After a little over a week I am ready to do my trip write up. I wanted to give myself some time to reflect on the trip before writing about it since Last week upon arriving home I didn't feel 100% about it. Here are a few take aways after reflecting for a week...
1) Even if the trip didn't go to plan (which we had a very loose plan to begin with) its all part of the adventure.
2) Even with all the negatives that happened Im already wanting to make another trip.
3) When looking back the few negatives are trumped by the positives of the trip and the memories made spending time with the dogs and wife.
4) The rover is a rover and will always be a rover, that being said I shouldn't be upset with the rover for my poor planning (not having a jumper box) and a battery that isn't relative to its unreliability.
5) Dayum can that rover crawl. (ill explain later)
I will start off by saying the original goal of getting footage and a lot of pictures didn't really happen. The main day I planed to film was Sunday and that time was taken up by getting the rover jumped off. So here we go....
FRIDAY-
We packed up the truck and got on the road around 5:30pm. It was a late start due to our work schedules, the wife worked during the day and I am on graveyard shift so was sleeping and packing. The goal was to haul some booty up to the Blue Ridge Parkway on the west side of Asheville. From there I had marked a turn off to a forest road in which the goal was to find camp as quickly as possible and crash for the night knowing very well that it would be a late one. From Brunswick it was roughly a 51/2 hour drive to camp not including bathroom breaks, gas stop, and finding dinner. We stopped for some grub in South Carolina at a Cook Out which was the wife’s first time there, stellar grub as always. Somewhere along the North Carolina border we stopped for gas. Around 1 in the morning the tires landed on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I will say the Parkway at night is pretty dang cool! Once off on the dirt road it was time to find a good spot to set up the rover, so we looked….and looked……….and looked. Everything was either taken, which was to be expected on Labor Day weekend, or roped off with no camping signs posted. So deeper into Pisgah it was eventually finding a small pull off around 2:30 in the morning. I will say the sleeping platform works great and sets up fairly quickly and easy, however 2:30 in the morning after driving 7 and change hours and being super tired is not the time to test out a new setup and try to figure out where everything goes. It took way longer then expected to actually get into bed and get situated, but around 3:15 we were finally getting settled in.
SATURDAY-
Our Morning was much better, we woke up pretty early around 7, snagged a quick breakfast and took the pups for a walk before breaking camp. There was no rush to get anywhere and the only plan for the day was to find a nice short hike with dogs, drive some of the blue ridge, and find a nice camp spot. We did 100% that Saturday. After breaking camp, we drove about 20 miles on the park way and stopped at the devils courthouse for a hike with the dogs. The look out was awesome and the pups had a great time. After getting back to the rover we set up a quick lunch in the parking area then headed back to the woods. It took us about another hour or so to find a national forest road that wasn’t closed off. When we finally did find one we followed it looking for a good camp spot for about 20 minutes when we stumbled on an open forest road gate which looked pretty fun….and it was. Turned out to be a short cut to the main road, but by a short cut I mean it was a series of very steep rocky grades that made for an awesome 4x4 experience. It was certainly the most technical terrain I have done yet in the rover. Sadly I didn’t get out for a photo or video opportunity. We took the trail down to see where it led eventually hitting pavement so we drove for a few miles looking for another forest road but had no luck. After turning around we headed back up the rocky grade. This was the really fun part! Ended up putting the rover in 4lo and rock mode, between 4lo and the lockers that thing cake walked up the hill like nobodies business. Once back up on the Forest road the search continued heading deeper into the woods until we got to a dead end which turned out to be the perfect camp spot! After backing the rover in and we set up the sleeping platform which was a gravy setup the second go around. At the dead end there was 2 closed forest roads 1 was blocked off by a gate and the other by some large rocks. Once everything was set up the wife and I took the dogs for a hike up the road blocked by rocks. It lead us to a small stream that went down the side of the mountain that we were on. (Btw we were sitting about 4300 ft up.) The view was beautiful when you could catch a glimpse through the trees. As the crow flies we were less than a mile or so from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We could hear the occasional motorcycle echo through the Forest. As we got to the stream you could hear a good bit of the traffic. We got back to camp and set up to make dinner which was shrimp scampi with penne noodles, onions, peppers, and asparagus. Got out the double burner which crapped out on us. Had plenty of fuel but it wouldn’t light properly, so we started a small fire and cooked over the fire which turned out awesome. Scampi was the bomb digity. Cleaned up, drank some beer, and had a nice peaceful night.
Upon a better nights sleep that evening I will say the sleeper system was very comfortable! The mattress was pretty nice and the bed felt sturdy. Ventilation was probably the biggest issue, the screens for the windows didn’t provide much for airflow and the battery powered fans didn’t last very long. It doesn’t help having 3 dogs that love to cuddle. Once it got cold out though it was really nice in the rover especially after the dogs found their sleepy spot.
