Lake Elsinore

Lake Elsinore is the largest natural freshwater lake in Southern California and with a beautiful weather forecast scheduled for the weekend, we decided to check it out. We arrived late Saturday evening to an almost packed La Laguna Resort and took a convenient site near the restrooms.

This lakeside campground features fairly well maintained facilities with showers as well as electrical hook-up for $30 per night. After a quick dinner it was off to bed in anticipation of exploring our new surroundings. We were initially worried about the amount of surrounding campers and ensuing noise but everyone seemed to respect the quiet time hours and all was good once 10pm came. Cool overnight temperatures left us with a quality sleep on the top bunk and after the sun was shining, the existing weekend campers departed in droves leaving the campsite relatively empty. This allowed us to choose a perfect site right by the lakefront as well as having some additional shade from a few palm trees.

 

VW of America had a weekend challenge on their Instagram site asking people to submit photos of what they were doing on the weekend with their VW so I asked my talented wife to "Instagram" one of my photos. We were happy to find out on Monday that the picture we submitted won the challenge, here's the winning shot: 

As this campsite had electrical hook-up, I was unable to really test out our new solar panel but I can report that the auxiliary battery was maintained at 100% charge. The only other upgrade I performed was a new coat of semi-gloss black spray paint for the front grill. What a rewarding update some fresh paint makes when compared to the old faded grill.

Temperatures peaked in the 90's so we decided to take advantage of what the lake had to offer. Although swimming was not allowed, there was a wading area that had depths of approx 5 feet. I must admit that the lake wasn't the cleanest by far and the algae was quite thick to the point where you couldn't see beyond 6" of water. We also wanted to shower after swimming but it was a refreshing break from the heat of the day. Here is a morning shot of the lake which was teaming with life of all sorts.

I don't know if it's me but I feel food always tastes better when eaten outside. Steak, onions, pasta, and a delicious beverage did the trick to finish off another great camping day.

The camper ran as flawless as a 32 year old vehicle can and we thanked her with a new oil change. After our last somewhat disappointing camping experience, Lake Elsinore reminded us why we have enjoyed our journeys so much and we're looking forward to our next trip

Solar Power Time!!

This past year has been one large learning curve for me and this post begins with my new found knowledge of proper battery charging and health. The beginning of this story occurred several months ago when I discovered the voltage regulator on my alternator needed replacing. The shop that I took it to replaced the old one with an adjustable one that I later found out was the reason for my failing batteries. After my main starting battery as well as the secondary house battery had failed I knew there must be something wrong and discovered it was probably over-charging. A somewhat quick check discovered that my alternator was pumping out almost 15V to both batteries, this eventually dries the batteries out and causes them to fail. So after fixing this problem and turning down the regulator to a healthy 14.2 volts I was ready to start my newest project.

The Internet and the Vanagon mailing list I am part of have been incredible resources for both fixing, modifying and improving our camper. After a ton of research, I decided that I wanted to install a solar panel for the camper so that we can have extended periods of "off-grid" camping and not worry about starting the engine or plugging in. It's also a good idea if Zombies ever take over and we need to hide in the middle of nowhere. Ideally I wanted a panel that would fit in the front luggage rack as I have yet to use that particular space and wanted to keep the rest of the roof free as I have future ideas of a roof rack to put "toys" on. The problem I found was that the vast majority of panels were too wide to fit in the luggage rack or they were too small and didn't have enough power to handle my electrical needs. After many hours of searching the Internet, I finally discovered the ideal panel on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/321073962405?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 that fit almost perfectly and had 80W of power which was even more than I was hoping for originally and at a great price of $178. The panel was not sold separately and came as a kit with wiring and a charge controller which was fine with me as I needed them anyway.
Here is a picture of the panel the day it arrived

The hardest part of the whole project was mentally preparing the steps for this installation. I was initially worried that the eBay seller had the incorrect panel dimensions even though I e-mailed them twice to ensure the exact measurements. As you can see, I didn't need to worry and it was almost as though the panel was custom made for the Vanagon luggage rack

The kit did not come with any type of mounting hardware so it was off to Home Depot to see what kind of custom brackets I could come up with. Simple "L" brackets screwed into the luggage rack as well as the sides of the panel did the trick and we were good to go without any fear of the panel making any movements

I then routed the wires down through the existing rear drainage hole so no more holes were drilled into the luggage rack. The second hardest part of this was the emotional toll of drilling a hole in the roof of the camper. I thought about feeding the wires under the pop-top canvas but thought it would look messy and as long as I sealed up the hole, there shouldn't be any issues with water leakage

Here you can see the wiring as it passes through my newly drilled hole in the roof and below you can see where I made another hole in the inside and ran the wiring down behind the sink.

