for 5 nights of camp fires in my Solo Stove (ranger size, enough for 3-4 logs put in vertically). If I stack the logs vertically, it's about 2x4ft worth of dried, split firewood. I get 3 bundles of softwood, and 2 bundles of hardwood which burns longer, but the softwood is better to get the fire going at first.
Anyway , here's a couple photos from inside the camper. I've got a Kilos gear chair that can be adjusted to sit low to the ground. perfect for inside the camper. there's only like 40" or so of height inside. 8ft long, and 4.5ft wide. Jacqui bought me another collapsible foot stool because our cat Twitch claimed the first one when I left it in the living room too long.
I'm going to meet Jeff for a weekend of camping in Moose River Plains. We haven't camped together since Idk when. I think we were supposed to go last October but 20 minutes into the drive, Jeff had a leaf spring fail on his rear axle. So it's been awhile.
Thursday, I got to the Wakely Dam camping area, and the road further into Cedar Flow rd is CLOSED AGAIN!!!!. they had a bridge washout. So, I had to grab the last available spot which is the site 1, the handicap site. Feel bad about that, but literally all the other sites were taken.
Jeff had a morning dr appt. Nothing major, just regular blood draw to make sure his LDL/HDL is good. While waiting, I chated with the neighbors. We've got some Germans with huge rigs. Expensive. They had them shipped over, so far they've just explored the Northeast.
First spotted them at the Stewart's in Indian Lake, I followed them up to Wakely Dam. They're from the Stuttgart area. Sadly, I think one of them is slightly Trump-y. There's a growing hard right element in Europe that is displeased about all the immigration from the middle east and africa. On the other hand, good to know that it's not just a problem in the USA. On the other hand, to have rigs like have, they're probably wealthy management. Money usually kills people's empathy. Becoming a billionaire often turns you into a Sociopath IMHO. It's just too easy to start believing all the people sucking up to, and to start believe that you're better than everyone else. But I digress.
After chatting with the Germans, I went for a quick ride from my campsite up to the Cellar Mt road trailhead. Even though the road is closed to vehicles, bikes/hikers can easily cross the bridge. there's just one corner of it washed out.
Anyhoo, not to toot my own horn but i did the climb up to Cellar in 33 minutes. I think it took me 45 minutes last time I did it (when I may have been 290+lbs). The climb was super easy. I remember just being happy last time I didn't have to walk it at all, but I was so much slower and sucking wind back then.
After the ride, it started to rain. Like a major downpour. An older guy, David Markus, came by on his touring bike. He's bike from Boston to Seattle. From under my truck's rear awning I could see him staring at the map on the Ranger station and looking at the road closed sign and I assumed he was having a "God D@ng It!" moment. I grabbed my golf umbrella and went over to let him know he could get through on his bike no problem. I think he wanted to hug me! Lol. He booked a motel in Inlet, and it was already 5p,m. Would've sucked for him to double back to the road and have to bike up to Blue Mt and over to inlet by rt 30/28. He was most thankful for the info, and I also suggested Screamen Eagle for dinner. Which made him happy to know that there'd be food if he got there before 9.
Jeff showed up a couple hours later around 6:30p.m. right when I was about to go for a swim. I still went for the swim. I can fit into some of my old neoprene/wetsuit stuff again. I have a thin long sleeve wetsuit shirt that zips up the front, and I wore 2mm shorts that go down to my knee. I also cheated and wore a3mm thick skull cap. The wetsuit stuff made the cool upper 60 degree water feel like mid 70's, comfy. Even a little neoprene does wonders in cold water.
I also wore my super short Zoomer fins and my webbed gloves, with my baywatch red buoy thing slung over my shoulder. It has a long leash, so it trails behind me as I swim. It helps boats see me, but it has enough float I can tuck it under my chest to float and rest. I suppose if I had a heart attack, I could still drown, but otherwise, I'm safe. And I don't push hard to worry about a heart attack, I just swim at 50% effort. The gloves and fins just give me Michael Phelps hands and feet. They help me work the swimming related muscles without having to drastically up the cardio.
After the swim, I dried off, snacked, and then got the campfire going to hang out with Jeff to catchup. The thing I love about the solo stove is it's so easy to get a good fire going. Jeff told me stories from his latest camping trip to Vancouver island. He can confirm the middle section of Canada is just as boring to drive through as the USA.
I have a different style fire pit that jeff prefers. The other one is more like a 2ft x 2ft coffee table, but the table top isn't solid, it's a fine steel mesh. Stack the wood on it, and it burns like crazy because the mesh lets the fire breathe far better than using the provided concrete firepits at the campsites. It cuts back on the smoke, but it burns through firewood like 2-3 times faster than the solo stove.
The downside of the solo stove is you can't see the coals in the bottom of the fire, just the flames shooting out the top. So, it lacks the ambience of an open fire. I mostly like the Solo Stove because it's so easy to get a fire going and to maintain it. Also, you burn far less wood. Like only 6-7 split pieces over 4-5 hours.
Speaking of the solo stove being super easy to start fires and keep them safely contained, I pour a small mound of wood pellets to one side of the stove inside (like a half gallon worth). Spritz a little charcoal lighter fluid on the wood pellets, light it and let it get burning for a few minues. After the pellets have a solid little fire going, I then stack 2-3, dry softwood firewood logs close to the flames on the pellets, and the logs will fully catch fire in <5 minutes with no manual intervention needed. The flames will be shooting out of the top of the solo stove. Fun to teach. With the logs being a twice as long to fit inside the solo stove, you do get some smoke, but less than using the concrete fire pit, and a little smoke keeps the bugs away.
To me the key thing with the solo stove is that the combustion air comes up through the bottom vent holes of the solo stove, and because the fire is contained by double walled stainless steel on the sides, whatever small kindling fire you start, things get hot quick inside the stove.
The other thing I like to do if the firewood I buy or find is wet, i can stack the logs around the solo stove, just a few inches away. The solid walls of the solo stove prevent sparks from shooting out, but radiate enough heat through the solid metal walls to dry out the ends of the firewood I stack in half circle around it. At some point, I spin the firewood around to the other side. It's fun to watch the water drips out the end. During busy camping season, the roadside firewood stuff you buy is often not seasoned and still wet.
Well, I blathered on more than I thought I would have the mini camper and fires. Let's stop here, and I'll do another blog of all the stuff I did on Friday.
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