AT REPORT
Feral October 14th update:
We set out on an epic journey, driving to Chile from Southern California. We told everyone that we were going to be driving through Baja California’s vast deserts, dirt roads, isolated surf spots, and treacherous four-wheeling. “Don’t bring a trailer,” they all said. Trailers are known to flip on tough back roads; no one will be there to help you if something goes wrong.
The very first surf spot we chose to camp was Punta Canoas, which is 5 hours off the highway, on dirt roads that the government grades once every four years. We know that, because we saw the grader on our way out. He was about to start, but we had already driven both ways. The ten hours we’d spent driving were on a road that had not received any care in over four years. We used four wheel drive four times on the way in and twice on the way back. We high centered our truck once and had to winch ourselves out of trouble three times.
Our Adventure Trailer was the only thing that we didn’t get into any trouble with. It handled all the deep holes and loose rocks like it was still on a paved highway, due in large part to the independent rear airbag suspension system. There are two valves on the trailer tongue, each used to inflate the respective side’s airbag – suspension adjustment for changing trail conditions couldn’t be any simpler. On steep hills, which seemed to lurk around every curve, the braking system was easy to operate and felt extremely safe. In short, we made many novice four wheeling mistakes, but our the trailer refused to quit.
We camped at Punta Canoas for four days and refilled the trailer's 20 gallon tank with fresh water. It provided plenty of water in the hot desert for four people over four long days. It was very dusty and windy, but the water was always so fresh and so clean.
We took pictures and uploaded them to the computer every night and plugged the computer charger into the power point on the nose box, it worked like a charm. We also brought a small fan and plugged it into the 2nd power point. This cooled off the two guys sleeping in the camper. The two guys sleeping in the roof top tent were always cool, so they had no need for a fan.
We were able to keep regular gasoline in a five gallon can and also had a five gallon can of diesel mounted in the can holder on the trailer. At first we thought our thirty nine gallon truck tank would supply all the fuel we needed. This theory was proven wrong during the first week due to 10 hours of off-roading, without even seeing a single person. We ran out of gas just before we hit the main highway on our way out of the campground. The five gallons stored in the Adventure Trailer gave us the extra fuel to get to the next PEMEX station in Mexico.
It was also very hot out there in the desert. After the first night, the two surfers who’d slept in the roof top tent on thetrailer were well rested and the other two were exhausted. The camper on the back of the truck was a sauna, but the Eezi Awn Series 3 Roof Top Tent on the trailer allowed a cool breeze through. After that first night of sleep, we played rock, paper, scissors (RPS) to see who gets first choice. The winners have slept in the Roof Top Tent for the last 38 nights. Even though we are traveling during the rainy season and have been subject to many downpours, the tent atop the Adventure Trailer has remained dry through them all.
So far, trailer is the single best piece of outdoor equipment we have on this trip, and we use almost every feature daily. Without it we’d have no water, limited plug-in-power, uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, and we wouldn’t be able to bring the boat out to fish for food.