The Getaway...Crom's build and adventures

Thanks @GHOST SHIP . It was nice to get my family out.

Atlas Eagle Optics 10x50 Binoculars

On both trips above I had my new Atlas Eagle Optics 10x50 binoculars with 21mm eye relief. I have since lost my receipt for them and the product specifications too. I bought them for myself for xmas at @DVexile 's recommendation. Thank you! It was a going out of business sale, so I picked them up I think for $37. They are pretty impressive.

I, my wife, and my exploring buddy have all been very impressed with the binoculars. They are extremely useful and easy to use. I was quite impressed when using them at night to view star constellations. My seven year old was impressed too. I had a green laser pointer that lives in the truck and I broke it out and used to show the constellations. It was helpful for the kid to check out the starts it was quite the experience.

I laughed at my 5 year old who connected three bright stars with the laser pointer into a triangle, and said "Look, Pizza constellation!"

The Atlas 10x50 Binoculars​

 

That's my favorite constellation!

 

Anza-Borrego Park HQ / Visitor Center

On this last family trip, we went to the Anza-Borrego Park HQ / Visitor Center. I was disappointed to see that they now attempt to collect a $10 day use fee for parking. Once paid, it's good for the whole day and can be used for parking at the Borrego Palm Canyon trail head. We weren't going to hike today so I decided I wasn't going to pay. I dropped my family off, parked 1/4 mile back on the shoulder of the road and footed it to the visitor center. We revisited all of the exhibits like we usually do and I avoided buying more stuffed animals for my kids.

We watched a short movie in the theater.

They have updated the movie and this time it was about Marshall South and his experiment of raising his family on Ghost Mountain. I've known about this story my whole life but have not read too much. The movie was quite educational and it was nice to see something new. I told my kids that next trip to AB we will go to Ghost Mountain and see the ruins. My five year old has become a decent cross-country hiker and can navigate most obstacles, although her route finding ability is rather hilarious.

 

Glad to see you stop talking about all the techy tech 4X4 stuff and back out doing trips! Lovely pics as usual.






Actually, I like the tech stuff too.

 

Thanks. I enjoy it all too.

 

Now to tell a funny story about desert wind, and the destruction of my sun canopy.

If you camp in the desert, you must be prepared for all weather events, especially the wind.

On this last family trip I brought the sun canopy in this picture.



I received it as a gift a few years ago and it's always served me well. I don't recall weighing it, but want to say it was around 36 lbs.

When deployed it provides 100' of potential sun/rain protection. It is also free standing and portable. Transporting it has never been a problem, I just toss it on the roof and use a pair of ratchet straps to hold it down.

Now normally when going into the tent for the night, I'll drop the legs down on the canopy and hang a few objects from the lateral supports to weigh it down. Saturday night I did none of that. Ooops.

At about 5:00AM a wind gust woke me as it swayed our tent. I instantly thought, oh crap! Did I leave anything out at camp that I should have put away? Then I remembered the canopy!

I got myself upright and opened the tent to let myself out, just in time to watch the wind uplift and carry the canopy in the air a breathtaking 25-30' before it tumbled upside down and over itself a few times resting about 100' away.

I wasn't even mad. I just donned on my shoes and walked over to the bent up mess, and removed the fabric and rolled it into a ball. I walked back to camp and tossed it into the back of the truck, and jumped into the tent and went back to sleep.

The wind gusted and blew continuously right up until our departure on Monday.

In the morning my wife helped me carry the bent-up frame back to camp. I ripped off the crumpled / bent legs and used Thor's hammer (4lb. sledge), to destroy the plastic supports at each corner so that it would neatly fold back up.

When it was time to break camp, I put the frame neatly back into its bag and ratchet strapped it to the tire / basket on the swing gate for easy disposal about an hour later. I don't have a picture of this, but I liked this mounting/storage method.



The popup replacement is only $64 out the door so all-in-all it wasn't that bad.

 

Way back in grad school I drove up to Thorndike campground (DV of course) in winter in a Honda Civic. It was a bit of a miracle to get a Civic that far past the charcoal kilns! Anyway it was windy and the canyon was acting as a funnel. It was also sleeting at the time and was dark which made pitching the tent fun especially when I realized I didn’t have any stakes with me.

