Foul Weather Camping...
We traveled 2200+ miles on our annual Christmas camping adventure. Our route took us north up I-5 to Portland, OR and then south through the Sierras via HWY395. The weather was cold and windy with continuous heavy rain and/or snow for most of the trip. It would've been a tough time with our RTT or ground tents. We stayed warm, dry and happy in the Tiger. We bought a new camera before the trip but didn't take many pics due to the constant rain/snow. The trip started off slow. We couldn't make it to our intended campsite on the first night because of dense fog in the Central Valley of CA. Visibility was less than 1/4 mile. We were limping along I-5 at ~25mph looking for any exit where we could park for the night. As I've mentioned before, one benefit of the Tiger is the abilty to "stealth" camp just about anywhere since you can sleep, eat, use the bathroom, etc. without ever leaving the vehicle. We found a rest stop a few exits ahead and pulled in:
More fog the next morning:
The fog turned into rain:
The rain turned into snow:
We carried chains but never needed them. Surprisingly, the AWD combined with the Geolandars worked as well in the rain/snow as any of our other current vehicles (4wd Tacoma, Disco II and a Subaru wagon). We're continually impressed with the Astro AWD.
We used the Trasharoo for hauling firewood. It does a good job of keeping things dry considering where it rides on our camper. When the wood eventually got soaked, it only took a few minutes of blasting with the
Snow Peak Torch to get the fire going even in the rain.
Rogue River State Park:
We stopped by our family's farm outside of Portland. I parked the Tiger in the barn to keep it out of the rain for awhile:
From Portland we headed south then east into the mountains and back into the snow. We ended up driving hundreds of miles on packed roads like this:
We learned the hard way that 99.9% of the "established" campgrounds in Northern CA are closed for the winter (aargh!). We also weren't able to access some prime primitive sites in the mountains because the Tiger couldn't get over the snow banks left by the snow plows along the main roads (FWIW- I don't think any of our vehicles would've gotten over/through the snow). We were able to get off the highway in a few spots. This dirt road went to a mine somewhere in Nevada. Made for a fun detour:
We discovered a little problem area that I'll need to fix for future trips in the snow. Due to the size of our tires, we removed the mudflaps behind the front wheels. As a result, the snow spray off the left front tire clogs up the propane valve. If it's slushy, it cleans right off. If the temps are really cold, the snow is hard as a rock and difficult to remove. The temps were in the single digits when I took this pic:
It was a
long, cold 10 minutes on my hands and knees trying to get the valve clear enough to turn the heater on. :REOutIceFishing:
This was our "campsite" (random, cleared spot off the highway) in the mountains somewhere near Lassen:
With temps in the single digits to low-teens, the heater had to work a little extra but it kept the cabin at our selected 65 degrees all night. The only issue we had was the water line to the toilet. The Tiger has a well designed water supply system for cold weather (nearly all the plumbing is inside the heated cabin). The weak link is the toilet supply line that runs below the wardrobe closet where it doesn't get much heat. On two mornings the line froze. The toilet still worked but you needed to pour fresh water into it vs. having it work automatically. It thawed out within minutes of driving each time so I'm guessing it was just barely freezing enough to clog the line. These were "extreme" low temps for the West Coast so I doubt we'll see the problem very often but I might try to come up with a fix.
