We bought a second-hand Little Guy about a month ago, and just got back from our third trip.
First time out last month was from Bakersfield (home) to SLO county, where we spent two nights at Cerro Alto http://www.parksman.com/cerro.html on Hwy 41 between Atascadero and Morro Bay, and one night at Montana de Oro State Park, which is ground zero for the upcoming SLO gathering.
Second trip was just for the evening, to a lakeside park in Bakersfield where we watched the sun go down, listened to ducks and crickets, and guessed that the little critters flying around in the dark were probably bats. The park ranger chased us out so he could close the gates at 10 pm, so that one didn't count as an overnight.
Our most recent trip was a spur of the moment thing to get up into the mountains and watch the Perseid meteor shower on Saturday night. Destination was "somewhere along Breckenridge Road" in the Sierra Nevada mountains east of Bakersfield. It's a very scenic drive, going from foothills and arid grassland to oak trees, up to pines at the top of the ridge. We noted some possible spots to pull off, and ended up just inside Sequoia National Forest, where we found a pretty good 4-wheel-drive trail and a good level spot at the tippy-top about 100 yards from the road.
The Little Guy handles the off-road travel like a champ. This isn't a place where you'd want to take a ginormous 5th wheel toy hauler or a 40 foot motor home. He's got decent sized wheels and good ground clearance, and we got in and out of there easily.
Benefits were:
* Fabulous sunset, a cool view of the city lights coming on way down below us, and then a neat sunrise.
* Great view of the meteor shower
* Amazing view of the stars & milky way, which you never see down in the city with all the lights and haze, and the added bonus of meteors!
* Dead quiet. I think three vehicles went by on the paved road below our camp site, and the only other sounds were crickets (lots!), coyotes in the distance, a couple of cows and some tiny rummaging creatues in the weeds. No dirt bikes, no stereos, no barking dogs.
* Nice clean air. Down on the valley floor there's plenty of smog and haze. Up at 4000 feet it's crystal clear, though we still have a large blanket of smoke from a big fire in Santa Barbara county, which for some reason ended up right over Bakersfield. Yuck.
* We got completely out of town and into the wilderness in less than 40 miles.
What I like about teardrop camping is that we can be hooked up and on the road in minutes, and we can take it pretty much anywhere we can drive the 4x4. If the perfect spot isn't exactly where we parked the truck, the trailer is light and easy to push to a better location. It's small and really well insulated, so even on a chilly mountaintop, it's very comfortable inside with a couple of fleece blankets and a spouse to cuddle. The impact on fuel economy is about 1 mpg, and the tow vehicle doesn't have to be anything fancy: our 4 cylinder Toyota Tacoma 4wd handles the task just fine.
Click the "Album" link at the bottom to see a few pictures.
And follow this link to see more pictures (slide show) http://tinyurl.com/3xdo7n
or this link to see the gallery http://tinyurl.com/39qord
Cheers,
Gwen & Steve
Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailersor t n ttt for short (tnttt.com) |
Watching the meteor shower in our Little Guy
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Watching the meteor shower in our Little Guy
by Filifera » Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:06 pm
Last edited by Filifera on Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Filifera - Teardrop Inspector
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by Miriam C. » Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:38 pm
to the playground Gwen and Steve. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.
Pictures are always welcme. We even have a whole forum dedicated just for trips. 
Enjoy
“Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.â€
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Miriam C. - our Aunti M
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Hope you post more in the future. And hope you enjoy the forum. 