T@B Trailer Weekend

The rain turned steady beating on the roof as I glanced at the cards in my hand.  I had played a two eyed jack scoring one sequence, Leigh was on the verge of tying up the game but I had just drawn a one eye jack allowing me to ruin her moment and win the game.  Though she protested otherwise, had the tables been turned, Leigh would have done the same thing.

The sound of the Skagit river flowing 70 feet away slowly gave way to the drum beat of rain.  Here we were on a dark and damp mid October night playing a game of cards in complete comfort in our rented T@B trailer.  The furnace kept the trailer toasty and we had just heated up curry chicken on the stove, sipping a nice napa cab while playing cards.

For those unfamiliar with T@B trailers, they are a teardrop shaped 2 wheeled trailer.  Small by trailer standards, but large by tear drop standards they offer comforts well above a tent, but well shy of larger home like trailers.  You are reminded you are still camping, but fairly comfortably.  The model we had rented had an inside galley consisting of a sink, running water (cold only, no hot water) and a 2 burner stove.  No oven, no microwave.  The dinette folds down to make a large (huge) bed.   It sleeps only 2, although 4 extraordinary friendly people could probably sleep on what amounts to a huge king bed.

Two people can stand in the galley, but if they move around a bit, bumping into each other ensues.  It’s a small, tight space.  Adequate, but marginally so by modern standards.

Neither Leigh nor I have a history of camping with a trailer.  This was a first for both of us and an experiment.  Would we like it?

Leigh had found the trailer on ‘RV share’, an RV rental site.  With the recent addition of a chevy Tahoe, we had the tow vehicle equation covered.

Checkout for the trailer was simple – drive to the owners house, get checkout on the systems, (it doesn’t have many), hook up and drive away.  The Tahoe is capable of towing a much larger trailer – when driving you can barely sense you are towing something, but prudence dictates a more conservative approach to following distances and driving style.

Leigh had scoped out several different locations which roughly mimicked the compass – North, South, East or West and we landed on the North Cascades highway pretty much at the last minute, driving away with the trailer. 

About 2 hours after leaving the Seattle area, we drove through an RV camp.  No trees, lots of big RV’s, hookups at every site and a nice camp guest ready to check us in.  The vibe just wasn’t our style.  Smiling, but departing quickly, we drove east on the North Cascades Highway.  About 25 minutes later, we drove through a camp ground where we had tent camped before. The Goodell camp ground off the Skagit river.   Open year around and at this time of the year, free.  Water had been turned off and there were no electrical hook ups.  Perfect. 

It was Saturday afternoon and the campground was nearly full, but there was a small site right on the river that hadn’t been taken.  With the small trailer, backing in was a breeze. 

As we settled in, Leigh’s nose would occasionally wrinkle as she occasionally got a whiff of ‘something dead’.   A quick sniff test around the camp site wasn’t conclusive and we went about the quick task of leveling the trailer and getting a happy hour ready.  A little over a year ago on a late summer’s eve we had dragged our chairs to the rivers edge watching a few swallows dart and weave above the water.  More and more swallows appeared as night approached until we realized they weren’t swallows. The air was thick with bats.

Our happy hour view - no one around

On this evening we didn’t see any bats, but as we dragged our chairs down the water I was looking for a larger mammal I had seen as I was getting water about an hour earlier.   A bear.  And that dead smell Leigh had caught a whiff of at our campsite?   Much stronger to the point of occasionally overpowering at the river’s edge.  Dead salmon.  Hundreds of them.  Spawning season on the Skagit.

We had happy hour on the banks of the Skagit, quietly reflecting on the salmon.  Some were still alive, giving it their last, a few more were jumping, but scores and scores lined the shore slowly decaying and offering themselves as food source the gulls, crows and perhaps some unseen bears.   Sad, sobering and majestic.  A life cycle I’ve read about since I was a kid, and have seen in more urban settings, but never in the wild.  This was about as close to seeing this annual ritual in the wild as I’ve ever witnessed.

The following morning, we were up for a hike.  Leigh had read about the Diablo Lake trail,  which required driving over the Diablo lake Dam.  Water level to the right, a nearly 400 foot drop on the left.  Single track.  Not much traffic, but if 2 cars meet, one is going to have to back up. 

Our trip across was mercifully uneventful. 

Fall colors abound as the Diablo Lake Trail began.  We walked by the impressive North Cascades Learning Center.  A place to check out occasionally as they offer interesting classes.  The architecture was impressive and it looked both expensive and temporarily abandoned.  It was, after all, the end of the season.

Gaining elevation the vegetation slowly changed from lowland coastal to approaching alpine.  Up up up.  Easy on this day for Leigh, I was struggling a little trying to keep up.

The views down are pretty good.  Shy of jaw dropping, but decent.  I’m probably becoming or have become a view snob.  We are so lucky here in the northwest to have great views and they really need to be stunning to set themselves apart from our everyday views – which are usually excellent.

The Diablo ferry was running down on the reservoir some 1500 feet below us and it gave thought to kayaking the lake sometime.  Ross lake is more popular, but Diablo has 3 boat in camping areas and that would be a fun Spring or summer time pursuit.  The water looked amazing.

After the hike we were back at the campsite and uncharacteristically had a fire.  A camp fire is nice, but archaic viewed from a more modern ethic.  We never have fires backpacking.   Camp stove only.  Even at established sites during summer, we generally refrain.  But here we were on a cold October evening.  Rain was threatening and a fire seemed pitch perfect.  It was.

Then the rain started in earnest and we went inside the trailer and turned up the furnace.  And played sequence.  Did I mention at the outset that I won?

Thoughts on a trailer.

We learned a few things.  First, that a trailer is rather fun, especially in the off season.  Summer is for backpacking and getting out there, but getting older, camping in a damp tent in mid October has lost its appeal.  Not that it had much to begin with. 

The trailer makes life comfortable.  At the RV show we saw a variety of levels of comfort.  From ‘better than a tent’ to ‘better than any house I’ve been in’.   It’s all a matter of degrees.  Each added foot in length, each added feature, each added system comes with increased expense, maintenance, complexity, and power requirements.  The list of nooks and crannies you can camp in decreases with each additional foot.  But the comfort!  Each added foot brings creature comforts inviting you to get out more – in terms of getting the trailer out more, but stay in more as in ‘stay in side the trailer’ once you are there.  At what point do you bugger up the word ‘camping’ and have a mobile second home?

We decided we need a few things inside a trailer for primarily shoulder season and winter camping.  An inside galley and an inside bathroom.  You can get smaller T@Bs with both those features and that trailer is fully adequate, but storage and space are just too tight for us. 

There are other trailers.  The ‘E Pro’ caught our attention.   Seemingly well built, light and small but with everything we thought we needed.   Plus a little space for storage.  All within 19 feet.  The interior was functional.  And depressingly devoid of charm.

That’s the thing T@B trailers have.  They are well built and they have charm.  Back in 2017 a new model came out, the T@B 400.  It’s on a larger footprint than the normal T@B’s but retains the shape and ‘cute factor’.  It has a small dinette and separately a full made up bed.  A small on board galley and a bathroom.  With running water.  Big enough to be comfortable and have space for storage.  Small enough to remind you you’re still camping.

I suspect we’ll be hunting for one….