After last weekend’s trawler trip to Catalina we decided to use the holiday weekend for our first excursion in the PAV (Pleasure Assault Vehicle). Thanks to Shane for entrusting us with his 4th adventure vehicle (as he goes on to build his 5th) as we take to the highways once again. After a late start and hours of 5pm LA traffic we were finally in the Sequoia National Forest. We traveled the back country roads there for two days and then headed east to the Eastern Sierras. We thought we’d found all of the cold weather at 8,250 ft on Saturday in Whitney Portal at the base of Mt. Whitney. Little did we know we’d find a snow storm at 9,200 feet on Sunday at Onion Valley. It’s hard to believe that all of this wilderness is just a few hours outside the second most populated city in the US. Here’s a few pictures to prove we had fun.
Great Western Divide Highway
L At The Base Of A Giant Sequoia
New Growth On The Trail Of 100 Giants
The PAV In The Alabama Hills
More Rocks In The Alabama Hills
Still Some Snow On The Ground At Whitney Portal
Keeler Beach On Owens Lake (Drained Years Ago After Purchase By The Los Angeles Water Department)
Sign At Keeler Beach
Yes, It's Snowing
L, Climb Down Off The PAV!
J
Our View From The Road 
Jon,
Good to hear from you. Big heat wave rolling thru RVA this week. What’s the inside of the PAV look like?
Dru
Dru, great to hear from you!
The PAV is an Outside Van – our exact model isn’t on their website as it was a total custom “one-off” spec’d by the guy we bought it from – but the Outside Van website will give you an idea of the style of vans they build – they are big into the active adventure sports marketplace – we’ll take inside pictures on a future outing
Congratulations Jon and Liz! Wow….that is a cool RV. More stealth than the View, you can be more agile exploring the terrain. I have backpacked out of Whitney Portal and The Onion Valley and yes it is very unusual for these low pressure systems coming in this late. Now we can get together and do some camping. Judy and I are looking forward to showing you other California spots thanks to you all!
Take care,
John and Judy
John, I just couldn’t live here and not experience more of CA. We needed a small, multipurpose, “touring” option to fit where we live. I hope I was half as helpful getting the View ready for you as Shane was in preparing The PAV for us. And yes, let’s meet over a campfire soon!
Cool pics as usual, Bro!
My ‘lil sis to be in a few of these shots! (or in many shots)
DEFINITELY!
Hi & welcome to California!
The PAV is a great way to see the amazing beauty in this state. The van will get you to a lot of places that larger RVs just cannot get to. My wife and are have a camper van on our list, too. We’ve lived in CA for over ten years.
Here are some great resources of info for your PAV adventures:
For all things Sprinter: http://www.sprinter-source.com
A really great Sprinter resource on the West coast is John at Upscale Automotive (near Outside Van): http://www.upscaleauto.com/sprinter_store.htm
To find out more about trails and places to explore and more with a camper van in the West, try: http://www.sportsmobileforum.com (Yes, it’s dedicated to SMB’s but there is still a ton of great info on that site and folks are really friendly.
A great off-road resource is: http://www.expeditionportal.com
Have fun!
Rick L
Thanks Rick for the info
Unfortunately I’ve already spent waaay tooo muuuch time on those websites! Especially the expeditionalportal site! But someone else may way to dream as well so doesn’t hurt to publicize them!
I’ll also add one of my favorites: http://www.overlandexpo.com
J