May 25 - 28, 2018: Silver Creek Plunge - Crouch, Idaho
Dry Camping Shakedown
One thing we want to do a lot of on our RV travels is to not stay in a designated campground and do what is called "Dry Camping" or "Boondocking".
We have a group of friends that we have gone camping with over the years and our annual Memorial Day weekend is spent camping at Silver Creek Plunge in Crouch, Idaho. Although the campground is a reserved site campground, there are no hookups. This gave us a good opportunity to dry camp and try running on battery/generator only to see how much we could converse our power and also water usage.
This trip we had three sets of campers: Craig and Holly; Dan, Natalie, Tiegan and Jillian; Todd, Marcia, Eric, Ben, Sam and of course the two doggies Roxie and Leo.
Saturday it rained pretty hard off and on throughout the day, so we all did a variety of stuff from playing games to reading books. On one of our first camping trips years ago Kevin and Valkryie had a set of pink flamingos they would put out every camping trip. Over the years, the flamingos has grown and taken on different personalities. Last year we all gave Marcia a set of blue and orange for her birthday. This year Natalie got a set of zombie flamingos for Mother's Day. And....Tiegan made a set of Bedazzled Flamingos for us! Let's just say that you cannot miss our campsites with all of our flamingos out and about!
On Sunday Todd and Marcia's group went to visit friends in Crouch, Dan rode his motorcycle, Craig rode his electric bicycle, and Natalie and I went for a hike. We hiked the Peace Creek Trail about 10.5 miles round trip. We did not know how far the trail went and told the guys we'd be back by 5pm so we turned back at the 5 mile mark. We did this hike last year but only went about 2 miles in, it is a great hike and really easy.
As we were coming back on the trail, we looked up and saw someone coming our way on a bicycle, low and behold it was Craig! We all took a pit stop to refresh, Craig turned around and rode back to camp while Natalie and I continued to hike out.
One of the things we always like to do it soak our feet in a COLD creek at the end of the hike. This time we crossed the Peace Creek and relaxed on a log while we dangled our feet in the water. Brrrrrr...nothing like water fresh out of the mountains!
Back in camp we relaxed, then went to the hot springs pool for a nice relaxing swim, dinner around the campfire, and then back to the pool again before bed. What a great day!
Overall we did great at conserving our water and power! We could have gone the entire weekend (3 days) without running the generator, however we wanted to test it and make sure it worked. We started with a 3/4 tank of fresh water and ended with 3/4 tank of fresh water. Since it is just Craig and I, we are good at conserving our water and we didn't take a shower each day. And...remember...how accurate are the gauges in a trailer? You never know, so best to conserve!