Memorial Day weekend Central OR adventure in my R1T

[jjswan33]

I went on a 3 (4) night adventure in my R1T over the weekend… great adventure and exhausted.

Departed Sandy Friday afternoon, plan to start was a bit unstructured but I headed south to the Madras RAN station where are charged up to around 70% SOC.

Night 1 we found a nice camping spot west of Madras on the peninsula above Lake Billy Chinook, we didn’t go very far out on the peninsula due to mud even know the Rivian would have been fine.

The next morning we headed early over to Smith Rock to hike the Misery Ridge loop before it got too hot (and busy) at the park. From here our next plan was to head to the Painted Hills but not before a quick trip back to Madras to charge up. After hiking around the painted hills for a while we headed south into the Ochoco NF to find a camp site which we did off of the Old Summit trail on a spur with a viewpoint. Due to sun and some light rain we saw a multitude of rainbows from our perch.

From here the range anxiety was real after draining down to around 18% SOC overnight. Luckily mostly downhill back to civilization and I made it to an EVCS 50kW charger in Redmond, OR where I was able to juice up enough to make it to the EA station in Bend. I charged deep up to around 85% SOC and we headed out to the Cascade Lakes HWY for a afternoon hike. After hiking we headed south down the Cascade Lakes HWY to Wikiup Reservoir to find another beautiful spot and due to the high water level we had our own private beach for night 3.

From here for our last day we headed south. We had planned on doing a hike on the PCT near Willamette pass but the snow level was a bit high so we ended up at Tranquil Cove on Crescent Lake and relaxed on the beach for a while before heading to Crescent RAN to charge up and head back north. We then went for an evening hike at Black Butte near Sisters OR.

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Since my friends were headed back to Portland and me to Sandy we parted ways as they headed over Santiam Pass and I headed east through the forest towards Lake Billy Chinnok and to the RAN station in Madras. I charged up to 70% SOC and headed back over Mt Hood to home.

A few thoughts:

- 3 great overlanding spots and great company made for a wonderful weekend
- CCS charging worked perfectly as I find it usually does.
- The RAN stations along 97 are a fantastic addition making most of this adventure seamless and easy.

Now to start planning my next Rivian adventure!

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[M00v0vr]

Saw you heading over hood as I was heading to the coast, east bound traffic looked crazy, it was backup up all the way from Sandy to the Boring exit.

 

[jjswan33]

Saw you heading over hood as I was heading to the coast, east bound traffic looked crazy, it was backup up all the way from Sandy to the Boring exit.

That on another point I saw so many Rivian's this weekend! More than 10 including several SUVs.

Can't recall on the traffic, seems like a month ago.

 

[seanocono]

Looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing. It's tough to beat the PNW in the summer.

I'd love to learn more about how your build is working for you after some more real world usage. Your camper thread is one of the most interesting threads we have going on our forum.

 

[COdogman]

What a great spot on that overlook! Looks like a fun weekend with lots of ground covered.

 

[jjswan33]

Looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing. It's tough to beat the PNW in the summer.

I'd love to learn more about how your build is working for you after some more real world usage. Your camper thread is one of the most interesting threads we have going on our forum.

Thanks for that. The build has been working out great, very comfortable. I hope to post a video of my build and it's features at some point.

 

[seanocono]

Thanks for that. The build has been working out great, very comfortable. I hope to post a video of my build and it's features at some point.

That would be sweet! I’m glad to hear everything is working out well for you. Your camper build looks really nice in photos.

 

[Acoustic71]

My Man!

Oh, the memories your travels invoke. There was this one time, in Vietnam Band Camp....

All kidding aside, the wife unit and I love fly fishing. Back in the early 2000's, prior to wife unit, I often traveled to Madras or Maupin with friends to fish the Deschutes River. I really want to give it a go, but should probably have the cargo bed tent thingy figured out. I have the racks, just never pulled the trigger on the tent itself. Nice to know the infrastructure is getting there, and understand the range anxiety. I overplan every long trip we have taken, which drives the wife crazy, but both long trips (Lincoln City to South Lake Tahoe Oct 22, and Lincoln City to Livermore, CA) had issues with what we planned. Some were choice of charging stations (Willows CA Walmart - yeah, that's a nope!), or the planned overnight free charging via Tesla Destination Chargers in Mt Shasta. The same units allowed an overnight charge to 100% SOC both times in Oct as there were no other EV's at the 4 units, and we had a sign in the window to call us if a charge was needed. On the May '23 trip the chargers were offline the night we stayed on the way down (oopsie!), and were barely operating, although online, on the return night. BTW, is 9 miles gained on a full night's charge considered a charge at all? LOL

 

[jjswan33]

My Man!

