OnTheRoad.camp (OTR11.blogspot.com) This is my 11th long road camping trip with my dogs (Donner, this trip, his fourth) across North America . Trip will start on or about Sept 12. We will take the Donner Party route out (photo above is of part of the Donner Party, more or less)
Tough fit, but all 11 bags made it into the Wardrobe, on the right, and the Linen Bag, on the left, or is it the other way around?
Packing these bags in one thing. The tougher part is securing them to the roof rack. On OTR-1, after driving from Anchorage to get to my camp on the Alaskan Highway, about 220 miles away, after arriving at camp, when I climbed up onto the roof rack in a drizzle, I discovered that my Wardrobe bag had blown off somewhere along that way. I was not about to drive back to find it, not only becasue of time (I had to catch a ferry in Juneau, but becasue I had learned that stuff on the road does not remain there long in Alaska. I bought what I needed along the way home. But that wasn’t the only surprise that night. About 50 feet from the entrance to the camp, I ran out of gas. I had to pull off to the side of the road and use my extra 5-gallon gas can. I knew I was low on gas, but was hoping to make it to the camp to use my extra gas (I miscalculated how many miles I would go the gallon in Alaska.) . A similar thing happened in Manitoba the next year, when I ran out of gas a mile from a gas station. I have never run out again, although I have used that extra gas jerry can many times. I also had installed four years ago an auxiliary 8-gallon gas tank, so now I can get 345 miles to a tank, plus an extra 75 with the jerry can, or 420 miles. On the Dempster and Dalton Highways in the Yukon and Alaska, there are stretches where gas stations are about 250 miles apart. Same in Labrador. (In Labrador, they loan out to drivers on the Trans-Labrador Highway satellite phones.) When the Defender broke down on the AlCan in 2016, while the closest gas station was a short 50 miles away, the closest garage was 220 miles in Whitehorse, Yukon. We had to wait on the highway for two days, sharing it with grizzlies, while I waited to be towed there.
It took me longer than I expected to pack the Wardrobe bags. I know have to get these 11 bags into two larger bags.
The bags are colored coded on purpose. This way, in the middle of a rain storm, instead of having to climb up onto the roof rack and throw down the enter large Wardrobe bag, I can just climb up and rummage through the Wardrobe for the bag I am looking for. Inside each bag is another waterproof bag in which the items are packed. I tried plastic bags for years, but water somehow finds its way through three bags
Below is the color coded chart. I put this in each bag in case I climb all the way to the roof rack and forget which bag I was looking for. It has happened.
So far, things look good for tomorrow, but anything can happen. Only have the Wardrobe and Office to pack, including making up my planning book. The Wardrobe is the most difficult thing to pack, considering I have to be prepared for three seasons, summer, fall, and winter. I have to constantly remind myself that (a) I can always stop for a few hours and do the laundry, (b) I can always not stop and not to the laundry (Donner is in no position to complain; (c) I can always buy something along the way, or trade with the natives: “I will trade you my (old beat-up) SUV for your Defender,” one mechanic in Utah once offered me when the Defender would not start, and (d) I am entering in any fashion competition.
Somewhere along the planning phase of this trip weeks ago, my mind started to unclutter from life as I knew it here, and just about every thought that popped into my head concerned one aspect of the trip or another. When I am driving, I am not heading down US 295 in Maryland, but US 77 along the Blue River in Kansas on my way to Alcove Springs to see if I can find the never-discovered grave of Sarah Keyes, or turning right on 789 off Interstate 80 in Golconda Nevada to see if I can find John Snyder’s unmarked grave in a desolate, fly-infested desert by the banks of the Humboldt River (See page 92 here). I really do not need to take any maps with me this year because I have the whole Donner Party trail permanently impressed upon my brain. Just follow the rivers and you will get there, more or less, “but don’t take no shortcuts, and hurry along as fast as you can,” as Patty Reed famously said. And stay away from anyone with the names of Lansford or Hastings, especially both.
In looking at what I have left to do, assuming no last minute trip-stoppers, I will leave Friday morning. Once I made that decision at 8:00 this morning, I immediately got on the phone with the first two campsites I wanted to stay in, Coopers Rock in WV and John Bryan in Springfield OH to secure a campsite for Friday and Saturday, knowing that the throngs would be clamoring to get, not back to nature, but into nature for the first time.
