Hey, great trip report !
If you are talking about the county camp ground at Big Lagoon on the
northern California coast.......
The  time I stayed there a few years ago, no one around, but still a kinda
dingy campground.........
And the next day we parked in the parking lot and kayaked the lagoon.......
We were told we were lucky our van didn't get vandalized while out on the
water.
I love Big Lagoon........loved going by it for years, and love the area, but
evidently the ambiance of the camp ground area at the south end could be
'more' ...more something.
Scott
www.turbovans.com 

ANYONE GOING TO BURNING MAN !!?    
ANYONE GOING TO BURNING MAN !!?    
ANYONE GOING TO BURNING MAN !!?    

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Keith Ovregaard
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 9:56 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Oregon Trip Report

Hi all,

I am back home (SF Bay Area) after a month-long visit up in Oregon. Up
I-5 to Shasta for the night and then up to the central Oregon coast.
Several trips to the Willamette valley to visit family and also tested
the capabilities of the Syncro on the soft, dry sand dunes south of
Florence. There is a big dune where the quads zip up at high speed, but
no other vehicles were attempting the climb. I lowered the tire
pressure to 18psi and aimed the van straight up the dune in granny gear
at high revs. She climbed 3/4 up the dune before bogging. Not bad! Sure
got a lot of stares from the quad guys and gals! Then it was time to
launch the ski boat. Never down that before with a Vanagon, but gave it
a try. No problem other than the 0-60 was non existent! At the end of
our stay, it was time to take the boat out of the water and my brother
in law had to leave with his SUV, so I had to either leave the boat in
the water or attempt at pulling it out of the lake with the van. Yikes!
We are talking about a heavy 18.5ft. fiberglass boat with a big V6
out-drive! Forgot how much it weighs, but it must be close to the
weight of the westy. I was nervous about this because if I couldn't
pull the boat out, neither the van or boat is going to get off the boat
ramp without the help of another 4x4 or tow truck. And this was a
remote place without cell service. Tight sphincter time! :-O So I
pulled the diff lock and engaged the decoupler, put it in granny and
off we went without incident! I was amazed and very relieved! Here's a
pic: <http://home.comcast.net/~kovregaard/images/168_6847.jpg>

On the trip back home, we headed down Hwy 101 along the coast for night
of camping at Big Lagoon. The sea was so flat and calm (very rare for
west coast) and never rained for almost a month until that night. No
problem with a westy, but the tent and under-the-stars campers were not
happy! Never seen that place so crowded, though. And noisy! Generators
running al over the place, stereo's cranked up and screaming tots made
for little sleep that night. Makes one appreciate remote primitive
camping away from people like that. Sheesh!

Anyway, it was a great trip. We waved at lots of other westies along
the way including this one in Port Orford with a poodle at the wheel:
<http://home.comcast.net/~kovregaard/images/168_6860.jpg> And also saw
John Wessle's Unimog/mobile shop rig heading north just south of
Florence heading towards the Mogfest, no doubt. Would have liked to go,
but had to get back home. Next year perhaps...

The VikingWagen ran flawlessly for the 1605 miles and got around 18mpg
average.

Keith O.
90 Westy Syncro "VikingWagen"
Past VeeDubs in the family
1984 Westy "Brownie"
1980 PU diesel
1978 Rabbit diesel
1979 Rabbit gasser
1963? 23 window Splitty
1965 Bus
1969 Bus
1959 Bug