Anyone camping this past weekend or this upcoming one?

[JohnB]

Any one make it out camping this past weekend?

I know some of you are under snow already, bummer, but cool weather camping is really cool…. ...

We made it out to Delaware State Park in central OH. Didn’t make it Friday night as was late from work but did make it out on Saturday. There was about 5 other campers in the park so it was crowded… .

This was a unique weekend. It was really cold this early in the season and I wanted to dry test my enclosed tank upgrades with no water so it was an ideal weekend to test. We also installed the clear shrink wrap plastic on all the windows. Did this last year too. Works great, that was a tip we picked up from EMAN last year. It really helps on keeping the heat in especially on this bigger camper where there are so many windows.

Sunday AM it went down to 11 degrees. Burr. But Sunday was great. It warmed up to about 45 and thawed things out quick.

Any one else make it out?

Here was Saturday after setup. Cloudy, dry and at least the wind not blowing.


Some visiting neighbors in the next campsite. (Taken from inside camper looking out.)


And Sunday morning thawing out the truck with the sunshine….


If you haven’t tried winter camping, try it. It is not that hard to do in your Sunline and it really helps on getting your camping fix satisfied for another few weeks or sometimes a month or more pending conditions.

Happy camping.

John and Cindy

[dkasten39828]

We did not camp last weekend, but we'll be out this coming weekend!

We are joining 7 other families at High Falls State Park near Jackson, Georgia to help one of our camping family celebrate his 50th birthday. We've been camping with this group of folks for nine years.

John, I agree that winter camping is usually GREAT. There have even been times when we've been the ONLY campers in the campground.

Of course, down here in the Southeast, winter is MUCH milder than what you experience up there in Ohio. We do get overnight temps down into the teens & 20's and have the occasional snow. But we camped year round in the popup, so camping in the Sunline will be pure luxury!

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by dkasten39828

We did not camp last weekend, but we'll be out this coming weekend!

We are joining 7 other families at High Falls State Park near Jackson, Georgia to help one of our camping family celebrate his 50th birthday. We've been camping with this group of folks for nine years.

John, I agree that winter camping is usually GREAT. There have even been times when we've been the ONLY campers in the campground.

Of course, down here in the Southeast, winter is MUCH milder than what you experience up there in Ohio. We do get overnight temps down into the teens & 20's and have the occasional snow. But we camped year round in the popup, so camping in the Sunline will be pure luxury!

Dave, good for you. We normally do thanksgiving weekend once the all the family leaves as well but this year work got in the way on turkey weekend and we camped last weekend. Actually the T2499 in my sig pic was from thanksgiving weekend a few years ago.

I have done the tent camping down to zero with the Boy Scouts several times and properly prepped it goes well. And DW and I did the PU late fall/early spring but never the winter until the Sunlines came along. And yes it is pure luxury.... The biggest thing is to remember what to set the T'stat to so you do not wake up roasting.... next time we will start at 67. I upgraded to a digital T stat and it heats exactly to what you set it to....even if that is not what you want it too….

Happy camping this weekend

John

[frank]

John,

We just got back from our honeymoon last week - we spent 5 days down at Cherry Hill Park and did the DC tourist thing. It was fun, and the park was nice, but waaaaaaaaaaaay too crowded for our tastes. We are really state park people. Anyway, it was cold down there, but never dropped below freezing.

We are hoping to get out this weekend. The original plan was to spend a few nights at a state park in the Pocono mountains where my parents live, but the weather doesn't look to be cooperating right now - Lows around 21F with highs just above freezing. With the uninsulated/unheated tanks I'm a bit concerned with those numbers. As a compromise, I think we will do dinner up there, then come back home and spend the weekend in the local state park, where the lows will be around freezing and the highs in the mid 40's.


How did you make out with those tank upgrades?

I've spent some time under the trailer taking measurements. I still want to enclose the tanks, pipes & dump valves, but to get clearance I need to do the axle flip first. Meanwhile, I scored a pair of new Ultraheat tank heating pads on ebay for $20 each! Those should come in early next week.

I'm thinking that those pads plus a heat cable/insulation wrap on the valves/pipes should keep things flowing a little below freezing. Once I get the insulated box around everything, we should really be good to go.

I'm glad you brought up the shrink wrap plastic on the windows. I've been considering it, but wasn't sure how it would work out. Since you are satisfied with it, I think we'll put that on our to-do list for this afternoon. Maybe Kathy can tackle some of that while I run the wiring for the tank heaters.

