Trip Report: Eastern Sierra in Midwinter

[profdant139]

Here's our latest blog post -- the photos make it look kind of rugged, but it wasn't. The temps got into the mid-20s at night -- no problem. It was sunny and cool (around 50) every day, so the solar worked like a champ.

Anyway, here is the link -- feel free to skip the boring text and just skim the photos:

Look, Mom, We're Camping!: Eastern Sierra: December 2017

And this is a "teaser" shot -- this is my favorite picture of the trip, showing the Sierra Crest from our campsite near Horton Creek:


Click For Full-Size Image.

[Marti]

That is gorgeous! Looks like a great trip. How much snow was there? And how do you keep your fresh water tank from freezing? We went camping over the Christmas week and our sewer hose froze one night.

[profdant139]

There was about two feet of snow at the higher elevations (above 9000 feet). There was none down where we were camped, at about 6000 feet.

And since the temps never got below about 24 degrees, freezing was not a problem. I have wrapped all of my exposed pipes with insulation, and I have insulated our water tank.

When it gets down below 20 for long periods of time, I deploy my crude but effective hot water recirculator -- it is just a tube that runs from the kitchen faucet to the outdoor shower box and over to the water fill tube, outside the trailer. I then run hot water through the tube. I do this before we go to sleep and at least once during the night. Simple and funny, but it works!

[profdant139]

I should add that we don't hook up our sewer hose when we are boondocking, of course -- there is nowhere to dump it. By the time we drive to a dump station, the valves have thawed out.

[APD]

Wow! That's a beautiful trip!

[Kansas newbie]

Happy New Year to all of you!