As Covid began to lock us all down at home and everyone stopped making travel plans, Rob and I decided to take our new to us trailer for a quick shakedown. We didn’t want to go far – we both still worked full time and it was barely spring. But we were eager to just get her out on the road, see how she towed, and start figuring out what we needed to do for upgrades to make her comfortable for longer trips.
So we did what we always do for a quick getaway, and we headed to Port Townsend. It’s an hour away, easy traveling on state highways, and the end result is always beautiful. I scored a spot in Point Hudson RV park for the weekend in early March, and off we went.
Pt Hudson is an easy walk into town and has a nice marina and RV park. It’s also where we kept Yohelah for her refit in 2005/6 before we took her offshore the first time. Our trip was a quick two days, and at the end we both agreed that our choice of trailer and tow vehicle were going to work just fine.
Summer 2020 will be remembered as the summer that didn’t happen. We stayed home and didn’t even attempt any trips in the trailer. Then as travel restrictions started easing, we decided to make a fall trip out into the Olympic Peninsula (OP). We decided to try to no-reservation camping in the Olympic National Park (ONP) in late September/early October. Besides the ONP campsites, we had discovered Campendium and HipCamp, and were confident we could find somewhere interesting to keep the trailer for 2 weeks.
Our first stay was at the Heart ‘O Hills National Park campground above Port Angeles. It’s a huge campsite, and we were optimistic we could find a nice spot for our maiden voyage. And boy did we score! I was so happy – this site was so private and the campground so nice and quiet and clean. We stayed a few days, going one day down into PA to do some shopping for the list of things we were now finding we wanted to have in a well-equipped travel trailer.
One morning we woke up and it was dense fog at the campsite, so we decided that would be the day to try a Hurricane Ridge trip. Our campsite was on the road between PA and the Ridge, and we were hoping the top would be above the clouds. We got lucky, and it was sunny and clear at the top. We walked all the trails and got some exercise and headed back to camp.
The third thing we did from Heart ‘O The Hills was a fabulous day of biking along the Elwha River. This river has had both of the dams removed to help increase the Chinook salmon runs and save our Southern Resident Orca pods. We were going to go for a drive and see how it looked. But quickly we found out the road had been washed out and was closed to cars. We looked around and saw people heading our on bicycles, so we raced back to camp and grabbed our power bikes. This became one of the best days of the entire vacation, and was completely unplanned.
We had a half mile bypass around the washout that required us to push our bikes straight up a very steep trail, along a narrow path high above the river, then back down. Thank goodness the bikes have a switch that will engage the motor and helped propel the bikes along that difficult stretch. The rest was glorious! No cars, few people, and an empty campground to stop at for lunch.
After lunch we pedaled up to the site of the topmost former spillway. It was really interesting to see the big canyon they had dammed up, and the valley where the lake no longer existed. And apparently, according to the information at the spillway, the Chinook are returning and the removal is a success! Hopefully we won’t have to watch any more Orcas in our local pods starving to death.
Our next stop was into the Hoh Valley. This was the first challenging drive for Rob, along a very narrow and windy river road. The distance is nearly 15 miles as the crow flies, but with all the tight windy corners it was at least 30-40 minutes from the highway to the campsite. Luckily it was off season and mid week, so the traffic was exceptionally light. The destination, though, was totally worth the white knuckled driving (says the passenger confidently). We were literally camped right on the riverbank for 4 beautiful days.
We spent one day taking a very long walk along the Hoh River trail, which is relatively flat and always a fun opportunity for some great photos.
This was October, and the weather was so unseasonably warm that one day I took my camp chair and literally sat in the river to keep cool while reading my book. It was insane how gorgeous it was for that entire trip.
The last night of our trip a herd of elk came and congregated just beyond our campsite and bedded down for the night. It was fun listening to them communicating with other herd members further upriver – something I hadn’t heard before.
All in all, we were exceptionally pleased with the choice we have made for our little travel trailer. We bought small so we would fit in spots exactly like the two we were in. We have some opportunity to upgrade the power systems in the trailer and beef up the towing abilities of the Tundra, but none of these were unexpected when we bought the truck and trailer. Our first long trip was a complete success and we’re ready to start planning some longer trips.