Here’s a pretty picture of what our campsite looked like before four days of frequent rain and regular severe thunderstorms. It’s become a lot muddier since then.
The ground is now completely saturated from the rain. The grassy parts are still somewhat solid, but walking or especially driving over them too many times makes them muddy and slippery. A pinch point in the path up the hill has gotten so muddy that Melissa now needs four-wheel-drive low range to get up it without spinning her wheels. I went through multiple changes of clothes on Friday after one torrential downpour started just as we were trying to hitch my trailer up to the 4Runner for a trip to her storage unit. We gave up.
That same downpour destroyed part of her MoonShade. Water pooled inside the nylon faster than we realized while failing to hitch up the trailer. The outer support poles buckled and bent under the extra weight they were never designed to carry, causing the MoonShade to collapse. Fortunately, I was already soaked to the skin, so I didn’t get any wetter pulling out the ladder and taking it the rest of the way down to avoid damaging any additional parts. (Also fortunately, the poles were the only part to get damaged, and Moon is already talking with me about replacing them separately, even though they don’t list them for sale as separate parts.) While at Melissa’s storage unit, we grabbed a pop-up canopy that was in there. They’re useless in the desert since the wind destroys them, but they’re great in the rain, which are the conditions we’re faced with now.
Several days without solar charging also drained my batteries. I’m running my generator right now to put a bit of juice back into them. I have enough capacity to handle a few days of rain, but not this much in a row. I also don’t have the option of driving anywhere to charge them. With the hill this slippery, I can’t risk driving my home down it right now.
Yet that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do fairly soon. With a week of rain in the 10-day forecast, we have to move off the hill before it starts. Otherwise, Melissa might not be able to get up here when she comes home from work, even in 4-Low, and I won’t be able to get down, leaving me truly stuck up here. We have a plan to park me and all my stuff in a part of the gravel driveway after moving their trailer and a non-running vehicle out of the way. The forecast says it’s not supposed to rain again until Thursday, so I’m hoping that by late Wednesday, the ground has dried enough for me to crawl the van back down the hill.
Fortunately, I’ll have gravity on my side. Since it’s all downhill from here, I shouldn’t need to use much power, which is what would spin the wheels, dig me in, and get me stuck. The van’s “Slippery” drive mode will help, too, reducing power and giving me very precise control over the throttle. Melissa has all the recovery straps and boards that every overlander should have in case I need help. She can move my trailer with her 4Runner, and I can ride my bike down. It’s an adventure bike, after all, and has a fresh back tire and plenty of tread on the front. The other advantage of moving to the driveway is that it will be much easier to get the van in and out of here, making short camping trips in the local area much more feasible. Also, if I run out of electricity again from too many consecutive days of rain, I can plug into a house outlet instead of running the generator.
Here’s what our campsite looks like now. Bear (the dog) might be enjoying it, but it’s a whole lot less fun for us.
On top of all that, we noticed a few drips of water inside the van during the recent rain. It’s not a major leak, but any water inside is bad. The most likely sources are the holes I cut in the roof for the vents and the solar wiring to come in. I removed the wall covering this morning and confirmed that the insulation inside is dry. That’s a big relief. The leaks must be tiny because I’ve never had this problem before. I’ve also never sat through as heavy rain as last weekend before. I’ll inspect the roof and see if I can find and quickly fix any leaks before it starts raining again. The proper fix is more self-leveling lap sealant, but I don’t have any. Since I’m not in Quartzsite, where I can just pick some up in town, I won’t be able to get any from Amazon before the week of rain, so a quick fix will have to do if I can find the source.
It’s been a challenging week between the weather, the mud, and helping Melissa get everything sorted out here. But we’ve made it through the other side and have a solid plan to abandon our waterlogged camp when conditions are as dry as possible. May the odds be ever in our favor.
Smokey Da Van 