We had an easy day at Sand Hollow. We started a little later today, figuring it’d be cooler by the water – wrong! it was hot by noon. We brought our e-bikes, planing a ride around the lake. But unlike Quail Creek, Sand Hollow does not have a good bike trail – lots of OHV trails but nothing very good for bikes/e-bikes. This park is great if you want to spend time on the lake boating, kayaking, fishing or even scuba diving. But is really geared towards off-roading with lots of ATV & 4x OHV trails & rentals. We weren’t interested in off-roading or kayaking again so after a 4×4 drive around the lake. We spent our time exploring the rocky shoreline and watching cliff jumpers. In hindsight, taking a drive to one of the other State Parks like Snow Canyon might have been a better plan. But is Sand Hollow is popular and worth a visit, just be geared to off-road or enjoy the water.
After hiking Middle Taylor Creek Trail yesterday, we drove into Leeds for lunch and came back for the Kolob Canyon scenic drive. If you are tired of hiking or not a hiker, this is a great scenic drive with pullouts/parking lots with spectacular views. Park volunteer John had described how to find the South Fork Taylor Creek Trail yesterday since it’s unmarked and not on the map. It’s not an easy trail to find but fortunately, we identified the trailhead after stopping to take photographs during one stop. This trail is not maintained, and it’s narrow and shrub covered in many places. The relatively few hikers that take this trail help keep it somewhat clear. The change is elevation starts right away, first dropping then climbing continuously till you hit the flat canyon floor ‘plateau’ 1mi in. The first mile is mostly unshaded on uneven ground, tracking along the hillside. But once you make it to the plateau, the trail levels out and follows along the smooth south cliff face. The trail ended for us in a slot canyon about 6ft wide. You can continue but it requires some agile bouldering over the large rocks blocking the canyon. I enjoyed this hike more than the Middle Taylor Creek Trail but Carol preferred yesterday’s hike because of the Double Alcove ‘reward’ at the end. This is a harder hike, with very few people – it made us nervous at first, wondering if we’d happen upon ‘wildlife’. From a photographic perspective, once the trail plateaued, the canyon offered a lot of scenery. That may be why I liked this hike more than yesterday’s, plus being able to touch the cliff wall. There were a few more hikers further in who got an earlier start than us. Plus rock climbers at a fascinating section of the cliff face where there were eroded sandstone ‘ladders’. I can see why this would be a popular rock climber destination. The trail ended in a boxed slot canyon, somewhat anti-climatic compared to the Double Alcove. But the hike against the cliff itself was pretty spectacular even when compared to Zion Canyon hikes.
One of the best trails to hike in Zion’s Kolob Canyon is Middle Fork Taylor Creek Trail. It’s a 5mi (total) out and back trail that’s 2 miles from the visitor center (1st parking lot on the left). It features a river/creek (depending on the season) and is rated as moderate. The trail is accessible year-round and most people hike 2.5mi to the Double Alcove. The beginning of the hike is open (unshaded) with a gradual increase in elevation and great views of the surrounding shear peaks. Further along the trail, you hike between the cliff faces shaded, following a dry river bed. It’s a fairly wide canyon so this is not slot canyon hiking. You do not get surrounded by rock faces like other hiking trails or have flash flooding concerns. Hiking 2.5mi in has a 590ft elevation gain, till you reach the Double Alcove. This is a great spot for photos and lunch. It was not crowded (~8 people) when we were there since we got an early start (when it was cooler). But as we were walking back around noon, there were more people on the trail heading in. Still, this area is significantly less crowded than the trails in Zion Canyon. We bumped into park volunteer John on the trail & he mentioned the lesser known South Fork Trail. He said it was an even better hike since you hike against the cliff and it narrows into a slot canyon. It’s shorter (3mi total) & more challenging, with 1070ft elevation gain on a less maintained trail. We’ll do that tomorrow.
