1st trip of the season

[AmCruiser]

We just got back from our 1st excursion of the season - a weekend at Abol Bridge campground just outside Baxter State Park, The campground is located on the Golden Road, a 96 mile paper company road that runs from Millinocket Maine west through the north Maine woods above Moosehead Lake to the Quebec border. The following link is to an interesting youtube video about the Golden Road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdC3I3-v30Q

We had 14 in our group. We had our "B", my son and his fiancé had my old Sherrod conversion van and the rest had tents. It was shirtsleeve weather during the day but only about 40 deg. F at night we were snuggling pretty deep into our sleeping bags (one deficiency with the American Cruiser is it only has a heat pump - no furnace). Mt Katahdin was closed to climbing because there is still snow on the trails at the upper elevations, but we made a 3 hour hike into the park to Blueberry Ledges. We had a great time and I can't wait to head out again in a couple weeks.
Randy

[markopolo]

Thanks for sharing the photos. Nice view from the campsite. Looks like there are lots of trails in the park. Blueberry Ledges.....? Does the name mean that there are wild blueberries for picking mid-summer?

[Rok]

Originally Posted by markopolo

Thanks for sharing the photos. Nice view from the campsite. Looks like there are lots of trails in the park. Blueberry Ledges.....? Does the name mean that there are wild blueberries for picking mid-summer?

I was going to ask that very same question. "Are there blueberries?"

.........Rocky

[AmCruiser]

Low bush blueberries do like ledge which is why they are so prevalent in Maine - we've got a lot of it. This time of year, though, its hard to tell blueberry bushes from other scrub but I assume from the name, they are there.
Randy

[teachergal]

LOVE IT!

I stood in that exact campsite this summer and wished we'd camped there! When we planned our trip to Baxter we had no idea that there was a commercial campground up there! We stayed at The Big Moose Inn which is right where the road splits - by the lake (I know, it's Maine...everything is by a lake). Their campground was tiny - my parents big 36 ft diesel pusher barely fit but we did it.

I LOVED Baxter! We spent 2 days there - the 1st we drove in to Kidney Pond and Dad and I took a "quick" 3 mile hike after lunch that ended up involving serious bushwhacking skills. Then we hiked the AT from Abol Bridge to Kathadin Stream with a swim at Daicey Pond!

Here's the 1st of 2 blog posts on Baxter:
http://livininavan.blogspot.com/2012/07 ... -park.html

Baxter is def high on my list of places to return to, I just wish I could get my van in there! My sprinter is 24' long and 9'8" high. Just barely too big. I don't tow a vehicle so getting back into Baxter will be a challenge, I need to go with my parents or suck it up and actually camp in a tent, but I'll make it up there again someday!

[AmCruiser]

Hi Teachergal,
I haven't actually been in Baxter since I was a kid (back in the 60's). When we went to Abol Bridge last year my son, nephew and their significant others set out to climb the mountain while we manned base camp. The weather was lousy and when it started downpour, they wisely turned back. This year we had a bigger group and while we did take the hike described below, there was a lot of guitar playing (my son & nephew - not me . . . the only musical instrument I play is the radio), singing, and tale-telling around the campfire to keep us entertained. Next time I hope to it least ride into the park and do some exploring like you did. Our rig is 20 ft which I think is just under the allowed size limit.
Loved your blog - I'm going to have to go back and read more of it.
Randy

[Jimji]

So what is a heat pump anyway ? You make it sound like it is not strong enough to heat the American Cruiser to your liking. Any information would be helpful to this would be owner.

Thanks

[Rok]

Wow, Teachergal, I enjoyed seeing your blog. I wish I had the skills to do that. I can't even figure out how to upload photos here (both attempts failed when I tried to do it).

By the way, my wife and I are fond of quoting something you wrote here on CBF one time: "How many does it sleep? It sleeps ONE. That's what it sleeps, ONE!"

Sometimes we will say that jokingly when one of us is in the bed alone and the other wants to crawl in. Ours is a bit cozy for two, but cozy is nice sometimes. Othertimes, like when we are parked at an angle and are rolling into one another, it is not so nice.

We're still learning, but now we have quite a few trips under our belt and we love it for the most part.

............Rocky

[AmCruiser]

Originally Posted by Jimji

So what is a heat pump anyway ? You make it sound like it is not strong enough to heat the American Cruiser to your liking. Any information would be helpful to this would be owner.

Thanks

Simply put, a heat pump is an air conditioner that works in either direction, it can cool the air inside and dump the heat outside or it can cool the air outside and dump the heat inside. The original American Cruiser heat pump was a 12000 btu unit which is plenty big for the van but it require 120 VAC to operate. The campground had no hook-ups and while the rig has a generator, I hate listening to it. A propane furnace on the other hand require little or no power.
Randy

[AmCruiser]

Took the "B" out of hibernation and made our first trip for 2014. The check valve blew out on the city water connection while I was flushing the system so I had to make a quick trip to Coastal RV in Topsham for a replacement. Simple swap out- 3 screws and one pipe connection and we were good to go. Aside from that, the old girl survived another winter with no major problems. (No honey, I wasn't talking about you.)

We took a 2 night trip down the Maine coast to Acadia National Park. The weather was OK to crappy, mostly overcast with occasional rain and a couple of rare breaks where the sun peaked through. We had a great time anyway. Spent the first night at Camden Hills State Park and the 2nd at Mount Desert Narrows RV Campground. Still early enough in the season that there were only a handful of other campers at both campgrounds and traffic was very light in the park. Drove up Cadillac Mountain. The summit was in the clouds so it was pretty foggy at the top.

Noticed a couple "shakedown cruise" issues. We had an intermittent squeaky belt under the hood. Also, under load, the heater vent damper would shift positions so I think I have a minor vacuum leak. I'll have my brother in law take care of those before we head out again. He runs his own truck repair business and I do his book keeping and taxes in return for his mechanic services - a pretty fair trade.

[AK49er]

Looks like a very nice area, thanks for the photos.