Tuesday, June 21, 2011

We’ve Had Enough

As you may know we love camping and finding new adventures. But, to us sleeping on the ground isn’t our favorite part about camping. Not to mention all the time wasted on setting up and taking down a ground tent. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy “roughing It” as much as the next guy but at some point you say to yourself “This isn’t fun; this is torcher. Who in their right mind enjoys having a rock in their side tossing and turning trying to get a descent nights sleep? Definitely NOT ME. I finally said “enough is enough” so I looked for other ways to enjoy the outdoors. I looked a cots but they took up to much room. I looked at campers but they are to pricy and i would have to by a truck to pull it $$$$$. I was just about to give up when I accidently found exactly what I’ve been looking for… A Roof Top Tent. And what is it that you might ask? It’s exactly what the name implies. It’s a tent that is mounted to the roof of an suv/truck. After doing a lot of research, we found that the roof top tent has been around for about 50 years and is mostly used in Africa for safaris. But, as they become more and more popular, they have become an Overlanding necessity in many areas. (overlanding: is typically know as a type of travel that is vehicle-supported, self-reliant  used for adventure travel, typically exploring remote locations and interacting with other cultures.) Even though overlanding is still somewhat uncommon in the United States, more and more people are choosing to use rooftop tents vs RVs and ground tents because they are: light weight (+ fuel economy),  easy to set up and take down (one minute and its ready to sleep in), and they are off the ground away from bugs, rocks, water and animals. After doing my homework, we found a tent company called MYWAY rooftop tents that built the quality of tents we wanted. They build their tents with an aluminum frame, which when open is 63x94, a water proof canvas, and a full size queen 3 inch mattress with a fitted sheet. It was clear that the rooftop tent was exactly what we had been looking for so we decided to give it a try. 8 to 10 days later it came in the mail.

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Now that we had the tent, we need a vehicle with a roof rack to support our new tent. (Note: we already had been looking for a suv to replace Sydni’s old subaru impreza). After searching, we found the perfect SUV for us. It was a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder.

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Finally it was time to mount our tent to the roof of our new SUV.

CLOSED (8 inches when closed)

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OPEN!!!

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If that isn’t awesome then I don’t know what is. We have slept 2 nights in it so far and we couldn't be more satisfied (best night sleep I have ever spent in a tent).

Let us know what you think.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Palisades Creek

Sunday June 5 Sydni, Lucy and I  packed up our camping gear and crammed it into our small Pontiac g6 and headed for palisades Creek just passed Swan Valley, idaho. 

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once we got to the camp ground we found a spot and set up camp.

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After setting up camp we decided to go see my Grandma Pasley (love that lady) who lives in swan Valley all year round.

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When we got back for visiting my grandma we cook hotdogs and had dessert. Sydni forgot the graham crackers and chocolate so we used cookies and marshmallows  to make smores. (in my opinion it was almost better then normal smores).

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We spent the rest of the evening enjoying each others company laughing and taking funny pictures.

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The next morning we we made breakfast and went on a hike. Palisades Creek campground is where the trail head is to the lower and upper lakes. Unfortunately due to high levels of water we only made it about mile in and had to turn around. We got some fun pictures though.

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after lunch we went for a drive on the other side of the river.

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got some ice cream at the square ice cream place.

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went mountain biking 

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After an eventful day all three of us took a nap  and woke up to nasty weather. It rained on all night. then next morning we packed up our wet gear and headed home. if it wasn't for the rain it would have been  perfect camping trip.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

First Camping trip of 2011

All month we had been suffering from camping fever, but we have been too busy and it has been too cold to get our hopes up. On Friday, May 22, 2011 we planned our first camping trip (on accident). After suffering from my camping fever I texted “Dude I wanna go camping” to my good friend Derek Dawson he replay “that would be fun. This weekend?” So we started packing. (Derek’s background info; we have been friends for a long time. In high school Derek basically lived on my couch. We have been through a lot together, including when he met Mary. They got married and they have been one of our closest friends.) Anyways, Saturday morning we went to the store to pick up food and supplies. Then the five of us (Ryan, Sydni, Derek, Mary and Lucy) hit the road. Due to the cold rainy weather and the snow in the mountains we couldn’t head north so we headed east of Idaho Falls to the river bottoms of Ririe Idaho.

                            

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Once we found out camp site it was about 4 pm, we unloaded and started setting up camp. Starting with the tent and built a fire.2010 2011 060 2010 2011 062  2010 2011 061

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Meanwhile, Sydni started preparing dinner. We made tin foil dinners with beef, potatoes, carrots, onion, mushrooms and cream of mushroom soup (which we over cooked) and corn on the cob.

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We spent most of our time sitting around the camp fire, talking and laughing…

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…well, until it started to rain. Luckily it only rained for 30 minutes then it stopped!

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Once the rain stopped we built our fire back up and cooked some S’mores. Derek and I found that adding peanut butter to one side of the gram cracker, steps up the taste rating of a smores to the next level (highly recommended).

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After enjoying our smores we spent more time chatting around the camp fire.

The next morning about 7:30 Derek and I started cooking breakfast on a portable two burner cooker. We make pancakes, sausage and eggs. We then packed up and headed home.

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