Easter PINS camping...

"SWITAWI" (switawi) 04/18/2017 at 17:49 • Filed to: None

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Traveled in convoy with Wes (‘12 Tacoma DCLB towing his CJ-5), Colin (‘15 Sequoia Platinum 4x4), and Matt (‘97 ExPo Poster Truck).

Wes couldn’t travel more than 65mph or that CJ-5 tail would start wagging. On the upside I got ~21mpg in my FJ Cruiser following him on the southbound highway leg.

Spotted this well-equipped (for surf fishing) 1st-Gen Tacoma at our last fuel stop before hitting the sand. That black-and-tan color scheme is 100% spray-on bedliner.

Traveled 18-19mi down before we needed to stop and still be able to set up camp be fore it got too dark. Wish we had gotten further, still quite a bit of traffic over the long weekend.

Kirby showed up late Friday in his Tundra to complete the Toyota quintet.

Only caught a couple decent redfish, had more fun chillin’ on the beach and playing with the bait.

I did not get to drive near as much as I wanted (and also had to observe the 15mph speed limit most of the time) when I did get a long stretch of open, unoccupied beach the difference in the suspension was pretty damn nice.

HammerheadFistpunch > SWITAWI 04/18/2017 at 17:57

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Looks like a fun one. I really want to do beach camping. No real opportunities here in Utah. I mean, I drove DOWN to a lake with more shoreline than the pacific, but it wasn’t much to look at.

SWITAWI > HammerheadFistpunch 04/18/2017 at 18:07

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It was fun, though after the constant 25mph wind and no real shower we were all glad to get home, lol.

I actually gave up my tent to Wes’ son and slept in my truck. The (relative) silence with the door shut was like a sudden relief you didn’t know you were needing.

But waking up at 4am to a light 2-3mph breeze and too many stars to count makes it all worthwhile. That and zero cell signal for two days!

HammerheadFistpunch > SWITAWI 04/18/2017 at 18:11

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I know those feelings. I love sleeping in my truck for that reason alone. The peace and quite is amazing.

SWITAWI > HammerheadFistpunch 04/18/2017 at 18:27

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Also, about that ‘M240' air compressor...

I let my tires down to 25psi Friday for a start but the driving conditions were so good we passed a campsite with a Toyota Camry about 12mi down the beach. As a reference, for years there was a sign at the 5mi marker that said 4WD Vehicles Only Beyond This Point , and there was no ‘road’ maintenance past that. By maintenance I mean that they would run a full-size motorgrader down that opening 5mi stretch several times a year to smooth it and clean up the trash. In any case I didn’t let my tires down anymore than that and then aired them back up Sunday when we got back to pavement.

First thing, the clip-on chuck wouldn’t clip/lock onto the valve stems so I had to just hold it in place. The good news is that it took less than two minutes time (per tire) to bring each tire back up to ~33psi. And yes, it did get hot in that can and I could feel the heat in the quick-coupling on the hose at the compressor as well. The ammo can housing did conversely trap heat and act as a heat shield so that you could still easily handle the compressor. I think having a 4-way air setup with a single pressure gauge like I mentioned before will help a little bit in the context that I could hook up all four tires and cut down on the ultimate amount run time when airing up by not having to separately go to each tire and also check their pressures individually. That and I feel it’ll be okay as long as I don’t go to a bigger tire size.

HammerheadFistpunch > SWITAWI 04/18/2017 at 18:31

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my 2 cents is that having a single air up is best practice for compressor without a 100% duty cycle...then give it a minute between tires.

Good to hear that it was fast though.

DipodomysDeserti > SWITAWI 04/18/2017 at 19:18

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Mmmmmm, beach camping.

SWITAWI > DipodomysDeserti 04/19/2017 at 13:34

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I wish that our beach had looked anything like that.

Wow.

DipodomysDeserti > SWITAWI 04/19/2017 at 14:28

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Yeah, that was a nice camping trip.

SWITAWI > DipodomysDeserti 04/19/2017 at 15:17

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Looks like the definition of picturesque ...

PINS is great because of the whole “ longest undeveloped barrier island in the world ” thing, but the Gulf of Mexico is really a giant churning ‘washing machine’ of offshore trash that gets spit out on the beach. When you’re 40mi down the beach and come upon a 20in CRT monitor and a 2L bag (unused) of medical saline in the same 100ft stretch it can be pretty depressing.

For years my friends and I have theorized how something like a full-size combine harvester could be converted to sift the top 6-12in of sand and clean up so much of the refuse.

Though sometimes it works out because when people find the odd 50ft telephone pole that’s been bleached out by years at sea they often just stop and build a campfire under one end.

DipodomysDeserti > SWITAWI 04/19/2017 at 15:38

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Yeah, that’s depressing about the trash. I found a fucking Stella Artois bottle cap at our site this weekend. We were in the middle of the desert, 50 miles from the nearest service station, and in the middle of a national monument. 1.) why is someone bringing expensive shitty beer camping and 2) what the fuck, pack your trash up.