Tag: camping

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A Lonely Night in Paradise

We had gotten word that Humberto, his son Phillip, and Matt and his family—who all had left earlier that morning—had arrived at a locked gate leading to the campsite, so we called the first audible of the trip to find a secondary site. Plan B was a nicely tucked away site: Paradise Campground, just off Highway 154. With a site named such a way, how bad could it possibly be? It was a bit of a drive from our initial point but close enough to arrive before sunset. We made the call, and Humberto and Matt headed to the new site with us not far behind.

We arrived at Paradise Campground with the sun just starting to set, with Humberto and Matt already set up. The night’s terrible site was a well maintained one with flushing toilets and running water and plenty of flat ground for the group’s tents, roof or ground. We were definitely roughing it hardcore in Paradise. After we arrived, we had gotten word that Jon, Brian, and Mitch would be arriving on night two, with Stuart and Cris arriving on the morning of day three. With the details ironed out, Brett, Andy and I unpacked, setup, and settled in with Matt and Humberto for the night around the campfire.

The second day started nicely with a somewhat late wake up and leisure pace. It was a brisk morning with clear and sunny skies. We slowly got up to pace, making breakfast, and catching up with each other. We even saved a gopher from getting eaten by a group of crows. At about 11:00am, we finished packing up and headed for our next stop which would be lunch.

We arrived at a sweet little restaurant tucked away in the hills just a few minutes south from our campground. This cozy little restaurant is called The Cold Springs Tavern. Luckily we had arrived early enough where they were able to accommodate the 11 of us in one of their rooms. The food was great and worth checking out for those interested as they serve some game meats, but I advise heading there early before noon as once we had left the facility, there was a large crowd waiting to be seated. The small area used to a relay station where travelers could rest and/or change their horses. They’ve maintained the old buildings and with the surrounding greenery, made for a beautiful and rustic spot for lunch. We saddled up and were Oscar Mayer after rallying down the street.

We decided to take Highway 154 and cut across to Highway 1 from Highway 246 for a more scenic drive. Unfortunately, once we hit Lake Cachuma, we ran into some construction traffic and were at a stand-still for quite sometime. We continued through to Solvang and enjoyed the touristy drive-thru, but after reviewing the remaining time of travel and the setting sun, we called it short and decided to hop back onto Highway 101 North to fast track it to our night’s campground of Pismo Beach.

We booked it north towards Pismo and after a short supply stop at a shady looking liquor store, which Brett thought was a larger market on Google Maps, we eventually hit the entrance to Pismo Beach. Pismo Beach is an OHV area where you’re allowed to drive right onto the beach to camp and ride your OHV vehicles on the sand dunes just behind the beach. It’s a beautiful spot when it’s not too crowded, unlike the day we arrived. There was a line to enter the park but we eventually paid our dues, aired down, and drove south along the surf looking at all the RV’s and toyhaulers littering the beach.

We circled the wagons at our makeshift site in the dunes, among the buzzing two stroke bikes and side-by-sides, but nestled next to a cordoned off section to minimize the madness. It was a killer sunset with some offshore winds but nothing unbearable.

With the fire going, food cooking, and children playing, we thoroughly enjoyed our environment as we always do. A little after dinner, we some chatter came over the comms from Brian, Jon, and Mitch heading up Highway 101. We attempt to guide them in using a high mounted green-lit whip antenna, but our signal was lost in the sea of campers. Of course, right? They doubled back, we made visual contact, and completed our circle of rigs, then enjoyed the rest of the campfire.

Click here to follow along with Part II as we climb above Pacific Coast Highway, and brave a maze of windy roads and locked gates to follow the Coastal Ridge north.
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Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite Max SV

There’s a new way to inflate a sleeping pad, and it’s called the SpeedValve.  We all know of the traditional way to inflate a sleeping pad:  Unscrew the pad’s valve, wrap your lips around said valve, and start puffing.  Depending on the volume of the pad that you’re inflating, this may take just a minute, or it may take several minutes and leave you feeling slightly hypoxic by the time your pad is fully inflated.  However, if you have a Therm-a-Rest pad equipped with a SpeedValve, such as the NeoAir XLite Max SV, inflation and deflation happen a whole lot faster.

The SpeedValve uses science (Bernoulli’s principle of fluid dynamics) to inflate your sleeping pad much faster than a traditional sleeping pad valve would allow.  With a traditional valve, you are supplying 100% of the air going into the mattress from your lungs.  The SpeedValve uses all of the air from your lungs and it draws additional air from the atmosphere into the sleeping pad.  The end result is that much more air goes into the pad per breath, and your pad inflates faster.  Once you’ve got the pad almost full, you close the SpeedValve just like a drybag, and use the traditional valve on the corner of the pad to dial in your desired pad pressure.  Deflating a SpeedValve pad happens much more quickly than with a traditional pad valve too, and the days of slowly rolling a pad up as you bleed out air are over.  The SpeedValve is awesome, but it does have a learning curve.

Entertaining situation: Ask your friends to try inflating your NeoAir XLite Max SV without telling them how to use the SpeedValve.  Some people will try and blow as hard as they can into the pad, like they’re playing toot the bottle.  Others will just stick their face into the SpeedValve and blow.  When you’re ready to enlighten your friends, hold the SpeedValve a few inches away from your face and blow slowly, like you’re trying to blow out 100 candles on a birthday cake in one breath.  You’ll know when you’ve got your technique dialed because you will feel air moving past your face as you blow, and your pad will inflate surprisingly fast.  Closing the SpeedValve is the other thing that requires technique, as the dry bag style rolling process must be done right, or you’re going to be waking up on the ground.  As with any new piece of gear, the SpeedValve takes some learning, but once you get it figured out you’ll feel bad for folks who still have to work with traditional valves.

The NeoAir XLite Max SV is a terrific sleeping pad in terms of comfort, and with the L size pad weighing in at one pound five ounces, it’s become my go to pad every time weight is a consideration.  The L size allows for my 6’2” frame to stretch out with my entire body on the pad, and at 2.5” thick I can sleep on my side without contacting the ground.  With an R value of 3.2, the NeoAir XLite Max SV is a three season pad that will make a bit of noise when you move around on it, but it’s much more quiet than the ‘crunching bag of chips’ sound that other lightweight sleeping pads are known for.  Every night I’ve had on the NeoAir XLite Max SV has been a night of restful sleep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDIH7CiofUw

Therm-A-Rest has applied science to give us a new and faster way to inflate and deflate a sleeping pad, and I have to say that I’m a fan of this new system.  Granted, there is a bit of a learning curve and the second valve is technically one more point of potential failure, but these points are overshadowed by the performance the SpeedValve offers.  Less time inflating a pad is a convenience feature, but the first time you nail the inflation technique you’ll find yourself saying “worth it!”  Likewise, deflation is a much more enjoyable experience too.  No longer will you spend time doing the slow knee-press roll-up of your old sleeping pad.  Comfort and support have been outstanding for me sleeping on my back and my side, and a good night’s rest in the backcountry is invaluable on multi-day missions.  I’ve routinely found myself opting for the NeoAir XLite Max SV over a thicker (3.5”) and much heavier sleeping pad that was previously my favorite.  With the NeoAir XLite Max SV, I sleep great and I’ve cut over a pound from my kit.  Therm-A-Rest offers the SpeedValve in a number of their field proven pads, so go check one out at your local gear shop, or at http://www.cascadedesigns.com/therm-a-rest