Unfortunately, as I feared and expected, Coopers Rock was full, but they did direct me to a nearby Chestnut Ridge State Park , and I got one of the last two sites there for Friday. Lucky me. I made a reservation for Saturday, too, just in case I get delayed a day, or if I could not secure a campsite up the road for Saturday. As I wrote before, it is nearly impossible to get sites on weekends this year, now that everyone is fleeing to nature, although mostly in RVs, as if that is nature ---- a wide-screen TV at home would serve them better, as I am sure most will be discovering.
Once I got the reservation at Chestnut Ridge, I quickly called the next camp on my itinerary, John Bryan State Park in OH, to make a reservation for Saturday night. Sorry, all booked up, they told me, but suggested I call nearby Buck Creek SP. I was actually glad to hear that because, while I am familiar with Bryan, my devoted readers (or reader, as the case probably is) of my previous blogs in 2018 or 2017 will recall my experience at 11 pm with the “campfire girls” singing away to their harts’ content the one night I stayed there. I reminded them of 10pm posted quiet hours rule with a few loud blasts on my Titanic whistle, and then playing Taps on my iPad at full blast. It was more fun watching then scurry immediately in all directions than it was to see the big black bear in Tahoe slowly amble away from my Defender in 2015 when he or she got similar blasts from my whistle after trying to get to the top of the Defender..
After hanging up with Bryan SP, I quickly called Buck Creek and it was my lucky day to speak with the most pleasant and most hospitable reservation specialist you would want to meet, Kiana. (I am sure her name in some language most mean “Today is your lucky day,” because she told me she had one site left. I quickly reserved it and celebrated by victory by giving Donner a treat.
This actually works out for the better because, frankly, I never recall thinking that Cooper Rock and Bryan were some of the best camps I stayed on, but they were there when I needed them, and that is good enough for me. And I like to try out new camps along the way. So I really should give thanks to all the RVers for making this work out for me.
Now the pressure is off to find a camp site for at least five days (the next weekend) until I reach Guernsey WY. Many camps are virtually empty during the week.
Below is a map of the first five days, 1207 miles (241 per day), from DC to Perry Lake in KS. The Donner Party trail really begins in Springfield IL just south of Weldon Springs Camp (IL) and then begins in earnest in Independence MO, just southwest of Pershing SP in MO.
A friend asked me about these trips. How much fun, he said. Here is what I told him.
There are six stages to these trips I take: thinking, planning, preparing, loading the Defender, the trip itself, and afterwards. Loading the Defender is the toughest part. The planning is the most fun, to the point where I sometimes think I took the trip. The trip itself is by no means fun, but it certainly accumulates enough experiences that form permanent memories. The real fun begins when I look back on what we did. I bought an 80" smart TV last year just so I can tap into my desktop where all the photos of my road trips are stored, call up my trip music on Alexa, and sit back and watch the trips go by, almost hour by hour.
I thought I posted this but I guess I did not.
I had to make up a new bed for Donner in the front seat. I used part of that nice air mattress of mine he kindly made up for me in the Badlands three years ago, evidenced by the repair tape that did not hold. The arrow points to how it tucks under his cot in the back so that he does not get his legs caught on the end of the front bed as he moves from the back to the front, preventing him from sitting down, or causing a problem when I am driving. I road tested this arrangement, as I am wont do ado on all changes I make, and it works nicely. The front seat bed sits on top of the queen sized air mattress I am taking after all, just in case we have to bivouac in some furniture-less cabin or yurt, as we did in 2017 in Cave Lake in Ely Nevada, or was it 2018? I do not sleep well on hardwood floors, or a flimsy air mattress, nor does Donner. On top of his cot in the back is his usual dog bed. Beneath it is the ground floor for the tent, my air mattress, and another one of his mattresses like the one in front. So, while he will not have air in his mattress in the tent, he will have four inches of foam. If he is smart, and I think he is, he will opt for his mattress, and not mine.
I have to admit that I underestimated the time that I would need to prepare for this trip. Actually, I didn’t, because I knew it would take two weeks, but I have been unable to devote solid days to preparing. For instance, I have been taking Donner to swim theraphy every other day to make sure that he has worked through his recent lameness, and it is working, if his incessant following me around so I don’t leave him is any sign. But I am also doing a more thorough job of preparing than I have in the past, and I am finding some interesting things. For instance, while I try to avoid trip-delaying shopping along the way by taking stuff that I might need, sometimes I err in the direction of taking less, not more. Inevitably, though, I have to stop from time to time to pick up something that I did not plan to take. (I never forgot to take something I meant to take.) So, I am finding that I own multiple things of the same thing. For instance, three rubber mallets, four day backpacks, three long training leads for my dogs, three trash baskets for the Defender, four winter jackets, etc. etc. etc.
