Travel in the USA | The Voyage of the Tramper

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DAY 138 – 01/30/2013 – It Fell From the Sky!

Posted on February 2, 2013 | 7 comments

Ponder your Winter. Grey skies, wet sidewalks, dirty cars and cold fingers. Maybe even fumbled car keys in the frigid dark, frozen locks and dead batteries. Imagine the only way moisture came down from above was in that classic Northeast style. Yup, cloudy grey, damp, and near 100% humidity at 31 degrees, then rain. Its freezes on bushes, branches and grass. Pretty sight in small doses, but add the extremes like in Maine and you’ve got downed trees and powerlines across your commute! Yes, if all Winter precipitation were rain and freezing rain, the world would be a different place.

But that’s not the only way it falls. It falls as snow! The eskimos have “hundreds” of names for it, (although this is disputed by Wiki). And in Colorado, nearly everyone follows the weather. Commerce depends on snow. Summer cities 200 miles away depend on the gradual delivery from the snowpack. So this week as the snow came again after more than a week without, people were abuzz. Interstate Route 70 West was filling up. Smartphones everywhere ticked the totals at the resorts. People planned their drop ins. Snowfall ranged from 2-4″ at Cooper, 7-8″ at Beaver Creek, to 29″ down at Silverton.

GREEN Trees and Thin snow: had to watch out for early season rocks. (Jan 24)

GREEN Trees and Thin snow: even had to watch out for early season rocks. (Jan 24)

Look at it Now! (Feb 1)

We were fortunate enough to have a standing invitation Wednesday to join a wonderful friend at Beaver Creek to stay in her condo during her vacation. Her brother, some extended family and friend have annual trips to ski there. We, of course typically take vacations like theirs too. But this time we were Trampers, just visiting from the middle of our voyage.

A perspective I hadn’t recognized follows us now. On all my previous ski trips, I lobby for long trips of more than 7 days, wake up for first tracks and close the lifts. On the voyage, I’ve set this mode aside. We wake without alarms, ski a little or a lot.

View from Monarch Ridge, top of Panorama lift.

Winter is HERE!

Monarch operates in San Isabel National Forest

We arrived in Beaver Creek, settled into the beautiful condo and waited for Megan. Plans had already been laid out for all of us, we were riding the 8:00 shuttle to catch the lifts as they opened. The overall village arrangement includes “a million beds” and free shuttle services to avoid parking hassles and fees. This meant leaving the condo in ski boots with sandwiches in pockets. Lately we’ve been at such small places that we park 50-100 feet from the door on the bottom floor of the lodge and carry our boots in knapsack bags into the sack-lunch area to dress. (The next day, Thursday, inside of the Ski Cooper cafeteria there were 11 other people total at 10:30 AM)

Where do we go first?

At Beaver Creek, clearly a fabulous and delightfully diverse mountain, the Trampers suffered culture shock. We were amazed traversing the connectors of that big mountain. I was humbled as I stood on the ledge of the Screech Owl Jump along the Birds of Prey men’s Downhill course. Those Olympians are SO, SO amazingly out of my league. We felt as we were skiing in a city, a big bustling city. We had fun, but felt our budget could be spared any more days of full-price/big mountain lift tickets. Maybe we can spend that hundred on dogsled rides? We chose to ski only one day there, then head back to our beloved Monarch where our season pass continues.

Most fortunately we loved our visit and hosts. Megan’s family was in the Vacation Mode. You know the one. Each person injects his or her expectations and the clock cannot and will not stop anything from fitting in. Apres ski, hot tub, happy hour, dinners and best of all; wine and cheese in their room. We went by, and thoroughly enjoyed the evening of chat, tasty box wine, yummy cheeses and snacks. The chat is MY favorite. Each of us seemed prompted to share a tale or story of some notoriety, many from or fed by skiing and the lifelong love thereof. Surrounding the fires of memory we shared the oral tradition in all its glory. All of us laughed therapeutically and hard.

My only regret was that all our searches during the ski day for the leeward relief from wind, the best snow or the best trails to share detoured us from sharing runs with anyone but our more direct host, Megan. Even then, our search blurred some of the blissful runs.

All-in-all, I hadn’t realized how unlike a vacation the Tramper Voyage is. We’ve set an alarm only 2 or 3 times in as many months. Ski for an hour or all day with our cheap picnic squeezed in the sack-lunch area. Skip a day, have a soak, or take a hike instead. And scarcely squeeze anything extra into the days. Even shopping or going 15 miles into town is spontaneous and barely weekly. We sure are enjoying this and hope the picture stays with us to color our future lives, and vacations.

