U-haul Camping at Lake Jocassee

Last year South Carolina State Parks ran a special deal for Black Friday on camping: by one night get one night free. I can't let a deal like that pass so I jumped on it and scheduled a camping trip to the mountains of South Carolina. There's several parks up that way: Oconee, Devils Fork, Keowee-Toxaway, Table Rock, and Ceasar's Head. We opted to try out Devils Fork.

Unfortunately, I had to move the dates due to family situations beyond my control. so we missed out on hitting it during the Spring. It's one of the only places in the world that you can see the Oconee Bell flower. So it would have been nice to see that during the spring but we ended up going in early October instead. It was still nice. The weather was great; it only rained one day. This time it was just me and the kids for a 5 day, 4 night trip. It was great to see them out in nature and exploring.

Devils Fork is on Lake Jocassee and is the only place that allows public access to the lake. They dammed up the valley/gorge at this point because 4 rivers flow into here before becoming the Keowee River. The dam is run by Duke Energy. While we didn't get to go out on the lake this trip, I expect in the future we will make another trip since it's only about 2 hours away. The campground is nice and we ended up in site 48 right across from the bath house on that loop. It was nice to be close to the bath house with the kids. The sites are nice and have water and electric. There are also some walk-in and boat-in campsites available too. There are 2 small trails at the park: the Oconee Bell Trail (1-mile loop) and the Bear Cove Trail (2-mile loop). We wandered down both of them on various days. The Bear Cove Trail winds out to a small peninsula with a great place for a picnic/snack break and nice view of the lake and mountains.

While the park does have a playground for the kids, they do seem to lack kid/educational focused programs. Since they primarily view themselves as a boating/fishing park, I understand why they may be limited on kids activities. Still when I camp with the kids, I like for the parks we visit to have something engaging/educational for them.

We arrived on a Thursday and settled into camp. Friday was nice since most folks checked out and there was a lot of quiet time before the weekend crowd arrived. That's when we took advantage of some hiking followed up by smores.

Saturday it rained the entire day. That's always tough in a 13ft camper with little ones. (See my post on what to do with kids on rainy days.) Fortunately, I plan for times like this. We use over-the-back-of-the-seat DVD players in our car instead of a built in unit. I only put them in the car for long trips. We like that we don't have a video unit in the car 24/7. It also allows us the ability to move one of the units into the camper on rainy/cold days. So we watched some movies. I also took along a few books. We read half of Call of The Wild that day. They really get into the story when we read to them. My son is old enough to read to himself and he had a book of his that he had been reading through and took the opportunity on Saturday to indulge in it. We took a mid day trip out for lunch. It was about a 20-30 min drive to the closest big town. We found a McDonalds with an indoor playplace. That made for a good couple hours of playing and lunch. Later that evening the rain tapered off. We also played some games and bought a new camping themed game at the camp store.

Sunday was another beautiful day and we did some more hiking and played at the playground. We made mini pizzas for dinner that night. It's a fun since the kids get to make their own pizza. And we topped off the night with smores.

Monday was time to pack up. We broke camp early and headed out. We had one last thing on our list though before heading home. There are many waterfalls in the area. Some are long hikes; some are shorter hikes. A few are only viewable by boat on the lake. I had researched that one of the easier ones to get to was not too far away and on the way home. So we headed off to Oconee Station Historic Site.

Oconee Station is an old 1700s military compound that later turned into a trading post. Lots of Oconee and Cherokee Indians inhabited the region back then. They only do tours of the inside of the buildings in the afternoon (1-5pm at the time I'm writing this). So definitely check the website if you want a tour. We walked around the outsides for a bit and then hit the closest hiking trail.

There is a pond and a loop trail around the pond, but the loop trail extends off and connects over to the Palmetto Trail. It also connects to Station Cove Falls Trail. Station Cove Falls is a 60 foot waterfall that is a relatively easy hike to get to.

There are two way to get to the trail head. Either drive down the road from the entrance to Oconee Station and park at the trail head, or hike from the Oconee Station parking lot past the pond. Since we had the camper in tow, it was easier to park at Oconee Station Historic Site and hike over. It may have added a .5 mile or so to the hike. The hike from the trail head is .5 miles to the falls. It's also a relatively easy walk; though not a paved path. The kids had a fun time playing in the falls for a bit and then our grand adventure moved to a close as we headed home.

