Trip report: Yosemite in Snow

Of course, the other factor is the pleasant contrast between our everyday life in southern Calif. (70 degrees and sunny, month after month, year after year) and the refreshing chill of the mountains. I am sure that if I lived in a cold climate, I would not enjoy snow camping nearly as much!

profdant139 wrote:
Cal, the only difference between too cold and too hot is that we can put on a lot of clothing in very cold weather and still stay comfortable.

I used to be a snow cat but, after about 55, I became a desert rat. I don't own enough clothes to stay warm in the cold. I wear sweats in the Summer, here, until it reaches about 95°. :D

LS

Thanks, Prof. I would be more like you in that it's rare I would need to implement your trick. Good point re: the relief pressure. Thanks and thank again for the great blog share.

Cal, the only difference between too cold and too hot is that we can put on a lot of clothing in very cold weather and still stay comfortable. In the heat, there is a limit to the amount of disrobing one can do! Also, in the cold we can run the heat at showertime without firing up the generator. In the heat, you'd need a big generator running all the time to run the air conditioning.

On the other hand, sitting outside at night is much nicer in a warm place than in the snow!

Launch, I personally would not run a hose directly from the water heater to the fill pipe -- that would sabotage the "safety" portion of the safety relief pressure valve. The other problem is that you would have to go outside to turn on the hot water recirculation. With my very crude technique (a hose running from the kitchen faucet to the fill pipe through the outdoor shower access door), I can run the hot water into the fresh tank without going outside. And it only takes a moment to unhook the hose from the faucet, and the hose drains and is then stored under the sink in the cabinet, without dripping.

As I have said before, though, if you were someone who camps many nights a year in subfreezing conditions, my primitive device would not be adequate. You'd want a thermostatically controlled valve running from the hot water line to the fill pipe, all properly and permanently plumbed, inside the RV. But for someone like me, who camps in freezing weather maybe ten nights a year at most, my cheap little hose will do the job.

Checked out the photos series in your blog.
Beautiful.
I want to do that!
Checked out your hot water into water tank solution.
Nice job. And I haven't ever used my outside shower so, like you, I wouldn't miss it.
What do you think of the comment on the blog about running a hose from the water heater outlet to the fill tank inlet instead?

Wonderful pictures again, as usual You two are real adventurers, staying out there in the snow and cold, or else nu -- no, I won't say that other word.
I'll take the WRT when it's over 100 any time, with no AC, and that other word has been said about me.

Phil, the hose from the outside shower would work well -- the only problem is that you would have to go outside to turn it on. We did somehow keep the trailer at about 32 at night -- I think it is such a small trailer that our body heat was enough. We did not run the furnace after bedtime -- too noisy. A catalytic heater is an option, but we are ok without it, I think.

And I did not know that I need to keep the camera above freezing -- it seemed to work fine in 15 degree weather at night. It has a rechargeable lithium ion battery that lasted us the whole week without recharging.

Dan .... great photo work, as usual! How do you keep your camera from freezing?

I assume that you maintained the inside of your trailer at night barely above freezing? (.... Or have you added enough battery power to keep your propane heater running a bit at night?)

Regarding your tip on recirculating hot water ... it reminded me: We have an outside shower just inside a storage cabinet that opens right beside the outside fresh water fill inlet. All I would have to do is turn the outside shower's hot valve ON (leaving the cold valve OFF), stick the shower head into a funnel stuck into the fresh water inlet and let it run. Wala .... hot recirculating water going into the fresh water tank. Thanks for bringing this up!

Cheers.

Wonderful Pics. Thanks for sharing!

I'm glad that your Plan B trip turned out to be good. Your Yosemite photos bring back memories of my family camping and cross-country skiing there in the early 1970's. Nothing like 4 people and all of their wet snow gear packed into a TT the size of yours. Cold, but fun. Thanks for sharing your trip.