CAMPING AT LILY LAKE

Monday, July 06, 2009 Chris is in town and loves to camp. So do I, or at least used to when I was younger. Now I love all but the sleeping part. Judy is much the same. In fact, her idea of roughing it is black and white instead of color TV. Chris and Sierra drove up the Mirror Lake highway midday Friday with the intention of getting a camping spot at Trial Lake, Lily Lake or Washington Lake. There is no phone coverage beyond Kamas so everyone was on their own finding them. Jim, Austin and Molly drove up later that day and stayed the night in Chris’ pop up camper. Chris and Sierra took along their red canoe on top of their camper and used it on two different lakes. Chris as usual was very well prepared and had enough food for four people for each meal. When we went up we took along extra. He had the outside gas stove on the trailer as wells as a small gas grill on the picnic table. He had an extra card table in addition to the dining table that came with the trailer. These two he sat up outside next to the trailer and its attached gas stove. Judy and I drove up Saturday midday and stayed until dark then drove back home to shower and sleep in our own beds. Driving up we didn’t know where to go so we drove through Trial Lake’s huge campground looking for them. Then, since Washington Lake was next to it, we searched it next. Finally we drove to Lily Lake and slowly drove through its campground. There they were at the second to last campsite. I saw Jim’s car first then Chris’ and the camper. Were we glad to see them. If they hadn’t been there I don’t know what we would have done. Sunday, we went up early and stayed until a bit before dark. Niki and Greg showed up a couple of minutes before we did. If not sitting around the campfire we spent most of the time at Teapot Lake taking turns paddling in Chris’ canoe. Teapot Lake is actually closer to our campsite than Lily Lake is. Lost Lake was right there too, just across the highway. The mosquitoes were pretty bad but we all wore spray and had a zapper, a mosquito coil and a tub or citronella candle. When we went up Sunday we took two slabs of precooked pork ribs we had wrapped in foil. For lunch we sat them of the grill to heat through. It’s a good thing all the fishermen had their fishing licenses because two DNR (Department of Natural Resources [game wardens]) came around checking them. Sierra was bored and because there was no phone service there she couldn’t text Mark, her boyfriend. She said she sent over 4000 text messages last month. E-gad! On our way home we encountered four deer in the road. One of them bounded across just in front of us and we had to hit the brakes. One walked out and we came so close to hitting it that even after braking hard and swerving, we virtually brushed alongside in flank. Lynn and her two boys Wyatt and Cade will be in town on the 24th or thereabouts so Chris is planning a camping trip for them (and all of us). She or her kids have never been camping.