Campsite Review: Trapper Creek

Trapper Creek is the campground right down the road from Shelter Cove Resort along Odell Lake. Shelter Cove was a resupply stop for my husband and I on our PCT adventure and our friend met us with our box and we all camped together. We accessed everything via foot but getting there via car is fairly easy. The campground is a standard campground with picnic tables, fire pit, pit toilets (some of the cleanest and best smelling pit toilets I have ever used), garbage facilities, and designated spots for either tents with car parking or campers. But because it is close to the Shelter Cove Resort, you have the ability to use some of their amenities. These include paid (coin operated) showers and laundry, a restaurant, general store, and lake access. The restaurant was good and prices were reasonable. The general store has a variety of stuff for both campers and hikers.

Besides for the super cleanliness and cinnamon smell of the pit toilets, there is nothing extraordinary about the campground. It is a standard national forest campground with a one-way road to access the various spots. The spaces are pretty large—we easily fit two 3-person tents in one space and probably could have fit another. The only thing that I didn’t really like is my tent location was right next to our neighbor. There was a large fallen tree log separating but we could easily see into each other’s sites. Our friend set her tent up on the other side of the spot and was surrounded by trees. The other bummer part was not the camp site but rather the timing. Being there is July meant lots of mosquitoes. We were able to make a smoke fire to help but the smoke went right to our neighbors which I am not sure they appreciated or not.

Quick summary: Trapper Creek is a great option if you don’t want to pay the higher price of the camping at Shelter Cove but still have the benefits of a lake side resort. The sites are pretty standard for national forest campgrounds and the pit toilets are super clean. If you want to stay near Odell Lake this is a great option.

Gear Review: Ledlenser MH6 Headlamp

As a Ranger of The Dyrt, I am given the opportunity to try out gear. And for my month long trip along the Oregon section of the PCT, I was given the privilege of testing out the Ledlenser MH6 Headlamp. While this gear review is attached to a campsite I stayed at a little over halfway through my trip, this gear review is for my month long experience with the product (so some of the pictures may be before or after my stay at Trapper Creek).

The MH6 headlamp is a rechargeable LED headlamp. It has three settings—high, low, and pulsating and comes with its own recharging cord. I really wanted to use this headlamp so much more than I did. But because we were hiking all month, 15-20+ miles per day in July, we were usually in bed (and hopefully asleep) before the sun went down and awake when the sun came up. That being said, when we did use the headlamp it was primarily when we were reading or journaling in the tent or when we were hanging around campgrounds on our rest days.

First observations: This headlamp is bright! The high setting is awesome for walking along trails or getting back to your campsite. And the low setting is perfect for inside a small space (like your tent) without blinding your tent mate. It also has a couple of adjustment options. You can adjust the zoom of the beam to be focused or wide you can also adjust the direction of the beam up and down. Therefore, when you are lying in bed, you can find your comfortable position then adjust your light angle as needed. When you are walking you can also walk with your head up while having the beam point more down to the ground and not blind on-coming people. The light is not tiny but it isn’t huge either. Same goes for weight. It is not and ultralight lamp (it is just under a half pound) but it is not super heavy that you won’t want to bring it backpacking. Plus it is rechargeable so you don’t have to worry about bringing extra batteries just for the lamp, you can use your external battery pack to recharge as needed. It works well for the luxury lightweight backpacker. One final note about the recharging: it comes with its own cord (micro HDMI to USB) so you need to be sure to bring something that can source the charge. This can be an external battery pack (almost a necessity for backpackers these days) or a USB adapter for your car. We only had to recharge our lamp once the whole month and I didn’t leave with it fully charged so it has a decent battery life if it is not used all the time.

The strap is a single, around the head (as opposed to having an additional strap that goes front to back) that is easily adjustable. The strap is quite comfortable. The only things that I wasn’t a huge fan of were that the light itself was a little big for my forehead. It fit my husband quite well, though. Also I would have liked a small carry case or stuff stack that I could keep the cord and lamp together and offer it a little protection while it is being stuffed in and out of my pack. I ended up using a small sack I already had but if the company provided one that would be cooler plus it would have the company name/logo present somewhere else. The last thing is that the recharge plug is directly into the battery. So, you need to open the back case to charge it. I didn't find it good or bad, it was just something different.

Overall, I thought this was a great headlamp that will work for all our camping and backpacking needs for years to come.