Well we finally were able to attend one of these fancy "Overlanding" (Overlanding as defined by the Oxford dictionary = very expensive camping) rallys, this years being hosted in the Whistler Olympic Park. I've been waiting to go for a few years so I could check out some of the tear drop style trailers I'm interested in, as well as the cool rigs that show up at these events, and everyone else's various setups.
Aside from the weather, which was cold, damp, and rainy, the event was excellent. Very well organized with lots of activities to do over the 3 days. We arrived late on the Thursday night, a few minutes after the 8pm gate closure (which they are VERY strict on), but I managed to get through as the gate attendant let me in (thanks Rob). Becky on the other hand was not so lucky; she was 10 or 15 minutes ahead of me but missed the turn off and came up later, having to park the van in the overflow/late arrival parking lot where I picked her up after.
At the check in point I was asked if I wanted the "quiet area" or the "not so quiet area" (no designated party zone) and opted for the quiet area, where I found a spot beside Kris Wheeler. I should have scouted other areas, as this one looked decent (a gravel parking lot covered in straw), but was actually a little swampy. We made it work anyways, and began setting up for our stay; unpack the essentials from the m101 trailer, unfold the RTT, and set up the ground tent for the kids. As we were packing for the trip and looking at the weather report, we realized we did not have any kind of shelter from the rain. A 4H friend of Beckys let us use their large "Easy up" shelter, which along with our propane fire pit, proved to make things quite comfortable.
There was a raffle every night (missed the Thursday one) with some exceptional prizes, which got better every night. The interesting part of these raffles was no ticket sales; everyone was handed ONE ticket at the beginning of each raffle by one of the many volunteers. As there were 5 of us (both kids and one of their friends) we managed to score some prizes on both Friday and Saturday night; one being this very cool new concept in recovery gear of a "7P Overlanding recovery ring" (an aluminum donut for synthetic rope that replaces the standard snatch block. Very light and small).
The 4WDABC was hosting several trail runs each day, but we chose to stay on site and partake in some of the many various activities; advanced recovery seminar hosted by 7P overlanding and a tequila tasting by Adventure Trailer, were some of my highlights, While my oldest daughter enjoyed the daily Ukelele lessons by Dragontail tarps.
Activities
The tequila tasting (followed up by a fabulous sausage and sauerkraut dinner,with beer! supplied by Sprinter Vans) was very interesting as it also included some cocktail mixing lessons using a Traeger smoker to enhance the various additions to the cokctails (agave simple syrup and smoked oranges). This was all mixed up in one of the most handiest pieces of trail kit I have to add to "the collection"; the Stanley Adventure Stainless Steel Happy Hour Shaker
Amazon product ASIN B0159W9I3S
Aside from the weather, which was cold, damp, and rainy, the event was excellent. Very well organized with lots of activities to do over the 3 days. We arrived late on the Thursday night, a few minutes after the 8pm gate closure (which they are VERY strict on), but I managed to get through as the gate attendant let me in (thanks Rob). Becky on the other hand was not so lucky; she was 10 or 15 minutes ahead of me but missed the turn off and came up later, having to park the van in the overflow/late arrival parking lot where I picked her up after.
At the check in point I was asked if I wanted the "quiet area" or the "not so quiet area" (no designated party zone) and opted for the quiet area, where I found a spot beside Kris Wheeler. I should have scouted other areas, as this one looked decent (a gravel parking lot covered in straw), but was actually a little swampy. We made it work anyways, and began setting up for our stay; unpack the essentials from the m101 trailer, unfold the RTT, and set up the ground tent for the kids. As we were packing for the trip and looking at the weather report, we realized we did not have any kind of shelter from the rain. A 4H friend of Beckys let us use their large "Easy up" shelter, which along with our propane fire pit, proved to make things quite comfortable.
There was a raffle every night (missed the Thursday one) with some exceptional prizes, which got better every night. The interesting part of these raffles was no ticket sales; everyone was handed ONE ticket at the beginning of each raffle by one of the many volunteers. As there were 5 of us (both kids and one of their friends) we managed to score some prizes on both Friday and Saturday night; one being this very cool new concept in recovery gear of a "7P Overlanding recovery ring" (an aluminum donut for synthetic rope that replaces the standard snatch block. Very light and small).
The 4WDABC was hosting several trail runs each day, but we chose to stay on site and partake in some of the many various activities; advanced recovery seminar hosted by 7P overlanding and a tequila tasting by Adventure Trailer, were some of my highlights, While my oldest daughter enjoyed the daily Ukelele lessons by Dragontail tarps.
Activities
The tequila tasting (followed up by a fabulous sausage and sauerkraut dinner,with beer! supplied by Sprinter Vans) was very interesting as it also included some cocktail mixing lessons using a Traeger smoker to enhance the various additions to the cokctails (agave simple syrup and smoked oranges). This was all mixed up in one of the most handiest pieces of trail kit I have to add to "the collection"; the Stanley Adventure Stainless Steel Happy Hour Shaker
Amazon product ASIN B0159W9I3S
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opps. ha ha, makes sense now 