May 15, 2010

Our four night boondocking trip was fun, but the weather was mostly uncooperative.  The wind howled for most of Monday and Tuesday.  It is different than our weekend tent camping of the last few years.  We don’t have specific plans each day and we don’t just go forward with the plans in spite of the weather.  We puttered around the trailer much of the time.  I finished a few home improvement projects.  I installed some racking on the rear bumper to haul gas cans and other gear.  I worked on gaining an understanding of our electrical system.  I installed a wire rack in the food cupboard that should work as a spice rack or space for other small light items, secure for transport.  I installed a towel rod and a hook in the bathroom.  We also worked on organizing and planning our new lifestyle, creating lists of things to bring and things to buy for the next trip.  It felt like moving into a new home.

We did have some fun on our trip.  We took a short bike ride one evening to stretch our legs.  It was our first ride on our mountain bikes for the season and it is always fun to get on the plush bikes for a contrast.  We rode on the gravel roads between the lakes for a couple of laps.  We got out on the kayaks again for another lap around Petersen Lake on a beautiful glassy morning.  I went out a couple of other times to look for fish in spite of the wind.  I did manage to catch dinner for one night, a couple of foot long trout that went immediately from the lake to our refrigerator for a really fresh meal.  I found a few decent photography opportunities with some friendly loons and some of the other aquatic animals. 

We also took a drive down Skilak Lake Road for another look at some of the camping options along there.  It is amazing how different campsites look when you are driving around in a small car with a tent versus driving around in a big van, contemplating where you might park a long trailer.  Many of the campsites that we have found intriguing in the past don’t look so good for a big trailer.  One of them took us down a half mile dirt road that ended with no place to turn our long rig.  It was good that we explored these options without the trailer as it would be easy to think there is room based on how spacious things seemed when we visited with the small car.  Even the big campground at Skilak Lake had few sites that would have worked well for our rig.

We couldn’t go all the way through on Skilak Lake Road as we arrived at a mushy area about five miles from the end of the loop.  The mushy area was probably not a problem for the van, but we know that there are typically several spots in that stretch of road that are pretty bad in the spring and this wasn’t the worst of them.  Since it was downhill to go through this, it would have been uphill had I been turned back later and I cautiously chose to backtrack the fifteen miles rather than risk getting my two-wheel drive van stuck.

My electrical management is not working out as planned.  I suspect that the battery charging system on the trailer is not as fast as I had hoped.  I also suspect that it is further hampered by some questionable terminations on the main battery cables.  In spite of some rather lengthy generator runtime, I couldn’t get much of a charge on the battery.  The heating system’s blower motor drained the charge a bit too quickly to be useful.  I experimented with the 8 amp battery charging system built into the generator, but I need to experiment a little more.  If that doesn’t prove manageable, I might need to buy a more powerful charger to run off the generator, even though that does tend to reduce the life of the battery.  If I have to replace the battery every year, that won’t be that expensive.

Our water management had a few surprises.  Our black water tank filled more rapidly than I expected.  We were nearly full after four nights.  We will do better on trips when we spend less time at the trailer, but four nights is probably adequate.  We also used up all of our fresh water.  I am not sure if I had the tank completely full at the beginning, but we were probably close.  We can do better on fresh water.  I think we are learning how to be more conservative on washing dishes and even taking showers.  I learned a technique for getting the shower water temperature right that should also conserve water.  It was a good learning experience and our starting point is encouraging.

Propane is not a factor.  We ran the refrigerator on propane continuously from departure through our return.  We ran the heater as frequently as the electrical system allowed and we ran the heater almost continuously on our previous trip.  We cooked normal meals.  After all that, I refilled the one tank with only $16 worth of propane.  With two tanks, we will be able to go weeks, if necessary, without getting propane.

Gasoline for the generator is also not likely to be a huge management issue.  I had about a gallon and a half with me and did not run out in about 10 hours of generator runtime.  I will be getting gasoline for the van frequently enough to have plenty of opportunity to keep just a small stock of fuel for the generator.  The van sucked down the gasoline on the trip, getting maybe 9 mpg.  We had some significant elevation changes to deal with which can’t help. 

I bought a new kit for emptying my holding tanks.  The trailer only came with one cheap hose and it dripped a little in our previous use.  The new kit included two hoses and an end fitting to adapt to almost any likely sewer connection.  This kit worked quite well at the dump station.

We could not ski yesterday.  The resort was not open due to rainy weather.  We did a little shopping for more trailer improvements and we went out to dinner with a friend.  She brought along a new friend who has recently moved to Alaska and we were able to find homes for about half of our furniture between the two of them.  We had a pleasant evening and a nice dinner at a middle-eastern restaurant.

We have had a few showings on our condo.  The pace seems slow, but steady.  We even had a second showing, but we suspect those people bought the neighbors condo.  With that unit under contract, we are the only unit currently available in our complex.  Low inventory is always a good thing.