VBistro

Awesome! Stay tuned…

Merry Christmas! And such fun art!

I'm shaking in my cleats just thinking abou Cascade mosquitos. Please, please, please do no bring any with you. LOL We used to go to this site in early august every year, but I finally said no. The mosquitos are out in full force dawn and dusk, and just when you get a reprieve from them in the sunshine, the flies attack. I'd have to slather on half a bottle of Sawyer's picaridin before every ride, and bring one with me for an hourly reapplication. I'm over it!

I'll likely reserve it, rally or not. If the Ollies don't bite, I have lots of friends who will. It's truly one of our favorite spots. I have the site reserved this June for 10 days -- sort of a last hurrah for all of our friends whose youngest kids head to college next fall. I'll be able to better guage if things have changed post-covid, and will take a lot more pictures of the site itself. Stay tuned!

That waypoint is correct. And the 90 minutes is without rush hour up 285, according to Google Maps. 58.1 miles from downtown. The road after you turn off of 285 is very windy and steep in places. Most posted speed limits are 25mph, slower if you are pulling a trailer. And once you are on the dirt road, you are travelling even slower. Twisty, not quite 2 lanes in a lot of places. Maybe 15 miles an hour. Unless things have changed radically due to covid, this site is not swamped with people. The lack of any type of services other than pit toilets tends to keep a lot of people away.

It actually isn't packed with visitors, or at least it wasn't for the 10 years I camped there pre-Covid. 2020-2021 are the only two years I haven't been in the last 15. The dirt road in has a number of dispersed campsites, and there is a FS campground about .5 mile from these group sites, but this is fairly isolated. The upper campground that we usually reserve is several acres, and while some mountain bikers do wander through along the Colorado Trail occasionally, they hardly qualify as swarms. This is one of my favorite campgrounds to relax and enoy some time away. That said, I can't do anything about the no cell service, but then I usually don't want to. When Mark and I were working full time, we recognized the preciousness of being forced to "unplug" for a week. Occasionally, one of would have to drive up to the paved road to take a phone call, but otherwise, we enjoyed the isolation. It's not for everyone....

Mid-to-late June is prime time. Otherwise the biting flies and mosquitos are out in force. Mid-September could work as well, but after having gone for 10 years in early August, I am over it. 🙂

Here is the spot I have in mind. It's about 90 minutes from Denver, but truly feels like you are in the middle of nowhere. Truly Boondocking. This is a Forest Service group campground. There are two sites -- we prefer the upper spot for trailers, and guestimate that there is room for about 10 Ollies, 15 if we needed to. This campground books out a year in advance, and can be tricky to get. Mid-June is a spectacular time to go -- still relatively cool and the mosquitos and biting flies haven't hatched yet. Bonus! What it does have: water (sometimes), pit toilets, peace and quiet, sunshine, star gazing, space for 10-15 Ollies, streams for fishing, and lots and lots of trails for hiking and mountain biking What it doesn't have: hookups, cell service You need to travel about 6 miles on relatively well maintained dirt road, though it can be a bit washboardy in places. The access road pictured below is a single lane. 4wd required if there's been a lot of rain. I'd have included more photos, but it seems that after 10 years of camping here, I have lots of pictures of bikes, dogs, and kids, but not really any of the site itself. If there is interest, I'll do my best to secure the site in 2023. It'll be an informal, unofficial gathering, but could be loads of fun!

I think have the perfect location for the boondockers in the crowd - it's a beautiful, private, group site at Buffalo Creek here in CO that would easily accommodate 10-15 Olivers. Caveat - no hookups, pit toilet, water situation can be iffy. We have it reserved this June for a week for an annual friends and family camp. I'll take a serious survey while we are there and see if it could work. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to get it for 2022. You have to reserve a year in advance, and if you don't you won't get the site. I'll take a poll, if I can figure out how to do that. mb

Ad I thought it was just us! 🙂 Nice solution. Will definitely put this on the list.

Our sprinter van uses a residential Mimi-split and I can attest to both its efficiency and the quiet it provides. I’ll miss both. The flip side is that the insulation wasn’t the best in the van and it was a big black heat sink, so you had no choice BUT to run the a/c especially if the dogs were with us. I’m hoping that won’t be the case with our Ollie.

The paper towel holder is a Hasko - held up by suction cups. Amazon has a variety to choose from. I like the suction cups…we’ve already relocated this to the pantry door!

I have a Garmin InReach device (I spend a lot of time riding gravel roads in the absolute middle of nowhere) and never thought to use it for detailed weather when things start to look crazy. I've mostly used it to decide how many layers I would need for that day's ride. LOL. Thanks for the tip. I'll make sure the device goes with us on every trip now. mb

I bought these hoses, and the issue I had with them is that they really didn't solve the problem of strain in the hose, by themselves. There would still be a severe bend at the regulator inlet. Adding the street elbow at the regulator inlet eliminated almost all of the strain, even with the straight, stock hoses. An even less expensive fix at $7 per street elbow.

