2004/06 Sleeping Giant and North Shore trips - Sleeping Giant hike |
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The next day I took an ambitious hike to the top of the Sleeping 
Giant, and found out that it isn’t as simple a mountain as it looks, as there are valleys and lakes that are invisible from a distance. The hike took me along the clifftops to the “knees” of the Giant, and over to the south side again. The trail ended at a cliff edge. The cliffs are columns of crystallized lava, absolutely vertical, and split by years of erosion. Not a place to trip over your feet, but some spectacular scenery.
Well, did we have any camper problems? Yes, we had leaks and rattles and fuse-blowings and comings apart. Most of these were just irritating, but I could fix them myself.
A few we had to get fixed elsewhere, like the propane leaks and the transmission 
problems. A couple of times we ended up with no four-wheel drive, and even no drive at all. The fix for these problems was a software update to the transmission’s computer. This was all fixed under warranty but still worrying for the long term. Hopefully we’ve got most of the bugs out before we get to the Yukon.
We also bought new tyres with a more aggressive tread, as vehicles delivered to South Carolina seem to have a different interpretation of “all season radials”. The original camper tyres we transferred to the Suburban, which was almost running bald, so they weren’t wasted.
We also learned a few lessons about how to use the camper.
- For example, the bathroom can be used as either a toilet or a shower, but it’s usually a good idea to remove the toilet paper before turning on the shower!
- Leaving your shorts at the bottom of the ladder to bed can result in stepping on the keys in the pocket and activating the truck’s alarm in the middle of the night.
- Loose crates on the camper’s floor can slide to the back of the camper and they are just the right height to hit the switch and start the generator running!