We've established what we consider the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with the van in order to travel and camp comfortably for a few days. The list for MVP was fairly short;
- A comfortable bed inside the van
- Bicycle storage inside the van
- Auxiliary heat (Espar D2)
- Ventilation (MaxxAir)
This trip will help us determine which things on the list of future improvements needed to get prioritized and what might not need to come at all.
The destination was Moab for the great riding and camping opportunities. Moab is a 5 hour drive from home. With less than 3000 miles on the van so far, this is the longest drive we've had. The plan was for a 3 day weekend, leaving Thursday night and returning Sunday night. We coordinated with friends that were also going to be in Moab at this same time.
The Drive
Something we noticed early on once we were on the highway is that the Sprinter has its maximum speed governed at 83 miles per hour. This is a logical safety feature since the Sprinter is not a high performance vehicle. On a wide open highway with an 80 mph speed limit, we travelled along at 83, sitting in the right lane getting passed constantly and nothing we could do about it. Under those conditions, it felt like the van could have gone faster safely.
Later on, we got to an area with significant cross winds. The gusts would push the van 2 to 3 feet sideways. The van is equipped with a 'Cross Wind Assist' feature that is supposed to help control the van when winds push it out of the lane. I didn't feel any assistance with these gusts. Then a much bigger gust hit and the dashboard lit up with the cross wind assist alert and the van got very smooth and effectively straightened the van allowing me to get it back in the lane easily. After that, the gusts died down and the driving was smooth. It would be nice if the driver could adjust the sensitivity of the cross wind assist.
We left home in the evening figuring we would drive until we got tired and stay wherever that was since we could sleep in the van. After about 4 hours of driving, there was a rest area in Fruita that was combined with a war memorial. We pulled in and slept the remainder of the night alongside a few RVs & vans in the same lot.
In the morning, we woke to discover the bathrooms locked and several folks milling around. There seemed to be a time gap between when the outside bathrooms get locked and the visitor center opens. Fortunately, we found the Robb State Park just a few hundred yards away.
This Colorado state park has 5 disparate sections, we were only in the Fruita section but have driven by other sections in the area. These seem to be worthy of future exploration. We relocated to the park to freshen up and have breakfast before continuing on to Moab.
The first order of business in Moab was getting a campsite for the weekend. Prior to the trip, we had scoped out Ken's Lake Campground on line. This is a first-come, first-served BLM campground. Being that we arrived early on a Friday morning, we thought we would have beaten the crowds. This was barely true as we got the last available campsite. The last choice of campsites in this campground is still a great campsite.
Why the tent? We weren't sure how these first-come, first-served sites were reserved as occupied, so we brought a sacrificial decoy tent to leave at the site when we left for our adventures.
Now that we've established a beachhead at the campground, we can do what we really came to do, let's Ride! We synched up with the Albe's for an MTB spin around the Intrepid trail system in Dead Horse Point State Park. This is a relatively easy trail system with mild rock obstacles and mostly gradual elevation changes. However, the scenery is amazing for such little effort in getting there.
The next order of business was to head back to the campsite for a BBQ with the Price's who were also in Moab. Unfortunately, the weather took a change for the worse with cold wind & rain settling in for the evening & night. This is where we really enjoyed being in a van with a heater instead of a tent.
The next day, prompted by James, we were headed to the iconic Slickrock Trail. James has never let us down before when it comes to selecting a destination or event.
Riding the Slickrock trail was an amazing experience. I've read about this for years and always been intimidated by it. However, even with years of build-up, there was no let-down.
The Slickrock trail surface is unique in that it offers an incredible amount of traction with the bike tires allowing you to ride steeps and off-camber surfaces that would be risky on most other surfaces.
On top of the great riding experience, the views are amazing in all directions. The rock formations within the trail system are beautiful by themselves. But then, as you get higher in the park, you get views of Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, the Colorado River and other areas that I was unable to identify.
The trail itself follows a painted dashed line over the rock formations that involve ascents and descents that give the sensation of near-vertical riding (or pushing).
For a ride that was less than 10 miles and included plenty of stops for sight-seeing, it was plenty exhausting. After the ride, it was back to the campsite for a BBQ with the Price's.
For our last day in Moab for this trip we took out the road bikes for a ride to Canyonlands National Park.
With the last ride complete, it was time for the return trip home.
Overall, the trip was very successful with a few learnings for the van. Some of the things we realized that we want to do in the short term are:
- improved storage & organization - rummaging through plastic tubs each time we need to find something gets old after a while. Things need to have their place.
- bedside storage - we need a way to store phones, lights, tissues, etc within reach when in bed.
- finishing the inside wall panels would be really nice to be less industrial looking and further help with sounds & temperature
The things that worked real well are:
- the bed is super comfy
- bike storage works well
- the van itself is great on the highway, although when conditions are right, the speed limiter could be lifted to go a bit faster
- the window shades work really well for privacy, light & temperature control
- the Espar D2 heater is great, just flip it on for a few minutes and the van is toasty
One final note...the Slickrock trail is amazing, we need to get back there!