Just got back from my first really long trip in the F250 Camper, as well as my first backpacking trip in years. It was a great trip and I had a great time, but lots of stuff went wrong.
The overall plan was one day of travel from SoCal to Shaver Lake, CA in order to pickup the wilderness permit and get to the trailhead. This was about 300 miles of highway, and a final 10 miles or so on dirt to get to the trailhead.
Along the way I had several adventures just getting down the highway. Ended up having the blocked-off overflow hose on the radiator explode on me several times over the drive up to Shaver Lake
Turns out that the hose I was using just wasn't up to the demands the cooling system was putting on it over extended driving. I had several hundred miles of local and freeway driving under my belt before I left, and this had never come up during those drives. I ended up fixing the hose, refilled the cooling system only to have it blow again at the next fuel stop. I managed to find a Napa along the way and got a more suitable piece of hose to replace the silicone stuff.
Ended up replacing the hose on the trail before heading for home, but what I found was that the bolt I had been using to plug the hose would not work with the stiffer rubber hose. I ended up using a pair of vice-grips to clamp the hose shut, and zip-tied the whole shebang to the core support to hold it in place. This worked for 300+ miles along the trip home with no further issues!
After filling up a final time in Prather, CA and picking up my wilderness permit I headed on up the mountain through Shaver Lake and up to Tamarack Ridge where one of the trails up to the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness is. The road starts as a very nicely graded dirt road before eventually turning off to part of the Brewer Jeep Trail and eventually ending up at the Dinkey Lakes Trailhead at Willow Meadow. For those looking for more challenge, the Swamp Lake OHV trail also starts at the Willow Meadow, and the famous Dusy Ershim trail isn't too far away either.
I eventually got to the trailhead and proceeded to setup camp.
This is where failure number two happened, and it was completely my own fault. When I went to crank up the roof on the camper I unlatched all 4 latches, but I completely forgot to loosen the wiring for the solar panels. As a result, the roof bound about 1/2 way up and I ended up shearing the teeth on both roof cranks I had with me.
Luckily I had the lower bed in the camper available, and I was able to ensure the roof was in no danger of coming down unexpectedly. The rest of the camp setup went uneventfully thankfully, and the repair/fix is easy and cheap.
Made a nice steak for dinner on the Skottle, and then enjoyed the view out the camper door.
The next morning after a nice breakfast I finished getting my pack together and headed out for my first backpacking overnight at Mystery Lake. The trail is about 1.5 miles to the lake and is around 1200' feet in elevation gain from about 7000' to 8200' or so I think.
Came up over the ridge and saw my first view of Mystery Lake. A little low, but still not too bad.
Got my new to me swag tent thing setup easily enough, did find that my sleeping pad is a little wide at the foot-end of the tent. Also found that the interior clearance ends up being a bit tight.
Ended up hiking around the lake a bit, found some nice tracks, and did a little fishing. No catching, just fishing.
Bears can definitely be a problem in the Wilderness, and the Forest Service requires that either a Bear Canister, or food hanging be done to protect us and the bears. I used my CountyComm portable grappling hook to make that easier. Turns out the grappling hook tines also work great for hanging Mountain House meals.
Unfortunately, this was where failure three occurred. On the hike up I was feeling a hot-spot on my heel towards the end of the hike. I never double-checked the contents of my 1st-aid kit before I packed it. Turns out that the moleskin got taken out at some point and as such I had none. I was planning on gutting it out, but then I got absolutely dumped on later in the afternoon. I found that the tent was not as water-proof as I would have hoped.
With the wet, combined with the blister I made the decision to pack up camp and head back for the truck. The heel was actually much better heading downhill, but the last little bit of uphill was quite bad, and I'm very glad I decided to bug-out instead of trying to push on and ending up with an even longer hike to the truck Sunday morning.
Overall, I'd still call the trip a resounding success. Failures always occur, the main thing is how you respond to them.
Coolant hoses can fail even in brand-new trucks, and I was able to fix and carry-on.
Dumb mistakes like the solar wiring and the camper roof are avoidable with better preparation and improved checklists, etc.
My biggest mistake would have to be the blister though. I've worn these boots plenty and never had any problems, but I've never worn those socks with those boots during a more strenuous hike and I think the socks were largely to blame. Not checking the 1st-aid kit is an understandable but important mistake, and this just underlies the importance of making sure your kit is up-to-date and ready for any reasonable needs.
