Been MIA. Spent the last several days up at the cabin.

Car prepped with luggage and dogs inside, snow rack on top.



The "spare parking" pad at the cabin was covered in snow, still tried to park in it lol

 

Did some tinkering with the trailer this weekend.

Hooked it up to the Crosstrek for the first time and took it out around town. Felt nothing in the Crosstrek

Obviously will more weight in it, especially up hill, it will be a different story.



With the car hitched up, I threw a level on it to see how the rake was. Just slightly off by about an inch, not too bad.



Since I would like the RTT to sit level/lower than the roof of the Crosstrek, I threw up a string line to see how high off the bedside that would be.

Ive got 19 inches roughly.





After I got the measurements I wanted, I removed the tool box and lumber rack. Now ive got my blank canvas

 

Yesterday morning met a couple friends to snap some pics of our cars and grab some lunch.

My old roommate brought out his fully built STi that's pushing 600 WHEEL horse power


He used to have a 1998 RS with an STi drivetrain swap. He sold it to one of our friends and he brought it out as well. This little guy has around 450 to the wheels.


and a bunch of the Crosstrek lol







Friend also brought the drone out to have some fun with. 4k pic/video at 24 FPS.

 

Took the trailer to the scales.

Weighed just the trailer, unhitched from the Crosstrek, to get the base weight.

Anyone wanna guess what it came in at?

 

Went up to the cabin this last weekend. Saturday the wife and I went out exploring a bit. Took some trails out to a new lake ive never been to, back to our "normal" lake, but went out and about exploring other parts of it.




Excuse the massive crack in my windshield lol. Combo of off-roading and daily driving..

 

After a couple hours, we headed back to our cabin. We were originally going to pack a lunch and bring the dogs back out to the lake, but plans changed.




3 years ago, we decided on the spur of a moment to check out the old, original, trans continental railroad tunnels. We will ill prepared and only made it through a few hundred yards.




We decided to head back and check it out again, this time going much further along the line.




This is just after the beginning of the first tunnel






This is at the first open clearway between tunnels. In the far distance on the right, that is Donner Lake.






We've now gone much much further back than before






Out of that long tunnel, we found an opening just big enough to squeeze through. We made it all the way to the edge of the lake!






We decided to turn around at that point. We still had to hike back to the car, and we were planning on going out to dinner in a few hours.

Walking back, you can see the tunnel just cutting through the mountain.






We want to go even further next time, but probably without dogs. They did fine, but its pretty tough on their paws, and our oldest is pretty old.. They were WORN out after!

 

Time for a quick update. This last weekend the wife and I went off-grid for about 3 days. We packed up Thursday afternoon and took a drive along the coast via highway 1. She booked a campsite almost 6 months ago for our 1 year wedding anniversary.




It was the longest single shot trip we've done in the Crosstrek, just over 230 miles to camp in Big Sur California.




All packed and ready to go.






The rear DIY KC light mod I did came in handy while setting up camp in the dark!








We woke up Friday morning to this view from inside our tent

 

View of our site








Our trip was amazing. Did a few hikes, exploring and beach action along the way.




Also stopped at Bixby Bridge to snap a few shots








On the way home we stopped at the Monterey Bay Aquarium as my wife had never been and I had not been since I was a kid.




Overall put around 600 something miles on the car this weekend.

 

Saturday was the annual Bay Area Meet (BAM). Big charity event put on by the people for the people.

I think this was the 5th year Team Moist has had a boot at the event as a vendor.




Someone from TM may or may not have stickered another vendor's car, and they may or may not have put one on my car lol



I didnt even see it till the day after lol.

 

Pulled the lock box out to get some more done to it.




Decided not to make another... I dont really care that it was made from scrap wood as no one will really ever see it.. I basically trimmed 2-3 inches off the back of it so it does not stick out flush with the back of the drivers seat. 1 - so its less noticeable and 2 - if anyone sits in the back seat behind me, there is less chance of their foot hitting it.




I added a cross brace in the back, removed the rails and primed/painted. Left it sitting in the garage all day yesterday and overnight to fully dry and let the paint off-gas in the garage instead of my car lol.











Probably put the rails back on today, test fit it again just to triple check that cutting the back short doesnt mess it up in anyway (probably should have done that before paint hah). Last thing to do it make a bracket to bolt the front right corner down with the same bolt holding the front right corner down of the seat rails.

 

Got everything put back together yesterday.





Will probably test fit today, then start thinking about the bracket to bolt it down.

 

Ticked 35,000 miles on my way into work this morning.

 

Whoa, I have less miles on my STI lol. My wagon is 131k though

I ended up picking up at BDR ebrake button at BAM too.

 

Ive only put about 7,500 miles on the STi.... in just over 3 years lol!

I really like my ebrake button!

 

Another day, another DIY lol.

Write up on adding more light for the cargo area of the car: https://www.subaruxvforum.com/thread...d-strip.175937

off vs on (thread linked above has LOTS more pics)