San Diego to Lake Tahoe (9 Days) June 19th – 27th, 2020
This third Scamp adventure would be our longest trip to date and one in which we would test many of the Scamps systems. We designed the trip so we would keep overall daily drive times to around four hours or less. We packed the Scamp with enough food, drinkable water, and clothes so that we wouldn’t have to go shopping or eat out during the trip.
Our first stop, a 3 ½ drive from home, was at my cousin Jon’s house in Santa Barbara which is close to the beach. He has a long level driveway on which we would park the Scamp and stay overnight. But, upon rolling into the sloped driveway entrance, the bottom of the jack plate scraped the concrete. We spoke to a helpful neighbor who works at a Sprinter conversion company and he recommended we flip our hitch (so instead of a 2 ½” drop it would have a ½” rise). It appeared the hitch was rated for using it both ways and it does have “Drop” and “Rise” markings on it, so we took the hitch off the SUV and had a local shop remove the ball and flip it (as the nut was extremely hard to remove and pneumatic tools made it possible). After the hitch was flipped, we found the jack plate easily cleared the driveway and actually made the Scamp level with the tow vehicle and easier to tow. So, this turned out really well. Once nicely in the driveway, we were able to hook up the Scamp to electric (make sure to bring your 30A to 110V converter cord!) and also City Water (hose). We had a great time visiting my cousins Jon and Melvin. We went for some long trail walks overlooking the ocean with my cousin Jon and Charlie (labrador) and had some nice meals in the Scamp (like salmon tortilla wraps). It was a relaxing quiet evening and good night’s sleep in their driveway. After breakfast, we took a long walk through Hope Ranch in the morning and tried to locate my old family home (but we think it was scrapped and rebuilt). Our plan was to stay over again in a week on our way home. We filled up our Fresh tank before leaving. And to be conservative, we dumped our Grey and Black tanks at a 76 station on our way out of town since we didn’t know when we would have a chance again in the next several days.
The next leg was only about a two hour drive north to CP Farms in Paso Robles (an olive oil farm and Harvest Host site). We arrived in the late afternoon and it was hot (95 degrees). Harvest Hosts is an annual membership website where Hosts (mostly wineries, farms, and museums) provide “free” overnight stays with the expectation you buy something when visiting (we purchased a $22 bottle of olive oil from the farm). Our Scamp doesn’t have AC, but the MaxxAir Fan is very good and although it was warm it was tolerable with the fan blowing hard, parked in the shade. We opted not to pay for electric and water at CP Farms and found that our briefcase Solar Panel provided enough power for our electric needs (fan, water pumps, LEDs, etc.). We used our propane for the refrigerator and hot water heater. The WiFi here was also very weak. There was a very friendly semi-feral cat named Nick who snuck into our Scamp when we weren’t looking (the door was left open for less than a minute) and when we returned we found him asleep on our dinette cushions! The stars were brilliant here at night. We checked the Scamp thoroughly to make sure Nick was not onboard before closing up and heading off to our next stop, Oakland. We dumped at a Valero Station on the way out of town.
We headed next to my sister Hilary’s house in Oakland, about a 3 hour drive north from Paso Robles. The entry slope on her driveway is very steep and even the rear bumper would have hit the driveway if we attempted to back in. Instead, we parked on the street in front of her house. But, the street is very sloped, so we used our special plastic ramp to level the trailer side to side. Otherwise, being inside and sleeping in the Scamp would not have been too comfortable. We set up our electric with an extension cord and adapter cable. Instead of running a water hose across the sidewalk which could have created a tripping hazard due to the large diameter of the hose, we filled up the fresh tank. Hilary made us a nice pizza lunch and our Nephew, Ro’e and his girlfriend Soph, made an excellent BBQ chicken salad for dinner. We walked around the neighborhood in the evening and heard a lot of fireworks (which had been a nightly event for the past several months). After breakfast, we walked at Redwood Gate Regional Park on trails in the woods. We planned to return to my sister’s house in a few days after our time at D.L. Bliss State Park in Lake Tahoe.
The drive from Oakland to D.L. Bliss State Park in Lake Tahoe was about 4 hours. We used the central Dump station upon arrival near the Ranger’s station before driving down to our spot at the lake (Site #160, a Premium site which costs $45 / night + $7.99 reservation fee). All sites at D.L. Bliss are without hookups, although there are the central Dump station and water spigots around the park. Our spot #160 was the closest to the lake and has a water spigot close by. In order to back into the spot, we needed to drive past the site and down to the upper beach parking lot and turn around so we could have the right angle. D.L. Bliss is a beautiful park and we could see the lake while sitting inside the Scamp! We used our solar panels to charge our battery daily and had no issues with keeping our battery at 12.5 Volts the entire three day stay! We did use the Dump station once in the middle of our visit and again on the way out. There are plenty of fun things to do at Lake Tahoe. We hiked part of the famous Rubicon Trail. There are Aleutian Canadian Geese on the beach and they are very friendly. There are giant Jeffrey Pinecones under the Jeffrey pines. If you smell this pine’s bark it smells like butterscotch and vanilla with a smidge of pineapple! We also hiked the higher Lighthouse trail to see the highest Lighthouse in the U.S. (no longer working and looks like an outhouse). After breakfast one morning we tried out our new 2 person inflatable kayak. It was awesome launching from the beach right below our campsite and paddling along the coast. Sitting just above the water on a kayak gives another perspective of the lake’s natural beauty.
On our final day at D.L. Bliss, we went for a hike to a famous house called Vikingsholm (home of the Vikings): a 30 room mansion Summer home built overlooking Emerald Bay in 1929 by a British lady (Mrs. Knight) and designed by her brother in law, Lennart Palme (a famous Swedish architect). There is a steep 1 mile walk down to the beach where the home sits near the lake’s edge. Scandinavian architectural influences can be seen in the sod roof and unusual wooden eaves and carvings. The owner had a tea house constructed on the only island on the lake opposite her house that she frequented daily for her afternoon tea. Angelica made gnocchi pasta with pesto sauce and veggies on the stove for lunch which was excellent. Following lunch, a freak thunder and lightning storm with pea sized hail hit. We were ok in the Scamp, but everyone else here had tents and we could see people frantically trying to weather protect them. We hiked to Balancing Rock after the storm in the evening. It’s a magnificent large rock that appears to be teetering on a small base.
We returned to Hilary’s house in Oakland and spent the night on the street again after our time at D.L. Bliss. The next morning we drove from Oakland to Morro Bay, about a 3 ½ hour drive. We stayed at a private park called Morro Dunes RV Resort which is across the street from the beach within sight of the famous Morro Rock. We had a $55 / night premium spot (facing the beach) with full hookups (including cable TV – although we didn’t bring the necessary cable to hook up to our Scamp). The WiFi at our spot was non-existent and the park was over crowded. Although we really didn’t enjoy this place due to the crowds and proximity of RVs next to each other, we did have a great hike at Montana de Oro trail – a bluff trail overlooking the Ocean with plenty of wildlife to enjoy at every turn.
Drive time down to Santa Barbara from Morro Bay was around two hours. We were back at my cousin Jon’s house and his nice long private driveway. We fed lunch to my college-age cousin Melvin and took a long walk with Jon & Charlie (lab) along the shoreline’s bluff with fabulous views of numerous kite surfers down below. We had another nice quiet night along with a relaxing morning walk within the Douglas Family Preserve. The drive back to San Diego was about 3 hours and we were already thinking about our next trip!