We were unable to get a full-hookup campsite at the south entrance of Zion National Park for the first 5 nights of our trip. Fortunately, there was availability at the St George/Hurricane KOA. There is plenty to do in this area – access the Kolob Canyon entrance of Zion NP, and several State Parks such as Sand Hollow and Quail Creek State Park. Quail Creek is less than a mile from the KOA so our first day in southwestern Utah was spent on the lake. We e-biked the short distance to the park entrance and paid $5/person day-use fee. There is a campground here with access to the lake. Campground: $25 per night for the primitive site and $38 per night for a site with power and water. DIG Paddlesports rents one or two person kayaks and paddleboards ($25-$35/2hrs). People working there are friendly and helpful, emphasizing water safety. Afternoons are still 90+degF in late September so spending the morning on the lake was a cool break.
We finally planned our first out-of-state National Park RV trip, to Zion National Park. It’s 470mi away from Oceanside so we planned on two travel days. This is our first trip with our new Lectric E-Bikes. They add ~130lbs to our truck’s payload so we moved as much weight as possible to Howie. Instead of bins, we opted for bike bags to transport our folded bike since they take up less room. Bodhi stayed home with Sean & family because Zion doesn’t allow dogs on the trails & the heat in the RV would be too hot if the AC failed. He’ll go with us on our next trip to Silver Stand State Beach, San Diego.
21 Sept, Travel Day: we left Oceanside ~1140am and drove east, stopping at the Barstow for a break – Flying J for gas & a late lunch. Then we drove another hour, stopping for the night in Baker. We knew it would be over 90degF, so we decided not to boondock. Baker RV Park has full hookups for $25/night but no other amenities – it’s essentially a parking lot with hookups. You call the number posted and the manager tells you which site is available. We parked across the street from the Mad Greek’s Cafe and were thankful for the electrical hookup that let us run our AC. Since most of our trips have been on the coast or cool weather, we’ve never really had to use it. This trip was a good test and the AC worked well, without the freeze-ups that some other GeoPro owners have experienced.
File under ‘fascinating people you meet on the road’: Jim “Jet” Neilson. In Baker, the only campsite open at the RV Park was blocked by a rocket car(!). We met Jim as he was kind enough to move his rocket car trailer so we could pull in. Of all the stories I’ve heard about Covid affecting people, his is quite the tale. Covid has slowed one of the fastest man on earth. He’s hold up in Baker until he can make it back to his home in Panama. Stop by Baker’s Country Store/76 Gas Station, check out his impressive rocket car, have a chat & get one of his signed t-shirts.
22-27 Sept, St. George/Hurricane KOA: Like most KOAs, this campground was located well out-of-town, about 13mi north of St. George. It’s very close to Leeds, UT and 23mi from Zion National Park’s west entrance – Kolob Canyon. Zion’s southern entrance campgrounds were book solid so we opted to stay here then move to Zion Canyon RV Resort after 5 days. There is plenty to do on this side of the park and it is less crowded than Zion NP proper. Kolob Canyon has some great hikes as well as some of the other regional parks like Quail Creek (next door), Red Reef (across the road), Sand Hollow (10mi away), town of Hurricane (6mi).
27-30 Sept, Zion Canyon RV Resort: Now this is the place to stay with your RV when visiting Zion National Park. 0.4mi from the south entrance, walking (or ebike) distance to both the park, groceries, and food. We were fortunate, since we postponed our trip a week, to get a riverside site (130). This campground has full hookups, small pool, two restroom/showers, cable TV, and other amenities. They are still rebuilding from damage caused by the recent flash flooding of the Virgin River. So backhoes and rebuilding is going on during the day. The laundry is closed because of flash flood damage (as of OCt 1, may be open now).
We do not typically do a lot of customization to our vehicles, let alone our travel trailer. We’ve had our GeoPro several months and the only mods we’ve done are to make it more liveable – bed extension, table reduction, sink counter extension. I know many people add a lot to their RVs to make them more homey. But so far, we’ve keep ours pretty stock primarily cause we like the way it looks. BUT one thing we truly enjoy & appreciate is when RV’ers add a logo or exterior sticker that uniquely identifies them.
I dabbled in Graphic Design in college and enjoy logo design and fonts. So I thought I’d design a logo for Howie our 20ft GeoPro G19RD. Starting with a few Adobe Stock vector elements, I came up with a these ideas.
