Soon to be camping, finally!

[ccarley]

A good friend of mine was able to talk me into a camping trip, March 1-3 this year. His wife is taking their kids to Oregon, and my wife gave me the OK to go with my buddy (and some of his other friends too). If anyone in the area is interested in joining us, let me know.

For this trip, we're heading to Cow Mountain, in Ukiah CA. I'm hoping to be able to go to the Red Mountain Camp on South Cow Mountain, but in times of rain I guess that whole area can be closed. If that ends up being the case, we'll be camping at Mayacmas camp in North Cow Mountain.

Given that time of year, and the weather in Nor-Cal, it will probably be muddy The reason why he wants to do this trip, though, is to go to the gun range at North Cow Mountain and shoot his new-to-him .22 rifles. So, you know, I'll probably bring some toys too.

Now, while looking at the Cow Mountain site, I came across this other campground called Sheldon Creek. It's not in the Cow Mountain area, but "detatched". This place looks like it's in Hopland, which is South of Ukiah. I was unable to find photos anywhere online of the place, but the info I have is that it's a very quiet area, 8 miles down a dirt road.

Has anyone heard of Sheldon Creek?

http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/ukiah/cowmtn.html

The other interesting thing is, that as I mentioned this place to my wife, she suggested that we go check it out for my birthday (which is later this month). My jaw just about dropped... really? Go check out a place, in the middle of nowhere, with our 8 month old daughter, and you *want* to go? The next question is, will I have gas money for this trip?!

Clay

 

[ccarley]

Just got back yesterday from our camping "adventure". I'll post pics hopefully today...

Thursday it was raining in Santa Rosa. I met my buddy Bobby at his house, and we hit the store for some food after that.

It rained on and off on the way to Ukiah, and the wind was terrible on the freeway! I seriously need wing window seals. Bobby's CB would transmit but not receive, so I handed him my handheld unit. The batteries lasted about 15 minutes... but it worked during that time at least.

Hit the range at North Cow, and it was sunny but very windy. Had one earplug in my bag So, Bobby shot the .22 rifle for a while. I put a few rounds through the Kimber .45, and hit the gong at 400 with the SKS (open sights, surprising with that wind!). Put 3 rounds through the Mosin but that was enough of that!

While packing up from shooting, we realized that neither of us had any firewood. Bobby says, "did you bring your saw? Or your axe?", well I didn't. And there was wood on the ground to cut too. We found some stuff, loaded it in the Suburban, and headed to South Cow for camping.

The road to South Cow was pretty slippery. In 4 high, I think I was experiencing axle wrap on the front end as the big Suburban was attemping to claw up the hill to the staging area. Once at the staging area, we found the gate closed "due to excessive wet weather". We didn't think it had rained that much... oh well. We had no place to be, so we headed back to North Cow to camp at the Mayacmas campground. Felt like the longest drive, and the washboard sections were terrible! It did rain on and off on the way up, which was nice (I thought).

The road to this campground is fairly narrow in parts, and has quite a dropoff too. I was only slightly nervous since it was pretty slick out there, but neither of us had any problem. The campground was empty (nobody else wants to camp this time of year?) so we certainly had our choice of a site. Found one that had enough room for both Bobby's 4-runner and my Suburban, and set up for the night. Attempted a fire, but the wood was soaking wet. We crawled into the backs of our vehicles around 7:00 since we ran out of light...

The morning woke us with cold. I'm guessing it was in the 20's, as the ground was crunchy, the picnic table was ice! I set my coffee mug down and it slid across the table. I was comfy except for my feet; and with the temp still going down, my feet were just getting colder. We had a quick breakfast, coffee for me and hot chocolate for Bobby, and packed up. Sounds easy, but I had a terrible sinus headache, and didn't want to move much.

Once on the way down, parts of the once muddy road were icy in the shadows of the mountain. I mostly stayed in 4-hi, but had to use low for the steep down parts. Even at that, since were trying to get warm & home quickly, we both had the BBQ-esque smell of burning brakes at the bottom of the hill.

Being the good buddy he is, Bobby invited me over Friday to hang out... however other things were on my mind. Shower for one... but the most important pressing issue was, well, you ever drink some coffee in the morning and then... you don't really want to use an icy cold outhouse, do you? So I headed home & took care of business

I think I have some bolts to tighten up after those roads. And, when flexing decently, my interior lights were coming on. Need to see what's up with that. Back door popping a little? Body flexing? Not sure. Maybe even the light wire grounding in the roof?

Pictures coming...

Clay

 

[ccarley]

Stopping at the new (to us) Arco gas station in Ukiah:

Bobby testing out his 4-Runner:

Me with my 1937 Mosin Nagant:

Bobby with the .22 rifle:

At the campground, finally:

Bobby attemping to get into the site from the other side:

I thought this was kind of a cool shot:

Suburban in the morning:

Couple of mild flexy shots:

And, Bobby having some fun:

Kind of hard to get lots of good photos without someone else with you. Hopefully next time more people will join us!

Clay

 

[Burbdood 74]

Cool pics! I love going camping this time of year because you don't have 1000's of other campers and their screaming kids around and the campfire is so much more enjoyable.......and necessary to survive!

Your Sub is looking good dood. I love that color combo and the stance it has.

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

Gettin' it!!!

 

[ccarley]

snuffy74:
Thanks man! I throughly enjoyed the trip, especially since there was nobody else around. It really makes it nice. And you can actually sleep all night, without being awakend by... fill in the blank! I'm really happy with the way the Suburban is working out. The TrueTrac worked really well on this trip too. Gotta credit the stance to the Pro-Comp springs in the back, and the Tuff Country H.D. springs in the front. Although with how bad the road was, I was thinking the EZ rides might have been better...

The Beast 88K5:
Yeah Bobby was having fun with that corner. I didn't want to test the stock shafts in the 12-bolt though...

Clay

 

[magik235]

Looks like you had fun.

 

[black dawg]

that shooting range is a mess.

 

[Slapperbar]

CCARLEY what are the specs of your 'Burb?

 

[gotblazers]

I woulda gone if i had known about it. Im looking for good places to shoot and camp locally. Any future trips planned?

 

[ccarley]

black dawg: yes, that range is a mess at times. It gets worse, then someone cleans it up, and it gets messy again. No rangemaster == no etiquette.

Slapperbar: '89 Suburban V1500, 4" Tuff Country H.D. springs front, 4" Pro-comp 56" springs rear. Bilstein 12" travel short body piggyback shocks front with custom valving, 5100's spec'd for 4" lift rear. ORD comp bumpstops in the front too. 3.73 gears, Detroit/Eaton truetrac in the rear, open front at the moment. TBI spacer on the 350, and a salad bowl. Hmm what else... 700R4 trans. Stock 10-bolt front, 12-bolt out of an '81 K5 in the rear. 35" BFG A/T on 15" Centerline rims.

gotblazers: I'll make sure to post here next time I go out. Might be a while, I didn't even have the gas money for this trip! It was worth it though. Next time we plan to hit Cow Mountain from Lakeport; which involves a creek crossing. And, there's a campground on a "real" 4wd trail (according to the map).

Clay