I then installed the charge controller behind the drivers seat and beside the inverter

The last difficult part of this project which took the longest was getting a proper deep cycle battery to fit my needs. I decided on a Universal Power Group, sealed lead acid 50Ah battery. I know I could have gone larger but 50amps should be more than enough to satisfy my power needs and at only $88 I couldn't go wrong. When I say this was the longest part of the process it was all due to the company I found on the Internet that I was dealing with. I'm not one to put down a reputable business but this was by far the worst interaction (or lack of) I have encountered with any company. I at first called the company but was unable to get anyone to answer so after a few more calls, I left a voice message. I didn't get any response back so the next day I ordered the battery I wanted on-line from their website. At this point I felt I was okay as I received an automated e-mail with my order number that I could look up on-line. After a few days with no further updates I decided to try calling their number again but was put through to voice mail. I literally called approx 10 times per day and left several voice mails to return my call as well as e-mails. After two weeks of absolutely no contact or replies I simply wanted to cancel my order but couldn't even do that as they wouldn't return e-mail, voicemail or answer the phone. Miraculously after 2 weeks of calling, somebody actually answered the phone and informed me that my battery was shipping tomorrow and I should receive it by the end of the week. Another week went by and I still had yet to receive any shipping information let alone the battery but I did receive an e-mail from the owner stating that they thought my battery had arrived but will actually be arriving tomorrow and to e-mail him back if I still wanted the battery. I e-mailed him back to ship the battery asap as well as let him know my displeasure with the extreme lack of communication I had received. I didn't receive any further contact from anyone but today received the battery which turned out that it was shipped directly from a warehouse in Texas and not from the store I bought it from which is located in San Marcos CA. The company is Battery Concepts http://www.batteryconcepts.net/index.html and I didn't really mind waiting over 4 weeks, it was the extreme lack of communication that was upsetting. Anyway, long story short, the battery has been received and installed and I'm happy. Here is a shot of the battery in place under the driver's seat

Below is the final product with the luggage rack back on and panel installed

I think it looks great and fits perfectly. It's also quite stealthy and unless you're over 7 feet tall you wouldn't even know it's there.

Another voltage check in the sunshine shows over 21 volts coming off the panel and 14 to the newly installed and healthy battery

Finally I wanted to thank all the people that helped with this project. From the several people that gave ideas and suggestions on the Vanagon mailing list to my parents that were visiting from Canada and helped with the entire install and as always my wife for putting up with me. I look forward to our next camping excursion to test everything out.

Castaic campground

The main idea for creating this blog was to chronicle our travels as well as the transformation of our camper. This post will carry on with that plan but with an emphasis on reviewing the latest campsite we visited. Castaic Lake is the largest state water project reservoir in Southern California and it also has a campsite. We wanted to camp near water, and at $20 per night, decided to give this one a try. At just over an hour's drive north of L.A., we were able to arrive at our destination with enough daylight left to set-up and enjoy the sunset.

Not knowing the layout of the campsite we chose a spot with a great view of the lake and near the washrooms. This turned out to be the high point of our experience and went downhill after this point. Don't let that serene lake fool you......once the sun had set is when the wind started up. By the time 3am rolled around the wind was blowing enough that our side canopy started to bounce around and we had to take it down. Which brings me to my first criticism that our section of the campsite was essentially a paved parking lot and we had no ability to secure the legs of our canopy.

With an optimistic approach to the next day we decided to explore the entire campground to see if there might be a better spot and found one with some shade under a tree including another nice view of the lake and appropriate places to secure our side awning.

Then it was off to explore Castaic park which was located on the other side of the "lake". I say "lake" because it turned out the campsite and park are actually situated on the lagoon which is simply water that is released from the much larger actual lake situated above the dam.

This again was the highpoint of the day. You might notice that the beach area is empty and this is because swimming was not allowed during the time we were there. We also discovered that the restrooms, in not only our campground but the entire park, did not have doors on any of the toilet stalls. Now I don't particularly enjoy public washrooms but having people walk in on you almost every time you try to "do your business" was more than annoying. Once we got back to our campsite the temperatures were approaching 100 degrees and the wind was picking up which continually blew a fine dust from the dry dirt we were parked on.

