Acadia Trip part two - camping edition.

This is the second post about my Acadia trip.  This post covers the car camper and campground I visited.  One of the primary goals for this trip was to test the CR-V conversion I have been working on.  I decided to what better way to do that then trial by fire.

 

So I went to Acadia last weekend.  The drive there was kind of miserable, as I-95 always is.  On the way home, I took a no-highway route that was much prettier and nicer.  Google claimed it was 45 minutes longer, but I think in reality it is only about 15-20 minutes longer.  Google often doesn't take into account traffic problems on I-95, so their estimate is unattainable (they claimed 5.5 hours, it took almost 6).  The way home was supposed to be 6.5 hours, and I did it in a little over 6.  Plus the no highway route saved me quite a bit on tolls, so win-win.  Plus this sunset.

 

 

The totals for the trip: 757 miles, and I averaged just under 29mpg.  I had two tanks over 30mpg, driving there and driving back, but the tank in the park with all the starting and stopping was only about 25mpg.  The very last tank was right around 28mpg, mostly because I was facing a stout headwind when I got home and I was driving with a heavy foot on route 9 because every really awful driver was in front of me, like the bozo from VT who slowed to 25 for every corner probably because she couldn't see, since it was half hour after sunset and she didn't realize her car had headlights.

Here is my review of the car camper: Everything worked as expected for the most part.  There were a couple of gotcha's, like when I put in the lip to keep the stove from coming out I could no longer get the sink out because I had the propane cylinder in it, which was too tall.  I have been layering and layering for the bed setup, and now the bedding is so thick I have trouble getting stuff on the bottom of the buildout out.  I had to do a little rearranging, stuff like I had to pull the microwave down because its power cord didn't reach.  The table actually matches height with the top of the conversion almost perfectly.  I had no major failures (with one exception which I will note below), other than those of my own doing.

 

Some unexpected things: the car is actually really good at keeping warm at night.  It was down in the 40s, and I tried to sleep in my sleeping bag the first night, and woke up several times trying to kick it off.  The second night I laid on the sleeping bag and just used the blanket, and that was better.  I kicked it off early in the night, and then woke up two hours later regretting that.  Both nights I left the sunroof cracked open (it has a mode where it leaves the back raised but not open), and I left the back passenger window open a few inches.

 

I was worried about being able to get in and out of the car bed with the tailgate closed.  While for now it is still easier to get in and out from the back, getting out of the side door wasn't terrible.  It didn't look graceful because I am as flexible as a concrete pillar, but it really wasn't awful.  I should note that it is not possible to shut the tailgate but not latch it with the bike rack on (even without a bike on it).  The weight is enough that gravity will latch it unless you put a block or something in the way.

 

The not so great: I forgot a bunch of stuff.  The biggest of which was my pillow.  My backup, basically just rolling up my towel and using a kneeling pad I had left in the car didn't work great, and caused me to use my arms, which in turn led to me popping the valves on my air pad each night.  Part of that is poor valve placement on the pad, but I don't think it would be a problem with a real pillow.  I forgot the repellent for the bug repeller.  I didn't really need it this time of year, though I could clearly see bugs around, they never bothered me.  I also forgot the tripod, the charger for my e-bike, and my camping chair.  All those turned out to be inconsequential though.  

 

The other not so great is that with the fan and stuff on the back of the passenger seat, I can't actually stretch out.  The camper measures 6'1" from the inside of the tailgate to the back of the seat, but I can't actually put my head in the back of the seat with that stuff there, so I couldn't fully stretch out unless I angled myself.  I am not sure if there is a good solution; if I move the seat further forward, I can no longer fit the suitcase on the floor in the front.  It already doesn't fit if I have it expanded and full.

 

Neither of the two nights did I sleep fully through the night, but I didn't really expect that. I slept better than sleeping in seat of the truck though.  While I wasn't fully recharged and fresh Sunday, I got enough sleep that it wasn't an issue; I wasn't drowsy on the drive home.  

 

The stadium chair I brought seemed like a good idea at the time; it allows me to sit up in the back of the car.  I don't think I will be bringing it though.  I used it when I got there, but the second night when I got back from eating mass quantities of seafood, I just sat in the driver's seat and put the bags of food in the back.  That was a lot easier.  I did fit in the back just sitting there though.   

 

I also learned I need to pack the suitcase differently.  The stuff I want to use more often should be more accessible, like putting the stuff for the laptop in an outer pocket instead of an inner pocket. Slippers were worthless and a waste of space.

 

One minor failure was that my cell phone holder fell off three times.  Which is annoying.

