Teardrop Trailer Trip to Benton Hot Springs and Boundary Peak

For the Labor Day Weekend, we took off for the very edge of the California/Nevada border and had a semi-relaxing few days at Benton Hot Springs. Highway 120 on the way to Benton (from beautiful Mono Lake) is an excellent highway for towing. It's free of any traffic, has some great boondocking spots, and a few roller coaster ride hills.

One day was spent attempting to hike to the top of the tallest mountain in Nevada—Boundary Peak. At 13,147 feet, it is actually more difficult to get to than many tall peaks in the area. You first have to drive an old dirt mining road up several thousand feet just to reach the trailhead. The steep trail then goes up to about 10,500 feet before it reaches a tallus field. This tallus field is where I had to bail out. With one step forward, I would slip about three feet back. My friends continued on, but also had to quit the hike when the trail got too sketchy and dangerous. Maybe that's why the mountain only has a few hundred visitors a year, and a small fraction of them ever reach the top.

The rest of our time was spent relaxing in the private hot pool of our Benton campsite. Benton Hot Springs sites each have their own pool constantly filled with natural, hot water.

Nevada Teardrop Camping: Unionville Gathering

Last week I took off for the middle of the Nevada desert with the Stargazers to attend the Twain and Tears teardrop gathering in the tiny hamlet of Unionville. It was hot, but the area had just received several inches of rain, turning the desert into a green paradise.

Unionville currently has about 20 residents and was the site of a mining boom between 1863 and 1870 and had over 1,500 residents. For a short time Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, tried his luck here. Canyon springs and rushing creeks make this area of the desert lush and full of wildlife. During this trip we saw antelope, wild donkeys, deer, marmots and chukar.

We chatted and ate with other teardroppers, went fossil hunting in the foothills, explored the rugged and muddy backroads, and hiked the canyons around the former mining towns that used to dominate the absolute middle of the middle of nowhere.

Photos by Christina Nellemann

Wishing for Whitney

Ever since I saw Mount Whitney for the first time about 10 years ago, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States has been on my mind. This year, my husband, several friends and I have decided we are going to attempt to summit the 14,497 foot peak located near Lone Pine, California.

To summit this craggy peak, you need to put your name into a lottery with Recreation.gov and then cross your fingers that your specific dates are chosen. Many people attempt the 22 mile climb in one day, but we are going to try it in two days. That means we backpack in and sleep at one of several overnight camps on the mountain. The training has begun.

Of course, we will not be able to tow our beloved teardrops (and their comfy beds) up the mountain, but they will be waiting for us at one of the campgrounds below the mountain trail. We will either stay at Lone Pine Campground, Whitney Portal Campground or Horseshoe Meadow Campground and will collapse in our beds after returning from the mountain.

I was wondering if any Tiny Yellow Teardrop readers have camped in the Lone Pine area and if they have been lucky enough to summit Mount Whitney. I would love to hear your stories.

Photos by Itoda

Teardrop Hiking Survival Kit

Most of our teardropping trips are taken to locations where we can do some hiking. Hiking in the mountains in the summer and fall is personally one of my favorite things to do and we try to do at least one 10 mile hike on a trip. These longer hikes will usually take us into the back country and each time we go out I'm adamant about having a few survival items along just in case we end up in a sticky situation.

There are a lot of lists and videos on what survival gear to keep in your day/hiking pack, but this is personally what I like to bring along in the types of places we go hiking: mainly the mountains and high desert.

1. Matches, lighter AND a flint and steel

2. A good knife with a serrated blade

3. A small mirror for signalling

4. A whistle/compass/temperature gauge
This whistle combo saved me on one hike when we were lost with friends in a snowy forest. The melting snow had washed away the trail and we were having trouble finding the parking lot at the top of the trail. We split up into two groups and we each had a whistle or an air horn to signal the other group. I was just behind my partner when I stepped on a pile of snow that had melted underneath and fell into a crevasse up to my nose. He did not see me go down and I had to use the whistle to get his attention so he could help me out. I don't go hiking without it.
 
5. Warm hat, gloves and sweater

6. Emergency blanket and a piece of plastic or rain poncho
 I saw a great episode of Dual Survival where outdoor expert Cody Lundin used an emergency blanket and a piece of plastic to make an ingenious emergency shelter.

7. Emergency rain poncho

8. At least 32 ounces of water, a water filter or some iodine tablets

9. Snacks, nuts, granola bars

10. Fire starting materials in a plastic bag: these could be tissues, Vaseline soaked cotton balls or even some tampons!


Photo: Hiking to Hidden Falls in the Grand Teton National Park

Featured Teardrop: Stargazers Teardrop Trailer

While looking at photos of my Sunflower, you might see another teardrop right next to her at a campsite. My teardrop's little friend is the Stargazers teardrop trailer, which is owned by our neighbors and good friends, Brett and Nancy. Brancy, as we call them, had been tent campers for years when a trip to central Nevada was waylaid by a spring snowstorm. They came home tired, cold and ready for something different. So they borrowed my teardrop on their next trip to Great Basin National Park and came back determined to get their own tiny trailer.

Brancy scoured Craigslist for a few months before finding their 5x8 foot home built teardrop trailer from an independent builder in Clovis, California. They were able to snag the trailer for $3,200, just under the $3,500 asking price. The trip back home from Clovis was also interrupted by rain and a snowstorm in the mountains and their new teardrop filled up with water. That didn't deter them. Ever since buying their teardrop, they've been able to make significant changes and updates to the trailer, like waterproofing, sealing and utilizing pop-up shelters.

They decided to get a teardrop trailer not only because of their great experience with mine, but also because they would not have to buy a larger tow vehicle.

"It's easy and more manageable," Nancy said. "Also, it feels like I'm sleeping on a cloud after we've come back from a 10 mile hike."

The Stargazers teardrop is proof of how much fun you can have with a teardrop theme and decorating. Nancy is very artistic and has decorated the teardrop with a celestial theme that includes glow-in-the-dark curtains, sun and moon bedding, wallpaper and cute details like sleeping suns on the windows. They are proud that their teardrop is 100 percent green. They don't have a deep cycle battery, so they only use rechargeable touch lights, head lamps and a small solar charger for other devices.

 

 Brett said that one of the positives of a teardrop trailer is that it's so quiet inside. He also mentioned that one of the negatives of camping in a teardrop is that you don't have a bathroom.

"Sometimes I'm just too tired to crawl out of the trailer to go pee," he said. "But I've also had trailers in the past with a bathroom and those can also be a pain in the butt."

Nancy added that they have a small bathroom bag with toilet paper, wipes, spray soap and other convenience items they take into campground bathrooms.

Nancy mentioned that one issue they have is organization. The Stargazers trailer has some really large storage cabinets and they are well organized, but she complained that Brett still can't find anything.

"He's always asking me 'Where's this and where's that?'," she laughed.

"You do have to constantly re-organize and re-adjust things," Brett said.

They are both pleased that with a basic home built trailer they can make their own improvements and adjustments and they can change the paint color whenever they want. Their tiny trailer also allows them to really experience the outdoors on their hiking, kayaking, stargazing and meteor shower trips.

"We go camping not just to go camping," Brett said.