pics from last week's camping in Ca.

[catmanriff]

Last march my brother and I went to the S. Ca desert again for four days. It was pretty awesome. But, the worn tonneau had leaked some water from previous rains. In the desert it dried out. We enjoyed the 70 degree days, 50s at night. A zillion stars. Went through a bunch of firewood, bunch of old family stories and perhaps some beer & vodka too!

Wife and I are going up to the mountains next week. Four days. Then up to Big Sur on the Ca coast. Ahhhh, but highway 1 had a landslide, the largest in Ca history. So, there's only one winding road in... we'll have a nice slice of the Pacific Ocean to ourselves.


EDIT: Trip complete, pics to follow.

[catmanriff]

Our 7 day trip in the QS10 complete. We went up into the San Bernardino mountains, then up to Big Sur for a couple days. It was pretty hot in the forest but Big Sur was perfect. Nice quaint quiet campground in the San Bernardino forest. Up about 6000 feet. Nights were perfect, about 50 degrees, days were a bit hot at around 87ish.

The sites had no hookups but each one had lots of privacy and a good view. The EZup sure helps. I thought about bringing the 2k generator for an air conditioned nap but we haven't figured out how to really cool down the QS...maybe we need a popup Gizmo topper. Slept well. Ate well. I had found another Yeti cooler on craigslist that we used for ice, the other for food. That works well. You can see them under the front bed shadow.

Highway 1 has been cut off to the both north and south of the campground. So, there was only one way in, which added two hours to our trip up there. A twisty scary mountain road with no guardrails,  and a lane and a 1/2 wide. Burned the brakes coming down into the campground. We found a good spot at Kirk Creek, which is hard to book. Also no hookups and only vault toilets at Kirk creek. I set up the Thetford potti inside the camper and that was perfect. Wife very happy!

Camp setup in the forest






view out the back of our site, not bad!!

[catmanriff]

Big Sur view.



our site:


Coffee, of course!


hike down to the beach:


the stuff: love the Iwatani butane grill, magma cookware, Yeti coolers

[pjcd]

Nice pic's, is that a "Job Box"? Did you bring it or is it there for campers to use?

[catmanriff]

The brown box in the first picture? That's a bear locker to use at night.

[pjcd]

Thats what I thought,,,,, only had one run in with bears, in a state park in Pa. I've heard the term used before, but what are "vault toilets"? Are they porta potties, pit toilets, (out house)? Just curious.

[catmanriff]

On the menu:

Scrambled eggs & bacon for breakfast.

No lunch. One day we drove into the city of Big Bear lake and had lunch.

Dinner was-
Soup
Bbq chicken, bbq beans and peas
Fried rice with shrimp
Hamburger helper with extra ingredients
Spaghetti with Italian sausage & parm cheese
Steak, shrimp, baked potato, corn w butter

[catmanriff]

Thats what I thought,,,,, only had one run in with bears, in a state park in Pa. I've heard the term used before, but what are "vault toilets"? Are they porta potties, pit toilets, (out house)? Just curious.

Pit toilets.

We did have a mountain lion a hundred yards away in Big Sur at 3am! Loud screams that almost sounded like a young girl. A female puma in heat, according to what we found out.

No bears, but raccoons and overly friendly squirrels

[PaulJ]

GREAT Pics. Mmmmm ... Coffee!

[catmanriff]

thanks!

I did not bring a "real" camera so it was all cell phone

[gbpack]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing!

[pjcd]

thanks!

I did not bring a "real" camera so it was all cell phone

Looks pretty good for a cell phone.