All things aside we did manage to enjoy an excellent Rib-Eye steak that I had been marinating for 2 days. I don't know if it's just me but I always find food cooked on a grill and eaten outdoors always tastes better.

Even though the wind was picking up as the night continued I wasn't too worried about our side canopy as we had both legs staked tight as well as tie-downs on each corner. We made it through our second day of 100 degree heat thanks to the shade from what seemed to be the only real tree in the entire campsite but it was still hot and the fridge fan was working overtime to keep our food cool.

I didn't take pictures of our neighbours but as the evening progressed, more and more sites were filled. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but the extremely close proximity of the individual sites left it quite difficult to ignore the noise. This was also the start of our least enjoyable camping night we have experienced so far. Although the campsite gates were supposed to be locked at 10pm, more and more guests were arriving until midnight and to two sites in particular that were directly across from us. "Quiet time" is supposed to begin at 10pm but it was quite a loud party until 3am which had to be loud so they could hear each other yell over what I estimate at 50mph wind gusts. We finally had to take down our side canopy after the stakes came out and were lifting off the ground from the insane wind despite our extra fastening. That pretty much sums up an unnecessarily tiring and uncomfortable camping experience at a campsite we will not be visiting again

Our camping experiences so far in California have consisted of State parks and although they are scenic, they have been quite expensive and lacking amenities. We didn't mind paying $45 to be camping right on the beach but thought we would have to limit our camping experiences with those prices in mind. I decided to look at alternative campsites and came across Orange County's Caspers Wilderness Park which had good reviews on yelp and with a price of $20 per night we decided to give it a try...

The park is under two hours away and we managed to arrive just before sunset to setup camp. As you can see we are still very happy with our BusDepot awning to keep in the shade and protect us from the heat. We found out that my bicycle tire was flat so after a quick repair we were on our way to explore this excellent campground

The differences with this camp were night and day compared to what we have encountered in both Oregon and California. First, I was surprised to see the entrance station was manned by a park ranger until the gates were locked at 10pm which made check in very easy. It is also the only park we have been to that was regularly patrolled by Police, we counted 4 full drive-thrus by different police cars during our 2 day stay. This was on top of almost constant patrols by several other county park rangers. Some may have considered this intrusive but I simply felt safe.

With over 8000 acres, the campsite was very well maintained with many features and facilities. Above are pictures of the visitor center which included information about the surrounding area. Below are some more shots of the beautiful scenery and attractions including the first black widow spider I have seen in the wild

The Westy seems to be loving California life and ran beautifully for the entire trip. It still amazes me that the original Dometic fridge kept everything nice and cold even during the 90 degree temps. One more shot of our site to show just how large a space we had:

We now know there are camping alternatives for us to explore in the future for reasonable prices and look forward to exploring them....stay tuned for more updates shortly!

Where should I begin with today's entry??? Soo much has happened in the past month so I will begin with some "non-camping" experiences. A regrettable occurrence in the family had us making last minute plans to visit Arizona. We decided to take the VW Beetle instead of flying as the expense would be greatly reduced and overall time would not be that much more when factoring the commute time to and from airports. This was also a great time to test out our new 2.0L TDI Beetle on a 600 mile 10 hour drive. Here are some shots of the car that keeps on amazing me with it's incredible fuel efficiency. Below you can see our bike rack installed as well as the highest average fuel efficiency I have attained

As you can see I finally attained over 70MPG!!! Granted this was mainly downhill at just under 60mph and over a distance of 30 miles. Overall this TDI engine is averaging well over 600 miles per 13 gallon tank which easily surpases 45MPG and all within the Los Angeles area (city/highway combined). I do drive with fuel efficiency in mind but it baffles me that VW's EPA rating for this car is 29/41 city/highway as our real life averages are much better.
Anyway, back to our Arizona trip: We of course made the best of our situation and managed to visit the historic western city of Tombstone. Here we are doing our job at being tourists.....

We then managed to catch a gun fight show that was rated the best in Tombstone! I guess the competition was pretty poor as the acting was terrible....although I have to give them an A for effort.

We learned that this silver mining town had over 18,000 people in it's hay day with over 500 licensed saloons. Certainly a tough way of life back then as our one day visit was enough for us.

We averaged 50.5 MPG on our trip from Los Angeles to Sierra Vista with the AC on full blast to counter the 105+ degree temps also carrying 3 passengers and luggage. The drive back saw an average of 52.3MPG which I attribute to the elevation decrease. I can only imagine the power (240 ft/lbs of torque) and fuel efficiency if this amazing engine were to be swapped into our camper!