I am 67 years old and live in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, in the Gold Country. I have been camping in the Sierras since I was a little kid. However, as I have gotten older, I enjoyed tent camping less and less. Crawling through the dirt to get in and out of a tent, no easy way to use my CPAP machine (which has become a necessity for me in recent years), having to load up my gear for every trip... you know the drill. I stopped camping because the fun had gone out of it.
Last week I bought my first camping trailer, an American Teardrop Trailers Classic. They are a small builder in Auburn California, just the owner and one part time employee. The one I bought is one of their rentals that has been in use for 2 years. It's in excellent shape and nicely equipped:
On my first experimental towing trip... I towed it with my 2016 Toyota RAV4 LE from my place in Angels Camp, up Highway 88 and visited PiPi campground (closed for the season):
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-xxbSkM9/0/5c06aec1/L/mytrailer-3-L.jpg)
From there wandered around on Omo Ranch Road to Mt. Aukum, then over 7382' Echo Summit on Hwy 50 to Lake Tahoe. Gassed up in Tahoe and headed over 7344' Kingsbury Grade down into Nevada. Headed south to Hwy 88 and pulled it over 8652' Carson Pass:
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-t6CdpLR/0/cfc44f2d/L/mytrailer-8-L.jpg)
I am happy to report that the RAV4 was happy pulling the trailer, no problems at all.
I am now waiting for my new CPAP machine with DC cord to arrive before actually camping in it. Some detail pictures:
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-8ZtT3FK/0/ce56cb50/L/Teardrop_Trailer_Classic11-L.jpg)
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-9pVLGFj/0/23696427/L/Teardrop_Trailer_Classic14-L.jpg)
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-TPH457c/0/e78da0e9/L/Teardrop_Trailer_Classic12-L.jpg)
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-f3f6MdL/0/c5fd4b8b/L/Teardrop_Trailer_Classic17-L.jpg)
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-GfTW5JC/0/97f26d83/L/Teardrop_Trailer_Classic15-L.jpg)
![Image](https://photos.smugmug.com/Teardrop-Trailer/i-JdMj2mJ/0/ad290e35/L/mytrailer-13-L.jpg)