As it is now, I will have to cancel my reservations at the splendid Samuel Taylor State Park in California for the 29th and 30th since I cannot make it there if I stay on the schedule I set. Or perhaps I can change them till later. This is actually better because it takes the pressure off me to keep on schedule over the two weeks I planned that it would take me to get there. This way, if I wish to spend more time at some interesting place along the way, or have to, as as happened, I will. The worst case scenario is that when I get to Donner Lake, or Fort Sutter, instead of heading west to the coast, I just might head south to the Grand Canyon again, or maybe north to Yellowstone, or who knows. As usual, I will go wherever the road takes me, and it has not failed me yet, even when I reached the ends of the road. (There are actually signs in some places that say “End of Road,” as if one could not deduce it from the ocean of forest beyond the signs, although for some reason in Quebec the signs read “Fin de la route.”)
So, while I will be ready in two days, I will set off when I am 100% prepared and 100% rested, which is Rule of the Road #1. After I am finished packing, I still have one full day of work to do at my desk to prepare, including making reservations at camps I plan to stop at over the first weekend. After that, I will make reservations one camp at a time the day before.
I knew there had to be something I forgot to do for this trip. After weeks --- months, really --- in the tent with Donner and his predecessors on my trips, often with them snuggled right up next to me (to keep themselves warm, not me), I decided two years after OTR-10 that it was time to clean the sleeping bags. Oops, I forgot. This will certainly give new meaning to the expression, “Sleeping like a dog,” at least smelling like one as I sleep.
Zero percent chance tomorrow
Zero percent chance Tuesday
90% chance Wednesday.
Packing has started. X means done. Long way to go. 40 items on the index to the 12-page list itself.
As I walk around my place collecting things, Donner knows that something is up, and so he follows me everywhere so I don’t forget him.
Have to take a two-hour break in an hour or so to take Donner swimming. He has mostly worked his way out of his limp due to the two swimming sessions so far.
X | LOC. | X=PACKED; LOC = R=ROOF RACK; C=CAB; B=BACK | |
1 | B | BACKPACK | |
2 | X | B | DONNER’S COT AND MATS |
3 | B | DONNER’S DAILY FOOD BOX | |
4 | B | DONNER’s MEDS IN STUFF BOX | |
5 | B | DONNER’S STUFF BOX | |
6 | B | DONNERS GROOMING BAG | |
7 | B | ED’S STUFF BOX | |
8 | X | B | ELECTRONICS BAG |
9 | X | B | FIRST AID KIT |
10 | B | IN-TENT BAG, | |
11 | B | MAP ROOM: & LIRBARY | |
12 | B | MEDS ED – IN STUFF BOX | |
13 | B | OFFICE, WALLET; SAFE: | |
14 | B | PANTRY BAG | |
15 | B | STAKE BAG & BUNGEE BAG: | |
16 | B | TOILET KIT - IN BACKPACK | |
17 | B | TRASH CAN | |
18 | B | UTILITY AND TOOLS | |
19 | X | B | WATER BOTTLES |
20 | X | C | DEFEDER CONSOLE |
21 | C | DEFENDER – LOOSE ITEMS | |
22 | X | C | DEFENDER CAB STUFF (TRAY, GPS, ETC.) |
23 | X | C | DEFENDER PASSENGER WELL |
24 | X | C | ELECTRONICS BAG |
25 | X | C | OFF ROAD RECOVERY EQUIPMENT |
26 | R | DONNER’S STROLLER | |
27 | X | R | ED’S FOOD CONTAINER |
28 | R | G&E SMALL TENT | |
29 | R | G&E SUMMER SLEEPING BAG | |
30 | R | G&E v25 Tent bags | |
31 | R | G&E WINTER SLEEPING BAG | |
32 | R | GARAGE | |
33 | X | R | GAS CAN |
34 | R | HI-JACK | |
35 | R | KITCHEN | |
36 | R | LINEN BAG | |
37 | R | PULL PALL | |
38 | R | SUPPLY BOX | |
39 | R | WARDROBE, | |
40 | X | R | WATER CAN |
Nope, not on the road today, as I predicted. Still 80% chance Tuesday. While most of the hundreds of items to take only take seconds each to find and pack, it’s the pesky few that slow me down. For instance, my Surefire batteries (for one particular flashlight) were not where they were supposed to be, and I needed them and cannot get them on the road, so it took me 30 minutes to find them. All I need is for a handful of incidents like that to delay me a day.
