Sheila Phase II

The build has been progressing faster than I expected. We have used Sheila multiple times in excursions from motoing in Montrose to frolicking in Wyoming. 

In this edition I will show the things that make it feel comfortable like the kitchen, bed, dinette, floor. I have installed much more of the infrastructure that I will tell you about in the next post. 

Sorry it has been so long but this is a huge project that I would not recommend unless you have tons of time and a little bit of money to throw at it.  

All in all I figure we will have spent $34,000 for the van, about $9,000 more for the parts, tools, solar, water, set up, and all of the other things needed to pull this off. 

$43,000 for a fully outfitted RV and daily driver. 

Not bad considering we almost dropped close to $80,000 on a new Winnebago Travato or some similarly outfitted rig. 

Of the RVs we were considering, Travato and Zion by Road Trek, the Sheila model is way better; and for less than half the cost. 

Not to mention the coolness of doing it ourselves. This way we get just what we want and nothing that we don't. 

The Fantastic Fan filled the hole.

Overhead storage that now has Formica covering. Soon to follow, cabinet doors.

Close up.

Both sides complete and ready for Formica.

Formica covered. 

Yup. I cut a huge ass hole in Sheila.

We filled it with this custom window from CR Laurence. $500.00 from DK Hardware - save on shipping by picking it up in Denver. 

Flooring complete with a little insulation for a quiet ride and to keep the heat in. 

Pylwood flooring... 

Subfloor soon to have two different surfaces installed and ripped out due to sucking. 

Getting more insulation and side paneling. 

First floor looks good but was not. Always use a single piece of flooring otherwise you risk expansion and contraction problems, especially bad in a vehicle with extreme heat and cold differences. 

33 gallon fresh water tank for use in the shower and sink to come. 

Safety goggles are a must. Shown here is the table I debated for weeks. Glad I pulled the trigger on this Lagun stowable table mount. It folds away discreetly and is very stable and infinitely adjustable. It came from the boat world, like all of the quality built RV stuff.  

This is the kitchen that is built around the electrical hub. I will show that in a different post. 

Delta helping, as usual.  

Drawers for the induction cooktop and utensils. This will have Formica covering as well. 

Delta is testing the strength of the build. 

Cushions were sewn by yours truly with assistance from Rita and lots of great tips from Jackie Pike. 

Zippers were a must so the covers can last the entire 12 months that I will keep the van before I change my mind and buy something else...!!!

The bed/dinette. It is very comfortable to sleep on. We will see about sitting on it during our upcoming Baja road trip!

Running/Hiking the Four Pass Loop in Aspen!

Running 28 miles in one day, through breath-taking wilderness, all above 9,000 feet, is very empowering. And fun! And probably one of our favorite trips of the year, other than Belize. 

Yes, this was much more fun than hiking around Lake Tahoe-knowing that we could sleep in a bed that night, and not have to pitch our tent, was very nice!

Hal and I planned this adventure to celebrate our seven year anniversary. Nothing says "I love you" like spending 11 hours running through mountains! 

This is an extremely popular backpacking loop, and seeing as we saw 30 backpackers on a weekday at the end of September, I would imagine this loop is like a human freeway in the summer. 

Just one more reason to run it!

We used this website for most of our information, and also brought this map with us. 

We broke the cardinal rule of 'always test out your gear before heading out for a trip' and bought these amazing packs a week before our run, having never tested them until the big day! Fortunately, they were awesome, and now we won't use anything else. I'm a size small and Hal is a medium, in case anyone wants to throw down $150 for an ultralight backpack!

Our shoes of choice were the Hoka Challengers, and again, Hal bought his pair the day before while we were walking around downtown Aspen. 

I don't ever recommend buying new gear the day before a big event, but in this case, I already had a pair of Challengers and loved them, and they fit Hal perfectly out of the box. 

We had our good friend Andy join us, and it's always a treat to have friends come on our crazy adventures with us!

We left town at 5:30am and were at the trailhead, ready to go, a few minutes after 6am. It was still dark out, so it was good that we had headlamps for the first hour.

I'll use the pictures to tell the rest of the story, but bottom line is that this was an all-time favorite run, and we would highly recommend it to anyone who's up to the challenge!

