I think we’ve got Bodega Bay covered. This campground is part of the Sonoma County Regional Parks and sits right across the bay from Doran Beach. There is a row of sites right along the water, but we weren’t in any of those. This was an exploratory mission weekend to check the place out.
Besides spending part of Saturday writing a report, we didn’t do a whole lot. We walked down to the Spud Point Chowder Co. for lunch and I tested out the completed version of the Pahaque Visor. I bought this used off a friend and found there were some missing parts. As my little Dory “some day” projects have been mounting, I splurged and got a new heavy duty sewing machine. Making homemade pole pockets was one of the first items checked off the list.
It took some searching to find the coupler piece that holds the poles together, but they work nicely now. In fact, I’m quite pleased with the whole set up. With the poles in the pockets, you can put the visor up without any staking into the ground. This is handy when on pavement or hard packed dirt. This setup requires there be no more than moderate winds, but it can be adjusted for heavier wind by putting the pole ends on the ground and running guy lines out away from the Alto. It seems pretty secure and is fairly easy to put up. One piece of advice: the instructions say to insert the arc pole all the way into the sleeve before putting the visor in the keder track. I disagree. All that does is create a giant, awkward kite that inevitably rolls around in the dirt before you can get it in place. I found it to be much easier to put the material all the way in the track, letting the end with the pole opening go past the rail and hang down about a foot. Then insert the pole and create the arc shape in place. My little keder anchors work very well to keep things from scooting around and everything stayed nicely secure. Also: ice packs filled with water work well to keep rug corners from blowing around.
Dinner Saturday at La Bogedita. Not much else to report. Lovely lazy weekend.
Total miles: 85.6, 15.0 mpg, 2 hours 52 min. Site 3. Nice sites by the water: 35-47, all solar. 35* is on the end. Not much privacy. Flush bathrooms, nice dump, but you have to pay $7. Walking distance to boat launch. 2 bars LTE for both.
