{"id":2417,"date":"2020-10-11T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T03:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=2417"},"modified":"2020-11-03T14:07:52","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T22:07:52","slug":"big-laguna-camping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=2417","title":{"rendered":"Big Laguna Camping"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have had a big project on my to-do list for quite some time since I bought the trail-trailer. That being a highly capable solar upgrade. I had previously installed 500 watts of solar panels on the roof along with a solar charge controller in a earlier effort. The next phase was to add a bank of LiFePo batteries, a 3,000 watter inverter, an automatic bus-transfer and a battery monitoring system. That stuff took sometime to complete and now it was time to head out for a weekend of fun and testing things out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Campsite on Laguna Meadow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Cleveland National Forest was shutdown due to the CA wildfires drawing away all of their resources so we had to wait until the closures were lifted. The morning that it did I was already headed into the mountain to try and grab a first-come first-served site. I was rewarded with a nice spot on the meadow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oops on Los Gatos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After setting up camp it was time for quick spin around the place. It was still early in the day on the first day the forest had opened back up so the place was pretty much empty. From camp I went along the meadow and then up Aqua Dulce to Los Gatos. There was a tree down on Los Gatos that was a bit too big for me to try and muscle out of the way. Another thing that was pretty cool was the the number of pine cones all over the trail. With the forest being closed to the public for two weeks no one has been kicking them off the trail so there we all these little land mines along the trail. It was an added layer of fun for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Traeger Smoker (Ranger Model)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To go along with the solar\/power upgrade I bought a small Traeger wood pellet smoker for the RV. These nice thing about these is you pretty much set, forget and go for a ride. While they use wood pellets to cook\/smoke they do need a little bit of 115VAC power to run the controls. The power upgrade took care of this without even thinking about. Considering that this thing uses less than 250Watts max and less than 50Ws most of the time, I basically have a solar powered smoker \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pulled Pork – Yummy! (Yeah we are not really camping)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The In-the-field operational test of the smoker was a hit! Pulled Pork awesomeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day was a pretty mellow cruise around the meadow with Nichol. At the top of the meadow there is a pine tree that the Acorn Woodpeckers have taken over a pine tree to be used as a granary or “Acorn Tree”. The whole woodpecker family\/community will use these trees and they will take turns guarding it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One thing I think is really cool about this behavior is that initially they will get a acorn jammed into the hole so tightly that it cannot be easily removed. As the acorn dries out it will shrink. The woodpeckers maintain the tree and will rotate acorns as they shrink to smaller holes were they will more snuggly fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Top of Los Gatos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sunday a friend of mine came up and we did a sizable loop that included a climb up to Redtail Roost followed by a run down the singletrack to Aqua Dulce. When then went up and over Wooded Hills and then a loop around the meadow. Definitely good stuff. We finished off the ride with Pulled Pork Tacos! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was plenty of chilling done over the weekend as well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We chilled out with the dogs leisurely broke camp the following morning to head back home. So nice to get out of town for a few days.<\/p>\n

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