Oh, the memories your travels invoke. There was this one time, in Vietnam Band Camp....

All kidding aside, the wife unit and I love fly fishing. Back in the early 2000's, prior to wife unit, I often traveled to Madras or Maupin with friends to fish the Deschutes River. I really want to give it a go, but should probably have the cargo bed tent thingy figured out. I have the racks, just never pulled the trigger on the tent itself. Nice to know the infrastructure is getting there, and understand the range anxiety. I overplan every long trip we have taken, which drives the wife crazy, but both long trips (Lincoln City to South Lake Tahoe Oct 22, and Lincoln City to Livermore, CA) had issues with what we planned. Some were choice of charging stations (Willows CA Walmart - yeah, that's a nope!), or the planned overnight free charging via Tesla Destination Chargers in Mt Shasta. The same units allowed an overnight charge to 100% SOC both times in Oct as there were no other EV's at the 4 units, and we had a sign in the window to call us if a charge was needed. On the May '23 trip the chargers were offline the night we stayed on the way down (oopsie!), and were barely operating, although online, on the return night. BTW, is 9 miles gained on a full night's charge considered a charge at all? LOL

The infrastructure is good IMO but yeah over to the painted hills and then to camping was a stretch. There isn’t really even a gas station between Prineville and Mitchel and we went pretty high up in the Ochoco’s.

FWIW I’ve used the EA station at the Walmart in Willows several times and it worked flawlessly.

 

[Acoustic71]

The infrastructure is good IMO but yeah over to the painted hills and then to camping was a stretch. There isn’t really even a gas station between Prineville and Mitchel and we went pretty high up in the Ochoco’s.

FWIW I’ve used the EA station at the Walmart in Willows several times and it worked flawlessly.

I should have explained myself a bit more about the Willows, CA Walmart. The EA station was busy, on both up and back legs of the trip to Livermore CA (Friday down; Sunday up). Going down we did charge, but the stalls are such that it can be tight getting in and out of there when traffic is around or EVs waiting to charge. It didn't help that we had a local bus park behind us in the middle of the driving area (the normal "wait" area between runs per the driver). 2 out of the four units were intermittent and at least three folks tried to charge "from the other hose" while I was charging. One F150 lightning guy tried to "help" by pulling hard on the charge head while it was still locked in charging mode. Then, after I stopped the charging and was opening my door, he tried to "help" again by trying to force the Charge Port cover closed.

So, you're right - ya got me. My Nope! experience was based more on the folks I was interacting with, and perhaps less on the chargers themselves. Either way the Willows CA Walmart makes a great bathroom break for us (I did mention that I'm an old fart, yes?) so it will remain on our charge/break list until something else better pops up.

On the way back (up as I call it) we did not need to charge at Willows, having pulled 80% SOC at the West Sacramento RAN. As luck would have it, all stalls at the Willows CA Walmart were empty, but 2 out of the 4 stations were completely down. I might add that it was pretty warm out on both Friday and Sunday, and as reported elsewhere, it did seem to affect how the charging stations were operating. On a good note, the Target EA in Springfield OR has at least two 350kW charging stations replaced from the older two-charging head models, to the new Signet single head model, and at least one 150kW unit as well. I was a there on both Thursday and Monday, and the EA installer had just finished setting up the new units on Thursday, May 18 around noon. Fastest charge to 80% SOC I have ever had outside of a 350kW RAN and the new unit seemed completely unfazed by the heat.

