Rafter C
Advanced Member
After having bought our "new to us" ATC Cougar back in early December, we had to wait out the wettest CA winter in years to actually get to use it. Normally, we would've just headed south during the rains here in Northern CA, but the southern part of our state was getting just as wet. So I used those few months to ready the camper to our needs. Which are actual pretty minimal...
My wife and I have "moved up" from a Snug Top camper shell with a sleeping/storage platform inside, mostly because we've gotten tired of getting dressed on our backs, and not being able to sit completely upright. I guess we're getting soft.....
Truth be told, we've camped our whole lives by virtually all imaginable methods. Backpacking, tent camping, full size cabover camper, and sleeping on granite slabs on the Rubicon, so an ATC is just another iteration, and the basics of camping are long established, but how we use the camper was what we wanted to explore.
Our ATC is a 2011, outfitted in their base model with a stove, refer, sink, water tank and one AGM deep cycle battery. Our vehicle is a Cummins powered Dodge 3500 pickup that we've owned since new, so no shakedown needed there. The combined package is a good one. The camper represents no significant weight load, and the durability/heavy duty nature of the truck components should make reliability a non-issue.
The outfitting of the camper consisted mostly of deciding what to store in it. Having come from the camper shell configuration, we had lots of already organized gear, much of which I opted to directly transfer to the camper. The storage in the ATC base configuration is really nice for that, and as such, we have gear to set up a very nice camp outside of the vehicle, including a Coleman stove and lanterns, Cabelas camp stand, privacy tent, and a PETT toilet if desired. Additionally, I used 2 Action Packer containers on the floor of the camper (one with miscellaneous camping items like water basins, folding shovel, stakes, etc, and the other for "dry goods" storage), a 5 gallon water to jug to supplement the onboard 15 gallons, 2 milk crates to contain firewood, and a small "beer cooler", so that the fridge space is maximized toward food. The Action Packers and the water jug are contained with a 2" strap I made attached to the lower wall of the camper with a couple of clip buckles for easy removal. The milk crates and cooler slide in nicely next to them, and all stay in place very well while travelling.
So.... onto the trip report. We left our place near Grass Valley on a casual Sat morning. In light of the winter we've had, it was sunny, and turned out to be the beginning of the best run of weather we've seen since October. Fortunately, that held true through our whole trip. We headed up and over Donner Summit, down to Tahoe City, and over to Spooner Summit to get to Hwy 395 in Carson City, NV. Our hope was to camp somewhere around Mono Lake, stopping relatively early in the afternoon, so we could enjoy the nice weather. Using the trusty Gazeteer, I decided on the Mono Mils area south of Lee Vining. Unfortunately, about 400 yards shy of our destination, we ran into a locked seasonal gate on Hwy 120. Damn.... I'd hoped to camp there, and then travel through to Benton, CA, grabbing Hwy 6 south toward Bishop. Regrouping, we decided to continue south on 395, and hopefully find a similar spot. As it turned out, we found Alaska. While the Mono Lake area was totally free of snow, as soon as we were south of there near the June lake loop, the snow depth rapidly grew as we climbed up the "shoulder" of the eastern Sierras that juts out there where Mammoth Lakes is. As a result, we had to drive through there completely, and down into Bishop. We then caught Hwy 6 NORTH, toward Benton, and thanks to the trusty Gazeteer again, about 20 miles up the road we found a turn off toward Red Rocks Canyon. As it turns out, our added travel led to a GREAT campsite. Totally isolated, an incredible sunset view of the White Mountains, and one of the coolest camp fire sites I've ever seen/used. Well worth the detour...
The next morning brought an equally incredible sunrise over the Whites, coffee and breakfast, and a leisurely pace leaving. We headed back south toward Bishop, spent a couple hours at the great museum in Laws, CA, fueled up, and headed down to Independence, where we met up with a friend of our son, who is CA game warden. We had intended to continue south a bit farther and camp in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine, but at his suggestion, headed out of Independence up Onion Valley Rd instead. At the base of the mountains, we took a road that paralleled the mountain for a few miles, where we pioneered a great site about 20 yards from one the many streams that come out of the Sierras, and flow into the Owens Valley. Again, we were blessed with both a great sunset/moon rise that night, and an equally great sunrise the next morning. And there's always something great about camping near water when you're in the middle of sand and sage brush. In the morning, we took a nice hike up the creek to the base of the mountains. Really glad we followed our son's friends advice.....
