Trip Report - Seattle/Smith Rock (First Trip Ever)

[Adventurewagen]

To keep things going in the forum, I figure from past threads on wanting more trip reports I'll start off with my own report starting from my first trip in 2003.

It was our first trip in the bus. I'd bought it in San Francisco and driven it to Seattle, but this was the first trip we planned to take in it. Me and my girlfriend, Jess (now my wife) and alot of gear.

We both got friday off that weekend and got packed up and headed out thursday night.
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The bus just got its packasport shown in the top tray on the back. We keep all our backpacks and outside dirty gear in that. Its waterproof and an excellent place to stick gear.

On the way down just outside of Portland we stopped at a rest stop and Jess decided she'd drive the bus (first time ever) for a while. Sure enough not even a mile or two on the road in the dark of night the headlights went out completely!!! We passed 3 cops before stopping at a gas station but never got stopped. Fuse was good and after tinkering the lights came back on, but wouldn't stay that way. Sure enough they went back out just another mile or so down the road, so we found an empty parking lot in a school and camped there for our first mid-trip camping experience

The next morning we headed over Mt. Hood pass and to our suprise a storm moved in and we got just a little snow
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I had taken the chains out of the bus which became required over the pass, so when we passed the cop stoping people we just smiled and waved as we kept on driving

Finaly at Smith we parked at what is now known as WayPoint #7 from Jess's GPS she got from REI for 10 bucks! Happy memories when we think of Waypoint #7.
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The weather was really cold out and we had no heat in the bus, so warm jackets helped. We also had no good lighting either so headlamps in the bus was required. You can see Jess making some lunch and all our gear piled everywhere. Eventually we found specific places for all our stuff.
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Here we are for the first time at Smith Rock state park near Bend Oregon. Excellent place to go even if you don't climb. You can hike the entire thing on a nice trail. There are also lava tubes to visit south by 1/2 hour and a cool cindercone you can drive up.
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My buddy and his girlfriend were going to come, but he bailed because he thought the weather was going to suck. Funny thing though, friday while at work instead of being on a trip with us he caught the bus in a picture on the Smith Rock Webcam! Awesome picture and one of my favorites.
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And here is yet another view from the bus of the rock. We love getting up in the morning and driving immediatly to the rock, then setting up and making breakfast and coffee with this great view just outside.
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So after fixing the lights one afternoon and hard wiring them around the dimmer relay which got rusted out from the rain in Seattle after just two weeks we camped a couple days and eventually headed back to Seattle completing the first of many trips in the bus. About 700 miles round trip and a good one at that with little to no knowledge of my bus. I had a box of tools, spare parts from the PO and the Muir and Bentley guide along with a few quarts of oil. Good times.

[Amskeptic]

You guys are troupers. . . I don't know where my spirit of adventure would be with snowy views out the windshield. So Jess digs the cold camping? I know my girlfriend is all inside fireplace and good book when it is below freezing. I just start waking up when it is at least 80* outside.
So, did she like driving the VW?

If I ever get to access my old hard drive, I might be able to post the Blizzard of '91 cross-country trip in my ex '89 Vanagon.
Colin

[Adventurewagen]

When looking back on the trip we were flying more by the seat of our pants. I think my tool box consisted of an assortment of screw drivers, a wrench a socket set and some wire. We had the Bentley and the Muir guide with us too. Luckily we only started with a bit of electrical problems and nothing too heavy at the time.

Jess really liked driving the bus at first, but got a bit scared when the lights went out. She has since driven the bus all over and really likes it. We divy up driving time too on trips, although with some more recent problems with steering she hadn't enjoyed it as much. She is really good at trouble shooting stuff with me, but I usually spend the time with my head under the hood, kinda like your picture on the site except she's leaning on the bus and I'm under the hood.

That trip the weather got cold, we spent probably three nights with it in the teens. She doesn't mind the cold and in fact the trip was a huge success even with the cold weather because we found out we loved the bus so much more than being in a tent. Try sleeping in the same cold wet weather in a tent and then move to a "warmer" dry bus!

To keep warm we would take a blanket and hang it from the ceiling right at the end of the bed, so the area we slept in was warmer too. It used to be really cold on the sides of the bus as well so our down jackets would get piled along the wall by our heads, but now with full insulation in the walls its not cold to the touch at all anymore.

I've since taken a trip (on my own) back from South Dakota in November and one night it got somewhere around -20 The hardest part about that one was getting the bus to start at 5am when it was still in the negative temp range. If you have a trick for that one let me know.

[Amskeptic]

Jess really liked driving the bus at first, but got a bit scared when the lights went out.

The hardest part about that one was getting the bus to start at 5am when it was still in the negative temp range. If you have a trick for that one let me know.

I was dating an actress when we went across in the winter of '91. From Reno to Chicago, she was getting more and more stressed out as the snow fell. She was plagued with "what-ifs" because closing down the interstates freaked her out. The Vanagon did fine, good heat even, but she was done by the time we got to Connecticut. She flew home on a fancy aeroplane and I drove back across with my brother.

Cold starts are no problem with a well-tuned engine. You are supposed to bring the battery indoors with you when it is really cold. . . in your situation, you have to bring it to bed with you, because cranking amperage is so temperature-dependent.
"Honey! move over the battery is about to slip out from under the covers!"
"Oh you and that damn battery. . ."
"hey wait a minute, its yours too when we HAVE TO GET OUT of here in the morning!"
"You just love that BATTERY more than ME!"
"NOOO, I do not love the battery more than YOU, I just depend on it more than you tomorrow morning!"
"So you're saying that I am not dependable. . . .?"
Colin

[Adventurewagen]

Nice dialogue

So your saying that having a super cold block and everything shouldn't make a difference as long as your battery is happy? Then again I don't have electric chokes and I do have dual 40 weber IDFs. Starting isn't normally an issue and was only an issue like I said when I was camping out of Wally Mart on a road trip from South Dakota to Seattle in the winter. Next time I will pull the battery and let it sleep in the bus with me.