Estacada Camping Trip

This last weekend we camped along the Clackamas river, approx 40 miles past Estacada. Justen left early in the day and scouted the many state/federal camp grounds as well as some free spots off hwy-224. We ended up with a really good spot. It was right off hwy-224, with the Clackamas river on one side and a small creek run off on the other. The creek made for a safe and fun play spot for the kids, easing my fears of them playing along the fast moving Clackamas. There was two established fire pits and many tent spots around the camp, and no one else for miles. The only down side was no toilet facilities, which was only really a minor complaint for the ladies and kids. While I don't prefer shitting in the woods, I'll gladly take that over the poorly maintained and highly used vault toilets. By the end of the trip all the kids conjured their fear of doing their business in the woods, and the complaints from the ladies became less frequent. This trip was the maiden voyage for our tent trailer which we recently acquired. We had to take it down empty as I haven't had the time to finish the interior paneling and new cabinets. I hadn't yet upgraded my s10 blazer's toy package from a class 2 receiver to a class 4, so I was a little worried about towing it. Especially since we did a rush packing job and the trailer weight was unbalanced. It took quite a bit of concentration to tow it out on the windy hwy-224 and I found myself going to hot into some of the suggested 25-35mph corners. But we made it safe and sound. On the return trip I took the time to equally distribute the trailer weight and it towed great. I was amazed at the difference. It was so nice to have the trailer on the trip, we slept in amazing comfort. One hurt irritation though occurred on the last day when we were packing up the trailer. One of the support rails that holds the slide out beds, pulled straight off the wall. I found that it was only hanging on by a few stables. How cheap is that? A structure that is made to support 300+ lbs is stabled to the wall? I'm constantly amazed at how cheap these campers are build, and they charge so much money for them. I'm actually glad this happened, since the camper is still bare I'm going to pull all the support rails off, reinforce the walls around them, and secure them properly with some lag bolts. This baby is going to be a tank when I'm done and will last for years to come. For this trip I also made a Ladder Golf setup. An amazingly simple horseshoe variant game, made out of $25 worth of hardware supplies & some old golf balls. I'd seen this game being played before at a couple different car camp grounds. I did a little research and decided to make myself a set. It was great success and a lot of fun to play, even though I think I only won one game the entire weekend. Thanks to Heath and Justen for your assistance and use of your shop tools! Overall it was a good trip. The weather report had stated mostly cloudy and chances of showers for the weekend. However it ended up dry, sunny, and hot all weekend. Although not hot enough to jump into the cold snow run-off river water. I only wish more of our friends were able to make it out to enjoy it all with us. Maybe next time, I know we are overdue for a large group trip to the Trask!

Tent Trailer

First off let me say that I am in no way a weenie ass that has to bring every luxury of the modern world with me "camping". I've always been disgusted by those individuals, and thought they had no place in the woods. However as I've seasoned a bit and have a family of my own I've come to the conclusion that there is in fact two types of camping. "Family Camping" (also known as "Car Camping") and "Rugged, Manly, Shit in a Hole, Sleep Under the Stars, Backpacking Camping". So I've become a participant in both. However even when I do go "Family Camping" I'm still a believer that you need to leave your modern day luxury items at home. That is why I don't want a fancy RV, all I want is a easy up hard shell tent. Something I don't have to spend two hours figuring out how to setup, or another four trying to tear it down in the rain and roll back up to fit into it's 1/2 sized tote bag. So the perfect fit is a Tent Trailer. I've spend some time scouring craigslist for a good deal on one. I didn't even care if it needed some restoration work. Finally on Monday I found a killer deal on a nice 1970's era trailer. Darci and I met up with the owner, got a full walkthrough on the thing, looked over every inch ourselves, and made a deal on it. This thing is in great shape, only some minor cosmetic work necessary. It's got very large beds, four to be exact, so we'll each have our own beds with plenty of room to spare. It's got battery powered lights and accessories, plumbing for water in/out, and propane powered stove. I'm not sure what all I'm going to keep and what I'm going to remove. I'm super excited about the amount of storage room in this thing. I can now organize and permanently pack all my camping gear in this and have it ready to go whenever needed. No more sorting through the multitude of gear to pack just what we need for the desired trip, and then trying to fit it all into the vehicles. We'll just pack some clothes, toiletries, and food. Then hook up the tent trailer and we're off! I'm definitely going to apply my master techie geek hack/mod skills and add some choice additions to this thing. First off is LED lighting to conserve battery power. For pictures, details specs, and a continuous log of work on this tent trailer click HERE.