I checked. I think the Suburban is just around 12k. Phew! 🙂

I had read that before...thanks for the reminder and I will keep that in mind -- if we're outside with the fire pit, we'll be sure to turn the furnace off!

I bought these 12" hoses to use when I installed the new valves, but they were much too long, and I would have had to install the street elbow to use them anyway.

Here's a photo of the finished project

Having read endless discussions here about whether or not people travel with their fridges on propane, @MarkV and I decided to install GasStop Propane Shut-off Valves. Most of the time, we travel with the fridge off, if the trip is short enough, or with dry ice if we have access to some for a longer trip. On our Ollie, we opted for the Lithium Platinum Package, and based on preliminary results, feel relatively confident that we can occasionally travel with the fridge on DC, especially if the sun is shining and we aren’t in transit between two long-term boondocking sites. That said, we took the “better safe than sorry” approach and installed the GasStops just in case we find ourselves in need of traveling with the propane on. It gives us peace of mind. The first thing we noticed when we took the tank covers off is that even on the stock install, the propane hoses between tank and regulator have a pretty severe S curve to them. Noting that these curves aren’t great for hose longevity (another safety concern), we decided to install new street elbow fittings that essentially change the angle of entry of the hose into the regulator by 90degrees, and eliminating one of the bends in the S. We likely would have done this whether or not installing the Gas Stop valves. The install of the street elbow fitting was pretty easy, once @John E Davies cleared up some major confusion on my part. The confusion stemmed from the fact that the current fitting at the regulator has a plastic insert in it. According to John, this is a one-way check valve that allows the automatic propane switchover system to work properly. This straight fitting with the check valve is put in-line with the new elbow fitting so you don’t lose its functionality. Equipment needed: 1) 2 GasStop Propane Shut-off Valves 2) ¼” NPT BRASS Street Elbows (double-check the size of your particular fitting) 3) Pipe Thread Sealant (specifically formulated for gasses) Method Detach propane hose from the ¼” straight NPT fitting at the regulator (A) Remove the straight ¼” fitting at the low pressure regulator (B) Remove the ACME connection at the propane tank (C) Clean as much old pipe thread sealant as you can from both the regulator side and the hose side, being careful not to let any shavings enter the regulator Apply thread sealant to the male end of the new elbow fitting and install it at the low pressure regulator Apply thread sealant to the old fitting’s male end and screw it onto the street elbow. Re-attach Acme fitting to propane tank Let sealant cure for 24 hours Pressurize system and leak test! I’m sure that if I missed a step or got anything wrong, John will chime in. (Thanks, John!) Photo courtesy of John Davies:

Hadn’t thought about using it in the clam on a chilly night. Great idea!

Sorry for the confusion! I originally thought I was replacing the straight fitting with the elbow, but I understand from your last post that I am installing the straight fitting into the new elbow. That's why I thought I needed to get the check valve out somehow. I get it now. Thanks very much for the clarification.

Got it....and sorry that I didn't read your first response thoroughly. (I'l blame intermittent fasting....) Thoughts on how to get the check valve out of the straight fitting? Push it through from the female side? I don't want to damage it inadvertently. Thank you! mb

John, Thank you! The fitting you show is the fitting we found at our local Ace today, but I was unsure whether it would be sufficient because the original fitting off of the Ollie has a plastic insert in it (see pic). From a brief google search, it appears that this might be a "safety feature" in the event of a downstream leak. Since I am installing these downstream of the Gas Stop valves, is it safe to conclude that the GS valves will serve the same function? Presumably better. The remaining question I have is whether or not this plastic insert serves any other purpose, like preventing gas in the line downstream of the regulator from flowing out of the system when you disconnect from the tank to fill. Thoughts on whether I can just make a wholesale swap of my straight, stock fitting, with the street elbow. Hoping the answer is yes...I'll just hop on down to McGukins (our local ACE) and get all put back together tomorrow if so. mb EDIT: you can't see it in this picture, but there is a second piece of material deeper inside the fitting, just beyond the internal threads you see in the diagram.

We recently bought an overland firepit and successfully used it with our external quick-connects when we picked up the Ollie last month. Worked like a charm. I love the ambience of a wood fire, but I really don't like the smoke anymore. And, as mentioned here, there are lots of places in the west where you simply can't have a wood fire anymore. mb

These are from trips we've made in our van, but they are definitely in the spirit of the post. We are truly lucky out west to be able to find so many cool places off the beaten path