Dam camping and my first rattle snake
We moved every two days this past week, partly due to the need for better solar, partly for the need of showers, and partly because we live in a van and can! It all started with a few days on a mountain above Oakhurst, CA. Although the area is an OHV trail system, we figured it would be manageable on the weekdays. We spent the afternoon scouting all the roads, finding numerous mediocre spots, and an “eleven” right beside a small waterfall. The only problem with the waterfall spot was the lack of a usable cell signal, even with our boosters. We settled for one of the mediocre spots for two nights, until our battery was screaming for us to move. Tall trees surrounded the van, preventing the sun from getting ti our panels. As I write this, I find out that neither Kerri or myself took a single photo of the place we actually camped, that’s how mediocre it was, but I did get this one of the “eleven”.
Once we decided to move Kerri found a nice spot about an hour’s drive away, perched above a dam and a reservoir out in the middle of no where in the National Forest. After the work day, as we were moving to the new spot, we ran into my first ever sighting of a rattle snake in the wild. Actually, Kerri spotted it on the side of the road as I was driving past. I then backed up to see it as well, catching only a glimpse. The thing was huge, at least 6 feet long, and just slowly slithering it’s way back into the tall grass beside the road after Big Blue disturbed it’s afternoon sunbathing. We made it to the dam camping alive, and settled in for two more days camping above the roaring waters being released out the far side. During that time we were notified of another rattler nearby, and I found a large snake skin that one shed not too many days before. The place was packed with rattlers, so as you can imagine both dogs were kept on very short leashes during the duration.
By the end of the week we both seriously needed a shower. With no gyms nearby, the task fell into a paid campground. Once again, Kerri scouted out a nice state recreation area – Millerton Lake – to stay a night and abuse their showers. Certainly not the best showers we have had, but they were the best we had *that week*, and they did do the job of getting a week worth of grime off us. The Millerton Lake area turned out to be nicer then originally expected. Maybe we caught it at the best time of the year. The flowers were popping, the grass was golden and tall, and with the large oak trees sprinkled around, it just did it for me. Moose stayed leashed up the our big Oak, chasing lizards and squirrels for hours. He really enjoyed it there, so did I.
