Rough Start to the Camping Season

After months of closed state park campgrounds due to the pandemic, I was finally able to go camping in our little trailer. I was expecting a relaxing and peaceful weekend, but what I got was something different.

Back before the pandemic shut everything down, I made a reservation at Elk Neck State Park in Maryland for Father’s Day weekend. So we headed out on Friday for the delayed start of our camping season. 

We had a great campsite; it was large, private, and surrounded by woods. The site didn’t have electricity for the camper, but we often camp that way. Propane and battery power are all we need for a weekend of camping in the camper. After getting situated, we had dinner and enjoyed a relaxing campfire. And, of course, my antenna went up, and I set up the radio. 

During the evening, the trailer battery started to fade. Eventually, it died altogether. It’s a 100 Ah deep cycle battery that has served us well for several camping seasons. Without it, we had no lights, the propane refrigerator wouldn’t start, and we had no water for the toilet. (I can hear the backpackers out there laughing right now.)

Fortunately, I had an extra 35 Ah battery I could press into service as a backup. After swapping a few connections, we were back in business. We used some alkaline battery-powered lights inside the camper to minimize the current draw on the smaller battery.

On Saturday, we awoke to some great weather and watched a deer pass by in the woods. Radio-wise, I started the day with a CW chat with KB4GYT in South Carolina. But, as the morning progressed, we started hearing some rumbling off in the distance. By mid-day, the storms moved in, and it continued to rain the rest of the afternoon.,

To our good fortune, the rain let up around dinner time. As we were finishing our dinner, however, we heard the propane gas detector in the trailer starting to chirp. That chirp meant we had another depleted battery on our hands. 

At that point, we could have reverted to tent camping mode, using our battery operated lights and making use of the campground bathroom facilities. (We had other workarounds for using the toilet in the trailer, but I’ll spare you those details.) We had two coolers, so we could deal with the loss of the refrigerator. Plus, we still had another battery for charging phones and running a fan. We tent-camped for many years, so we’ve done all this before.

In the end, we decided we didn’t want to spend our time implementing workarounds for our workarounds to extend our stay one more night. We had to be out by mid-day the next day, anyway. So, we took advantage of the remaining daylight to hastily pack up and head home. 

In between the thunderstorms and dealing with trailer battery issues, I managed to make a half-dozen contacts. Of those, two were Parks on the Air (POTA) park-to-park contacts. At times, the static crashes made radio reception difficult. I can only imagine what my 5-watt signal sounded like on the other end.

It was nice while it lasted. Well, most of it was, anyway. Instead of camping, I’ll spend Father’s Day getting my tent camping gear together for Field Day next weekend. Oh yeah… and shopping for a new battery.

73, Craig WB3GCK