Camp Kitchens

For the car, tent, teardrop or popup camper, kitchen storage is always a concern. You don't see them much now a days but a chuck box or camp kitchen is a great way to keep all of your utensils, pots, plates and everything else in one place. I searched eBay for mine and it has worked great. It is from the 60's or 70's.

And all of this goes in it to.

Here it is in use

And here are some others that I have seen.

Added a personal touch to the trailer a small one.

I added a personal touch to the trailer I have had it for years and thought that
this was a great place for it.

Telescoping Ladder

I don't much care for the ladder on our trailer, it is to high off the ground and feels a
little to flimsy for my 250 lbs so I bought a Wolfwise 12.5' telescoping ladder from
Amazon, it was on a 4hr sale and had an $11 off coupon for a total price of $78 with
free shipping and I like it much better. No more getting on the roof to clear snow off the
slider before pulling it in and it is easy to store. There is some wobble when fully
extended and when I get toward the top, but I feel safer on it and it has a 300 lb. rating.

The trailer needs a softer bed.

Just like our popup, the bed in our Keystone is to hard so before we go through replacing it we have added 1/2" anti fatigue matting from Costco that alone did not help enough so I added a 2" gel memory foam mattress topper from Amazon and that felt much better and we still have a down alternative topper we were using before to put back on and I think that will do it,  if not we will add a cheap 1" to 1 1/2" foam pad.

Adjustable rear awning for a popup camp trailer

Here is our adjustable rear awning on our Coleman Cedar the build is listed
in my pages list.

Sleeping bags

Sleeping bags are one of those things most of us have for camping, maybe one for
spring and fall a lighter one for summer and a heavy one for winter. That one item
alone can add up into the hundreds of dollars, especially for the winter bag. Here is
an alternative, I bought this one off eBay a Slumberjack R3 sleeping bag system it is
two bags in one and is rated:
Inner bag 3 lbs 9 oz for fall /spring (0° alone) outer bag 2 lbs 9 oz for summer
(alone 30°) or combine the two for 6 lbs 2 oz for winter camping (-20°).
I paid $93 with shipping and this bag resides in our popup trailer and takes
care of the wife and I for sleeping. You may consider looking into this when it
comes to buying a bag.

 

Need input on some bumper stickers

I could use some input on some bumper sticker I'm thinking about getting made, if
you see one you like comment and let me know.

Favorite sayings of the day

The mountains are calling and I must go. by John Muir

You can take me out of the mountains but you can't take the mountains out of me.

Camp areas if you were traveling the Beartooth Pass or going to Yellowstone Park

If you were going from Montana to the Beartooth Pass or on to Yellowstone Park you
may want to stop along the way if you were taking your time so I decided to look for
places you might stop over night between Laurel, MT at the start of Hwy 212 going to
the pass or the park and Silver Gate at the entrance to the park and what I found is
a lot of places to stop for the night or longer, here is what I came up with. First is

Laurel MT Walmart

Water Birch FWP access site by Roberts MT is a good site.

3 FWP sites just north of Red Lodge MT, they are not that good.

4 USFS campgrounds just outside of Red Lodge MT they are:
Sheridan with 9 sites, Rattin with 7 sites, Basin with 30 sites & Cascade with
30 sites they are in the Custer National Forest.

At the junction of Hwy 212 and Lake Fork Rd. is a dispersed site with about 6 spots.

About 5 mile South of Red Lodge you find 3 more USFS campgrounds they are
Parkside with 26 sites, Limber Pine with 13 sites & Greenough Lake with 18 sites.

You have to go up over the pass to get to more spots there are 3 side roads on the
south side of the pass with possible spots to park.

Next there are 2 USFS campgrounds in the Shoshone National Forest they are:
Island Lake with 21 sites & Beartooth Lake with 21 sites.

There are 3 side roads after the campground with possible dispersed sites and
2 roads #136 & the Lily Lake Rd #130 that have sites.

Crazy Creek Campground with 16 sites is next it is past where the Chief Joseph
Hwy comes in.

There is a large dispersed site down the road from here on the left just past where
Pilot Creek meets the Clark's Fork river.

Next you come to the USFS Fox Creek campground with 33 sites.

Next you go back into Montana and the Custer National Forest and you have
2 USFS campgrounds they are:
Coulter with 18 sites and Soda Butte with 27 sites.

After these campgrounds you will come to Silver Gate this list dose not include
private campgrounds or RV parks along the way.

Campground & camp spot recon

Well, we went to Red Lodge, MT today to check on the local campgrounds. I wanted to get in before they opened and take camp spot pictures, but they were still snowed in, at least the snowmobilers were enjoying it.

So we headed to Water Birch FWP access and found our first camping bastards, a Coleman popup and someone with a fairly new lifted TT that was in need of a lesson on how to level their TT, but at least they were enjoying themselves. I took some pictures of this place, but I don't like to take pictures of camp spots with people in them so we will have to go back to get the rest. Water Birch is a nice spot for early or late season camping.