I would like to extend a warm welcome to my blog to Ron and Grace. It’s nice to know that you are following it, even before the trip started..
Despite interruptions, progress is being made, slowly. Tonight I set up the nine Daily Food Boxes (DFRB) and charge everything that needs charging. Somehow, I have got to rationalize how I go about charging. Goal first is to make sense of my home charging center, below. This pretty much replicates what the Defender will look like every day. Sometimes I was charging seven devises at the same time. Only once did the overload cause one of the cables to start frying, just as was taking Donner to vet hospital in Flagstaff Arizona when he got terribly sick at the Grand Canyon.
Fortunately, I am no longer taking cameras since I finally bought a iPhone. And I am taking two of those NOCO super chargers (on left in photo). After bears breaking into my vehicle (as happened in Tahoe in 2014, as Erde slept peacefully in the tent), I hate running out of power. Quite a change from OTR-1 in 2000 with Sonntag when I had nothing that needed charging. I did not even have a cell phone or laptop and had to stop off at public libraires to call the National Geographic photographer who came with me to give up updates on my progress to Alaska and check my email. My, how times have changed.
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As of now, there are only two show-stoppers still clouding our departure. Donner’s rear right leg took a turn for the worse (or maybe worst) last week. I have been talking him swimming, and that helps. I will also not try to get on the road on Sunday so I can take him swimming once more. The swimming helps unpinch the inflammation that is impinging on his spinal cord. I can manage him on the road better than at home, and I will order his wheelchair from the road if his walking deteriorates much further.
The only other potential show-stopper is a pending lawsuit that our condo was hit with. I happily turned over the presidency to a very capable young woman, and so the matter will be in good hands without me. However, if they ask me to return to deal with the matter, I will. But since it will be beyond my duties on the Board as an unpaid volunteer, it is going to be very, very expensive for the Condominium to hire me to manage that case for them.
Ed and Donner from Base Camp (DC)
I am running seriously behind schedule. There is a zero percent chance I will get on the road on Sunday, a 50% chance on Monday, and maybe greater than 75% chance on Tuesday. If I leave on Tuesday, I can still keep my schedule (to make the camp in SF by the 29th) since I had three days of slack in the Schedule. I will not leave, however, until I am well rested.
Spent hours yesterday cleaning out the Defender and loading the equipment etc. That’s one of the tasks I dread most about preparing. The Defender never looked so good and drove so well in a long time.
Becasue I do not have the confidence that I will not have a breakdown on this trip, I ordered a satellite phone today just in case. I would hate to be deep in some National Forest alone and have the Defender not start with no cell phone service, and a dog that cannot hike out with me to get help.
I also spent time trying to track down the name of the vehicle hauling broker I used back in 2019. She (Dawn) was good. I was finally able to get her contact information from Erik at Rovers North, who contacted Greg, who gave me Dawn’s number back in 2019, but no longer works at Rovers North. My rule is: if the Defender breaks down and the problem is not easily fixed, it gets shipped back home and we rent a van to finish the trip. It is not the same trip without the Defender, but it is a trip.
Although I have yet to work up my 150-item to-do list or the 12-page to-take list, I have been carrying out both of them by memory, after 10 prior times. I suspect I have most items done, maybe 50 remaining. As for the to-take list, since I do not expect to be doing any serious dirt-and-gravel roads or trails, I can scale back somewhat. I am having to redo the back of the Defender to accommodate Donner’s raised bed (one of the three he has). Before, I transported that bed on the roof rack and had to haul myself up there to retrieve it each time. I cannot put it horizontally in the back behind the front seats, as I did before, so I will have to lay it vertically, and move the containers from the rear of the back to parallel to Donner’s bed. The advantage of this is that when I go to take him out for a rest stop, I don’t have to unload all the containers to let him out.
I am also downsizing a number of containers. My garage container will be cut back seriously. I reduced Donner’s and my stuff boxes from 2720 ci each to 2321. Some stuff will have to go. If I need something I did not take, if I cannot do without it, I will look for the nearest outpost (i.e., Walmart). I will not tsake my twp camemrs and rfely on my iPhone to do the photo’ing. This probably means that the photos on my blog will be sent in separate postings.
Tomorrow I set up the DFBs (daily food boxes). I will only take 9 and restock every week.
Etc.
Ed and Donner from base camp, so to speak.
Sorry for any typos etc. still in this posting.
