Skip to main content
Gerry | Vanagon
Checking account...
← vanagon.com home · Continue the discussion in the forum
VanagonEuroVan
Subject:Re: Heading into hell (up 395) -- any last words of advice?
From:Donna Skarloken
Date:Mon, 9 Jul 2007 09:06:46 -0700

I've drove up Sherwin Grade out of Bishop many times in the afternoon, air
and water cooled; I take it easy, of course.  A/C if you have it is off.
Get your rpms steady in third.  If I recall correctly I ran my 87 Wolfsburg
and my dad's 89 Westfalia right around 48-50mph - steady up the grade and
watch the temp gauge.

Our old 73 Thing I think I ran around 45mph up Sherwin; same thing - steady,
not over reved in third, sit back and relax and enjoy the view of the White
Mountains on your right and the Sierra Nevada on your left.

An alternative that someone else suggested is to sleep somewhere around
Bishop and then head up Sherwin in the evening or early morning.

Donna, 87 syncro

On 7/7/07, Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> So tomorrow morning at 4am PDT, I'm leaving Carlsbad, CA and heading
> north. First on I-15, then onto highway 395 to points north. The
> National Weather Service tells me that by the time I get to Bishop, CA
> (lunch-time-ish) the temps will be in the 100's and breaking records. My
> original plan was to get to Deadman Canyon (near Lee Vining) in the
> afternoon, but the heat may melt me.
>
> Where around Bishop (other than a motel) might a fellow camp that would
> not be totally sun-blasted nor require climbing so many thousands of
> feet of elevation that his Westy might overheat?
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> KG6RCR
>

Have something to add on this topic today? Revive this thread in the forum »