- Frank

[MACK C-85]

We went out to Lancaster, PA this past weekend. Stayed at Old Mill Stream Campground (open year round). We too were supposed to leave on Friday evening, but a quick check of the weather indicated gusty snow squalls with way below freezing temps, not my idea of fun traveling weather. After a quick phone call to the campground confirmed treacherous driving we went on Saturday morning.

After an uneventful trip, we set up in a snow squall that dropped an inch of snow in the ground in about 20 minutes. Temps got down in the low 20's overnight.

Quite a few of our neighbors woke up to frozen tanks and waste lines Sunday morning and were unable to dump thier tanks. Thankfully, our tank heaters kept us up and running all weekend.

Old Mill Stream was quite full as it was the first weekend of Dutch Wonderland's Christmas shows. Dutch Wonderland is adjacent to Old Mill Stream.

[Tweety]

Anyone still camping up here in the mideast? I drove by Old Mill Stream yesterday and couldn't believe the number of campers they had! Even though we just got back from SC last weekend it really gave me the itch to try some true winter camping this year. Unfortunately it snowing today

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Tweety

Anyone still camping up here in the mideast?

We where out last weekend. Was great during the day, hit about 40. At night it went to 12..... BUT it was still great. Campground was crowed for this time of year. There where 3 other campers plus us... We generally only see the Park ranger driving around to give us the post tag. I guess the nice weekend weather brought out the winter die hards.

Have not been out since Thanksgiving time and camping withdrawl was setting in.



Today...snow, ice, rain, yuck outside Oh well will have to wait some more. But the camper is ready to roll at a moments notice.

So any pics of your "winter camping" in SC?

John

[Tweety]

I added a couple campground pictures to my reviews. Unfortunately the photo of our site at James Island doesn't do it justice AT ALL. It's one of the nicest places we've ever camped.
Here are a couple from Charleston. Can't wait to go back!
The little pink house I would buy if I could

Typical street in the historic area

Arthur Ravenel Bridge with bicycle path all the way across. ONE of us rode the whole thing while ONE of us waited at the top

Nathaniel Russel House...THE historic home to tour...AWESOME

(date on photos should say Christmas 2008 )

[mbart5fan]

This was in mid October and it hasn't gotten any better since then. Temps dropping below zero again tonight. So.... no winter camping for us. On the bright side though, we're halfway through our "non camping" season, providing we have a lot less snow by April.

Mike

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by mbart5fan

This was in mid October and it hasn't gotten any better since then. Temps dropping below zero again tonight. So.... no winter camping for us. On the bright side though, we're halfway through our "non camping" season, providing we have a lot less snow by April.

Mike

Mid October!!! WOW. I forgot how snowy northern NY was. Brother went to SUNY at Potsdam, even further north... The old Plymouth Fury's heater gave out one year driving there. Colder then all get out. The lower Hudson valley would only get that way on ocassion and that was enough.

Warm thoughts your way Mike, and your going to need a lot of em....

Keep the home fires burning.

John

[Poppy & Nana]

Mike - your home looks like ours!!!!

Just made reservations for Adk M&G so things are looking up!

[Trailblazer]

We were out winter camping over New Year's and hope to get out again this weekend. Here is a picture of our campsite at New Year's



This weekend they are calling for temperatures around 1 degree Fahrenheit.

If you haven't tried Winter Camping before, you really don't know what you are missing. There is nothing quite like a roaring campfire on a moon lite night with a blanker of snow on the ground.

[WandaLust]

I've been trying to get my husband to camp this winter without success. he doesn't want to spend the weekend sitting in our RV in the CGs with no PC or cable TV access.

What do you guys do in the winter when camping?

[Trailblazer]

We were out camping again this past weekend. The campground had a 400 meter skating oval with night time lights up as well as both cross country ski trails and snow shoeing trails both with night time lights. We also have a large campfire each night just like we would if we were summer camping. I have not uploaded the pictures yet from this past weekend but I will within the next couple of days.

When we are winter camping we are too busy to have time to watch TV or miss the PC. We do take some DVD's with it just in case we want to spend a night in the trailer.

[Tweety]

We love pictures

[Trailblazer]

The following is the link to this weekends photos. One of the photos is the view from our trailer dinette window another shows the inside temperature of 76.6 degrees while the outside temperature is 19.2 degrees.

Weekend Winter Camping Photos

I hope everyone enjoys the photos.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Wanda~Lust

What do you guys do in the winter when camping?

