The weather out there is getting kind of real. I mean, for us, I realize it got real for most of you a couple months ago. Good thing we have spent so much money on new jackets. But it probably seemed colder than it really was down in the valley, what with the snow capped hills and all. This was our third visit to Del Valle, and it sure was nice to have hookups on a chilly, rainy weekend.
We left Friday in steady rain, and though it’s a short drive, it took us a little over an hour to get through traffic. This county park is about ten miles out of Livermore, up and over a climb loved by local bicyclists, and down into a popular summertime destination. The Del Valle reservoir is quite full right now due to all the recent rain, and what was once a dry river bed on our last visit, is now close to overflowing.
I definitely have a favorite site here, 32, because of the spacious and woodsy view. There are also hookups in some of the sites, so we got to live it up with lights and fridge settings. I noted that most of the sites closer to the river were closed, either because of the big puddles in the places you might pitch a tent, or because someone is worried they’ll flood. After getting set up in our site, I can report that the Marmot Women’s Essential rain jacket is indeed waterproof.
The weekend was all about the intermittent pitter pat of rain on Dory’s roof. This was punctuated only by a couple of strolls in the campground, some report writing, and nappy time. Speaking of nappy time, I received an awesome gift from a colleague who noticed that I do not dress up for Pajama Days at school due to lack of appropriate attire. Problem solved. Being easy to shop for is the BEST.
Sunday night it is supposed to snow on the valley floor. We’ll miss that, but I still got to go out for a nightly walk in my new Marmot Montreaux down jacket (complete with fuzzy faux dead thing around the hood). Richard is done with winter, but I’m still enjoying my new gear. I could do a couple more winter weekends.
Total miles: 42.3, 15.7 mpg, 1 hour 19 min. Site: 32. Full hookup site, but the dump outlet is kinda hard to reach and slopes the wrong way, so we just used the regular dump. Sites in the lower loop by the water do not have hookups but could be Doryable. No cell service. With booster, we got spotty 3G. No generators allowed in the campground. Nice bathrooms.
