A Guy A Girl and a Trail: Adventures in a 4Runner Limited

Looks like a good time, how did you like the new JetBoil? I have a Camp Chef, and don't plan to retire it anytime soon. Also, do you have any solar recharging capabilities? I've been looking at a small Goal Zero kit to start playing around with.

 

Batman eating s'mores












I can not stress enough how big of a game changer it is having a fridge

 

Spot the 4runner

 

Bald eagle






















This one is definitely permanent

 

We are really happy with it so far, it puts out crazy amounts of heat but it has micro adjust knobs, it's like 5-6 turns open to close so you can really dial in the heat to be exactly where you want it, and for a 2 burner, you really can't beat the packability of it.

The red arc is solar ready, it's just a matter of getting an unregulated solar panel to in. I've done my research and pics what I'm going to get, but 6 months later I just haven't pulled the trigger on it. Generally, we're not sitting in one place for days and days and days and I know I can go at least 48 hours without needing to recharge anything. I haven't tried longer than that without moving the truck yet. My dual battery build I panned for a battery monitor to keep an accurate gauge of power used and how much is left but I haven't been able to find a nice one that is waterproof and suitable for life in the engine bay. After this trip though, just for peace of mind, my wife is on board with pulling the trigger on the solar panel and picking up either the annex room or the awning for the tent.

 

I let my 4 year old decide where we were going to explore. I narrowed it down to areas without active fire bans but I let him drop a pin on google maps over the state of Colorado and then we went and spent the better part of this past week exploring the area he chose. It was fantastic! We had an amazing trip, the views, the roads, we didn't see a single person for days, we found some epic campsites that I made sure to mark in my GPS for future use.

 

Batman, looks like he had a great time. Finally found my boy a mountain bike, used Trek 200. Taking him out tomorrow. Found a beginner place for him to start figuring it out. Hopefully he enjoys it and we can head for weekend trips

 

Update, eat ate it. But got up, drank some water and started back at it 5 minutes later

 

It's funny my son very rarely wipesout on a mountain bike but he has never at any point completed a hike without tripping and going down lol

 

Pics from the hike we found during that last trip, I figured I should go through them before we go back out tomorrow.

 

Gotta love kids. Going back out again this weekend

 

Another trip is in the books





















Solar!!






Chicken quesadillas are one of our goto meals

 

https://youtu.be/ivcGW7m-DKE

 

3am bathroom break, the brightest moon I've ever seen by far, pics don't do it justice!






Tip: cook breakfast meat in the pan with eggs and the eggs wont stick in the pan.






















Who doesn't have a quick cereal breakfast at a trailhead?

 

Who’d you go with for the solar? Looks like a great trip

 

Overland Solar Bugout 130 solar blanket to the redarc

 

My neighbor and I messed around with his goal zero panel and yeti 200 this weekend. The panel was impressive, less impressed with the yeti as it burned through the charge quickly. But the panel was legit

 

Personally I'm not a fan of Goal Zero, it's decent quality stuff in general, but yetis are way over priced for what you get, and everything they make is really designed to be a part of their own little ecosystem of stuff. You're either all in on Goal Zero or you're not. I don't want USB charging ports and regulators built into the panel itself, I want goo clean unregulated power to let the very high quality MPPT controller built into the redarc do its job. If a company doesn't tell you the specific type of solar cells being used and its efficiency rating its because they are selling cheap stuff at a premium price.

 

Good to know. I’m still looking for something small. May just hit Amazon for a hand held as I don’t need anything big. Not planning a full overland style build

 

Looks like a great spot
is that a primitive site or are you just following property lines?
Yellowstone was on the agenda for this may but best laid plans.... now I’m looking for more off the trail- staying away from the parks and crowds. I have a 7&8 yr old so still trying to keep to safer locals.
Where was this trip?

 

I typically use what I’m assuming is actual primitive sites, but it’s first come first served, free, no reservations, no amenities, public land. Generally National Forest or BLM land.


If it helps these are my go to apps for this sort of thing.


This last trip was a few different places around, near, and in Rocky Mountain National Park. In fact the last hike, that was at an unmanned and unmonitored RMNP trailhead, but with COVID stuff they have a reservation system in place. You need to make a reservation online to go the park, but it’s stupid because there are X amount of permits every 2 hours for the park as a whole, which defeats the purpose if it doesn’t actually do any crowd control because everyone could go to one place. But, with little man in tow, we decided to do the right thing and go over and buy a national park pad and then make an online reservation, and then went back to do the hike we wanted to do.

 

I got one of these for the power washer, not bad.

 

How you do anything is how you do everything!
Keep it clean
When I heard that the Forest Fenn treasure trove was found I was pulling for you Agent O!
One thing is for sure, when you find something like that you’ll never stop looking and never find anything like that again.
That applies to marriage as well HA

 

Which one is that? I’ve been looking for one and found an Amazon model that has good reviews

 

I don’t know, some Amazon one. Had I know Home Depot stocked a ryobi one with the shitty caster wheels I would have just bought that and tried it. In the end it’s not actually going to clean anything. It’ll knock the crud off from a bunch of stuff but it’s not cleaning it. I would put to much thought into which one to get.