tseeb
Well-known member
My wife and I, along with our two dogs, recently returned home from our longest camper trip. From our home in San Jose, we went N, mostly on US-101 (Golden Gate Bridge is free NB and lower speed than other options to cross Bay)
for about 425 miles to Oregon, then continued on 101 in Oregon for another 145 miles before turning inland at Reedsport. Going E, we mostly followed the Umpqua River before turning S and driving past Crater Lake. We spent a night at Lava Beds National Monument, then stopped at very busy Burney Falls the next day. We stayed two nights at Mt Lassen National Park, with nights at wineries in foothills above the Sacramento Valley before and after Lassen. On our first day, after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, we stopped at B.R. Cohn winery in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County where we made lunch in the camper before an outdoor tasting,
then spent our first night at Nelson Family Vineyards, S of Ukiah (our first use of Harvest Hosts).
We had a lot of heat and smoke the first day of our trip, then got out of it for most of our trip, had rain two nights in OR, almost missed seeing Crater Lake where it was 39F, windy and misty. We got back into smoke our 2nd night at Lassen and had near 100F temps our last two days. We crossed a still smoldering burnt area E of Roseburg where utility crews were replacing power poles and lines. Some of the guardrails in the area were bent from heat from fires.
Our trip was almost 1500 miles. My 2006 Dodge RAM truck with Cummins diesel performed well and averaged about 12.5 mpg during trip that included going above 7,000’ passing Crater Lake and almost that high approaching Lassen before we dropped to 2,000’ feet for night at winery NE of park. Crossing Lassen we went over 8,500’. The wildest road we took was 6 miles of gravel that is limited to vehicles 8’ wide (which camper is) and 24’ long (we are under 23’) to Gold Bluffs Beach (part of Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park) where had campsite next to dunes with view of ocean.
We were only able to reserve one night, but probably could have stayed a second night, except our 12 year-old beagle was not doing well so we drove to Crescent City to see a vet who thought she had a cold and gave her meds for cough and infection which seemed to help. After the vet, we stayed at Jedidiah Smith Redwoods, a place I was unable to reserve in advance.
We never used any water, sewer or electric hookups (besides dumping our waste tanks and refilling fresh water). All of the places we stayed had bathrooms available; a couple had showers and we also used shower in the camper. Managing fresh water (35 gallons plus 6 in hot water heater and we carry a couple of gallons of drinking water) and grey water (18 gallons from kitchen sink and shower drain) was challenging. We really needed showers our 2nd night at Lassen after a couple of hikes and added 14 gallons to fresh water by filling 2 x 1 gallons containers from faucet behind nearby bathroom and carrying it across parking lot where we used a funnel I made from water bottle to get it into tank.
We ran onboard generator twice; first was at Lava Beds to run microwave to defrost lamb shanks my wife had pre-cooked and were frozen and second time was last night when we arrived early at winery in 99 degree heat and ran air conditioner on and off for a couple hours to keep camper under 85 until it cooled off outside. We had many excellent dinners - my wife is a great cook - including clams purchased nearby cooked with garlic and chopped tomatoes from our garden at Sunset Bay, OR where we spent two nights. We also had fried seafood lunches eaten outside S of Eureka and on the boardwalk in Coos Bay at a great place I had been to before. We made all breakfast and most lunches in the camper. We only used the heater a couple of times: first was while making lunch as Crater Lake ‘viewpoint’ and second was during 39F night at Lava Beds.
I have more pictures than I have time to edit and post, but leaving again today for 4 nights at nearby State Beach where I had reserved 7 nights six months in advance. We cut it back since we have only been home for 5 nights and fireworks that were to be in Capitola for our last night have been canceled.
Our trip was almost 1500 miles. My 2006 Dodge RAM truck with Cummins diesel performed well and averaged about 12.5 mpg during trip that included going above 7,000’ passing Crater Lake and almost that high approaching Lassen before we dropped to 2,000’ feet for night at winery NE of park. Crossing Lassen we went over 8,500’. The wildest road we took was 6 miles of gravel that is limited to vehicles 8’ wide (which camper is) and 24’ long (we are under 23’) to Gold Bluffs Beach (part of Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park) where had campsite next to dunes with view of ocean.
We never used any water, sewer or electric hookups (besides dumping our waste tanks and refilling fresh water). All of the places we stayed had bathrooms available; a couple had showers and we also used shower in the camper. Managing fresh water (35 gallons plus 6 in hot water heater and we carry a couple of gallons of drinking water) and grey water (18 gallons from kitchen sink and shower drain) was challenging. We really needed showers our 2nd night at Lassen after a couple of hikes and added 14 gallons to fresh water by filling 2 x 1 gallons containers from faucet behind nearby bathroom and carrying it across parking lot where we used a funnel I made from water bottle to get it into tank.
We ran onboard generator twice; first was at Lava Beds to run microwave to defrost lamb shanks my wife had pre-cooked and were frozen and second time was last night when we arrived early at winery in 99 degree heat and ran air conditioner on and off for a couple hours to keep camper under 85 until it cooled off outside. We had many excellent dinners - my wife is a great cook - including clams purchased nearby cooked with garlic and chopped tomatoes from our garden at Sunset Bay, OR where we spent two nights. We also had fried seafood lunches eaten outside S of Eureka and on the boardwalk in Coos Bay at a great place I had been to before. We made all breakfast and most lunches in the camper. We only used the heater a couple of times: first was while making lunch as Crater Lake ‘viewpoint’ and second was during 39F night at Lava Beds.
I have more pictures than I have time to edit and post, but leaving again today for 4 nights at nearby State Beach where I had reserved 7 nights six months in advance. We cut it back since we have only been home for 5 nights and fireworks that were to be in Capitola for our last night have been canceled.