Month: August 2013

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Tried an Overnighter

Recently we thought we’d try using our Little Guy trailer a little differently. We’d just spend an evening somewhere in a campground near a hiking trail. Spend the evening relaxing then in the morning be near a hike we’d like to do.

The campsite set up quickly.  Just back in the Little Guy, unhook and put into position near the picnic table, open up the back, set up the awning, and voila!

Parry Peak Campground
Set up in minutes
Everything in place
A little camp exploration
Short drive to the trailhead
Old abandoned road up Graham Gulch
Blue skys from in the trees
Abandoned homemade bucket
Out on the hiking trail
Mountains all around

Next morning we were able to be at our trail head nice and early. Enjoyed the great Colorado outdoors. We were home by 2 o’clock.

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Minnesota Mike

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This was the scene at our campsite in Grand Mesa. After the rain stopped on Saturday night, the setting was beautiful and serene. Sometime late Saturday, a large SUV pulled into the site two over from us.  The camper started pulling everything out of his car, made a fire using old pizza boxes and other burnable items (not firewood) and then put everything back into his car.  He was apparently car camping since he started his car several times during the night, probably to keep warm.

On Sunday morning, while just waking up and starting to make coffee, our campsite neighbor paid us a visit.  He loudly came into our site asking if we had seen a gray cat. Really??  We said we had not and that’s why we kept our dog tied up.  He said, “He always does this, just when I need to leave.  So, where are you guys from?”  REALLY??   “I’m from Minnesota and I really like it here,  I think I’ll stay.” We we’re not in chat mode and pretty much ignored him as he wandered off to our campsite neighbor across the road.  Heard him give the same intro about the cat, but when the “So where are you from” question was asked, he got trapped.  Several minutes later he finally left the poor guy alone and went back to calling “Gabriel” and trying to reason with Gabe that it was time to go and to get into the car.  He started to play loud pop music as if that would alert Gabe to come.  He also made several passes back and forth along the road as if he were leaving and Gabe better come out of the trees or he would be left behind.  Still no Gabe.

After about two hours of this, he told our neighbor that he was “running to Walmart” (Really?  The nearest one is several hours away) and was he going to be there in case Gabe showed up.  Not sure what our neighbor said. We were packing up and apparently got the message that we were not sympathetic to his situation so he didn’t come back to us.  We never got his real name but nicknamed him Michael since his cat was Gabriel and they made a good pair of archangels.

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Map of Ridgeway-Grand Mesa trip

This is a map of our trip to Ridgeway and Grand Mesa.  We went 426 miles which was a little further than we had anticipated.  The Subie averaged 22.2 mpg this time which was better than last trip but we only went over Monarch Pass and up and down the Grand Mesa.  Bet we do really well on flat terrain.

View Larger Map

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Shade/Blind Solution

IMG_5747I kind of discovered a solution to our need for blinds inside our Little Guy. In the car one day I was setting up the sun shades in the car windshield. We’d been wondering if we should order those blinds they sell on the Little Guy website store. As I set up the windshield shades I said to myself, “Hey, these might work inside the Little Guy!” As soon as I got home I tried to see if I could make them stand up somehow against the inside of the doors. The ones we have for the Subaru are just about the right size to completely cover the inside of the Silver Shadow doors. Cool! They’re even silver on one side so they match color perfectly. Still I was wondering how we could make them stay. Velcro, sew a button hole, hang a little string loop . . . ? But as we started to use them we found that one side fit into the handle of the door and the other side pushed up against the cup holder. Voila! They stay in position nicely while the door is closed. They can even be slid up or down to allow for ventilation or peeking out the bottom of the door. Also if you need to escape quickly they don’t impede the handles, so you can just open the door without a hitch. True, if you open the door, you have to reset the shade, but it’s so easy that it’s not an issue. Just pull it off, throw it to the foot end of the bed. Then when you get back in just put it in place.

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Ridgeway State Park

Here’s a pic near our camp site for tonight. It’s late right now and I’m writing this on my iPhone. I just wanted to mention something we just thought of about the different kinds of sites we’ve stayed in so far with Shadow. The first night was a private RV park with some great tent sites. Next night was a US Forest service site near Lake Haviland. Now tonight is a state campground. All are nice in their own way. I think the USFS place was my fav so far. I’d like to talk about the differences sometime. Perhaps when I get on a keyboard somewhere.

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Lunch break

We stopped for lunch at a park near Blue Mesa Reservoir. Just a quick stop but Simon wasn’t ready to leave when we were. We had to trick him into finally moving.

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Category for Info

On our first night of camping with Shadow, we had two separate people stop by our camp site to check out our Little Guy. The first guy from New Mexico was very animated and excited calling out to someone, “Hey honey! This is what we need! This’ll do everything we want!” The next person was a lady walking her dog and was very impressed with our camp site and said she was going to tell her husband all about it. We’ve also heard stories on the Little Guy forum about how we should probably carry Little Guy brochures so we can hand ’em out. From now on, when we’re on the road, I’m going to take a picture of every person that asks us about our Little Guy and post it here, maybe with a few bits of info like where they are from and their names. I’m creating a category on this site called “LG Queries” to label them.

I think I’m going to create a list of links in the sidebar as well, so that when someone asks us about our Little Guy we can just point ’em to this website to start their research. It might be a way of gathering followers too.

