Today is moving day!
Around noon the crew and I go on an expedition up the mountain on Ephraim Canyon Road. I’m concerned because several fifth wheels and travel trailers have been hauled past our campsite heading up the mountain in recent days and I’ve only seen one come back down. I want to size up the situation.
I’m happy to discover that the campsite I showed you in a previous post is not occupied.
Considering that someone could fill that site while I’m breaking camp, I continue looking for other possibilities.
This next one would do in a pinch, but it’s not a great site in my opinion.
The biggest fault of this site is its visibility.
The bottom of the photo is where the spur road connects with the main road. I don’t like being gawked at. Also, the site being close to the main road means Spike would be out in the middle of the main road directing traffic. It also earns demerits for being unlevel with a tendency to mud up, and it’s not aesthetically pleasing to me.
Up the mountain we go until we come to another spur.
Not knowing whether there’s a place to turn around, I park the PTV and the crew and I walk the lane to investigate. We all need to keep our circulation going anyway. Bridget hurries ahead (Miss Big Shot), and Spike tags behind, since he’s the only one of us bearing the responsibility of lifting a leg on every other plant.
At the sight of a travel trailer, we turn around and walk back to the PTV.
From this point on, the road climbs quickly in a series of switchbacks. We arrive at the meadow where Spike soaked in the creek and where the weather station is set up. Hoo-boy. This is awfully high up for us. I’d better keep looking though. We might be desperate.
Past the meadow and the slope with the patches of snow, we come to another spur.
I turn onto the road and immediately have second thoughts. It’s narrow and deeply rutted with sharp, evil-looking rocks. I send up a prayer for the tires. Twice we ford small, muddy streams. I can’t turn us around so . . . onward we go!
Another alpine meadow opens up before us.
Five or six RVs are clustered by the spruce trees. Nope, not for us!
People towed those big RVs up this awful road? I continue until I find a place to turn around. I drive back to the main road. Not far from that spur road, the top of the mountain comes into view. It’s actually a ridge. An RV is parked on top of it, silhouetted against the sky.
They must be able to see Timbuktu from up there. And that’s where they’ll end up when they’re struck by lightning . . . .
We return to Camp Bluebell and I break camp.
It’s early afternoon and very hot, the hottest day since we’ve been on this mountain. Of course, the hitch refuses to hitch and the coupler refuses to couple. No matter how I move the PTV backward and forward BY MILLIMETERS, jumping out of the driver’s seat, cranking, trying the hitch lock, no good, jumping back in, again and again . . . On the verge of a stroke, my patience rolls away like sweat down my back. The coupler is perfectly seated over the hitch ball, but the dang hitch lock won’t go down!
I’ll fix this once and for all.
I crank up the post and remove the cone.
Then I bring the post down to about two inches above the ground. I plan to pull the BLT forward so that the movement of the PTV and the weight of the BLT will result in the happy, albeit abrupt, union of hitch ball and coupler.
I lower the post down in the event that all hell breaks loose and the tongue of the BLT disengages and heads south. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry, you can still follow along.
The important thing is . . .
. . . it works! I can lock the hitch lock! We’re hitched! Up the mountain we go and soon we are set up in our new campsite.
Yeah, right.
The present heat wave convinces me to back the BLT where there’s afternoon shade from a few aspens. That’s easy. However, the ground is far from level. Oh well, I guess I have to get out the shovel.
Fortunately the ground is covered with gravel.
It’s fairly easily to shovel out a depression for one of the BLT’s tires. I monkey around with gravel, backing up, putting gravel back, driving forward, yadda-yadda-yadda. Finally it’s level side-to-side.
I pull my blue camp chair out of the PTV, get myself a drink, and sit in the shade with the crew to cool off. (See the blue chair in photo below?) Later I unhitch and level the BLT front-to-back. Okay! Enough with the mundane!
Here’s our pretty, new camp!
By the time I take the above photo, clouds block the sun. The heat vanishes with the arrival of a light sprinkling of rain and increased breezes coming up the mountain. The cool mountain air returns!
I set up an “outdoor room” in a shady spot, read my kindle, and relax.
The aspen leaves rustle in the breeze. Hmm . . . I think I’ll call this . . . Camp Aspen.
rvsue
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Charles Viancin The Lilypad Lid
SnugFleece Elite Wool Mattress Pad – Calif. King
Camco Telescopic Collapsible Rake
Summer Infant 3 Stage Super Seat
Digital TV antenna Indoor 20 dB amplified HDTV/UHF/VHF
AWOL on the Appalachian Trail
