Solo Full-Time RV Life Has Started

Goodbye Portland

My departure date was postponed by a day and I was considering staying in Portland for yet another day. The weather forecast was truly horrendous. High wind alerts warned of 50 mph winds at the coast with torrential lashing rains. The weather service talked about a bomb cyclone and atmospheric river coming through western Oregon over many days. This is not the forecast I was hoping for. Even though there was plenty of rain, I decided that the area I had picked to boondock (free camping on public lands) deep in a forest would be isolated from the winds. I would be camping with 3 friends and we all agreed to take-off even though it would be very, very wet. Dave and Edna are heading to Tucson for the winter and Patty has renovated a van and wanted to test it. This weather would test lots of things but if anything went wrong we could also help each other. 

The trailer is ready to roll

Monday morning I headed to Paul and Bev's where my trailer has been parked since the middle of July. They have been super generous to let me keep my trailer in their driveway all summer long. Not only that but Paul helped me with so many projects big and small that have made the trailer much more livable. It sure is nice having friends that are handy with tools.

I met Patty at the Corvalis Municipal Airport parking lot and gave her the directions to Hult Pond campground. There are 21 campsites located on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) public lands. The sites are first-come first-serve and there is no way to reserve spots. There are a couple of vault toilets but no services such as electricity hook ups or water. There are also no fees. Looking at google maps earth view I could see 2 sites which appeared to be big enough for all 3 rigs close to the pond. The pond didn't have any towns close by and I wasn't expecting phone service. I wanted to make sure we both had directions in our phones before losing service. 

Google Earth view of camping sites

From Corvalis, the route was gorgeous. We were driving in peak foliage and the trees were dazzlingly colorful. The quiet country roads were twisting and the skies had lots of wispy clouds wrapping around trees on the hillsides. Just beautiful. The rains tapered off to mist as we approached our destination. 

Beautiful drive to the Hult Pond campground

I made a mistake on the last turn and started up a steep unpaved road. Luckily, I realized my error quickly and didn't have to back down too far. Patty and 2 woman from a farmhouse helped me negotiate my way reversing the trailer down and then make the turn onto the right road.

Reflective water

From studying the map, I knew there was an equestrian trailer parking area that had 2 big camping options. Being a parking area this wouldn't be a 1st choice for camping. Since the weather was so awful I felt confident no one would be here to ride horses. Patty and I took a spin through this parking area. If nothing else seemed big enough we could certainly set up in this parking area but we were hoping to camp closer to the pond area. We passed another good size camping area before getting to the pond. I wasn't sure what kind of sites would be available further down the road and parked my rig at the boat launch where I could still turn around. On the map, the roads ahead were so tree covered I couldn't see any sites. I jumped into Patty's van to explore the area further. We went down roads on both sides of the pond and didn't see any sites big enough for a truck and trailer. We never even saw an area big enough to turn around a truck and trailer. Leaving my rig at the boat launch was a very good idea.

We decided to go back to the last camping area we passed that was about a 10 minute walk to the pond. This would be plenty big enough for 2 truck and trailer rigs as well as Patty's van. As expected, aside from a camp host, we were the only other campers. Patty and I got set up and then Dave and Edna pulled in. They also have a truck and trailer. Neither of us unhitched our trucks even though we stayed for 2 nights. 

Camping next to Patty's van

Patty and Luna getting a rain photo of Dave and Edna with their rig

Once we all got our rigs leveled and set up, we went for a walk to explore the area around the pond. Even though the rains never let up, the walk was very beautiful. We also saw there were more walking trails along a creek and others that went into the hillsides. Some of these were probably horse trails as well.

Woolie bear

All of Oregon was having crazy high winds but here, it was wet but isolated and perfectly calm. The water in the pond was absolutely still and very reflective.  The colorful trees reflected in the water was especially beautiful. 

We spent the next day walking, hiking, playing cards and making fabulous meals. This was a wonderful place to camp. It was so quiet and peaceful.  I would really like to return when the weather is warmer.  Everyone's rigs handled the rain just fine. There wasn't much sun and I ended up using my generator for about an hour each day to recharge my lithium batteries. I'm still not really sure how low I can run these batteries. I have an app on my phone that connects by bluetooth to the inverter/charger and tells me how much power the panels are generating from the sun as well as the volts available in the batteries. When the batteries got close to 12.5 volts I decided to use the generator to top them off just to make sure I had enough power for over night use. I really like that the generator has been converted to propane and I don't need to move it. All I need to do is flip a switch on the propane line and pull the starter cord. Everything worked very well.

Road leaving the campground

From here, Dave and Edna were going to head further down the coast. Patty and I were talking about finding another place to boondock around Florence also on the coast. We'll see what we end up finding.

1st day starting my solo full-time RV life.