This depends on the weather. We try to pick weekends where during the day it is at least above freezing, ideally dry and not snowing. During the day if the wind is not howling… we go for a walk, sun shine is a great addition. Check out the CG with nobody in it… or maybe 1 or 2 other campers.

If the air is still, we will have a camp fire, sit around and yak, or DW reads her book. Sort of like this one now over a year ago.


I cook outside, mostly Dutch oven style, and winter cooking in a cast iron pot or any pot for that matter, takes at least 1 ½ to 2 times longer. But that is OK, it passes the time. Sort of like this. Again a year ago…


DW likes to help and she is the “chopper” says I do not cut it up small enough… Sort of like this. Again now 3 years ago..


At night after supper cleanup we might play a game. Seems we are either playing 500 rummy or a board game of Sorry. Later we settle in for a DVD.

If the day time weather is not the greatest out, having a new to us camper always has a list of “upgrades” in progress. So I bring along inside “upgrades” and DW will either hand sew, crochet or the great DW past time, read her book.

January here in Central Ohio we generally can camp. February barely has a nice enough weekend to camp. Come March, well sometimes yes sometimes no.

Here is early March 2 years ago


And here is early March last year. Which sort of looks like outside right now….


We do find now that we have the bigger camper, winter camping is even more enjoyable as there is more room inside to hang out if the weather outside is not the greatest. Our T2499 was still very nice, just the T310SR give more floor space.

Trailblazer looks like his is parked for the winter and he goes to it. Ours we tow it to camp and as such we will not tow in the snow so snow camping with the TT does not occur, unless it snows overnight when we are there. Andf this has happend twice on us. But it is generlly all gone by the time we leave. Here is the largest snow over night we have had. It was 60 Friday night and then Saturday AM it looked like this. This was actually early April, now 4 years ago.


What ever we do, it still beats being at home.

Happy Camping

John

[Trailblazer]

Originally Posted by JohnB

Trailblazer looks like his is parked for the winter and he goes to it. Ours we tow it to camp and as such we will not tow in the snow so snow camping with the TT does not occur, unless it snows overnight when we are there. Andf this has happened twice on us. But it is generlly all gone by the time we leave. Here is the largest snow over night we have had. It was 60 Friday night and then Saturday AM it looked like this. This was actually early April, now 4 years ago.


What ever we do, it still beats being at home.

Happy Camping

John

John you are correct, our rig is parked at a MacGregor Provincial Park here in Ontario. Do to the amount of snow we received last year and now what we have received this year, I really don't want to be towing the trailer when I don't know what the weather conditions will be for the return trip. By parking the trailer in a provincial park for the winter, it has allowed us to continue to camp throughout the winter season. The park where we have the trailer parked is a 3 hour drive north from our home.

On the Thursday and Friday before we arrived at the trailer, the area received approximately 16 - 18 inches of snow. The weekend forecast on the Friday showed no further snow for the weekend. On the Saturday night the area we were in received another 6 - 8 inches of snow fall and the roads home were hard packed snow covered and very slippery. The type of conditions I would not want to tow home in. On the drive home there were lots of cars and trucks in ditches on the side of the road due to poor driving conditions. There are now many weekends we can get away camping throughout the winter season now that would not have happen if I had to tow the trailer in these type of road conditions.

Just like John says, What ever we do at the park, we are still out camping and is still beats being at home.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Trailblazer

I hope everyone enjoys the photos.

We do. Wow you do have snow... I take it you snow shoe in or really "hike" to the parked camper.

Thanks for sharing.

John

[Trailblazer]

Originally Posted by JohnB

We do. Wow you do have snow... I take it you snow shoe in or really "hike" to the parked camper.

Thanks for sharing.

John

Thanks John. Actually this park operates all year round offering many winter programs. As a result they plow the campground roads as well as plowi out the entrance to your campsite. They maintain an open washroom, shower and laundry facility for the campers all winter long. Over this past New Year's they had 40 sites occupied by campers. Most weekend there are anywhere from 8 to 20 site occupied. The park also has a full time winter campground host living in a motorhome for the entire winter. He has been the campground host for the past five years at the park, The host keeps in touch via e-mail with all the people who have trailers on site in the park. He provides us with updates to road and weather conditions in the area, park activities and snow load conditions on the roof of the trailers. If you would like to read more about the host and what is going on in the park, you can follow his on line blog at The RV Adventure