Truck Camping Photo Thread

That's what I thought but it's likely wrinkly and only 39ft if stretched taut, once wrapped around a tree or two I think I will be lucky to see less than half that.... I will report back as well.

 

I'm going to need further observation of the picnic table to see if that's a good camping spot or not.
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Just making sure you have all the equipment that you need there.

 

what picnic table

 

What brand is the table?

 

Came as an option on the bumper. Brute Force Fabrication, Fresno, CA.

 

so cal with my mate and his beamer

 

Nice! I've owned 3 beemers. 1st was a F650GS single cylinder, then an R1100S, and my last bike was the F650GS Twin. Sold that abd traded my Honda Civic to get my Tacoma. Great bikes though.

 

Was a warm afternoon on Gooseberry Mesa on Monday. Stayed the night and rode South Rim back from the point in the morning. Had the entire mesa to myself. Didn't see a single soul.

Second picture is the Redbull Rampage site.

 

What you probably don't want to encounter while camping/hiking...

 

Why would you follow/chase a mt lion, then hang out in the kill zone while it has the high ground on you?!????

 

dire consequences!

 

Dumb people do dumb things!

 

Reminds me of the movie series "Faces of Death".
The one where someone filmed a guy filming a Grizzly Bear as the bear killed the guy.

 

If I remember that one correct they didn't realize how close they actually got because they were looking through the camera!

 

The hikers did not chase the cat. These were hikers on some long trail like the JMT and had left camp earlier that day. After seeing the lion they tried to determine what to do. Turn up the volume and you can hear the fear in their voices. If you were on a long hike with an intended goal and saw a cat would you immediately turn around to head back or would you attempt to continue? Well they slowly backed away while watching the cat and then went miles back to the camp they had the night prior. They continued the next day. Easy to make decisions about what is right/wrong while sitting at your computer. Mountain lions are rarely encountered like this. The hikers submitted this video to the controlling agency of the area and a wildlife biologist's best guess is that the cat had a fresh kill cached nearby and was protecting it. It is regardless a very interesting and eye opening video.

 

Did I just get keyboard quarterbacked by someone accusing me of keyboard quarterbacking.

Rewatch the video. The video starts, they slowly walk around a bend and the cat is standing broadside on the trail then walks away tail down, down the trail.

The hikers continue while filming, with what appears to be a phone, on down the trail around the bend. They then notice the cat now has the high ground and they start to postulate what to do. Bear spray is alluded to, but one dude says "only if it comes at us".

These people have ZERO idea how to deal with a cat in the wild. And it appears they were touristing it. "Wow it's a very efficient killer, let's follow along and film it in its natural environment. Herp-a-derp-derp."

Having lived in areas of large cat populations, I DO know what to do. When they saw the cat break contact and turn the trail, they should have turned around and departed the area, not running, had some lunch and a water break... then returning down that section of trail making some significant noise. Talking, singing, music from a phone, one of those jingle bells, anything to let the cat know where they are. Act big, act mean, and always give cats an escape route. Cats won't bug you unless you mess with them first or you are intended prey. If you are prey, you won't know it till they are on top of you. So bear spray "not till it comes at us" is not a viable tactic.

Maybe I am crazy, but when I headed into grizzly country my first time, I did a bit of reading on bear encounters. So I would have some introductory level of understanding on how their behavior should dictate mine. Wouldn't it be amazing if there was a repository of vast amounts of knowledge at one's fingertips?!? Even better, what if we could use some electronic device to access such info?!?

Sorry to say, but these people are dumb.

 

Yep Agree.

 

I picked up yet another tent Friday after work. I decided to buy a North Face Stormbreak 2 which is a 2-person, 3-season tent. Most of my camping is simply a Saturday night with me an the pup. I'll use my Kodiak Flex-Bow canvas tent for long events and cold weather. I also received the Klymit Static V Luxe and wanted to put these to the test.

I had the tent up within 5 minutes without even reading the directions. That was good because it was getting dark when I got to my camping area and I still needed to build a fire. I really like the dual vestibules and doors on this tent. Though it could use more than one pocket on the inside.

The Klymit Static V Luxe is really comfortable! I wish it had self-inflating properties like my Thermarest. But I guess that would increase the overall pack size. The Klymit packs down very small, about the size of my hammock. I also wish it was less smooth as my sleeping bag wanted to slide around quite a bit on it. But it is still much more comfortable than the 1" Thermarest I have.

Some examples of some long exposures from Saturday night.





Terry the Adventure Pup LOVES chasing chipmunks. He's a cockapoo and will spend hours sniffing and digging around wood piles. Here he finally found and cornered a chipmunk.



While I was making coffee and breakfast, I heard what sounded like a calf and noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. These three fawns were trying to walk through camp. They saw me and turned around and walked around camp. They circles around about three times just doing their thing. Cute little buggers.