Eventually, we loaded up, and headed back out to Independence, and continued south on 395. We decided to head into Death Valley in the hopes of seeing a "super bloom", but upon arriving there found nothing of the sort (apparently Anza-Borrego was the place to be for that). So we decide to bail out toward Beatty, NV. National Parks are not really our thing. While the sights are usually great, the restrictions don't suit our independent/outlaw nature. We prefer to make our own decisions about camping, dogs, travel and exposure to other people.
Once we were out of the park, we stopped in at Rhyolite, NV, a mining "ghost town" from the very early 20th century. Unfortunately, now with a huge open pit mine directly adjacent. But, we did see the "world famous" bottle house there, so that was cool.... We had a nice lunch there out among the ruins of the town, which brought back a lot of memories from my childhood of visiting ghost towns all over the West.
From Rhyolite, we continued over to Hwy 93, and headed north toward Tonopah, NV. Just past Goldfield, we turned west, drove about 20 miles, and turned left on the only desert road we could find. It took us up to a stock tank, and then beyond to a nice open spot in the desert, below the rims of some low hills, where we set up camp. Our night there was just great. It was probably the quietest, darkest and emptiest place I've camped, and I've camp in a lot of empty spaces.
The next morning, brought a dramatic sift in temps when the sun cleared the hills, so we loaded up and headed north. By that night, we were back home, having had a great little trip, figuring that the camper suited us well, and feeling much m ore relaxed than 3 days prior.
Overall, the camper was perfect for us. Fortunately, though it was used, it was very lightly used, so essentially it was new, and everything functioned perfectly. The battery remained well charged even when the fridge was in 12 volt mode while travelling. We adhere to the minimalist approach, and so solar panel, and extras batteries, etc are not on our list of needs. At least not yet......
My wife and I have "moved up" from a Snug Top camper shell with a sleeping/storage platform inside, mostly because we've gotten tired of getting dressed on our backs, and not being able to sit completely upright. I guess we're getting soft.....
Truth be told, we've camped our whole lives by virtually all imaginable methods. Backpacking, tent camping, full size cabover camper, and sleeping on granite slabs on the Rubicon, so an ATC is just another iteration, and the basics of camping are long established, but how we use the camper was what we wanted to explore.
Our ATC is a 2011, outfitted in their base model with a stove, refer, sink, water tank and one AGM deep cycle battery. Our vehicle is a Cummins powered Dodge 3500 pickup that we've owned since new, so no shakedown needed there. The combined package is a good one. The camper represents no significant weight load, and the durability/heavy duty nature of the truck components should make reliability a non-issue.
The outfitting of the camper consisted mostly of deciding what to store in it. Having come from the camper shell configuration, we had lots of already organized gear, much of which I opted to directly transfer to the camper. The storage in the ATC base configuration is really nice for that, and as such, we have gear to set up a very nice camp outside of the vehicle, including a Coleman stove and lanterns, Cabelas camp stand, privacy tent, and a PETT toilet if desired. Additionally, I used 2 Action Packer containers on the floor of the camper (one with miscellaneous camping items like water basins, folding shovel, stakes, etc, and the other for "dry goods" storage), a 5 gallon water to jug to supplement the onboard 15 gallons, 2 milk crates to contain firewood, and a small "beer cooler", so that the fridge space is maximized toward food. The Action Packers and the water jug are contained with a 2" strap I made attached to the lower wall of the camper with a couple of clip buckles for easy removal. The milk crates and cooler slide in nicely next to them, and all stay in place very well while travelling.