Adobe Stock provides vector illustrations, usually in .ai format, so I subscribed to Adobe Illustrator in order to customize the stock art. An Adobe Stock subscription is required separately and allows you to download 20 pieces of vector art per month. Vector art is preferable so you can scale the image, edit & add elements, and produce print-ready artwork.
I found wrapping the text easier to do in Adobe Photoshop so I converted the .ai to .pdf and imported it. Choosing the right font so it’s legible from several yards away is important. Once typed in and positioned in Photoshop, browsing fonts will change the text in the logo dynamically so it’s easy to see which works best.
Printing – so doing a sunburst graphic requires a continuous tone printer. The popular (on Facebook’s RV groups) Etsy decal designer Jenny of JadeDesign couldn’t do it. She does wonderful monochrome RV-wide decals and could do the two or three-color versions. But we wanted the continuous tone version to go along with our GeoPro graphic. So google-searching ‘vinyl decals for rv’, I ordered from two vendors: BestOfSigns.com and StickerApp. BestOfSigns.com was 1/2 the price of StickerApp. Both had easy to use online logo upload portals and order forms. BestOfSigns was the first to complete our order and shipped in one week, ordered Aug 18, arrived Aug 30 from India. StickerApp was ordered on the same day, Aug 18 and arrived today Sep 2 from Sweden. They both turned out great but the BestOfSigns UV ink is matte finished. The StickerApp is glossy so the colors are more vibrant and font legibility is better. I do not know if I could have had both as glossy. On the order page for BestOfSigns, you picked glossy, matte, or uv. I did not see an option for glossy+uv. But the BestOfSigns decal came with instructions and a squeegee for applying the decal. StickerApp only had the decals.
It took a little over 2months to get our two Lectric e-bikes. Unlike some new owners on the Lectric XP EBike Owners Facebook group, ours seem to come undamaged and working fine. After unboxing and general checkout, it took ~4hrs to charge each bike’s battery. My Black XP 2.0’s front brake was scrapping slightly which I read isn’t uncommon and should go away after 100 miles of use. But after my 1st short ride, I adjusted the disc brakes open 2 clicks on both front & back as prescribed in YouTube videos that discuss this problem. When looking down on the disc pads, the outside pads were touching the disc when the brake was open. Making this adjustment seems to remedy the problem.
We bought a few accessories from Lectric – the matching comfort packages for the XP & the ST, one set of mirrors, and a cargo package. Using a discount code found on YouTube (changinglanes2.0), accessories were 20% off which made them comparable in price to similar third party parts. The mirrors and cargo package still haven’t arrived – ordered in Jun 26 & today is Aug 26. I installed the XP comfort package which is a suspension seat post and softer, wider seat. It’s heavier than the stock seat & post, adding probably 2lbs, but installed easily and is definitely more comfortable. I also installed a (Amazon) well-reviewed left handlebar mirror for my XP. My wife’s ST comfort package has a shorter seat post and weighs close to the standard seat & post. But, in it’s lowest position, is ~two inches higher due to the springy portion of the column. This put her on her tip-toes when stationary so we will hold off on using the suspension seat post for now. I switched the wider, softer seat onto the standard seat post so she can touch the ground while seated. The bike is 63lbs so its handling is quite different than the 24lb Zizzo folding bikes we have been riding. Once she feels more comfortable with the heavier bike. We can consider re-installing the suspension seat post and raise her seat so she has fuller leg extension when peddling.
The other accessories added to my XP are: Abus 6000 folding lock & iPhone mount. A pannier bike bag will be added soon to carry bike tools & other necessities like a first aid kit. Her ST also has an Abus 6000 folding lock (keyed the same). Since her iPhone has a PopSocket, she will need a compatible phone mount.
Settings changed: P09=1 on both bike to prevent throttle from being active when the bike is not moving. So we’ll have to pedal from a standstill. P10=0 on the Step-Thru since my wife doesn’t want throttle enabled; P10=2 on my XP, both PAS & Throttle enabled. P11=4 on the Step-Thru so it takes an extra revolution for the motor-assist to engage. P21=1 enabling walk mode on both bikes to help push them uphill
Some of these setting will be set differently once we are accustomed to the bike handling. But while learning, we are erring on the side of caution with conservative settings.
