Just about every where we go there is a lot of interest in our little Chalet Camper. Truth be told that is how we ended up with one in the first place. Years back Kim saw one while we were camping our way up the west coast. She asked the owner for a tour (lol), it’s funny since the unit is only 13 feet long. It’s additionally funny since we get the same requests as interested people want to see the inside of the little A-Frame camper.
I normally keep to myself and enjoy the peace I find while backpacking deep off the beaten path. This year however the family decided we could see more and do more if we camped at campgrounds and took advantage of what each site we visited had to offer. We took our Jeep, camper, kayaks and we had one hell-of-a summer vacation.
We typically begin each summer by meeting up with our fantastic friends Jim and Rene for a week long backpacking trip. This year Jim and Rene had other plans, they sold everything, bought an RV and were leaving on a year long full time RV adventure. I admit I was very sad to see them leave not to mention jealous of the year they have ahead of them.
I found that camping at campgrounds can be fun if you let it, you can meet new people and make new friends.
Here’s a picture our new friends, Chuck and Pat they were wonderful campsite neighbors. So much so that we spent way more time at one location than we had planed.
Chuck has a killer willies jeep one that any jeep guy (or gal) would drool over. They have been visiting the area for years and since we were new to the area he was very happy to point out some of the easier jeep trails.
I wish I took a picture of his willies but it appears I did not. I can’t believe it, well maybe he will read this post, take pity on me and send me a picture.
Last year was my first Laughlin River Run, it turns out that Chuck and Pat have been going to Laughlin almost yearly for some time. We hope to hook up with them again at the 2008 River run.
Guess I need to back track to Laughlin sometime later in the blog 
Here we are Jeeping along the rim of Devils Punch Bowl.
Devils Punch Bowl is a volcanic explosion pit in the Mono lake basin. This entire area is volcanic, Pumice and Obsidian can be found all over the place.
Obsidian for those of you who don’t know is volcanic glass, Indians used this to make arrowheads and Surgeons have used Obsidian for scalpel blades. The stuff is everywhere and can slice your tires, we woke up the next morning with a flat. There was a big slice in the tire but when I refilled the tire it did not appear that this was the cause of the leak.
The runoff has worked its way down the trail and into a small creek. This must mean there is a lake around here somewhere, RIGHT? 
Remember that the Kayaks are on the roof, Sometimes the trees really close in.
Yes the run off of a little creek has worked its way out onto the jeep trail. But we will have to keep looking, this is not enough water for the Kayaks
Well its been a week since we have returned from our 2 week summer camping trip and I am just getting to posting some of the better pictures.
Here we are in our JeepYak!
Our Jeep Liberty Renegade ‘KJ’ Loaded with our Kayaks on some jeep trails looking for lakes to Kayak in.
We had a great time exploring in the jeep on this trip!
After 2 weeks of camping and hauling the Kayaks over 700 miles (both on and off the road) I am glad we invested in quality Kayak rack!
Only Thule offered mounting system that fit the KJ Renegade Stock Roof Rack however I preferred the Yakima HullyRollers and Mako Saddles to the Thule offering.
We ended up with the Yakima Kayak gear on the Thule rack (yes they are interchangeable). The Thule rack mounts work great on the Renegade and I like the Thule cross bar system better than the Yakima. Thule uses rectangular cross bars vs. the round bars on the Yakima.
