Wash Out on the Farmington
Last week was the first annual summer Farmington river camping trip for Terri and me. This is a trip that several of my Trout Unlimited friends have been making for a few years. This was our first because, well, we now have Gr84Red. We spent four days and four nights at the Austin F. Hawes Campground on the west bank of the Farmington in Barkhamsted, CT.
The campground has no services so it was our first time officially “boondocking” in a dry camping site. The campsites were huge, very level, with lots of space to spread out. Throughout the week we had a total of five sites with campers coming and going.
New England had experienced a series of storms prior to our stay including tropical storm “Elsa”. Almost 8” of rain fell over a span of 10 days. The Farmington River and Colebrook and Hogsback reservoirs simply can’t hold that much water. At the beginning of the week flows on the “Farmy” reached almost 2,000 cfs, coupled with inflows from the Still River. It was simply too high to fish. So… we ate and drank like royalty.
Pulled Pork and Baked Squash Casserole
Emergency Flare Training
Dinner each night was a pot-luck hosted by a different campsite. It’s a great way to schedule dinners when you have friends occupying multiple campsites. Each night was a different main course provided by the host site, with other sites bringing sides, salads, and deserts. Mike & Sheryl Fatse treated us to pulled pork sandwiches Monday night. It was Taco Tuesday at John & Pam Hildenbrand’s campsite, complete with a pitcher of margaritas. On Wednesday Terri and I hosted with smoked BBQ Baby Back Ribs. Finally on Thursday Jeff and Jen Huie hosted an extravaganza at their site with Burgers and Dogs, plus some amazing lamb/beef/pork sausages provided by Eric Nadoban, Dirty Baked Beans, Summer Succotash, salads galore, and a charcuterie board. And each night featured a campfire with tall tales told over a variety of libations.
Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs
Wednesday… Rib Night
Who Doesn’t Love “Texas Twinkies”
Campfire Songs…
We ate like royalty at Jeff * Jen’s
The Mersich pups were everybody’s friends
It’s a Motley Crew
Like I said at the top, it was our first boondocking trip and a great learning experience. The coach performed very well in my opinion. The generator never failed us outside of user error on the last morning. We camped conservatively using the campgrounds bathroom and shower facilities so as not to fill our gray and black tanks. A full tank of 30+ gallons of fresh water lasted all four days. Our site had a lot of shade which didn’t allow our 175 watt solar panel to provide as much power as we would have liked. But in the end we only had to run the generator a couple of times a day for 30 to 40 minutes. A few “learnings” from the week.
Plan a menu which allows for simple cleanup so as not to waste fresh water washing dishes.
Try to park the coach where the roof will receive the most mid-day sunlight. If you get bright sun on the solar panel, you can get 100 watts of charging power out of it.
Try not to turn on the inverter except when running your generator. Charge phones when you run the generator. The invertor will bleed that battery as there are a few parts of the coach that draw power in the background
Running the refrigerator on LP is very efficient. It’s best to do this when boondocking
The last morning our coach battery was so low we didn’t have enough power to start the generator. No need to panic. Just start the Mercedes and it will charge your coach battery to a level that is enough to start the generator.
When using the campground dump station, make sure to wear gloves and plastic booties over shoes, and disinfect everything when you’re through and once you get home.
All in all it was a great week with great friends and we’re already anxious to make this trip again. Maybe even before next summer.
