Head for the hills 2014

[HiHoAgRV]

We do this every 2nd year or so. Load up a pile of stuff and haul it from Mississippi to somewhere in the hills. This year we are going to 'split' on Father's Day weekend and head back toward the Tetons or in that general direction. Dolly, our 1963 Overlander, is going along for her first really big trip. She already has been 4,500 miles around the southern states on a few trips. We are keeping fingers crossed that she will excel on this Big Adventure.

We plan on posting notes, photos and video when ever possible so come ride along with us!

On edit...what a better way to start than with a sideways photo.

[HiHoAgRV]

Days 1 and 2 were makin' miles. We took I-20 from Vicksburg to Tyler Texas then jumped onto the state roads. Night 1 was in the parched city of Wichita Falls TX where it rained on us as we departed for day 2. We got some odd looks because of the canoe on top of the truck in a drought zone. Tonight we are in Small Town SE Colorado. We bought a Gopro camera and are having a ball making movies with it strapped on the Airstream.

So far, so good with Dolly. HWY 287 varies from silk smooth to pretty rough and she has done just fine.

Today's video...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ovFpO8Flj0

[Lily&Me]

Have a great trip!


Maggie

[HiHoAgRV]

We made it to WY today.... More to follow.

[HiHoAgRV]

Day 2 from SE Colorado into WY had a challenge, stopping in Limon CO for fuel I noticed the RR tire was low, the valve stem cracked. A $12 repair and we were back on the road. Planning on spending a couple of days here in Vedauwoo.

Here is the video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5yh...ature=youtu.be

[HiHoAgRV]

Days 3 and 4 camping in Vedauwoo WY at 8,300 ft. Pretty days, gusty winds up to 40 mph. Hiking and riding rural roads are the things to do. We planned on jumping up in the morning and hauling to a forest service camp just south of Jackson WY but they are having rain and snow tonight so we will stay in Rock Springs for 1 night...unless we change our mind.

Our home made 120W solar panel is working great, several hours of running the laptop and watching DVD's and it had no problem recharging the house batteries by noon.

The video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhIU...ature=youtu.be

[HiHoAgRV]

It's been a few days since we posted. Leaving Vedauwoo we wandered north skipping Rock Springs and found a BLM site with available ater and a dump station. We also found snow and sleet! The next morning after some scouting we located a forest service lake just north of Pinedale WY, boondocking for free.

I think we get affixed on long trailers not being able to get into some of these spots. We dropped the trailer to check out sites and were kinda concerned as the road kept getting tighter and tighter. No way we could get a 26' trailer in here...but at the end of the road what do we see? A monster 5th wheel. In fact, by the time the weekend arrived, most of the spots were filled with huge 5th wheel campers with boats hooked to the bumpers.

But I digress...
Fishing was amazing, we often had double hookups and lost count of how many trout we released.

So far, 5 days without being in a full hook up campground.

Videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgN1...ature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbcF...ature=youtu.be

[Lily&Me]

Sounds absolutely delightful.

We spent about 3 weeks last summer, poking around the Rocky Mountains, almost entirely without hookups.

Had a great time, and those NF campgrounds practically to ourselves.

Mountain rivers rushing by, free firewood for the taking, solar showers, cool, crisp weather while the rest of the country was suffering with heat. It was great.

Wanted to expand our boondocking capacity, see how well and how long we could go, and did....really stretched ourselves. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Have fun.


Maggie

[Zackybilly1]

I'm glad to see the Overlander get interjected back into "big trip" status.

Those of us stuck in the salt mines need someone to live vicariously through...thanks for the shot of enthusiasm. Excellent video work, BTW.

Z

[retrofit59]

Thanks for sharing - watching is like a 'mini vacation'. Looking forward to seeing more.

[reinergirl]

Awesome! I'm so FREAKING jealous . Loved seeing the pup, looks just like my Finn ....

What are you using to make the videos?

[rodsterinfl]

You are having just too much fun with that camera! Great shots- fun to watch.

[HiHoAgRV]

Thanks for the complements! We are currently in our de-fault camping spot for Jackson Hole - Gros Ventre. Not anything special but it always has a spot (that reduces the anxiety of no place to stay) and is really central to a bunch of cool stuff. $23/night for no-hookups BUT if you want...electric is available for $48/night! So far we are 8 night with no hookups. Our camping neighbors are from NJ, Vancouver, California and Hawaii.