We headed to Lovell, WY after that and kept seeing more camping bastards, we went to Five Spring Falls first it was still snowed in so no pictures but we did run into some hardy souls up there, looked like they were vehicle camping 1 group even chose a spot in the snow when there was one available that was clear go figure.

We went to the BLM Cottonwood Creek campground next and got pictures of all but 1 site as a Fiver was in it, I will post pics in the WY BLM page it is a nice spot has 2 picnic or small camper spots, 2 pull through's and 2 back in sites. We checked out dispersed sites on the east side of Bighorn Lake after that and I will post google pics of those.

All in all a good trip but it made me wish we had gone to Cottonwood Creek to camp instead.

Camping in cold weather in a popup camper

If your going to camp in cold weather in a popup there are things you can do to help
hold the heat in. Cover the top of the bunk ends with space blankets reflective side
down to hold the heat in, simply clamp them in place. And you can turn them over
reflective side up to keep the heat out.

You can also cut Reflectix inserts to fit in the windows.

The inserts really do help with the cold and as an added benefit it helps cut the
morning light keeping the trailer darker inside.

The non traditional campgrounds

For people looking for less expensive or no cost camping places, don't forget to
check your local FWP access areas some have camping areas and are usually
around $7 a night. Also look at WMA's (Wildlife Management Areas) some of
them also allow camping.

Update to this post we just visited one of the local FWP sites and their costs
for at least some have changed this one is now $12 a night if you have a fishing
license $18 if you don't.

Outdoor camp shower

When tent camping or trailer camping with out full bathroom facilities just getting clean
is a chore, maybe it is warm enough to take a swim or you could take a sponge bath,
I bought the black hanging bag but have never used it.

I found a Zodi single bottle shower on sale at Walmart and put it in a 5 gal bucket, fill
the bucket with water, put on a propane bottle and let the water recirculate till warm
and there is enough of it to get a good shower in and a bottle will take care of two
showers or more. Much better than a black bag especially when the sun isn't out.

Lynx Levelers

I have 2 packs of Lynx's Levelers that I have used since 2011 with my popup and they
are a great product, much easier than carrying pieces of 2X6. I tried them out last year
on my fifth wheel and maybe for hard and  fairly level ground they may work well
but once it gets off camber and the ground is softer they start to crack and they are
just not the right choice for use around the tires. Keep them for the stabilizers but
for off camber softer ground you want a more robust product. I will try out 2X6's and
rubber stall mats this season and put the Lynx back with the popup and get many
more years of service from them.

BAL X-Chock 28010 Single

The BAL X-Chock 28010 is another great BAL product. I bought it, tried it, and went back and bought a second one for the other side, they are easy to use and hold tight to the tires. I heartily recommend these.

BAL leveler

BAL LIGHT TRAILER TIRE LEVELER for single axle trailer this is a great product and
works even on very uneven ground and I highly recommend one for your popup,
tear drop or other single axle trailer, I have had no problems with mine in the 3
seasons that I have had it. They are super easy to use, simply chock the higher side
of the trailer slide it under the tire on the low side and start cranking it up till it's level,
throw some blocks under the tire just to be safe.
 http://norcoind.com/bal/products/consumer/leveling_products/tireleveler.shtml

The 2018 season

The 2018 season will be a big season for us as we will no longer have to sit at home
while we are doing camper or tow vehicle upgrade we can just take the other one.
We have already added towel bars and TP holder to the Laredo, it didn't come with
them which I find odd, kitchen back splash, flat screen TV, speakers and topper
to the hard bed. And since this year we will start are season down lower in the
3500 ft elevation we can start earlier and we no longer have to worry about packing
down a wet popup and opening it back up at home to let it dry.

The Blog name

Why Camping Bastards.com, well it is winter here in Montana and I see RV's still going down the road and I know most are just bought and lots or full timers or someone just going through but every time I see one I can't help but think those lucky bastards they are getting to do what I am missing very much right now. I know I could go somewhere in this cold and park but I wouldn't risk hauling water, so we stay home but our time will come.

Thermarest Base Camp self inflating mattresses they have an R - value of 5 and are 2 " thick.We have 4 and they were bought for tent camping but they now reside full time in our popup since the 3" mattress setting on plywood was very uncomfortable we still had to add a 1.5" memory foam topper to finally make the beds comfortable. The Base Camps are a quality mattress and easy to use, I would recommend them to anyone looking for more sleeping comfort.

https://www.thermarest.com/

We missed parts of the 2011 - 2012 camping seasons because we were doing mods to the popup and the jeep, larger projects like lifts and I failed to take pictures of our trips in 2013 & 2014.

Our camping trips

Most of our camping trips tend to be in the Bighorn Mtns in Wyoming at the 8000 - 9000 ft elevation where the season for us runs the middle of June to the third week in August, a 3 month season is pretty short but any earlier in June and roads can still be snowed in and we usually get snowed on in our last trip in August. That was our main reason for buying a fifth wheel so we could camp lower earlier on when it's still cold at night and later into the season Sept - Oct lower down. ,