So I Live in a Van

It’s official, I now live in a van. What was my motivation to make such a drastic life change? Honestly, that’s something I’m still figuring out. Some combination of not wanting to be stuck working a 9-5 my whole life, trying to get outside, explore, and be active more, pushing my comfort zone and expanding my horizons, simplifying my life and living mindfully, and finding myself I guess. While I’m looking at this as a temporary lifestyle change, I’m also not giving myself any hard constraints. My target is to travel in the van for about a year, but if I love it maybe I’ll just keep doing it. On the other hand if I hate it or feel like I’ve had my fill before that, I’m not going to be disappointed if I decide to move into a permanent abode and join the real world again earlier. Being open and flexible with minimal obligations and objectives is sort of the lifestyle I’m going for. Just enjoy life for a while and see where it takes me.

I started thinking about doing this probably four years ago. It originated as wanting to take an extended road trip to visit friends and family spread out across the country, and morphed into living on the road for a while in some type of camper. I got hooked on vans shortly thereafter, and since then it’s basically been a question of when can I actually do this. This spring I found myself in a position to finally act on this long-standing idea, and I’ve been in the process of getting ready and building out the van since then.

Ready to leave, at last

As far as converting the van goes, I won’t get into the details here as I’ll do a separate series of posts on the design and buildout. Suffice to say, it was a ton of work. Not as much as say, renovating a house, but still far more time that I had planned. Yes, I’ve done enough of this type of project by now to know that things take about three times as long as you plan, but what can I say, I still tend to be overly optimistic. There is still some work to do and a few key systems that aren’t working (um, heat would be nice this time of year), but it’s finished enough to be living in. I’m very happy with how it came out, and it’s slowly starting to feel like home.

The weeks leading up to actually leaving were, as expected, a whirlwind of activity. I somehow managed to get the help of Mike and Carrie at a few critical times yet again, which is the only way I got on the road when I did. Those two happen to be doing some traveling as well (in a Sprinter no less, which I hope I can take some credit for), so we were trying to start our trips together in Colorado. There was an overnight hike planned from Friday to Saturday, and damned if I wasn’t going to make it one way or another. There had been enough delays already that I was determined to get out and enjoy some mountain time before the winter.

I ended up leaving Thursday evening after far too many late nights, early mornings, and trips into town for supplies. I was totally exhausted from the marathon of work that had ensued over the past couple weeks, but sucked it up one last time and drove pretty much straight through to Denver to meet the crew for the drive into the mountains the next morning. As I sat at the wheel watching the miles slowly tick by, I realized that, as tired as I was, it was refreshing to just sit and relax for the first time in at least a few weeks. No van details to think about, no planning, no ordering, no painting. Just the open road in front of me, freedom.

The hike was pretty awesome, scenery wise at least. Turns out hiking 9 miles with a pack at elevation on about 4 hours of sleep when you were exhausted to begin with is not a recipe for success. I made it, but the last couple miles was probably the most exhausted and worn out I’ve ever been at the end of a hike. Luckily there was a hot springs at camp to relax in, and Mike had lugged up a totally necessary bag of wine. Success.

A warm fall day on the Conundrum Creek Trail

Enjoying a morning soak in the hot springs

From there I spent a few more days exploring with Mike and Carrie and a couple Boulder friends – Greg and Allison. We hit up Rocky Mountain National Park, and learned the hard way that there is not much free van camping available in the Estes Park area. Finding van spots is something that I certainly haven’t perfected, and we spent a good hour or two driving around to no avail looking for potential areas we could park for the night and not be bothered. We ended up at a trailhead that seemed pretty quiet and out of the way, but had ample “No Overnight Parking without Permit” signs posted. We decided it was probably our best bet and thankfully had an uninterrupted night. A ranger did come by the next morning and give us a hard time about staying there overnight, but she wasn’t too concerned apparently. I spent some much needed time shortly thereafter researching camping regulations for National Forests and BLM lands, and feel like I now have a much better idea of how to find legitimate spots. Still getting the hang of finding non-legitimate places though.