We took a road trip yesterday for some of the upcoming video. Jackson WY to Idaho to Montana, thru Yellowstone and back to the campsite. We spent 1.5 hours in a Bison-Jam, watched a Grizzly bear playing in a meadow, saw 4 Moose just down the road and only an hour ago had a Big Boy Moose wander thru the campground.

Tomorrow we plan on beginning the wanderlust back east and south, probably across northern Nebraska.

Mac the Border Collie is the best-ever camping dog, he met most of the campers in our loop (being a fine southern gentleman-dog, he did introduce us also)

We are using photos from a Nikon D90 DSLR, Iphones, a Sony BLOGGIE and a GOPRO, all combined into IMovie on a Macbook Pro to create the videos. Folks at home almost demand that we create and send them the videos!

More to come (hopefully)...

[MarkR]

wow, yes thanks for the inspiration for us here back in the "Salt Mines" . . . i love the videos on the roof on the road . . . and great choice of songs as well.

[Lily&Me]

Camping without hookups is such a peaceful, liberating experience.

Nebraska is vast expanses of prairie, as I recall. Envision "Little House" and wagon trains as you come thru there, and find a patch of the old wagon train trail to look at, if you can. There are a couple of places where those ruts are marked, preserved, and clearly visible.

May be some small, pioneer museums to visit, as well. Love them.

I believe I went west in a covered wagon in another life.

Enjoy.


Maggie

[Overlander & Sea]

Vernon,
I just saw this thread. What a wonderful trip, eating fresh fish by the campfire next to the lake in the mountains, living the dream!!! Great videos!!

[HiHoAgRV]

Today we hitch up to the dirty covered wagon and start the return portion of the vacation. I'm due back at the salt mine on Monday

We had good cell coverage last night, just no bandwith to push another video. This morning it squeaked thru into cyberspace as the coffee was perk-o-lating on the stovetop. Yes, the opening clip is snow in June. The video from 'up high' is from the top of the Wilson Pass - that is one steep pass!!! (no, we didn't tow the camper over it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxF2...ature=youtu.be

[HiHoAgRV]

Originally Posted by Overlander & Sea

Vernon,
I just saw this thread. What a wonderful trip, eating fresh fish by the campfire next to the lake in the mountains, living the dream!!! Great videos!!

I had a weak moment a few months back and on a whim, I ordered the roof rack to carry our canoe out here. I'd sorta been regretting it since it was a slim chance that we would even use the canoe during the vacation, the longest we have stayed in one place is 3 nights. That schedule isn't conducive to unloading the boat, getting it inspected in WY, buying a sticker and fishing licenses blah blah blah. I did find the time to get all of that done and boy was it worthwhile! We WILL be hauling the canoe to more places. Fishing at 7800 ft and hauling in more rainbow's than we could count made it all worthwhile.

Plus they taste really good...

[HiHoAgRV]

We have a couple of videos from yesterday's travels. We departed the Tetons to the east, togwotee pass is higher than the others but it's a long gentle climb with few drop offs on the side of the road. There is still lots of snow to be seen in the forest and as we rounded one curve, spotted a bear feeding on a kill. He didn't mind a few of us stopping to take photos for a few few minutes. Suddenly he stood up, sniffed the air and took off like he was shot at. One of the other folks standing there said that he must have smelled another bear and that caused all of us to suddenly stop. The wind was coming from behind us putting the new possible bigger bear coming right in past us. Nobody really felt like hanging around so we all cleared out!

Once down from the pass the Wyoming landscape shifted to different colors on the way to our stop in Casper. All of the RV parks are pretty full of seasonal oilfield workers so snagging a site is a roll of the dice. Once parked we had some fellow campers pull in behind us (like 2' behind us, the sites were, um, compact) and they were from a town a few miles from our home!

Videos...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg14...ature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV7m...ature=youtu.be

[HiHoAgRV]

Pounding miles makes the days blur. We left Casper and hammered down to Sidney NB for a night at Cabelas campground. A big line of storms came thru so we never made it to the store. The next days run ended up in Garden City KS...with all of the stockyards in the area I can say Garden City doesn't have the aroma of a Rose Garden.

Today we turned and burned all the way to SW Missouri with the brutal KS winds huffing and puffing on our right hand side. We finally gave up on keeping the fridge lit and moved stuff into the ice chest. Listening to the GPS sent us onto a dirt road, ok we can see where it goes...after 4 miles it dead ends into a house's driveway. At least we had a break from the sideways winds...

With some luck we will make it home tomorrow, the dirty clothes are piling up, food is running low, the diesel stash is down to fumes and Dolly is badly in need of a bath. Come to think of it, so am I.

Root for Sarah to make a final round of videos...