Camping in a COVID 19 Environment

[ADR]

If rainwater and dirt were getting in then you have bad seals.   Oh wait......you said you did!

As for keeping hubs full of grease- might want to read this>

https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/28664/dangers-of-overgreasing-

[Chappy133]

Here is the link to the Dexter You Tube video for the Dexter EZ lube axles and how to properly lube the bearings:  https://www.dexteraxle.com/resources/videos/e-z-lube-system

[Merlin]

If rainwater and dirt were getting in then you have bad seals.   Oh wait......you said you did!

As for keeping hubs full of grease- might want to read this>

https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/28664/dangers-of-overgreasing-

Good point on the hubs, I should have noted the technique for filling hubs with grease is only for those with Bearing Buddies.

https://www.bearingbuddy.com/how-bb-works

[Chappy133]

Add the state of New Hampshire to cancelled camping reservations.  Their public and private campgrounds are only open to NH residents.  So I cannot stay self contained in a NH campground socially distancing myself but I can stay in a NH Hotel.  Makes no sense to me.

[Merlin]

Interesting about NH.

My wife and I have found a new use for our Camplite. We are going to finally get to our cabin in Michigan's U.P. the end of this month. We are going to tow our camper and be complexly self contained for the 330 mile trip except for gas only stops. We'll get (and pay for) a campsite at a nearby state forest campground, park the camper, set up a few things like we are staying there, then head into the cabin for a few days. We can easily pop out to the camper each day to check on things; it will only be 8 miles away. The state forest (not state park) campgrounds here open up 6/10 and are first come first serve.

Does anyone have advice for how to make it look like we are resident at the state forest campground? 

[Powder Hounds]

Sounds like a pretty good road trip!

[Powder Hounds]

A few things we do when we will be away from our camping spot.

Leave a cheap chair out, indoor/ outdoor mat, stack of fire wood, old bowl with water. The bigger the bowl the bigger the dog. Our best trick is our Black Diamond camping lantern. It is a ReMoji rechargeable little hiking accessory, has multiple coloured settings and will operate for a while. USB charging cable is included as well. The best thing is when set to the scrolling option the colours will change over and over, with your blinds up at night/ evening someone walking buy and looking at your entry door glass will think your watching TV. The obscure patterned glass really helps with the allusion as well. The battery charge will eventually die and just recharge on the next visit. We use it a lot just adding some atmosphere, has some magnets on the bottom so we put it under our entry step when sitting out at night. Once you start using it the more you will enjoy this little lantern. You would just have to plan a check for early evening to get it set up.

Cheers!

[DavidM]

We finally got away to do some camping last week and to put some of the discussion points above to good use. We camped in two Adirondack parks- Paradox Lake right off of I87 west of Ticonderoga and Rollins Pond 20-30 miles south of Saranac Lake.

We registered by wearing a mask. Interestingly the 18 you check in ranger knew nothing about RVing. The dump station was within 150' of the check in station and she didn't know what a dump station was. I had to show her on the map and explain. Oh well, labor is tight now, right?

Our campsites in both places were well separated, about 150' to the next campsite. Rest rooms were open but showers were closed and you had to wear a mask while inside. I fail to see the risk in using a shower, but maybe clean up labor is limited (see above) and comes with some risk. We had our 12 week old puppy with us and that generated interest on both sides of us. Our neighbors came over to see her but stayed a respectful 15' away. I never felt I was threatened by potential contamination. There were groups of people who socialized closely, but we didn't.

Covid 19 has caused the NY park service to institute some strange rules though. No walk ups are allowed. You have to make a reservation. When we asked about extending our stay for another night, the answer was- If you made a reservation yesterday for your extra night, ok, but today it is too late to make one for tomorrow, so the answer is no. Can't figure that one out- bureaucracy no doubt.

We had made these reservations some time back in April. When we got back home I looked up several of our favorite sites to see where we could camp in August. They were all booked up, even mid week. So we won't be camping any more until September when it opens up again.

Finally we noticed a significant shift from RV camping in prior years to tent camping. New campers no doubt.

David

[Merlin]

We finally got away to do some camping last week and to put some of the discussion points above to good use. We camped in two Adirondack parks- Paradox Lake right off of I87 west of Ticonderoga and Rollins Pond 20-30 miles south of Saranac Lake.