Perhaps the best lesson I learned on my journey - take your time if you are not a spring chicken. We were on the road all day Thursday and Friday, with just enough down time to eat dinner and hit the hay, but I was so concerned about the unknown charging factors that I didn't get much in the way of solid sleep. I spent much of Saturday morning trying to get a decent charge, and had about an hour of time at a coffee shop with my son before it was time to get ready for the my grand stepson's wedding. The wedding was held and we only got to actually talk to about 1/2 of the guests we wanted to connect with, and family were crazy busy. In other words, it was a typical wedding. We hit the rack and collapsed that night, but then had to depart for Lincoln City as soon as possible the next morning.

We should have thought this trip out a lot more than we did. I spent a lot of time figuring out the charging aspect, and will admit to being extremely conservative in my planning. Our own recharging we gave very little real thought to, and that proved to be the biggest issue we faced. We should have planned for at least one more day on each side of the wedding day. If not to connect to family and friends, then just to recharge the body and mind.

Safe travels.

 

[jjswan33]

I should have explained myself a bit more about the Willows, CA Walmart. The EA station was busy, on both up and back legs of the trip to Livermore CA (Friday down; Sunday up). Going down we did charge, but the stalls are such that it can be tight getting in and out of there when traffic is around or EVs waiting to charge. It didn't help that we had a local bus park behind us in the middle of the driving area (the normal "wait" area between runs per the driver). 2 out of the four units were intermittent and at least three folks tried to charge "from the other hose" while I was charging. One F150 lightning guy tried to "help" by pulling hard on the charge head while it was still locked in charging mode. Then, after I stopped the charging and was opening my door, he tried to "help" again by trying to force the Charge Port cover closed.

So, you're right - ya got me. My Nope! experience was based more on the folks I was interacting with, and perhaps less on the chargers themselves. Either way the Willows CA Walmart makes a great bathroom break for us (I did mention that I'm an old fart, yes?) so it will remain on our charge/break list until something else better pops up.

On the way back (up as I call it) we did not need to charge at Willows, having pulled 80% SOC at the West Sacramento RAN. As luck would have it, all stalls at the Willows CA Walmart were empty, but 2 out of the 4 stations were completely down. I might add that it was pretty warm out on both Friday and Sunday, and as reported elsewhere, it did seem to affect how the charging stations were operating. On a good note, the Target EA in Springfield OR has at least two 350kW charging stations replaced from the older two-charging head models, to the new Signet single head model, and at least one 150kW unit as well. I was a there on both Thursday and Monday, and the EA installer had just finished setting up the new units on Thursday, May 18 around noon. Fastest charge to 80% SOC I have ever had outside of a 350kW RAN and the new unit seemed completely unfazed by the heat.

Perhaps the best lesson I learned on my journey - take your time if you are not a spring chicken. We were on the road all day Thursday and Friday, with just enough down time to eat dinner and hit the hay, but I was so concerned about the unknown charging factors that I didn't get much in the way of solid sleep. I spent much of Saturday morning trying to get a decent charge, and had about an hour of time at a coffee shop with my son before it was time to get ready for the my grand stepson's wedding. The wedding was held and we only got to actually talk to about 1/2 of the guests we wanted to connect with, and family were crazy busy. In other words, it was a typical wedding. We hit the rack and collapsed that night, but then had to depart for Lincoln City as soon as possible the next morning.

We should have thought this trip out a lot more than we did. I spent a lot of time figuring out the charging aspect, and will admit to being extremely conservative in my planning. Our own recharging we gave very little real thought to, and that proved to be the biggest issue we faced. We should have planned for at least one more day on each side of the wedding day. If not to connect to family and friends, then just to recharge the body and mind.

Safe travels.

Ha, yeah I can see that. The charger is in an odd location on the side of the building and I think all of my visits were early in the morning because I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express nearby the first two times I pass through there. The last time I was through there I had just picked up my camper so I slept right in their parking lot after pulling in later in the evening, staying adventurous forever

 

[Acoustic71]

Ha, yeah I can see that. The charger is in an odd location on the side of the building and I think all of my visits were early in the morning because I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express nearby the first two times I pass through there. The last time I was through there I had just picked up my camper so I slept right in their parking lot after pulling in later in the evening, staying adventurous forever

That's why you're the man! And that's why I'm not. Some days I feel like the old fart shouting at the kids, "And stay off my lawn!" when I'm really just a pretty nice guy who just needs a nap. LOL

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