12:25 AM Sunday morning. It’s cold, snowy, and unusually silent for a college campus. After much thought, ehem, just about no thought at all, I’ve decided to write the events of the First Upstate DVG campout.

For those who attended it was a great time, for those who missed it - well, there’s always next year.

Day One

During late July a few members of the DVG, after much posting in our online forum converged toward the small Hamlet of Hale Eddy on the Delaware river. Our overall goal was to spend the weekend camped out in the ever beautiful Arctic China State Forest, and that we did. Just a short drive from civilization and far enough out to not be bothered by traffic and passers by, we were staying in a prime location. The forest had a few nice pre-established camp sites and, luckily, the creators were no where to be found, leaving us and our German machines complete freedom to burn gas and break parts. Throughout the weekend we laughed, we cried, we bled (we’ll get to that later!), and we had a time that would, at least by me, be not forgotten in my lifetime.

All the campers besides yours truly, Mike Ripa and his wife, and Josh Axtell traveled a long ways from Long Island, NY. The first to roll in was Glenn Albrektsen, his green and white ‘65 EZ camper making the journey just days after having a broken rubber transmission mount removed and a fresh one installed. Having pulled ahead of the other two travelers on the last leg of the journey up, we had time to kill. To branch out a little, a young Glenn had vacationed with his family years ago at a small Nordic camp called Land of the Vikings. This place had, and still has, the whole shebang. There’s hills for sledding, trails for horses, places to stay, and a bar the shape of a miniature Viking ship. What’s the word… Oh yeah, awesome! Since this little Viking wonder’s located only a few minutes from my house Glenn and I decided to go for a drive. Why not? We had time to spare and memories to relive. He drove and I rode shot gun as we rode over in his bus. A few moments later we pulled into the final destination. The place looked great, although not fairly active due to the light drizzle and bleak forecast that weekend. We cruised through, Glenn telling me stories of when he was a child and I snapping photos while soaking up the tales. After driving through the resort we came to a small road leading off to the hills behind the bar. Seeking a small adventure we headed in. The view rolling through was amazing, the trees still green and moist with dew greeted us as we popped into a small valley. Just before we got to a small bridge leading over a drainage pipe we encountered a nice hunk of standing water. We drove through, giggling like little school girls as the muddy water danced in front of our faces, turned around and went to do it again. Who says you can’t have fun doing the same thing over and over? This time I hopped out, scurried in front of the puddle and found myself a prime location to snap a few action shots.

If at first you don’t succeed…

Try again.

What a splash!




The picture turned out great and still makes me smile whenever I look at it. After having our fun we turned to head back toward Hale Eddy. The ride back was very much the same as the ride up. A little rain, a nice view and a good bit of fun at the end. The final turn before the Hale Eddy bridge brought us to perhaps the finest and most fun cook, mechanic, and photographer to have ever graced the wheel of a bay window, BusBQ Bill. Oh yeah, he’ll fix your appliances too! He was pulled over near a cornfield in his 1970 Westy waiting for any sign of a VW campout nearby, and I’m sure, unless a random local was cruising the same roads the same day, he found his answer in us. After pulling next to him and catching up on his earlier travels we continued our way back to the house, bus, chickens, and barn. Not soon after some coffee had been brewed and everyone settled in our third and final member of the group arrived. Out popped John Schultz, aka Dubstar (not for the bus, but for the music). Having been in an empty ‘63 Kombi for 3 hours in the rain, a towel was laid on the dash to keep him dry from the water seeping through the window seals and some cotton was shoved in his ears to keep that tin-can noise from driving him insane. His bus, a recent New York transplant, was beautiful. If you haven’t experienced a giant brick of Turkis sitting in front of you, you haven’t lived a fulfilling life! Next to roll in was Mike and his wife. They would have driven their buggy, but the drizzly weather put off that plan. They came prepared with a video camera and a bunch of enthusiasm. Although they didn’t spend the night hiding from bears and other woodland creatures it was a blast to have them around.