We ended up being out for 11 hours total, 28 miles, and 7,912 feet of elevation gain. We traversed four 12,500 ft. passes, and all of it was amazing. And Hal and I both felt good the whole day, which is rare. If you are an athlete, you know how special and fleeting those days are when you feel strong and powerful all day, and both Hal and I were having one of those days during this run, thank goodness for that!

Enjoy the pics and as always, thanks for reading!

6am start in the dark

Pausing to catch my breath and admire the Maroon Bells

1st pass done!

Heading toward the second pass...

Doesn't look like a real picture! Snowmass Lake.

Snowmass Lake again

2nd pass done!

Honey Stinger sponsor shot

Waterfall in between 2nd and 3rd passes 

Running toward the 3rd pass, and check out my awesome backpack!!!

3rd pass done!

4th pass done-whew!

Running the final miles...

Last break before the final push

Yay we're done!

Looking pretty good after 28 miles and 11 hours...!

Bye Aspen, thanks for the adventure!

  

Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail-also known as the last backpack trip we ever do...for a while anyway!

It's been over three weeks now since we completed our 171 mile thru-hike of the Tahoe Rim Trail.

Since there is SO much information we could share, I'll just keep it simple and use pictures to tell our story...

Bottom line: Hiking that far, in 8 and 1/2 days, is a LONG way to hike. 

And mostly Hal and I got bored. 

It's the truth. 

There's not much to do every day except keep walking, make sure you know where your next water sources are, and keep yourself comfortable. So that leaves LOTS of time for talking, walking, listening, trying not to fall asleep while walking, and wishing you could be doing anything other than walking.

I'm not complaining, I just don't think we will be doing another long distance backpack anytime soon.

We averaged about 20 miles a day, which would have been okay except that I forgot to plan in a 'rest' day. So at day 6, we hiked 20 miles to Tahoe City, picked up our food drop from our good friend, and got a hotel that night. It was great to sleep in a king sized bed, shower, and clean up.

Since we slept in the following morning and only did 10 miles that afternoon, we were now 10 miles behind, with only two more days left. So, thus followed two 25-mile back-to-back days, at the end of our hike, with the most elevation gain of the trip-ugh.

We started at Spooner Summit, which is in Nevada, and we were worried that our Subaru might be towed while we were out hiking, but people said, "Don't worry, your car is on the Nevada side, not the California side."

They were right and when we finished up back at Spooner Summit, 8 and 1/2 LONG days later, our trusty Subaru was right where we left her.

A great resource was the  Tahoe Rim Trail organization website. We also relied solely on this map.

We had two resupplies, carried out for us by our generous and kind friends, 

Our favorite section was by far the eight mile stretch from Echo Lake to Aloha Lake. That section alone is worth traveling to CA for. 

The entire trail was VERY dry and dusty, so gauging your water sources appropriately is critical.

The weather was amazing, no clouds, no storms, beautiful blue skies every day. 

Which is also why there were SO many people on the trail. But the majority were very friendly, very knowledgeable of trail etiquette, and left no trash behind. 

The only trash we did find was an old rusted bike that was locked to a tree, and three battered tents-weird.

Here are the pics to tell the rest of the story:

Our start at Spooner Summit (see how clean and happy we are on the very first day?!)

 

Trail markers were decent throughout the route

 

Big tree!

 

Happy camping Hal (now he never wants to see that tiny tent again!)

 

Big meadow, a favorite...

 

Echo Lake-want to come back here!

 

Aloha Lake-also awesome!

 

Echo Lake again-spoiler alert, this will probably be on our xmas postcards this year!

 

Hal heard something big crash in the night, and this was what we found the next morning, less than 200 yards from our camp-yikes!

 

Heading into civilization-Tahoe City

 

Food drop via moto-thanks Rob!

 

One of the rare views of Lake Tahoe from the Tahoe Rim Trail (I know, we thought we'd be hiking closer to the lake too!)

 

Dehydrated breakfast of champions!

 

This was called an 'unreliable' water source in our data book...

 

And finally back at Spooner Summit, 171 miles later!

 

Ewww, we need a bath!

Thanks for reading, we are more than happy to provide anyone who'd like to do this hike with much more detailed information. 

On that note, this would be a great loop to do for someone's first thru-hike-good scenery, not very isolated should something go wrong, and great weather.

But that doesn't mean that we ever need to hike it again-ha!