Alder Ridge - Shirley's First Adventure

Alder Ridge
Boondocking off of Caples Creek Road
Kyburz, CA
Shirley now has her own blog... You can view this post and more at:
ScampCamp.com

We've had Shirley now about 10 days. We have her stocked and were anxious to get out on our first adventure with her. We left as soon as we were off work and headed East on Highway 50. 

We searched down Caples Creek Road for a place that was easy to turn around with a trailer, but also scenic enough to make base camp. This area near a fire road proved to be a great place to call home for a few days. 

I'm directing traffic, while Chris is backing her into place. We were both surprised that Shirley has little backup lights. She just keeps getting cuter by the minute. 

Our camp has an outdoor kitchen, an on suite bathroom, fire pit and our adorable Shirley Scamp.
We are all set for a couple of days of adventuring. 

Perfect way to end the day is with a nice warm fire...

And a sunset... 

Day 2
Morning views. We got a decal for her back window. 

And we are off for some adventuring!

The first part of our journey was on a fire road right by our camp. We didn't have a real destination, we will see where the mountains guide us. 

These are starting to pop up all over. Cool flowers. 

A pretty stream along the way.

This is more of a 4x4 Jeep road than a fire road, but great for us. We probably won't see anyone out here. 

It didn't take long before we abandoned the fire road all together. We wanted to get to the top of the ridge and the most direct way is well, off trail. 

Up we go...

The higher we get, the better the views become. 

Charene is in there somewhere...

Yep, there are bears up here. 

A great view of Pyramid Peak. 

We continue up and up. 

There is evidence of life up here. Some trees are tagged and we continue to encounter downed barbed wire. It's a little hard to see in the shade and an awful trip hazard since it's brown. We are being careful to avoid it. 



Pretty views

And a great place to sit and enjoy lunch. 




We found some snow along the way in the shade. It won't be too long before this is all gone. 


Nearing the top of Alder Ridge.


The views from the top are amazing. Pyramid Peak once again. 

A 360 of everything around us. 



Our journey back towards Camp. There are no trails, so we are just following the compass back towards a waypoint we set for camp. 

MiL GPS is showing us the way home. 


Forest floor was thick, but this is nothing compared to some off trail adventures. We are happy with this path through the trees. 

What goes up must come down. We went all the way to the top and are making our way down the mountain back to camp. 


This lovely camp spot is just a 15 minute hike from where we are parked. If we were backpacking in, this would be a destination spot for sure. 

Back at camp... 
We had a great hike and even got back early enough for a nap. 
We made dinner and it was time to chop a little firewood for the evening fire. I decided to take a crack at it. We ended our day with a lovely dinner at the dining table inside Shirley. That's certainly a new thing for us, since we've never had a meal inside while adventuring. 

We are starting to really enjoy this scamping lifestyle. 

Day 3
I woke up early and decided to let Chris sleep, so I went and gathered wood, broke it down to size and sorted it. I'm ready to build a fire. Who said a girl can't build a fire...

After watching a few survival shows, I wanted to try using tree moss and twigs. 

What a lovely way to watch the sun come up. 

Can you find the smiley face in the ashes?

Sleepy head decided to wake up.
We had breakfast by the fire and decided to go and explore the area to the east of camp.
We headed down the hill to see where it would take us.  

We found some huge redwood trees. 

We are tree huggers. 

As we get further down the mountain, we find some beautiful views and great places to disperse camp. 

Tree skeleton

Lovely little stream and a tiny waterfall. 

The skies are a deep, clear blue. This tree looked cool against the vibrant background. 

As we were coming down the mountain, we stumbled upon a primitive, rarely used trail. It looks as though it continues down into the canyon. We don't want to venture down quite that far as it's all uphill back to camp, but we continued to investigate around the area. 

Nature is beautiful and this is not far from camp as we venture around. We found many streams, small waterfalls, large outcroppings of rocks and beautiful views. It's time to head home and we are so thankful for our new addition Shirley. She has helped make our adventure exciting, yet comfortable. We look forward to many, many more adventures with her. 

Shirley and Val. Ready to head home. 
Thanks for a great adventure. 

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