My experience in towing has been limited to towing a car behind my 4Runner across country, transporting my father-in-law's boat down to the shore and towing a small flat bed trailer when we moved from Glen Burnie to Pasadena several years ago. Towing a three ton, 28 foot trailer behind my new Ram 1500 was a new experience, so my stress level was a bit high. But the best way to learn is to do, so that is what we did.
The agenda included two nights at the campground. We had made our meal plan, stocked up the fridge and packed a few things that we would need for the three day trip. It was not unlike preparing for a backpack trip, but weight was much less of a factor this time.
The drive up started a little stressful as I worried about every strange noise or unexpected pull on the truck as we drove out of the neighborhood and entered the highway. I wasn't sure what was supposed to be right. I could tell the truck was making its own adjustments to all of a sudden having to pull this large box behind it. Taking it slow and just moving along carefully was the rule of the day.
I have been a little obsessed with trying to learn the best way to back the trailer into a site as that is what we were going to have to do. I had been up by the Museum about a week or two ago, so I had been able to check out the site and saw that the backing wouldn't be too hard, but the road was one way, not too wide and there were trees.
I had watched every YouTube video I could find and read all kinds of tips and tricks on how to do it and I had practiced a little pulling into the driveway, but it was going to be crunch time (hopefully not literally) in just about two hours. Just before we left, I had found a blog of a woman called Trailer Girl, who has a lot of good suggestions on storage and other things that an RV'er needs to know. One of the stories she told was, after a long day of travelling, they arrived tired and needing to back into their site. Another nearby RV'er offered to help with the backing in as he was a retired truck driver. This made the pull in very easy and stress free. As we headed around the Baltimore Beltway, I fantasized on the possibility of that happening to us, but didn't have a lot of hope.
Everything was going ok as we slowly made our way north, each road we turned on to being a little smaller then the last. After exiting Rt 15 north of Gettysburg, we stopped at a truck stop to stretch our legs and shake off some of the stress. Also to pee.
Continuing on we entered the foothills of South Mountain and started passing the large apple orchards that dominate the landscape of this part of PA. Before too long we were traveling down Pine Grove road, passing the A.T. Museum and heading down the access road to the campground.
We pulled next to a water faucet near the entrance as our site didn't have water and we needed to fill our tank. In the site next to the faucet, there was a nice couple and their old dog sitting outside their coach. We struck up a conversation as the tank was filling and we learned that they had been there all week, but were leaving soon. One other tidbit I learned was that Tony was a previous truck driver....
After talking backing techniques for a few minutes, I mentioned that if you hear a lot of yelling coming from site #6, it would be us trying to figure it all out. We proceeded on and approached our site. After a first pass, I decided I needed to back up some and try to swoop in to better align the trailer as those trees were coming a lot closer to the truck than I was comfortable with. As we were figuring out our next move, Tony came walking down the road and offered to help with the pull in.
After a few instructions of turn left, go back, stop, now turn right, stop, straighten the wheel, now back... You get the gist. We were nicely pulled in, perfectly in our spot. He was an angel, there is no doubt. We have a saying out on the trail, "The Trail Provides." Its meaning is that no matter what happens out on the trail, things just seem to work out. Sometimes in a mystical way. This was certainly a case of things working out in that magical way. We were eternally grateful for the help, but I just wasn't that surprised that it happened. Just like when it happens out on the trail. It has happened so many times for me, it just seems natural now.
We set up camp and decided to go for a short walk around the campground with Ginger. As we passed site #29 where Tony and his wife were camped, the site was now empty, with no sign that it had recently had a large trailer, some chairs and a rug all set up. It made us entertain the thought of "were they really there?"
Even when you are not on the Trail, it still provides.
Peace,
EarthTone and LoGear