Anyways, after everyone arrived we fed the chickens, looked over our vehicles, and rang the barn bell 3 times for good luck (one for each bus). I led led the pack as we headed out my back drive way. Earlier that morning I trimmed an over grown apple tree to make sure everyone’s vehicle would make it through without scratching them up. Due to the rain the drive out was a little tense, I felt like my ‘63 was going to slide off the drive down the bank, but we pulled through and made it out, albeit a little muddy. We then drove down to a local turn around, drove back by the barn and headed via the back roads into Deposit, NY. I’m sure that town hasn’t seen a caravan of ACVW’s in a long, long time. We made a quick stop for gas and snacks, and continued out to the state forest, picking up the last camper along the way. Usually I’m the only one filling up at this station, but let me tell ya’, it made my day to see a few more around me in this sleepy little town. After cruising through downtown Deposit - all three blocks of it - we pulled onto a rough county road following the Delaware river headed toward China, NY. We went over a few bridges, passed a few cows and fields, and eventually pulled into my aunt’s farm house. Nothing to unusual for upstate New York. Josh, living one house next door, took the small group of buses pulling in as a sign to come on over. Within seconds he was parked in his Chevy pickup complete with ramen noodles, a Led Zeppelin flag to use as curtains while sleeping, and a large pile of dry wood in the bed. Boy, did that come in handy! After introducing Josh to everyone, I led the pack out into the Arctic China State Forest.

As they say, adventure begins where the pavement ends.





















As we entered the road narrowed really putting out in the wild. Bill’s bus was making some sort of bell ringing sound in honor of the moment (later I found out he also can use it as a fog horn, sound system, and loud speaker. What a camper!). I pulled a right turn and headed into the woods. There were two possible camping locations that could accommodate our vehicles. One was a spacious turn around, the other was a nice spot near a stream and an old logging road. After arriving to the first choice we promptly drove around having some fun. I’d say we covered just about every square inch of that place with our vehicles. When I asked Glenn if he wanted to camp out where we stood he promptly replied, “I think we’ve ruined it!”. Well, we didn’t destroy the place, but we sure had some fun popping around!


We then headed out to the second and final campsite.















I had only been there once before which really made this a new experience for all of us, not just the Lawn Guylanders rolling in. Before setting up camp we decided to explore the old logging road into the clear cut above. While the other roads in the forest were marked “State Vehicles Only” this one was unmarked and just to damned tempting. Glenn and I loaded passengers into our buses and set out for the top. Josh and I were the first to go up. Although I previously deemed this road to harsh for a bus I quickly ate (German brake reference here!) my thoughts and hauled ass up the road. A few spots stopped me, although not for long. Josh was eager to help our journey hopping on the rear bumper to gain traction on a particularly muddy part of the road. After making my way up, he fell off and I, not wanting to lose traction just kept going. When he caught up to me he was winded, yet still had his spirit intact. To say the least, I used, crumpled him up, and threw him away. Sorry, Josh!



A short while after making it to the top Glenn and his passengers appeared in the distance. They experienced a few problems with a hill in the beginning, but drudged through in style. After seeing them head up I began to look for a spot to turn around. The road was deep with ruts and water from the previous nights rain fall. The bus kept going until the tire track became too deep to keep forward progress. Eventually I found a small clearing off the side of the road to turn around. I tried to back in, but couldn’t swing the bus around as much as I wanted to. I was, after hitting some mud, stuck! Glenn eventually made it up, along with John, Bill, Mike, and his wife. They helped push my bus into it’s proper, unstuck, position. While I was backed in, Glenn drove past, I pulled out, he backed up, turned around and headed back to the campsite.



The rest of the day was spent setting up camp, preparing food for dinner, and working on our fire building skills. Mike and his wife headed back to Walton for the night, and were to travel back to camp the next day, depending on the weather, with or without their buggy. I’m not sure what time we went to bed, but the fire had died down, the bears were loving the smell of our great food (Thanks, Bill!), and the rain started to fall a little harder, creating a nice tap, tap, tap sound on my un-insulated roof… Lights off and lights out.