In Which We Fall in Love with Apaches and Find Our Eagle...Part II

See those two folks running on the beach? That's gonna be me and Kerri this summer. Our Apache Summer...

When the impulse to learn about Apaches became the impulse to buy an Apache, we really lucked-out. As it happened, in late April we returned to craigslist to hunt and we found the selection to be pretty choice. By choice I mean there were TWO for sale. On the SAME DAY. Now, that is remarkable because Vesely made a ton of these Apaches for a 30 year period but you don't find them everywhere. Luckily, we live in Portland, Oregon, a haven for outdoor enthusiasts.

  
(Oregon is the most amazing place in the US of A!!! There are mountains, coasts, deserts, rain-y forests...got it all! If you haven't read about the Columbia River Gorge or the Cascade Mountain Range, treat yourself and do it right after you finish this post.) 

 So, we drove ALL the way out to Hillsboro on a Sunday afternoon to see a rather beat-up Apache Eagle from around 1969 or so. When we got to the guy's house we could see that we were meeting someone who had the same enthusiasms as us. In his front yard there was an old 8 foot canned-ham, a 10 foot camper up on its stilts and this chocolate brown Apache Eagle... The Apache kinda looked like hell. The chocolate brown paint job was not original and was seriously flaking off of the body. But, here it was, an Apache Eagle for us to see!

(random apache photo to break up the block of text. not the chocolate brown apache we saw in hillsboro)

The gentleman camper and his wife demonstrated to us how it opens and sets up. All in all, set-up took less than ten minutes. He was sure to tell us that it gets easier and quicker with practice. Kerri and I were not deterred for once we got inside the thing we were already speaking in low whispers about how much cash we had between us. This things was COOL! Oh man, the first time to see the whole lay-out in person was a trip. The Eagles are spacious, especially for just two and a dog. And the chocolate brown Eagle had some great qualities. This Apache had a complete set of bed and dinette cushions, not original but custom made and in great shape. The dinette table was in working order. But the canvas was pretty shot. Still...it was cool and they were only asking $400.

We had another Eagle to go and see on Sauvie's Island, one that claimed to have been stored inside for most of its life. So we thanked the folks for showing us their Apache and told them we would let them know as soon as we saw the other one if we wanted the choco-eagle.

So, we drove over the west hills to Sauvies Island. And we promptly became owners of THIS:

A 1972 Apache Eagle in AMAZING condition. This thing HAD been stored inside for 35 years. The body is in great shape, the canvas almost 100% intact and working. The zippers work fine, the brake and turning signals fully operational, original sleeping pads, table fully functioning... Just in great shape. Just like in this ad:

Kerri and I didn't need to think long about what to do. We put a deposit on our new 1972 Apache Eagle and made an appointment to get a towing package installed on the Forester! ($300...yikes!) Next day, we brought it home.

About the only things it was missing were the dinette cushions and a set of hangers for the shell when the unit is completely set up. The tail light covers are not original. It is missing the "E" in the prominent "APACHE" hard plastic decal above the door...so it just reads "APACH". And we think the floor covering is not original. It kinda has a linoleum herring bone pattern...brown...meh, but still awesome. Other than that everything was great!  

And now...we are Apache owners. We join a nerdy national club of camping geeks who love their Apaches. Our '72 Eagle is in great working order but we dream of sprucing it up a little each year. We found a pretty great example of a 1970 Eagle in mint original condition that we'd like to emulate:

It would be sweet to find a outdoor awning canvas like the one pictured above. Especially as we gear up to take longer trips staying in one camp site for multiple days. AND, we really dig the bright orange and yellow striped cushions of this 1970 Eagle. Looks as if they have added a orange chest of drawers for additional storage and seating. Not a bad idea, but as it is that chest of drawers is right where Tilford's doggy bed is.

Before I go on to other homework, take a look at some interior photos of our Apache Eagle '72. Next post will finally include photos from our first trip with our Apache, out to Deschutes State Park!!!

Peace and happy camping!


Ulysses

In Which We Fall in Love with Apaches and Find Our Eagle, Part I

After seeing that sweet local 1967 Apache Eagle for sale Kerri and I started doing a little more research. A few websites into our search it was easy to see glory of these vintage tent trailers.