We registered by wearing a mask. Interestingly the 18 you check in ranger knew nothing about RVing. The dump station was within 150' of the check in station and she didn't know what a dump station was. I had to show her on the map and explain. Oh well, labor is tight now, right?

Our campsites in both places were well separated, about 150' to the next campsite. Rest rooms were open but showers were closed and you had to wear a mask while inside. I fail to see the risk in using a shower, but maybe clean up labor is limited (see above) and comes with some risk. We had our 12 week old puppy with us and that generated interest on both sides of us. Our neighbors came over to see her but stayed a respectful 15' away. I never felt I was threatened by potential contamination. There were groups of people who socialized closely, but we didn't.

Covid 19 has caused the NY park service to institute some strange rules though. No walk ups are allowed. You have to make a reservation. When we asked about extending our stay for another night, the answer was- If you made a reservation yesterday for your extra night, ok, but today it is too late to make one for tomorrow, so the answer is no. Can't figure that one out- bureaucracy no doubt.

We had made these reservations some time back in April. When we got back home I looked up several of our favorite sites to see where we could camp in August. They were all booked up, even mid week. So we won't be camping any more until September when it opens up again.

Finally we noticed a significant shift from RV camping in prior years to tent camping. New campers no doubt.

David

Good deal----nice to get out, eh? We saw a lot of tents at a state forest campground too, including some obvious newbies (food not secured from our forest friends).

What's with the new puppy? Breed? Things going ok with that?

[DavidM]

Our new puppy is a Sheltie- a Shetland Sheepdog, just like our last two dogs who led full and enjoyable lives. We have had her for about 7 weeks now andshe is 13 weeks old. Probably weighs 9 lbs now and will maybe hit 20 or so lbs when fully grown.

This is the third puppy Joan and I have trained or maybe I should say attempted to train because we aren't there yet. She is a handful. We probably have got her going outside 80% of the time up from zero when we first got her. Surprisingly camping was pretty easy- you are in the outdoors and she can pee wherever she wants although we tried to keep the walking routine going. Didn't work so well and now that we are home she has to relearn some stuff.

She has progressed from sleeping until 4:30 to almost 6:00 AM now when she wakes up, wants to go outside and pee and play and play and play for maybe two hours until she crashes. Playing with a new puppy at 5:00 AM isn't fun when you are 73. The other problem we discovered is at 5:00 when it is barely light enough to see outside, there is a bear that roams through our neighborhood about then. A bit scary when you just woke up and are bleary eyed.

David

[mojospeople]

We just got back from a trip east - the first time we've ever camped to the east of MI/IN/KY. We stayed in 3 different state parks in 3 different states - Ohio (Barkcamp), Pennsylvania (Caledonia) and Indiana (Versailles). Each campground was practicing safe distancing and cleaning practices. The PA shower house was the absolute cleanest I've ever experienced. I think they were cleaning it twice a day. We mostly used the camper shower but used the shower house there during off-peak times to save our water supply. We were there mid-week so the campground was not full.

Travel-wise was a mixed experience. In some places nearly 100% masking in public and in others almost none. We had perfect weather so was able to sit outside at a couple of breweries and have a beer but otherwise we had all our meals at the camper or carried out a couple of fast food meals while we were on the road. We found that many things we would do when we travel were not open. I saved a ton of money on this trip because we didn't have any dinners out, no impromptu strolling through shopping/tourist areas spending money and no admission/parking fees at tourist stops. We did the auto tour of Gettysburg but the visitor center was closed the days we were there. Unfortunate because I would have liked to check it out since it is new since the last time we were there.

To be on the safe side I plan to get a covid test in a couple of days and stay away from people/places until I get a negative result back. Pretty easy to do when one of us is working from home and the other is retired.

[bcsnave]

so how did the test come out? pregnant or not?

[Pinstriper]

Actually, what you want is "you already had Covid" as the result. When everyone hits that, the virus will die out for lack of hosts to infect.

[mojospeople]

Actually, what you want is "you already had Covid" as the result. When everyone hits that, the virus will die out for lack of hosts to infect.

Not. Yet.

[planemaker]

We have been out 4 times this summer, with our last trip next weekend.
Rock Point Provincial Park - Dunnville Ontario
Wheatley Provincial Park - Leamington Ontario
Brighton KOA - Brighton Ontario
Elora - In Laws
and finally back to Rock Point!

Not what we were planning to do this summer, but not bad considering the lockdown we have been under.

2020 can't end quick enough.