Aug 22 2021 Update #2: My wife’s White Step-Thru 2.0 appeared unannounced Sunday 8am. I never got the FedEx shipping label that is usually sent a few days prior. But we are happy since Sunday was the day we were going to celebrate her birthday with family. It took 8 weeks for us to receive our e-bikes, one week longer than listed on their website. In hindsight, perhaps the lead time they list is for the shipping label to be sent. The bike arriving a week later. Finally, we can both hit the road – we are happy with the bikes but they are hefty at 63lbs each.
Aug 15 2021 Update #1: It’s finally here! At least my Black XP 2.0 is, still waiting on my wife’s White Step-Thru 2.0. It was ordered a week later so hopefully she’ll get it one week later, in time for her birthday. I was skeptical that FedEx would deliver my e-bike on a Sunday but by 12:30PST it was on our porch. The box is huge and really heavy. There is a lot of packing wrapping every component and it appears to have arrived without any issues. I charged it yesterday for a little over 4hrs and am ready for my first ride. The front disc brake scraps slightly when I lift the front wheel and spin the tire. But I am hopeful that it will break in (pun intended) as I ride it a few miles. Now if only the shipping label for my wife’s will arrive. Note: I received the shipping label notification Friday and got the bike Sunday. Phoenix isn’t far from San Diego so the deliver was fast. Stay tuned for more info on the White Step-Thru delivery & riding adventures.
Jun 18 Black XP 2.0 order arrived Aug 15 2021
After watching a variety of e-bike videos on YouTube, we decided on the Lectric XP 2.0 e-bikes due to the favorable reviews. They aren’t the lightest folding e-bike at 63lbs but, for the price, seem like “best-bang-for-the-buck”. I ordered a Black XP 2.0 Folding Fat Tire E-bike on lectricebikes.com for $999, the most I wanted to spend on my first e-bike. I’ve ridden another brand of e-bike (Ecotric) and found it fun. E-biking has a bit of a learning curve on how to start/stop & corner safely, plus turning off peddle-assist. YouTube reviewers also recommended the comfort seat upgrade for a more comfortable ride and offered a discount code for 20% off. So I added the seat & cargo package to my order. This was going to be a late Father’s Day gift, ordering Jun 18 2021. I considered waiting till I received mine before buying one for my wife. She’d have a chance to try mine out and see if it worked for her. BUT with a 7-week lead time (at the time of our order, 4-weeks now in early Aug), we changed our mind and I ordered her a White Step-Thru with comfort seat & mirrors Jun 26 2021, as an Aug birthday gift. I got confirmation email receipts showing my credit card was charged the full amount for both right away. So now we wait 7 weeks to get our FedEx Tracking numbers. Mine should ship early August, her’s a week later, in time for her birthday.
The comfort seats for both orders came first, mine July 23, and my wife’s Aug 3rd. These were expected since they were in stock July so shipping within 4-weeks of ordering. The cargo package was listed as shipping in August.
Well it’s been over 7 weeks (Aug 10 2021) and I still haven’t received my tracking label. The only contact from Lectric was an email after 4 weeks offering expedited shipping for an additional $150/bike. They would put it on a plane (“limited space so act quick – they’re actually paying part of the cost”) and I would receive my bike in less time. But we didn’t want to spend anymore and thought that the 7-week delay was acceptable since we agreed to wait that long.
I sent customer service an email inquiry using the link in the receipt and …crickets – no reply. So I finally called them today (Aug 10th) and the rep blamed it on FedEx. Saying they were moving the shipping of bikes from Los Angeles to Phoenix cause FedEx could ship them faster from Arizona. “One – two week additional delay for our orders” she says. So now we have to wait even longer. Funny, after mentioning I sent an email and got no response to the rep on the phone. I got an email response just a bit later repeating the same 1 – 2 week dealy. So I think they are trying, probably overwhelmed by the growth of their business. Still if you are going to specify a 7-week delay – 7 weeks – it shouldn’t turn into 10 weeks, 2 1/2 months. But according to the Lectric XP Facebook Group, 12-14 weeks is common. There’s A LOT of bitching on Facebook about the time it takes to get one so I guess I’m just one of many.