After another day hanging around Boulder and Denver taking care of more unfinished van work, I split up with Mike and Carrie and went to spend a few days in the mountains. Fresh national forest intel in hand, I headed up to a forest road located in an area I’ve driven by countless times without stopping to check out. I made it to the trailhead and was relieved to find that the signage seemed to match what I had interpreted from the map. I pointed my wheels up the steep rocky road and couldn’t help but smile as I started to feel like I was finally realizing one of my visions for this van – being able to access relatively remote sites with my short wheelbase, high ground clearance, and aggressive tires,. A mile or two up the rough road I came to a clearing and pulled into a turnout with what I deemed to be a great spot for the evening. I felt pretty cool nestled up in the mountains overlooking snow covered peaks, at least until later that evening when a Honda Civic went driving past. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t quite that rugged of a road.

First forest road campsite

One of my errands in Denver had been picking up air ducting for the heater I previously installed so that it could actually blow hot air into the vehicle instead of outside. After I got settled and made myself what felt like a well-deserved drink, I pulled my coveralls over my sweatpants and started crawling around under the van to route the ducting to the appropriate locations. It was mostly dark and close to freezing by the time I was finished enough to fire up the heater and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I switched the control panel to heating mode, cranked up the temperature, and waited… and waited. Nothing, damnit! It had worked when I first installed it back in Wisconsin. I messed around with it for a bit, but wasn’t able to get it working. Eventually I gave up and settled in for another cold night, frustrated.

Before I left the next day I decided to drive further up the road to check out what was there. Shortly above my campsite, the road narrowed and climbed along the steep hillside up toward a pass shown on the map. It didn’t take long to hit the snowpack left from the last storm that came through, and the shaded path harbored some steep slippery spots which I was more than a little concerned about getting up. After a few hairy spots where I was forced to consider the possibility of getting stuck and having to back down the perilous path, I decided not to push my luck and to turn around at the next opportunity. I soon came to a slightly wider area, and as I managed to Austin Powers my way into facing back down the hill I remembered how much I like having the short 144” wheelbase version of the Sprinter. Now if only I had the new 4WD option as well.

Thankful I can turn around in spots like this

I spent a few more days in Colorado and met up with Greg and Allison again for some Mountain biking before heading west. One of my favorite experiences so far was on my way out of Colorado. I didn’t make it to my intended destination before dark, so opted to pull off at the closest BLM land I could find. A mile of dirt road led to a quiet little camping area that I settled into with a couple other guests for the night. I wasn’t in much of a rush the next day and the map showed a number of trails leading toward the nearby Colorado River, so I figured it’d be fun to hop on the mountain bike and explore. Soon after cutting off the main road onto a random singletrack trail, I started cursing myself at some of the steep climbs I encountered. Not what I was in the mood for at the time, and I kept my eyes peeled for a route back to the main road. Soon enough though, the trail descended onto a rim at the top of some sandstone bluffs overlooking the river valley and I quickly forgot about trying to bail. I followed the route along the rim for a good five miles before it met back up with a Jeep road heading back toward camp. Flowing curves following the rugged landscape shaped by millennia of wind and water. Patches of yellow and gold leaves dotting the river valley hundreds of feet below where water brings life to the desolate landscape. Silence and serenity, with no other soul in site. It was some of the best scenery I’ve ever witnessed on a ride, and randomly stumbling upon it made it all the better. Very memorable, and the type of experience I hope to find more of on this journey.

Terrific mountain bike trail overlooking the Colorado River

My plan is to make my way up to the Pacific Northwest to visit some family, then meet back up with Mike and Carrie to work our way down the coast for a couple weeks. The van is running well, which I very much appreciate given some of the previous issues I’ve had. There are still at least a few things I need to finish up, and it seems like day to day housekeeping takes an inordinate amount of time. I’m liking the lifestyle though, and feel like I’m starting to get into a rhythm. So far I’ve been covering a lot of ground given the time I’ve been on the road, and I do look forward to being able to relax in one place for a longer period of time. Soon enough, I tell myself. There will be plenty of time for that over the impending winter. For now, I’m happy to get out and enjoy as much of the quickly fading fall as I can.