So.... onto the trip report. We left our place near Grass Valley on a casual Sat morning. In light of the winter we've had, it was sunny, and turned out to be the beginning of the best run of weather we've seen since October. Fortunately, that held true through our whole trip. We headed up and over Donner Summit, down to Tahoe City, and over to Spooner Summit to get to Hwy 395 in Carson City, NV. Our hope was to camp somewhere around Mono Lake, stopping relatively early in the afternoon, so we could enjoy the nice weather. Using the trusty Gazeteer, I decided on the Mono Mils area south of Lee Vining. Unfortunately, about 400 yards shy of our destination, we ran into a locked seasonal gate on Hwy 120. Damn.... I'd hoped to camp there, and then travel through to Benton, CA, grabbing Hwy 6 south toward Bishop. Regrouping, we decided to continue south on 395, and hopefully find a similar spot. As it turned out, we found Alaska. While the Mono Lake area was totally free of snow, as soon as we were south of there near the June lake loop, the snow depth rapidly grew as we climbed up the "shoulder" of the eastern Sierras that juts out there where Mammoth Lakes is. As a result, we had to drive through there completely, and down into Bishop. We then caught Hwy 6 NORTH, toward Benton, and thanks to the trusty Gazeteer again, about 20 miles up the road we found a turn off toward Red Rocks Canyon. As it turns out, our added travel led to a GREAT campsite. Totally isolated, an incredible sunset view of the White Mountains, and one of the coolest camp fire sites I've ever seen/used. Well worth the detour...
The next morning brought an equally incredible sunrise over the Whites, coffee and breakfast, and a leisurely pace leaving. We headed back south toward Bishop, spent a couple hours at the great museum in Laws, CA, fueled up, and headed down to Independence, where we met up with a friend of our son, who is CA game warden. We had intended to continue south a bit farther and camp in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine, but at his suggestion, headed out of Independence up Onion Valley Rd instead. At the base of the mountains, we took a road that paralleled the mountain for a few miles, where we pioneered a great site about 20 yards from one the many streams that come out of the Sierras, and flow into the Owens Valley. Again, we were blessed with both a great sunset/moon rise that night, and an equally great sunrise the next morning. And there's always something great about camping near water when you're in the middle of sand and sage brush. In the morning, we took a nice hike up the creek to the base of the mountains. Really glad we followed our son's friends advice.....
Eventually, we loaded up, and headed back out to Independence, and continued south on 395. We decided to head into Death Valley in the hopes of seeing a "super bloom", but upon arriving there found nothing of the sort (apparently Anza-Borrego was the place to be for that). So we decide to bail out toward Beatty, NV. National Parks are not really our thing. While the sights are usually great, the restrictions don't suit our independent/outlaw nature. We prefer to make our own decisions about camping, dogs, travel and exposure to other people.
Once we were out of the park, we stopped in at Rhyolite, NV, a mining "ghost town" from the very early 20th century. Unfortunately, now with a huge open pit mine directly adjacent. But, we did see the "world famous" bottle house there, so that was cool....
We had a nice lunch there out among the ruins of the town, which brought back a lot of memories from my childhood of visiting ghost towns all over the West.From Rhyolite, we continued over to Hwy 93, and headed north toward Tonopah, NV. Just past Goldfield, we turned west, drove about 20 miles, and turned left on the only desert road we could find. It took us up to a stock tank, and then beyond to a nice open spot in the desert, below the rims of some low hills, where we set up camp. Our night there was just great. It was probably the quietest, darkest and emptiest place I've camped, and I've camp in a lot of empty spaces.
The next morning, brought a dramatic sift in temps when the sun cleared the hills, so we loaded up and headed north. By that night, we were back home, having had a great little trip, figuring that the camper suited us well, and feeling much m ore relaxed than 3 days prior.
Overall, the camper was perfect for us. Fortunately, though it was used, it was very lightly used, so essentially it was new, and everything functioned perfectly. The battery remained well charged even when the fridge was in 12 volt mode while travelling. We adhere to the minimalist approach, and so solar panel, and extras batteries, etc are not on our list of needs. At least not yet......
