The curiously named State Forest State Park is about 2 hours west of us. Since we were not going anywhere for Thanksgiving, we decided to go camping.
The drive up the Poudre Canyon allowed us to see some of the devastation from the Cameron Peak fire, the largest fire in Colorado History. Many of the areas that we had hiked in the past were closed.
As we got close to Cameron Pass, the road became snowpacked. We went over the pass, past the Moose Visitor Center, and turned at the North Michigan Reservoir turnoff. I engaged the 4WD, due to the snowpacked roads. We had some trouble finding our campsite; we missed it the first time, and had to turn around. The campsite is very close to the dam. When we have stayed at the park in the past, we have been on the other side the reservoir, but that road is closed.
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| The moon rising over the mountains. |
After we got the rig parked, we went for a hike on the beaver pond trail. The first part was nice, but then we got into an area that had been logged, with tree trunks blocking the trail, so we turned around.
As the evening went on, we watched the outside temperature go down. By 8 pm, it was 7 degrees outside. The furnace was running almost continuously.
In the morning it was -2 F, very cold. The camper continued to work, and it was not uncomfortable inside. However, the battery had dropped to 35% charge, having started the evening at 85% charge. When Richard started the generator, it was leaking gas a lot, so he shut it down. No way could we withstand another night of very cold weather without plugging in, or running a generator for a few hours. We stopped and asked about a campground where we could plug in, but no luck. We decided to take a hike and head home.
We drove to the end of the park road, and hiked on the North Canadian trail. The trail was packed down by tracked vehicles; when we went out of the track, we found somewhat difficult going, so we stayed on the track. The snow was not deep in most areas, except for north facing slopes. After hiking for an hour or so, we headed back to the camper, hooked up, and drove back to Fort Collins, getting home after dark.
We did learn some things. One is that if we are going to be camped in zero degree weather, the camper needs to be plugged in, or we need to plan to run the generator for several hours. The other is that the generator needs to be fixed or replaced. I bought the generator years ago, used, so it is perhaps 20 years old.
It was sunny, snowy, and beautiful. We will have to do it again.