Apache trailers were made in Lapeer, Michigan by the Vesely company beginning in the late 1950s. (And ending in the late 1980s.) Vesely made a number of different sized tent trailers with graduated levels of comfort/accommodations. Early on, Vesely produced three models, the tiny Scout, the mid-sized Chief and the full-sized Eagle. (I found this advertisement from a Florida newspaper dated 1962.)

By the late sixties, Vesely was producing more elaborate pop-up "tent" trailers, the forerunners to today's modern pop-up trailers. One of the best early examples of what was to become the standard for the industry was the Golden Buffalo. I really like this model... Just so happens there is one for sale here in Portland as of today, May 25th, 2012. Would love to restore it to its original glory!

Vesely is maybe best known as the company that introduced solid-state pop-up tent trailers. That is, pop-up trailers with all hard-plastic walls rather than canvas. While I admire all the hard work and thought that went into these transformer-like trailers, my preference is still for the canvas trailers. Here are a few photos of the hard-sided Apaches...

 I'm sure to return to the subject of Apache's history in the future. If you need your history fix right away you can read about the history of the Vesely Company here. Vesely was a pioneer in the field and during the sixties and seventies it appears they were the biggest manufacturer of soft and hard sided pop-up trailers. (A big thanks to Joe Silvey, who has collected and maintains the best source of pop-up camper related historical information available anywhere on the web! I encourage other enthusiasts to check out his site, www.popupcamperhistory.com. Thanks, Joe! Your site has been a big help in our search.)

At the heart of their appeal is their ease of use and mobility. These classic canvas Apache trailers weigh less than 700 lbs. They can be towed by vehicles other than trucks. In my search I found photos of people towing their Apaches behind cars as small as Honda Accords and Volkswagen Beetles...

Also, it is not that difficult or time consuming to erect your Apache after you find a camping spot, as reflected in this vintage print ad for the Chief...

...and this video

Once we could see that these Apaches were great fits for our needs and wants we began searching for one in our area. As LUCK would have it...we found TWO EAGLES for sale in the area (other than the $1600 1967 Eagle).

Here is a couple of old pics of (roughly) the Eagles we went out to see...

and...

We love these old ads...

I gotta go do some other homework... Coming up next, I tell you about our 1972 Apache Eagle and show you some great photos from our Apache Summer 2012, so far!!!!

Love Camping, Crave Comfort

My girlfriend, Kerri, and I love a good camping trip. We live in a corner of our country abounding with verdant and wild beauty, the Pacific Northwest. So there are few thrills greater to us than getting out of town and getting out there on a good trail. We love every part of the experience: the whirlwind of choosing where to go (national forest or park? mountains, high desert or seaside?), planning the menu and packing the cooler, picking the camp site (hopefully by a river), finding the right trail (obscure or popular? too easy? too difficult? are dogs allowed?), consulting the maps, hitting the highway and the first gratifying inhalation of sweet country air. From quiet solitude to raging river songs, we love it all.

Except sleeping on the ground. That part can kiss my ass.

When we first starting camping during the summer of 2011, Kerri and I both knew that camping was an activity we wanted to share with each other. The time away from the feverish energy of the city encourages meaningful reflection and enables us to keep the tedium of work in a healthy perspective. Plus, the excitement of wind swept mountain vistas or clandestine skinny-dipping in warm, hidden waterfalls makes us feel like real adventurers. Together we made trips all over the Columbia Gorge and up into national forests like Gifford Pinchot in southern Washington. As Kerri and I were developing our camping acumen we soon came to one definite and aching conclusion: sleeping on the ground, even verdant and wildly beautiful ground, sucks.

Putting aside the difficulties I had with pre-existing lower back pain, there would have been nothing even remotely desirable about sleeping on the ground in our tent no matter how many inches of blankets we put down to soften our burden. My back pain was just extra worry. So, as we ventured more and more out of town and into the wild and came to dream of an entire summer spent camping in our nation’s great parks and forests west of the Rockies, we knew that we’d need to make a serious investment in mobile accommodations.

We fell in love with the idea of owning a recreational camping shelter of some kind. 

We looked at trailers, 

campers, 

fifth wheels,

teardrop trailers, 

sheep wagons,

and pop-up trailers. 

Each had their appeal and each had their flaws. Some simply would not work. Campers were out because we didn’t have plans on owning a truck by this year. Same with fifth wheels.

