Campground Review
Caddis flats is located not too far from Placerville, and a short distance farther in the opposite direction from Norwood. It's along a scenic road that runs from Norwood out to Ridgeway with a turnoff at Placerville that heads out to Telluride. This is a small little campground that has 3 developed campsites with picnic tables and grills. One has a shelter of sorts as well. Two of the three sites are right out in the open, on their own little island of sorts between the road with in the campground. We didn't stay in one of these three developed sites though. We parked by the boat ramp and there was a small trail that led back to an area that had about 4 tent sleeping areas and two fire rings. Due to fire restrictions, the fire rings did not get used by us. It was very spacious and had great shade, along with the rumbling of the river, it was quite nice. We were able to mount our hammocks in the trees and sit comfortably, even if the site was without a picnic table. Our car was close enough that we didn't have to carry anything too far and we used most of our storage tubs as small tables. We cooked with our small camp stove and our jetboil and ate a lot of freeze dried meals from Mountain House Foods. We ended up sharing several meals so that everyone could have a little bit of everything.
The area was quiet and the stars were amazing. The pit toilets were very clean, well stocked with toilet paper and had little oder. There was a bit of traffic noise from the highway that runs through the area but it died down sometime after midnight. The river is right there in the campground and it is running pretty low right now, but still moving along quite nicely. The kids were able to play around with minimal risk while supervised. There was a note saying that the river had changed paths up a ways and impassable by a boat. You could hear the river babbling all night long.
We kept our food in our truck but a bear was sighted a few miles down the road so if you are camping without a vehicle, it may be a good idea to hang your food.
The kids enjoyed biking and it was a nice campground to relax at. There were some great spots for photography and if you are in to geocaching, there is a pretty cool one in this campground!
Product Review
As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time - today I am testing the INH640 Aero Light 2 (4 bike) made by Inno. This rack boasts a 4 bike capacity, has a foot peddle to drop the rack down for easy access to the back of your vehicle. It has mounts that attach on the top of the rack as well as on the frame coming down below the seat post. The box arrived with everything from locking pins, adjustments for the hitch size, tools, straps and keys for the lock that is included with the rack.
While it says it holds 4 bikes, I just don't see how it is possible. We had three adult bikes on the rack and struggled to get them situated. With some adjusting we did get them on and they definitely were secure. Our older boys' bike did not fit, the distance between the top of his frame and the bottom was too narrow. But even if it had fit, I'm not sure we would have gotten it on, just not enough room. The feature of the lower frame secure point ended up being a little troublesome. We have water bottle carriers on our bike and we had to pull the bike on and off to make sure it situated correctly as we couldn't adjust with the bike on the rack already. It is insanely secure though, seems to be gentle on the bike frames. Once you get moving, it's a pretty easy install, it was a bit cumbersome at first.
I really like how the rack folds down when not in use to maintain a lower profile. With the included locking pin, you don't even have to worry that someone is going to walk off with your rack. I really like the little foot peddle that drops the rack so you can get in the back of your vehicle. It's the difference between completely unloading everything and just dropping, grabbing and continuing on. This rack will definitely make biking more accessible and should get us out on our bikes more often!
