Sunday, September 8, 2013

Camp - Just a nice camp. Refreshing....Relaxing!!!

Take a peek at the pic below:

Looks pretty good, right? Yeah, it was fantastic. Great week out at camp. 


We bought a new barbecue with a propane feed hose to the tank you see in the pic (below). It worked great the first night. Thereafter, nothing. I feared the tank was empty but the weight did not seem to be at that point. I know what a 20lb empty propane tank weighs. Hooking up our stove confirmed that the tank still had gas. Believe it or not, it was a defective hose. That is disturbing but mind you, could be as simple as a grain of sand plugging the valve.

We had two tents setup, one for storage (the one on the left) - and on the picnic table is the BBQ and hose

Bikes were brought up on a "Allen" bike rack and it really is fantastic. $~50 on Amazon.ca and this thing carried two mountain bikes for the whole 400+ km trip. No problem and highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.ca/Allen-Sports-Deluxe-2-Bike-Carrier/dp/B00ASSQYK4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1378610084&sr=8-2&keywords=allen+bike+rack

Site was fantastic. Private. Quiet. Could you ask for anything more?


And why pay for a hydro site? Don't want to have to keep starting the car to charge the battery because you are using the cig. lighter. Don't want to have to start the car at all.
So.....this is all we used and it worked perfect. iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, lanterns, etc. All were powered by a battery and solar cell.





5 watt panel into a utility battery.


Coleman 7w foldable solar panel. 12 v and USB output

Now, can I ask about lighting? We have two LED lanterns, crank or USB chargeable. They offer both features. They work well, provide ample light,  but last for a far shorter period of time than expected. Mind you, given the fact it was a rechargeable resource, I know that capacity becomes lower the more that you charge the battery pack. I have used these lanterns for several years and maybe that is the reason.

I would love to see a solar area lamp with a replaceable battery pack, sure, proprietary battery pack, which seems to be the norm now, but preferably, just AA or AAA batteries. Enough to light up a picnic table to the point where you could read a book but not be overwhelming.

This post will be updated a few times as I have video and other pics to send but I tell you, it was refreshing. Very refreshing.

Those who have read through and said "Ok, where the heck did you stay??????"

Six Mile Lake Provincial Park. Great place. Great Time. Great People and a great setup. 
Are we going back again? Indeed. 
J