UglyScout
Contributors
A little background – I used to camp, back county cruise, road trip, explore and backpack a lot. Then I got married, then I had a baby... We went ‘camping’ over the summer with the baby and after making my 5th trip back to the truck for more crap to carry, I knew there had to be a better way. So around the 1st of September, after researching my options, I found a popup camper – it happened to be a Four Wheel Camper which in turn brought me to this site. We took a test run over labor day to find out what worked and what didn’t, then spent the next month fixing and prepping the camper for real use. The plan is to try and use it once a month all year for weekend trips and a couple times a year for longer trips.
This past weekend we took our first real trip a 4 day, 3 night, 400 miles tour of the North Oregon Coast from Newport to Astoria. It isn’t on par with most trips on here, but it is a start. Truck: 1995 Dodge 2500 Diesel. Camper: 1993 Four Wheel Grandby. Crew: Me, the wife and lil’ Max (he turned 10 months old on the trip).
The weather was AMAZING for the middle of October and the FWC was PERFECT. I haven’t put fuel in the truck yet, but I am guessing I got 19 to 20 mpg, which is about what I was getting with a shell, fuel tank and overloaded tool box in the bed before. Everything on the camper worked like a champ and other than hitting a bump/jump hard enough on a side road to break a battery hold down free under the hood, which ripped the negative battery cable off one of the batteries, which made for a really slow to start truck, everything on the truck worked fine.
We started the trip by taking the back way through Dayton, Monmouth, and Kings Valley to get to Hwy 20 and Newport. We stopped at a couple covered bridges for pictures and snack breaks. We spent the first night at South Beach State Park – it is a typical Oregon Coast mega park. I knew what I was getting myself into, but I thought it would give my wife some perspective for future trips. We will not be going back (Yippee!!). But if you like huge trailers/motor homes/playgrounds/full services and people it is the place for you. Our site was about 1/3 mile from the beach, which was mostly empty other than the kite surfers (all the ‘campers’ were in the trailers).
The next day we motored north up Hwy 101, our first stop was the OSU Hatfield Marine Science center (Go BEAVS!). Then a farmers market for some fresh produce. After that, stopping at any beach that looked nice. We even took the truck out on the sand at Terra Del Mar (much to the dismay of my wife since our truck is 2wd) for some glamour shots. We made it to Cape Lookout State Park in time to watch an awesome sunset and have dinner. We got a ‘tent’ site so we were among people more our speed and the beach was 100 yards away so you couldn’t hear anything over the roar of the surf. My wife decided she like this kind of campground much better.
Day three started with a hike to the end of Cape Lookout (4.6 miles roundtrip). We’ve made this hike a number of times, but this was the best weather yet.
The ocean was a blue/green that you rarely see in Oregon. After the hike we continued north stopping at more beaches. At some point we decided it was far too nice to head home as we originally planned. We checked the cooler and diaper supply and it looked like we had enough supplies for another day at least. A few calls were made and the trip was extended! We drove on with plans to stop ‘somewhere’. We ended up making it all the way to Ft. Stevens State park near Astoria. This is the granddaddy of all Mega State Parks. We arrived in the dark and left in the morning without exploring it. It was very quiet, clean and had hot showers, so it wasn’t bad, just not our style.
Our final day started with a few tourist stops in Astoria at the Maritime Museum and the old Bumble Bee Cannery. Then it was a slow drive up the Columbia River with a final stop at Sauvie Island for a visit to the Pumpkin Patch. We pulled into our driveway with just over 400 miles on the odometer, a ton of pictures and some good times. The trip was rated a 100% success, lil’ Max did amazing and my wife is much more open to the idea of camping in more remote and unimproved areas.
Pictures to follow.
This past weekend we took our first real trip a 4 day, 3 night, 400 miles tour of the North Oregon Coast from Newport to Astoria. It isn’t on par with most trips on here, but it is a start. Truck: 1995 Dodge 2500 Diesel. Camper: 1993 Four Wheel Grandby. Crew: Me, the wife and lil’ Max (he turned 10 months old on the trip).
The weather was AMAZING for the middle of October and the FWC was PERFECT. I haven’t put fuel in the truck yet, but I am guessing I got 19 to 20 mpg, which is about what I was getting with a shell, fuel tank and overloaded tool box in the bed before. Everything on the camper worked like a champ and other than hitting a bump/jump hard enough on a side road to break a battery hold down free under the hood, which ripped the negative battery cable off one of the batteries, which made for a really slow to start truck, everything on the truck worked fine.
We started the trip by taking the back way through Dayton, Monmouth, and Kings Valley to get to Hwy 20 and Newport. We stopped at a couple covered bridges for pictures and snack breaks. We spent the first night at South Beach State Park – it is a typical Oregon Coast mega park. I knew what I was getting myself into, but I thought it would give my wife some perspective for future trips. We will not be going back (Yippee!!). But if you like huge trailers/motor homes/playgrounds/full services and people it is the place for you. Our site was about 1/3 mile from the beach, which was mostly empty other than the kite surfers (all the ‘campers’ were in the trailers).
The next day we motored north up Hwy 101, our first stop was the OSU Hatfield Marine Science center (Go BEAVS!). Then a farmers market for some fresh produce. After that, stopping at any beach that looked nice. We even took the truck out on the sand at Terra Del Mar (much to the dismay of my wife since our truck is 2wd) for some glamour shots. We made it to Cape Lookout State Park in time to watch an awesome sunset and have dinner. We got a ‘tent’ site so we were among people more our speed and the beach was 100 yards away so you couldn’t hear anything over the roar of the surf. My wife decided she like this kind of campground much better.
Day three started with a hike to the end of Cape Lookout (4.6 miles roundtrip). We’ve made this hike a number of times, but this was the best weather yet.
The ocean was a blue/green that you rarely see in Oregon. After the hike we continued north stopping at more beaches. At some point we decided it was far too nice to head home as we originally planned. We checked the cooler and diaper supply and it looked like we had enough supplies for another day at least. A few calls were made and the trip was extended! We drove on with plans to stop ‘somewhere’. We ended up making it all the way to Ft. Stevens State park near Astoria. This is the granddaddy of all Mega State Parks. We arrived in the dark and left in the morning without exploring it. It was very quiet, clean and had hot showers, so it wasn’t bad, just not our style.
Our final day started with a few tourist stops in Astoria at the Maritime Museum and the old Bumble Bee Cannery. Then it was a slow drive up the Columbia River with a final stop at Sauvie Island for a visit to the Pumpkin Patch. We pulled into our driveway with just over 400 miles on the odometer, a ton of pictures and some good times. The trip was rated a 100% success, lil’ Max did amazing and my wife is much more open to the idea of camping in more remote and unimproved areas.
Pictures to follow.
We have a little travel infant bed that we put him in for naps, either on the couch or up in the bed, and if its warm we'll also use that at night (usually we have a tuk on him and socks on his hands for mittens). If its colder we'll sleep in my wife's sleeping bag with her. Even though he's not a roller right now when he's on the couch we put a duffle bag on the floor by him to break any fall if it happened and when he's on the bed we use duffle bags to block access off the edge. When he starts crawling he'll likely have to stay down below and we'll need to adjust.