 

The only major failures, other than the pad noted above, was that for some reason the Jackery doesn't like charging off 12V outlets.  When I had trouble with it in the truck, I assumed it was because the truck does stupid things with its voltage on the outlets (my coolers have complained about the output voltages in the truck as well), but when I got home the Jackery was at 50%.  That is almost as if it didn't charge at all while driving.  I did look a couple of times and it said it was charging, pulling in 80W or so, but the end result says that is either a lie, or it only charges when the cooler isn't running or something.  But any way you cut it, not good.  On my long trip, I will definitely need to bring the Anker one with me for safety.  I do have an emergency battery I can use for the fridge that will run it for a half day or so, but this is really annoying.  I might also try swapping the batteries around; keep the Anker in the back and see if it does better, and then keep the Jackery to recharge the Anker when it gets too low.  Then if it only charges sporadically it is less of an issue.  I will be updating my Jackery review though to note this deficiency.

 

All in all, it does what I set out to do, but I didn't solve any of the problems I don't like about these kinds of setups.  To be clear, that is okay for its intended usage; I wasn't expecting to solve everything with it and that was not part of the design.  I didn't design anything around getting rid of the primary complaint I have with tiny setups; it was designed to be cheap and easy to build, and functional.  The main problem I have with these kinds of setups is that it takes forever to do anything; doing even simple tasks requires going through a checklist of steps.  Everything has a setup, a process, and a tear down.

 

For example: I made egg sandwiches for breakfast each of the two mornings.  At home, that would take 1-2 minutes of prep, and 3-4 minutes of cook time.  In the car camper, it takes around 20 minutes.  You have to take down the cargo net, pull out the stove, remove the carpet that prevents rattle while driving, grab a propane bottle, hook up the propane to it, level it as best you can.  You have to put something down on the picnic table unless you want pine needles in everything, or pull out and set up the table I brought.  Then pull out the pan, grab a spatula, pull out the spices, butter the pan, cook the egg, and make the sandwich.  At home everything is within 3 steps, and almost everything is in arms reach already from the stove.  At a campsite, everything is much farther away, and to get to the fridge you have to open the car door (I usually left it open), pull the cooler out, open it, grab a handful, slide it back in, and repeat as needed.  My spices are in a bin, so you have to pull out the bin (from the other side of the car as the fridge), remove the cargo netting if it isn't off yet, and so on.  When you are done cooking, you have to clean immediately, and while for eggs cleaning is just wiping it out with paper towels and then an alcohol wipe (assuming you clean before the butter/grease solidifies), if I cooked something like mac and cheese it would require going to the bath house and washing the pot.  Then you have to put everything away and so on and so forth.

 

I cooked with the stove, and with the microwave as well.  I also made a sandwich while in the park. These weren't as bad as the stove as for excess time, but still took notably longer than one might expect.

 

 

Everything is a whole production, and everything is less convenient to boot.  Even just getting to a campsite requires finding a level spot, putting the screen on the windows, turning off the dome lights, taking the bike off the back and locking it up, and so on.  All this time adds up, and it gets tiresome to go through the whole production every single time, and for literally everything you want to do.  This is why I had several entries for setup time in my comparison for the box truck/trailer.  I could theoretically design this to be a lot more convenient, but that would have required a ton more time and parts.  

 

One other thing to note: I also learned that my laptop doesn't actually keep track of time when it is unplugged.  I opened it up Saturday evening, and it still read Friday at 11AM when I turned it off and packed it.  RTCs have been a standard feature on computers since the 80s...

I stayed in Bass Harbor Campground.  It was the only place that still had openings for the weekend when I booked last Tuesday (I wanted to make sure the weather was good).  I would happily stay there again.  The office is only open 8-6, but they have an after hours check-in procedure; basically they leave the packet outside the office and you can check in the following morning.  

 

The campground had all the normal amenities; a reasonably clean (but not super clean) bath house with (free) showers, coin operated laundry, a pool that I assumed was closed, but I saw someone in it when I got back on Saturday.  

 

They do have wifi, but it doesn't cover the campground, only the office and bath house area.  In the tent section, they had a few water spigots scattered throughout the area, though not one per site, which for tents is more than you usually see.  

 

They had a dedicated area for washing dishes attached to the bath house, so you didn't have to try to do it in a tiny bathroom sink.  

 

The tent sites were spaced apart in the woods, they weren't all crammed in, though it wasn't so dense you couldn't see your neighbors.  The RV and camper sites were a lot closer together and had less privacy though.  Each site had a picnic table and fire pit.  The place wasn't full, the site on one side was never occupied, and the other side had a camper van in it.  I noticed that in the primitive section there was about a 50/50 split of tents vs converted vehicles, which for September isn't too surprising.  It was surprisingly peaceful; there was one college group there over the weekend but they honored the quiet hours and weren't obnoxious.  

 

Bass Harbor is one of the less developed harbors in the area, which is probably why it was available, but the Island Explorer shuttle does run out that far (it had a stop at the campground), so you don't have to drive to the park or Bar Harbor if you don't want to deal with parking or traffic.  I didn't look at the schedules though.  It was about 45 minutes by car from the Visitor Center, and about 35-40 minutes from Cadillac Summit road.  

 

There was a nearby seafood restaurant (I think it was called Seafood Ketch) that was really awesome though.  It was perfect weather when I got back from the park loop and lighthouse, and I got my lobster at sunset.