Teardrop trailers held our interest for a long while. We think they offer a great amount of mobility with a minimum amount of shelter necessary to travel well. The fact that they seem pretty bear-resistant was especially appealing to me; I have an unhealthy fixation on bear-related death stories. I blame Stephen Colbert. Sifting through the sands of the internet we found a few gems of teardrop design plans that we fell in love with, particularly this one, The Wild Goose.

 But, we neither have the money or the skills to build one of our own at this time.

Generally speaking, we find most of the modern day camping trailers, campers, fifth wheels and pop-up trailers to be 100% tacky. Their sterile interiors lack any real character and make me feel like I am sitting in the lobby of a Best Western in 1995. However, classic canned-ham trailers are a very appealing choice. Kerri and I fell head-over-heals in love with the idea of owning a restored vintage Shasta, Airstream, Aristocrat, Scotty or Comet. For those of you unfamiliar with classic canned-ham trailers here are a few examples:

The best source for our fascination was the classified sections of the website, www.tincantourists.com. Many a winter hour was spent admiring the selections and imagining the places we could go.

Another interesting design that we investigated was the classic sheep wagon, straight out of history. You can learn more about the modern versions of these year-round mobile shelters here and here.

Finally, we looked into modern day pop-up tent trailers. Again, we ran into a vast array of horrid interior design and really heavy and really expensive units. Generally speaking, we love the idea of the pop-up trailer, but we didn’t figure we would need the standard two to four beds and the ability to sleep up to eight people. Plus, if you have never been inside a new or recently built pop-up trailer or camper, they smell like a shitty plastic factory. It would take years to air out the factory smell from those things and that is only if you can stand camping in a 1995 Best Western lobby, anyways.

After spending the fall, winter and spring eyeing every camper or trailer we crossed in Portland (they are on EVERY street) and scouring the web tubes for innovative or retro camping shelters we finally made a checklist of our adventure needs and wants. We had no plans on buying a truck anytime soon. Therefore, we needed to consider the towing capacity of our 1998 Subaru Forester. While canned-ham trailers of the mid-20^th century and sheep wagon designs of the frontier days still appealed to us, we concluded that one of the greatest parts of camping is the feeling of being outside in a tent. Walls are great for home, but we’d like to still feel outside while camping. We decided the minimum of accommodations we desired was a full sized bed, a table, a place to sit, some storage bins for various camping items and a tent-like structure so that we wouldn’t feel like we were taking the city with us so much as just barely covering up the rough in “roughin’ it”.

In early May, 2012, we took our first camping excursion into the Columbia River Gorge. It rained. It kinda sucked. Our new tent worked well enough but there we were again, on a palette of blankets. Aching. Aching bad! Waking up throughout the night. I came home with pains in my back and an urge to hit up the craigslist again. I was desperately dreaming of a solution we could afford…

I consider it odd that after spending dozen of hours over the last year researching mobile shelters that I never came across vintage pop-up tent trailers. But I didn’t. Strange it was because as soon as I saw this ad on craigslist here in Portland I knew I had found what I wanted: 

 “Vintage 1967 Apache Eagle Tent Trailer. This trailer is in magnificent condition. Canvas is in very nice shape with no shrinkage or tears. Zippers all work. Mechanically sound. We bought this trailer a few years ago from the original owners who stored it indoors for all of its life. This is a very cool lightweight trailer that would be great to take to Hot Rod events or tow behind your classic car. Easy to set up and always draws attention everywhere we took it. This is very complete, it even has the hard to find zip on dining room option. This is by far the most complete Apache Eagle that you will ever find. All the stabilizing legs are in perfect working condition, it has the original clam shell hangers, and the original Apache logo on the factory floor. We absolutely loved this trailer and hate to see it go, but our lives have changed and we really want it to go to a good family to take care of it and enjoy it for many more years. For more information on these trailers go to http://www.apacheowners.com/ I have many more pictures than I can post here, so please email me if you would like to see them. Free and clear title in hand and tags good until 7/12.”

  

Alas, that Apache Eagle was selling for $1600. And while it did appear to be in excellent condition, Kerri and I didn’t feel ready to consider that much so soon into my return to school and while I was awaiting the opening of the new restaurant I have accepted employment with. 

However…I eagerly began researching the Apache company… And I found a lot of things to like.