Based on this experience and trying to be patient in the “Covid-era”, I’m reconsidering my decision. There are a lot of e-bikes out there. If you want one within a reasonable amount of time, order something other than the Lectric e-bikes. A similar price-spec’d Ecotric e-bike can be ordered and arrive in a few days. Plus, in the two months since I ordered, there are more to choose from, some priced cheaper, and some with the same “bang-for-the-buck” awesomeness. Stay tuned for updates – see update 1 above^^^.
With full campgrounds, wild fires, and heat waves in areas we’d like to camp. We were lucky to find a vacancy at a campground an hour south at Sun Outdoors RV Resort San Diego Bay Sun Outdoors is a chain of upscale RV resorts which opened a new campground in Chula Vista CA in Spring 2021. They have a lot to offer rv’ers who like “glamping”, offering resort-style amenities. Like Campland-By-The-Bay, it’s “urban camping” and near San Diego points-of-interest such as the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Coronado, & Petco Park. They are also located next to the Living Coast Discovery Center – an educational place to learn about our coastal environment & wildlife. Entry is complimentary for Sun Outdoors RV’er families.
With our grandkids starting school in a few weeks, we took them here on a 4-day trip, July 29-Aug 1st. It’s very family-oriented, with lots of activities for young people (crafts, foam party, playgrounds), adults (fitness classes/gym, casino nights, live music, bar, bird watching), and families (arcade, movies, pool, Discovery Center tour, shuttles into San Diego). There’s even a small fenced dog-park & multiple dog stations scattered throughout the park. Unlike dry camping at San Onofre, where activities are the beach, biking, & hiking. This place is a resort with places to dine & play away from the RV. Great for camping with young kids 3 & 5yrs old. If you like camping in the mountains or by a peaceful river, this is not the place. There is a lot of open area west of the RV park with views of south San Diego Bay & Coronado Bridge so you are not in the middle of town. But it is urban camping/glamping.
We drycamped at San Onofre State Beach, Bluffs Campground 30 miles north of Oceanside. Availability at this campground is pretty open since it is essentially a long parking lot next to the I-5 freeway just south of the retired San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant. There are no hookups but sites do include an area for tents, picnic tables (in pretty poor shape but usable if covered) and fire rings. Restrooms have rv-style flushable toilets, outdoor beach-styled cold-water shower and sink. The RV campsites are wide asphalt parking spaces with adjacent dirt areas with fire rings & tables. The ranger-recommended tent site was on the bluff above our RV, on a wide hiking trail. But in other sections of the campground, most tents were pitched at parking level (quieter). Hikers & dog walkers use the trail so it’s not very private, although there wasn’t much foot traffic. Noise from the I-5 freeway and railroad is noticeable especially higher up where the tent was pitched. Each section of the campground has a restroom & trail leading to the beach (see map below). We were next to Trail 5 which was closed due to an unstable cliff collapse. Next trail, Trail 6, is quite a ways down so if you are carrying beach gear, driving to the trailhead is a good idea. The beach at Trail 6 is not busy, rocky, and dog-friendly. If you prefer a sandy beach then drive N a couple miles to Trail 1. The hike to the beach on Trail 6 is longer but less steep than Trail 1. People with e-bikes had the best method to access Trail 6’s beach. Trail 1 was steeper and coming back uphill was shorter but more challenging. The coastline & bluffs are beautiful here. But other than visiting the beach, surfing, or biking along the 3.5mi stretch of paved, level road, there is not much to do. There were groups of people in RVs & tents gathered & enjoying getting together. So if you are having trouble finding a campsite, this campground usually has vacancies. For no hookups, rustic restrooms, and closed trails, paying $40/night is a bit pricey since it dry camping. We’ve stayed at other Ca state beaches with water & electric for the same rate. There is a dump station but there is a $10 fee, even for paying rv’ers. When talking to the ranger, he said it was something they recently implemented because non-paying rv’ers were dumping when the ranger station was closed.
