Tag Archives: car camping

Dirtbag’s Ski Condo

Between Christmas, Thanksgiving, illness, house projects, lack of snow, and a laundry list of other dumb excuses, we hadn’t managed to get on snow until MLK weekend. We fired up Xterrible at 5:36 in the AM and made good time on the highway until we got to Golden on I-70 at which time traffic ground to a crawl. Fast forward three excruciating hours to 8:30 AM, and we found ourselves standing in a humongous line in the A-Basin base lodge hoping to fill up on Huevos Rancheros and bad coffee. Regarding first chair: all hope was long since abandoned.

It was a weak storm anyway, grapes were sour, etc… But before we had unloaded at the top of the BMX we had hatched a plot: drive up the night ahead of the storm, follow the snowiest road as far as it would go, unroll the sleeping bags in the back of Xterrible and crash in place. While all the front-range powder-chasers toil on I-70, we’d be waking up at our leisure, a short drive from the goods.

In short: mission accomplished!

#noaa is calling for up to 17″ and who’s not missing a single inch of it! #powderday hopefully

A post shared by Brian Sweeney (@briangsweeney) on Jan 20, 2018 at 5:38pm PST

Nap times over! #dirtbag #skihouse

A post shared by Brian Sweeney (@briangsweeney) on Jan 21, 2018 at 6:01pm PST

First good turns of the season! Better late than never! #powderday w/ @kellyahowie

A post shared by Brian Sweeney (@briangsweeney) on Jan 22, 2018 at 10:18am PST

Some notes on maximizing your chance of success:

Line the bed with a heavy wool blanket. Mobile homes are notoriously difficult to heat because there is cold air beneath the floor. Xterrible is no different in this regard.
On top of the blanket: two-man 20-degree synthetic bag for extra cushiness and insulation from the cold.
Inside the 2-man bag: the Therm-A-Rests. Ideally, use two of the insulated blow-up versions. Neither the closed-cell foam nor the uninsulated versions will be as warm.
On top of it all, 10 or 20-degree down bag, or similar.
Crack a window to let all your breath out, otherwise, the inside of the car will turn into a little ice cave and then it will rain on you as you drive away and the car warms up.

The temps were from mid-twenties down to maybe 15 and we were too warm and had to unzip everything in the middle of the night. We could have been comfortable in much colder weather. We’ll be doing this again!

Grays and Torreys

We chose a doubleheader for our first 14ers of the year and it did not disappoint! The hike itself is pretty straightforward: am obvious trail departs from the road and leads you via the path of least resistance up Grays and then Torreys. An optional knife-edge trail descends from the summit of Torreys, which we omitted, but could be used as a nice way to vary the scenery on the return trip. It doesn’t really change the mileage but ads some exposure. Both summits offer glorious views of the Summit County mountains. But the factor that really takes the cake for me is the stunning alpine valley from whence you begin. The best way (IMHO) to tick off these peaks is to drive up Stevens Gulch Road the day before until you get to the end or until you’d rather not punish your vehicle any further. The road peters out nearby an extensive alpine meadow sprinkled with mining remains and ample opportunities for car camping. Get an early start, find a nice camp spot and take in some world-class views while you acclimate. Waking up at the trailhead really takes the edge off of a 14er and the ambiance is second to none!

Vantage Camping

To escape the Seattle area weather, it was time for some winter camping! Also, it was Atlas’ first camping experience, and thus the first time he has made it on the site. Last September Catherine and I got Atlas as an eight week old German Shorthair Pointer puppy! Now he’s old enough to come with us on some adventures.

Dylan, Catherine, Atlas and I loaded up and headed out just before a huge rainstorm hit, and absconded to the desert of Vantage for camping, hiking, and maybe some bouldering. It was cold, hovering around freezing, but not terribly cold for winter camping.

After unpacking, we cooked up some food and got Atlas used to the idea of sleeping on his bed on a rock. Cue photo montage.

Views of the Feathers across the way, and an empty camping area

Dylan and Atlas wait for us to catch up

That night, Atlas stayed with us in the tent and slept through the whole night! Luckily we’d brought his own personal down blanket because his short hair left him shivering without it.

The next day Atlas, Dylan and I got up early to revisit some cool spots by the Sunshine Wall. First Atlas had to make it through the crevice, though, which involved a puppy hand off.

Afterwards we walked along the base of the cliffs and above the talus field. I’m not sure if Atlas would’ve ventured down onto the Talus, but we kept him on the lease just in case.

We inspected some new routes and scrambled our way out, which required some overhead puppy presses. Atlas was apprehensive, but still lead the way back.

By the afternoon, we decided we’d enjoyed the quiet but had enough of standing around in the cold. We packed up and headed out, but not before driving down the road to check out a view of the Columbia river.

All in all, Atlas’ fist trip went great! We know he’ll be ready for some hikes come this summer.

Weekend in Martha’s Vineyard

Since summer in New England this year has been pretty much too hot to do anything but relax, we figured we had but one choice; maximize relaxation by spending a long weekend on New England’s most indulgent vacation spot: Martha’s Vineyard. We rented a cabin on at the one and only campground, bought ferry tickets, loaded up the cars and hit the road in search of some serious downtime and chillin’.

We rallied at Fenway.

Rolling out…

Leaving the ferry port in Woods Hole.

The other ferry on it’s return from MV.

Yacht with a dinghy in tow. Commercial fishing vessel in the background?

It was a nice yacht…

A sea-bird in in pursuit of leftovers.

They were persistent.

Under sail.

Our ambitions were reigned in to the bare essentials: some bike riding, some time on the water, a little sight seeing, a bit of campfire grilling, all interleaved with the amount of eating and drinking appropriate to a hedonistic vacation.

Upon disembarking the ferry and settling in at our cabin, we decided to explore the surrounding towns via rental mountain bike.

Exploring the island.
Photo credit: Shawn

A classic car out for a cruise.
Photo credit: Shawn

Quenching our thirst at the mid-way through the ride.
Photo credit: Shawn

The legendary bartender of Donovan’s reef mixes up some refreshments for us.
Photo credit: Shawn

The campsite: maximum luxury (well, by my standards anyway…).

The steaks: grilled to perfection.
Photo credit: Shawn

When we got back from our ride, we set about grilling some steaks, cooking some corn on the cob, and feasting on a small plethora of snacks. We hit the sack semi-early for an early rise: we would be in search of fish on the high seas with a charter fishing guide.

Shawn on the hunt.

Land ho! Back on shore, Kurt, our guide, cleans the fish for us.
Photo credit: Shawn

Our bountiful catch on the grill.
Photo credit: Shawn

The finished product.
Photo credit: Shawn

Photo credit: Shawn

With a highly successful day of fishing under our belts, we retreated to the cabin to do some grillin’ and chillin’. We left our final day open for some serious touristry. We piled into the car and set off for the south and east corners of the island to see what we could see. We eventually wound up in Edgarstown and where we took some time to eat ice cream and take in the view.

Photo credit: Shawn

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