So I pitch the tent and throw a few things in it to hold it down and then make a mad dash for the car to get more ballast. All of this with a crappy dim headlamp as this was before the existence of white LEDs. Load up my arms with heavy stuff and turn around and the tent (also containing my sleeping bag, mat and clothes) is no where to be found.

Walking in the direction the wind was blowing I eventually found it smooshed against a stand of junipers. Managed to drag it back and climb inside. Spent the night with the tent floor essentially folded around my body as the thing was continually trying to take flight. Everything I put in the corners to attempt to hold it would eventually just fall on top of me. Not a good night.

I hate the wind!

Glad your loss wasn’t costly and at least you got to witness the flight!

 

That is a great story!

I too hate the wind unless I'm hiking and need to be cooled off.

Sometimes I think the wind is going to rip the hood latch off on the Tacoma. I might do hood pin mods one day, but don't know if I have the patience for it.

Ah so true about staking out the tent first. Back in 2008 before kids were born, my wife and I did a group trip to Channel Islands Nat'l Park, we camped on Santa Rosa Island. There is a campground there with a well for water so you don't have to pack water. Anyways, we were all warned in advance that wind is an issue on the island and you'll basically die if you can't cut wind with clothing, tent, etc.

Anyways, we get there like 20 of us and we setup our tents. And this guy close to us just setup his tent and threw his 40lb pack in it, thinking good enough for now... Well mother nature had other ideas, wind gust rolled his tent, his pack fell thru the open door and away his tent went with the wind! He eventually got it back after a long hike.

I even have the pics...





Good times!

 

That one dude’s accident though... yeah I don’t think I have the patience either but that video was scary!

Lol! That’s an awesome photo!

 

So our Hood latches are something to keep an eye on, another potential week point on our trucks. It's been suggested to make sure the rubber hood adjusters are dialed in.

Happened to Andy @CVYota here and Alex @sytfu510 here.

I'm sure there are more failures out there, but these are the two that I remember.

On the return trip the head wind was so bad I thought it was going to rip the hood clean off

 

This is post hack weld job. Not alot of metal there to tie into.

 

Yikes, that looks familiar. I even had hood pins to keep the corners from bouncing but that is from another incident.

 

I've been wanting to ask about this. After doing the radiator bushings there's more of gap on the left side of the hood vs. the right. In high wind situations on the roads I've been watching it and worry about what appears to be some slack or looseness. Doesn't seem to stay put like it used to.

 

Just get a set of hood latches, they are less than $75 and give a bit of piece of mind and take some of the loading off the OEM latch. Just keep an eye on the sheet metal they will run through since that will be a weak point as well, I'm going to add some material to where mine mount, @GHOST SHIP has seen them rip through the pin mounting locations before.
AeroCatch Xtreme Plus Flush Hood Latch and Pin Kit - Black - Part # 120-4000

$70 Aerocatch 120-4000 Xtreme Plus Flush Hood Latch and Pin Kit - Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SLOC5J6?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

 

Replaced mine with a latch from a 99 Celica found at the local Pick A Part. The dude at the counter just looked at me annoyed when I tried to pay for it. He said get outta here with that shit, see you next week...

 

That's hilarious. I had an incident that wasn't so funny but was saved. My cousin and I had just backpacked up over Kearsarge Pass and decided to set up camp above the Kearsarge lakes for camp 1 of a 5 day trip in the High Sierra. There wasn't much wind so I didn't think much of it. Just as we had the tent set up and put our bags and such in the tent I turned around and the tent was about 6 feet off the ground spinning slowly like a UFO heading for a ridge. Mind you we are at about 10500 feet in elevation and the sun is going down. If the tent goes over the ridge it's gone! Period! Anyway we got to it just in time. Ever since that day step 1 layout tent, step 2 Stake it down. Some times my daughters and I still tent camp with the Indian Princesses. But with the wife she said long ago no more tent camping. So now we have this


which turns into this


You know happy wife happy life? At least that's how the saying goes. Wind is not a problem with that rig. LOL

 

@Crom This is incredible. Slowly working my way through yours and @DoorDing 's builds. I am over in Rolando. Interested in taking on a padawan and family in the ways of desert off-roading? We do a lot of camping but so far nothing outside of the state parks/national parks.

 

Really? I wonder where Sergio has seen that?

 

I switched to hood pins and @dirt designs rebuilt the front radiator support.

 

Could you snap a pic of what they did?