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Coleman Beach Shade Review Follow-up (Video)

Previously, I did a review of setting up the Coleman Beach Shade that we got for our trips to the beach to replace the umbrellas. Well we took it to Hilton Head Island, SC for a beach trip last weekend. Here's a follow up video below of how it held up even through a big thunderstorm. More details below the video.

3 Highlights from using it at the beach:

1. This tent will stand up to at least ~15-25 mph winds.
2. You need to buy a few more stakes to really help secure it on a windy day.
3. It will take 2 people to put up or take down during wind.

So first, I didn't have many problems putting it up. Again the mesh where the poles go through proved to require more effort to not catch on the mesh. They really should make them like normal sleeves. The mesh pole sleeves are my biggest complaint about this tent. The tent comes with 6 stakes but I'd feel more comfortable with 8. I will be adding at least 2 more to my kit. The front mat/door has stake points under it when down as a mat that would likely have limited some of the wind going under it. So do grab a few extra stakes.
Guy lines. These are really important to get them right as they are one of the keys to keeping the tent down and helping it maintain it's shape during windy conditions. DO NOT USE stakes on the guy lines! Unless you are going to use heavy dute dog tie outs (which is an option) they'll flex and pull right out of the ground. One of the great things about the Coleman is that they also give you sand bags (in addition to the stakes). Here is the one key to using sand bags that will keep your tent there while everyone else's is blowing down the beach. Fill them and BURY THEM! That's right, a sand bag on top of the sand will just slide and slow down a tent that's moving. it will not keep a tent from moving. Fill the bags and dig a 1-2 foot hole to bury them in. Pack the sand down on top of them and your tent won't go anywhere. Seriously, our tent was the only thing left on the beach after the major thunderstorm hit. Due to the lightning, we had to leave the beach with the kids and seek shelter. I would've been happy to ride it out inside the tent. I strongly believe we'd have been fine.
I checked the weather charts and the winds were a good 15-25 mph. During the afternoon while we were there. While the tent stayed put the entire day without any issues, packing it took some effort. It was really windy when we left so it took two of us to pack it down. I pulled the sand bags and the poles out and my brother-in-law sat on the tent to hold it down. then I pulled out the stakes one at a time and folded the tent (with my brother-in-law moving to stay on top of it the whole time till I got to the point to roll it up).
All around I'm glad we had it and it worked well even with me wishing it didn't have netted pole sleeves and wanting to add more stakes. I wouldn't put it up for a short beach trip; too much effort to me. But for a full day on the beach it definitely works. It's more sturdy than an umbrella and a heck of a lot lighter than carrying a tailgate tent.

Camper Bunk Bed Poles

TopLine Folding/Locking Legs

While looking at some camper parts online, I stumbled on a company (TopLine) that makes folding poles of various sizes that can be used for bunk beds. There's obviously a lot of other options for using these (folding table, etc) but the bunk option is the one that's the most interesting to me. Currently my poles are still in fairly good shape but if I need to replace them, I know where to find some now.

Likewise, if you need replacement poles for your bunk or you're looking to add a bunk to your camper. Check out these, they might work. They come in 4 lengths:

1. 16" [FL3400-16]
2. 24" [FL3400-24] (should fit the U-hauls)
3. 27.5" [FL3400-275]
4. 30.5" [FL3400-305]

You can also see my previous post about pole stability and the post about mods I made to our bunk bed in the U-haul.

18th Century Colonial Market Faire at Fort Yargo State Park

Every year in the Spring, the Fort Yargo Historical Society puts on their 18th Century Colonial Market Faire at Fort Yargo State Park. I have heard about it but had never been. This weekend we decided to go. We had half the day free and my son didn't have a ball game so we decided to go see what it was all about. Fort Yargo is one of those state parks with tons of things to do: boating, fishing, mountain biking, camping, cabins, yurts, hiking, putt putt, etc. (Fort Yargo is also one of Georgia's First Time Camper Parks which is pretty awesome since there's so much to do there.) I wish we had planned more in advance and taken "CC" over there to camp for the weekend.