Off-roading/camping weekend.
 

Arrived at our first camp site just before dark. Beautiful sunset, but tablet fails to capture it.

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Time for dogs and beans, while coyotes sing in the distance.

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Woke to some pretty cool temps, 28F. Waited until about 9am before exiting the rover. Coffee and breakfast warmed us up some. The sunshine helped, too.

Next morning broke camp and went exploring.

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Found some nice trails, but everything was quite frozen.

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Found a nice lake that l'd seen on satellite maps, but had never been too.

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Grandson broke out the bb gun and threw copper at an old can for hours.

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Grandson and his mom's old bb gun.

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Enjoyed hanging out there for a while, knew we'd be back to spend the night.

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Went out exploring some more before setting up camp.

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We got hung up on a trail that had a tree across it, winched for a while...but had to back track...which took up a larger amount of time than planned. So, we headed towards camp.

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Cooking up dinner, while grandson found a stick to be whittled into shape for its duty later.

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Burgers barely fit in the pan.

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Slept great, until our neighbors trumpeted the arrival of day break.

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Had a great time and broke camp this morning just before rain moved in. Although we did wheel one exciting trail before hitting the hard pack for home.

Brian.

Nice read! Thanks for sharing the experience! Just the two of you in the Disco?
I tried to go exploring last weekend, but all of the fire roads in Los Angeles county are locked up, so, I envy you!

looks like a good time

Yep, just the two of us. Sleeping area, before sleeping bags get rolled out. The front seats get moved forward and angled too, since the length is 78".

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...813dec1c54.jpg

This makes for tight quarters, when stowing gear for the night. Footwell area in front of seats and seat have to be utilized for extra bags. The rig is work in progress, for sure. Seeing what works and what doesn't...or what changes to storing gear have to be made.

Sorry to hear the trails are closed in your area, hopefully you get some rain soon and all of that changes. There was a no burn in effect just days before our trip, but no trails were closed because of it.

Brian.

The back looks good, more importantly your passenger looks like he is having a good time.

It takes a while to get the storage sorted out, I am at about 8 years of wandering the back end of nowhere and I still change stuff around every year. Trying to pair down and organize better every year.

I think the big thing is to minimize - take what you absolutely need. Then add the comforts and extras.

And store wisely I have 3 levels:

On the road during the day coffee, lunch, fishing gear, camera etc.
Campsite - sleeping, eating and clean up, seating and so on
Emergency - pack , food, recovery gear - stuff I don't usually even look at on a trip.
I keep a bag with a recovery strap, 2 d-rings, gloves and hitch attachment handy.

When I camp - I am set up about 15-20 minutes - if I do not need a tarp.

I pack in based on that list - so the emergency stuff where I do not need to move it.

Then camp stuff, with day stuff on top

It works pretty well. This was my 1st trip out in the the disco,yes the sleeping platform is basic plywood. Other than my pots, the space under the bed is all my emergency gear.

Bedding on top of the platform, clothes, food and everything else on the left hand side.

Thank you, Richard. Like your set-up. And pictures through the backdoors?

Agree, these sleeping arrangements are evolutionary, constantly changing as issues arise. I'm already thinking about cutting the front portion of the sleeping platform, making it so I can have one side extended...while the other is not, for those evenings when I camp alone. It would allow me to leave the sleeping arrangement in place and still drive the vehicle.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...f8030826f3.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...abda205c14.jpg

Another issue for me, is the height of the platform. Made it so the storage containers would fit underneath, but if I would have left the lower cross bars out...could have made it a tad lower...giving me just a bit more headroom while sitting. I'm 6'4" and even with the headliner out...I can use the extra room, for sure.

Brian.

Always tough for height I went with about 9 inches I think and got lower containers. But I am almost always solo so less stuff. Just shy of 6' myself, I can see how those extra inches can be tough to find.

Being able to set up the platform and sit up is nice, we get a lot of rain on the West Coast. I spent a pleasant evening reading in the back while the sky emptied out.

I believe my sleeping platform ended up being about 13", without 3" air/foam pad rolled out. So, headroom is very tight...especially when dressing. Plus, being in my late 50's...body parts don't bend as they should anymore...lol.

Removed some more plastic inside rear area. I've been wanting to mount stuff to the walls, but with the plastic in place...stuff would be out where it would be a head-banger. Removing the plastic opens up a lot of hidden area...and now I can mount some things along the walls and the items/shelf will only be out to where the original plastic would have been.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...b515e8467e.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/landrov...b336b1fd36.jpg

Enjoy making changes that don't cost me anything, or making improvements with stuff I find laying around.

You mention the rain day, and that reminds me I should have some sort of board game or cards in the rig...grandson is good with the crossword puzzle box for about twenty minutes...so, some other options would be nice.

Brian.

I can relate to the age thing I am 60 myself hence comfort.

Long rainy spells are the toughest,even on us west coasters. I am happy to read for hours at a time. But kids may not be - card games or other small footprint games are nice.

I carry a laptop with various software and a dump point for my camera. But I carry a couple of old TV series on DVD's as a just in case. Sat in my truck for a good 6 hours one evening/night as a result of very heavy rain. Turned out a couple of hours of the old Avengers TV show's broke that up nicely.