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Our First Trip

We picked up Shadow in Bayfield, CO and headed west for Durango not sure where we would stop for the night. It was raining pretty hard so at the first USFS campground sign we saw, we turned in.  This was Lake Haviland and we got lucky!  Cost for the night with our Golden Age Pass was $9.50.  Site 30 was in the trees close to water and the bathroom.  We set up quickly – Shadow was easy to turn to where we wanted him so we positioned it with the kitchen facing the picnic table just on the edge of the tarp.  Setting up the tarp was a real challenge so first thing on our Needs List is a gazebo shelter.

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We had stopped in Durango for food and ate a delicious meal of chicken with rice and veggies cooked on our stove .  Easy cleanup with the counter tops and water handy.  Simon was a happy camper too since we could let him roam a bit.  The rain let up for a while and dried everything up.  Simon is happier not sleeping in Shadow so Rick rigged up a tie-out for him and set him up under the camper.  Sometime in the night he was asking to come inside and then the skies opened up again.  Lightning and thunder and soaking rain.  We were so glad to be off the ground, warm and dry.

Next morning we had our coffee and breakfast then headed out to the lake for a look-see.  We went around the lake as far as we could go which was about a mile or so.  So quiet and serene – we felt like whispering or just being with our own thoughts.  Simon was having so much fun running off leash through the rocks and tall grass.  We are so enjoying his spirit and energy.

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We packed up at checkout (noon) and headed towards Silverton over Coal Bank Pass. The Subie did great with the elevation and steepness.  We find it nice to have the Sport feature which allows us to use manual shifting to hold the speed with the transmission rather than the brakes.  We got to Silverton a little tired so we found a spot in the shade and rested for a while.  Simon barked every time the horse drawn buggy came by so we didn’t really sleep.  Gotta get him to get used to horses.

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Left there around 4 and headed over the Million Dollar Highway into Ouray, one of our favorite places.  No stopping this time but we did stop in Ridgeway Town Park for a late lunch of leftovers from dinner the night before.  We headed to Montrose and stopped in Walmart to see if they had a stove that would fit on the countertop and maybe buy some dinner.  We did neither and decided to go home.

As we continued toward Gunnison, it was getting dark and we realized we would be home after 10 so we scoped out a couple of campsites and decided to stay at Stevens Creek along Blue Mesa Reservoir, another USFS area.  Not much of a setting but it was $6 for the spot.  We backed Shadow in, snacked on whatever was in the cooler, took a short walk with Simon and hit the bed again.  So nice to be able to stop like that!  Simon got some sort of burrs in him from running in the weeds so we spent some time getting those out.  Again, he slept under the trailer until morning.

We had coffee and a snack in the morning in Gunnison, stopped at Gene Taylor Sporting Goods in our continued search for a gazebo, a stove and now a percolator.  No luck there or at the local Walmart.  So we headed home arriving around 11.  Total mileage from Bayfield was 256 miles and we got 20.7 mpg even going over all those mountain passes.  We were happy with that.

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Shadow’s Spot When Were Home

Made it home from picking up our Little Guy. We were on the road for three full days. Camped three nights, twice in the Shadow once in tent. We were out of Internet range a lot of the time. Now need to write about events and post pics. Just have to say, we are very pleased with our new Silver Shadow Little Guy. I’m calling him Shadow. Making lots of plans and imagining all the places to go and stuff to do.

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Simon Waiting

We’re waiting for the trailer hitch to be installed. Our Silver Shadow is waiting for us to hook it up. Probably should have your hitch installed before hand it’d be a good idea. Build in time. Things always seem to take longer than you thought.

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Selecting Our Little Guy

Let’s get this one!
Possibly our last “tent” site.
Our Little Guy, 5×8 Silver Shadow.
Dena

We arrived at Rich’s Performance Marine at about 2:00 o’clock today and were warmly greeted by Dena who Susan has been talking to on the phone all these days. She knew right off who we were. After introductions including Simon (they are very dog friendly) she showed us the Silver Shadow Little Guy we were coming to see. It was beautiful and big. With a fridge, stove, and sink and being six feet wide and fifteen feet long it was plenty spacious for us. Maybe a little bit too spacious. It was actually wider than our Subaru Outback. We had some concerns about the weight and towing capacity of our car. Even though we’d heard through texting, emails, and verbal assurances that the Subie can handle it, we were still worried it would be too much stress on the car, especially on Colorado mountain passes.

Over near the other corner of the show room was a smaller version of the Silver Shadow. Instead of it being called a 6 X 10 it’s called a 5 X 8. Actually the mattress inside is almost as big and plenty of room for my 5 foot 9 inches and Susan’s 5’3″. It weighs almost 300 pounds less and fits nicely behind the Outback. This smaller version doesn’t have a stove or refrigerator, but we’re thinking we won’t miss them. So we are opting for the smaller 5 x 8 rather than the 6 x 10. Easier on the car, energy consumption, and pocketbook. It still has plenty of room for all of us.

Dena and Rich were very patient and helpful as Susan and I went back and forth with which one to choose. No pressure. And are feeling like we definitely made the right choice. After all the online research and weighing options, we did it! We pick up our Little Guy tomorrow!