Spending the weekend camping on the beach has always been something I’ve wanted to do, maybe it’s the allure of being stranded on a desert island with a fridge full of beer, or being able to walk out from your tent and dive into the ocean. Either way it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a DRT Camp Out, because the only thing better than being stranded by yourself, is bringing a bunch of your friends along for the ride.
We loaded up the JK and hit the road early Friday morning (BTW whoever says waking up at 4AM isn’t terrible is full of crap) to make our 1:00 PM ferry reservation at the Davis Shore Ferry Service. There we met up with our good friends Mike and Lara with Overland Gear Exchange who had just finished a massive road trip from Virginia to Arizona for Overland Expo West. Augie was supposed to meet us as well but he managed to get there early and caught the first boat he could. After filing out some quick paperwork, airing down, and praying that I wouldn’t get sea sick, we loaded up the trucks and trailer to start the 30 minute ride across the sound.
Hitting the island, you’re greeted by the local Park Ranger and volunteers who make sure to give you a quick lay of the land. They were also nice enough to warn us about the new Ranger who they appropriately named “jack ass” and told us he could be spotted by his 4 chrome pistol magazines, and 3 30 round AR magazines he wore on his duty belt at all times. Let’s just say that after seeing him, we’re confident he lives up to the name.
Once we started rolling, we pointed the trucks south for the 10 mile ride on the beach to our campsite. Dan had been kind enough to get on the Island at 6:00 AM that morning and lock down a prime spot for us to camp for the weekend, and bring enough firewood (and a leaf blower) for the meanest bonfire you could imagine.
After setting up camp, which also included worrying about taking an involuntary para-sail ride down the beach wrestling with Mike and Lara’s Conqueror trailer for a hour to setup their awning, we cracked open some beers and got to know everyone else that showed up for the weekend.
We had a total of 7 trucks (including the DRT JK) show up for the Camp Out, they included a Nissan Titan, Duramax Colorado, 4Runner, Tacoma, and pair of Lexus GX 470’s. We were also able to watch a ton of unique rigs drive by on the beach ranging from the crew we called the “Tacoma Bros” due to their heavy use of chrome, and Dan’s Fairy Ferry Buddy who was rocking a sweet 7.3 F-350 with a massive slide in camper.
The days on the beach pretty much all included swimming in the ocean, fishing – not catching, hanging out by the fire, swapping some hilarious stories, and drinking beer. I’m pretty sure I ate some food as well and someone made fondue one night, but I was pretty much there for the views.
What made this trip absolutely perfect though as the amazing weather we had all weekend. Besides one late night rain storm, we had clear skies, 80 degree days, 70 degree nights, and a nice breeze, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Overall I’m confident in saying we all had a great time, shout out to Mike, Lara, Augie, Dan, John, Teresa, Jon, Jacob, and everyone else for coming out for the weekend. Hopefully we’ll have some more rigs come out next year, and you can guarantee this is going to be a yearly occurrence.
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