Fall RV camp is a race against the dark

Summer camping forgives a late arrival. October does not. The sun drops before 6:30 and the temperature follows it off a cliff.

The fall rules

• Roll in with two hours of daylight. Backing a trailer into a site is a daylight activity.
• Level and hook up before anything else — before snacks, before the loop walk, before the chairs come out.
• Eat dinner early. In summer you linger; in October you eat while you can still see the picnic table.

What the RV needs that summer didn’t

• Furnace check before you leave home. October nights find every excuse your heater has.
• Battery topped off — the furnace fan eats amp-hours all night.
• If temps flirt with freezing, disconnect city water and run off the tank. A frozen hose at 6 a.m. is a bad morning.
• A warm layer for every person anyway. The RV is warm; the campfire is not.

The payoff

Nobody else is out there. The campground is half empty, the aspens are doing their thing, and the stars show up an hour earlier. Fall camp is the best camp — it just starts at 4 p.m.