Jumping for Joy!

– David

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Posted in DAY posts, Family, PEOPLE, RV Living, Skiing, Travel in the USA

Tagged David, Jane, long time friend, Monarch Mountain Ski Resort, Random Thoughts, Skiing, Wonderful people

Some Strange Campsites, or, “A Place to Rest for the Night”

Posted on January 29, 2013 | 14 comments

When we search for each next adventure on the road, we don’t always make it to a destination in one day’s driving. We find ourselves camping somewhere in between now and then. Our “100 mile per day” goal also places us where there are no National, State, Private, or official campgrounds. We’ve tried the Walmart invitation, parked in roadside pull-offs, dirt roads and closed parking lots at times.

The first non-traditional spot was high above Trout Run in PA. Right along the route we used to travel going to McIntyre Mountain (a coal town, mountain bike playground we found in our early bike-trip days), we saw the exit, drove away from the highway on a small paved road. Quickly turning to gravel, the road offered no room to turn the camper around. Especially as this was really the second day we had towed it with the 4Runner and David still lacked skills. We switch-backed incredibly to the top of a mountain where we thought we’d be isolated. Instead we saw the lights of at least 3 homes in the stark night.

As we nearly gave up, we spied the gravel apron of a “new-home” construction site. David managed to jack-knife his way in and we discovered a new use for our foil-bubble-foil window squares. Originally conceived as heat conserving additions, we realized they also offered a measure of stealth as they blocked our interior lights from leaking out and betraying our location.

It feels like campsites such as that one require us to get up early and drive away before we are spotted!

Before the trip, David had planned to keep track of how many “camping” sites we were asked to leave. Well, 135+ days in and we’ve never been booted off a site! We must be better at stealth camping than we thought. Or, no one’s paying attention anyway!

Here’s a pictorial history of some of the notable campsites where the Tramper has slept:

Birth of the Tramper! She lived here for who knows how long before David found her.

Birth of the Tramper! She lived here in Delaware for who knows how long before David found and refurbished her.

A pre-Voyage test run to Belleayre Mountain in NY. Pulled by the Subaru, the Tramper slept in the parking lot.

Camp Muckleratz in Lykens, PA

In cousin Huntley’s driveway in Stowe, VT

Across the street from my brother’s house in Sidney, ME. A friendly neighbor let us park on his lawn.

In cousin Gordon’s driveway, Frederickton, NB

At a campsite along the Machias River in Maine. Beautiful! One of our fav campsites and, as a bonus, no one else was there!

At Baxter State Park, ME. The small silver dot in the distance is the Tramper.

In an "illegal" spot in PRL in Maine. We realized, in the morning, that it was someone's driveway.

In an “unofficial” spot in Public Reserve Land in Maine. We realized, in the morning, that it was someone’s driveway.

Walmart parking lot in Maine. First of a half-dozen Walmart stops for the night

Walmart parking lot in Bangor, Maine. First of a half-dozen Walmart stops.

In Acadia National Park, ME

In an abandoned Burger King lot, somewhere in Massachusetts. We will soon get Panera Bread coffee across the street

In an abandoned Burger King lot, somewhere in Massachusetts. We will soon get coffee at the Panera Bread, seen across the street

Creek View campground with Jason & Blue, Rosendale, NY

Creek View campground with new friends Jason & Blue, Rosendale, NY

Hurricane Sandy evacuation center, Rosendale, NY. This is when the 4Runner was in the shop. Our new friend Jason very nicely towed us to this safe spot.

On a town street in Keene, NH during Pumpkinfest

In our own driveway, in Baltimore. No room in the house, so we slept in the Tramper in our driveway!

In an abandoned school parking lot in Waynesboro, VA

Crabtree Falls campground, Crabtree Falls, VA with owner Dave; a gracious host if there ever was one!

Friend Richard’s front yard, Culpepper, VA

Miss Pauline's front yard, Nontahela Gorge, NC. She owns a closed campground across the street. We weren't sure it was closed so we called her. She offered us her front yard instead!

Miss Pauline’s front yard, Nantahala Gorge, NC. She owns a closed campground across the street. We weren’t sure it was closed so we called her. She offered us her front yard instead!

In friends Bob & Joann’s back yard, Greensboro, NC

Ft Wilderness RV Park, NC. Not a favorite, for sure. But, it gave us a place to rest for the night

Black Rock Mountain State Park, GA. We were given a Thanksgiving feast by the camp hosts!

At the end of a long dirt road in Oconee National Forest, GA. A hunter drove up and asked where we would be hunting!? His name was John. His friendly ways made us a little less concerned about hunters.