Oh, and I averaged about 5MPG. Definitely need to work on that!
The overall plan was one day of travel from SoCal to Shaver Lake, CA in order to pickup the wilderness permit and get to the trailhead. This was about 300 miles of highway, and a final 10 miles or so on dirt to get to the trailhead.
Along the way I had several adventures just getting down the highway. Ended up having the blocked-off overflow hose on the radiator explode on me several times over the drive up to Shaver Lake
Turns out that the hose I was using just wasn't up to the demands the cooling system was putting on it over extended driving. I had several hundred miles of local and freeway driving under my belt before I left, and this had never come up during those drives. I ended up fixing the hose, refilled the cooling system only to have it blow again at the next fuel stop. I managed to find a Napa along the way and got a more suitable piece of hose to replace the silicone stuff.
Ended up replacing the hose on the trail before heading for home, but what I found was that the bolt I had been using to plug the hose would not work with the stiffer rubber hose. I ended up using a pair of vice-grips to clamp the hose shut, and zip-tied the whole shebang to the core support to hold it in place. This worked for 300+ miles along the trip home with no further issues!
After filling up a final time in Prather, CA and picking up my wilderness permit I headed on up the mountain through Shaver Lake and up to Tamarack Ridge where one of the trails up to the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness is. The road starts as a very nicely graded dirt road before eventually turning off to part of the Brewer Jeep Trail and eventually ending up at the Dinkey Lakes Trailhead at Willow Meadow. For those looking for more challenge, the Swamp Lake OHV trail also starts at the Willow Meadow, and the famous Dusy Ershim trail isn't too far away either.
I eventually got to the trailhead and proceeded to setup camp.
This is where failure number two happened, and it was completely my own fault. When I went to crank up the roof on the camper I unlatched all 4 latches, but I completely forgot to loosen the wiring for the solar panels. As a result, the roof bound about 1/2 way up and I ended up shearing the teeth on both roof cranks I had with me.
Luckily I had the lower bed in the camper available, and I was able to ensure the roof was in no danger of coming down unexpectedly. The rest of the camp setup went uneventfully thankfully, and the repair/fix is easy and cheap.
Made a nice steak for dinner on the Skottle, and then enjoyed the view out the camper door.
The next morning after a nice breakfast I finished getting my pack together and headed out for my first backpacking overnight at Mystery Lake. The trail is about 1.5 miles to the lake and is around 1200' feet in elevation gain from about 7000' to 8200' or so I think.
Came up over the ridge and saw my first view of Mystery Lake. A little low, but still not too bad.
Got my new to me swag tent thing setup easily enough, did find that my sleeping pad is a little wide at the foot-end of the tent. Also found that the interior clearance ends up being a bit tight.
Ended up hiking around the lake a bit, found some nice tracks, and did a little fishing. No catching, just fishing.
Bears can definitely be a problem in the Wilderness, and the Forest Service requires that either a Bear Canister, or food hanging be done to protect us and the bears. I used my CountyComm portable grappling hook to make that easier. Turns out the grappling hook tines also work great for hanging Mountain House meals.
Unfortunately, this was where failure three occurred. On the hike up I was feeling a hot-spot on my heel towards the end of the hike. I never double-checked the contents of my 1st-aid kit before I packed it. Turns out that the moleskin got taken out at some point and as such I had none. I was planning on gutting it out, but then I got absolutely dumped on later in the afternoon. I found that the tent was not as water-proof as I would have hoped.
With the wet, combined with the blister I made the decision to pack up camp and head back for the truck. The heel was actually much better heading downhill, but the last little bit of uphill was quite bad, and I'm very glad I decided to bug-out instead of trying to push on and ending up with an even longer hike to the truck Sunday morning.
Overall, I'd still call the trip a resounding success. Failures always occur, the main thing is how you respond to them.
Coolant hoses can fail even in brand-new trucks, and I was able to fix and carry-on.
Dumb mistakes like the solar wiring and the camper roof are avoidable with better preparation and improved checklists, etc.
My biggest mistake would have to be the blister though. I've worn these boots plenty and never had any problems, but I've never worn those socks with those boots during a more strenuous hike and I think the socks were largely to blame. Not checking the 1st-aid kit is an understandable but important mistake, and this just underlies the importance of making sure your kit is up-to-date and ready for any reasonable needs.
Oh, and I averaged about 5MPG. Definitely need to work on that!
