rv camping – Page 7 – PureSynchronicity

Loon Lake #3 – 8/14

Our third trip up to Loon Lake this year was met with two cloudy drizzly days. But we had a ball anyway. The weather formations are always awesome in the mountains. Got in some fishing (caught a nice rainbow from the kayak), hiking, kayaking, a little swimming and paddleboard for the first time. We met up with our friends Debi King (who brought her paddleboard) and Maggie Lane with her pup Coco. Debi’s class C RV was camped right next to ours. Learned a new game called Qwerkle ??? which was great except I got killed every game. The sunset on the last nite was so awesome .. I had to include more than one picture of it below. I will be back here in September. Fall camping is the best. So is the fishing.

Loon Lake Campout 7/20/14

This five day campout at Loon Lake was probably one of the best. We camped next to our friends Gary Goldsmith and his wife Cheryl and their new pup Benetar. Benetar is only 7 months old and it was his first time in the wilderness. Kate came up with the kayaks for the last 3 days. We hiked 10 miles plus on the Rubicon Trail into Desolation wilderness. Kayaked all over the lake. Swimming was glorious, even tho a little chilly upon entry. And I did kayak fishing and caught 4 nice rainbows on a glassy, early morning still lake. Got a nice rain shower on Thursday nite. All in all a terrific time.

Ben and his log

Ben

Hiking on the Rubicon Trail

Merganzer family

Kate

Awesome cloud formations

Kate digging in against the wind

Got 4 nice trout

Hiking on the Rubicon Trail

Loon Lake Campout 6/20/14

I spent four nights up at Loon Lake. First visit this year. Kate joined me for two of the nights. It was gorgeous! Lake was full to the brim, right up to the tree line. I have never seen it this full. Shore fishing, other than right off our campsite, required a hike up the Rubicon trail about a mile or so. And well worth it. Butt Rock was totally submerged, not seen at all. I only caught one fish but got quite a few nibbles. Seems I experienced the same thing last year with the nibblers. Only could swim the first day, and that was even quite chilly. Great trip overall, especially having my Kate along this time.

Biggs… bored with the fishing

Look at Ben airborne

Ben and his PBR

Ben and I fishing, or attempting to catch fish.

This was after several attempts.

Jackson Meadows Campout #2 June 2014

Spent a really nice midweek campout at Jackson Meadows 6/10-6/13. Only one other camper in the loop, and the other loop only had about 3 campers. Fishing sucked, not a nibble, but it was so quiet and peaceful. Dogs could run free. First day went swimming as it was in the 80, delightful. After that it cooled down to the point where it was 41 in the RV one morning when I got up. I did a lot of studying for my upcoming CompTIA A+ exam. Lake had dropped quite a bit from my visit two weeks ago. Pass Creek is still running but I suspect in a couple weeks it will be just a trickle. Here are the few photos I took.

Ben

Biggs

Site 34, my favorite

Jackson Meadows Reservoir Campout May 2014

Opening day for camping at East Meadows Campground at Jackson Meadows, 5/23/14. When I booked it six months ago, I didn’t realize it was Memorial Day weekend. The shoreline got a little crowded but all good people. Lots of families, lots of kids and dogs. Amazing how many dogs were off leash. It didn’t bother me but it did seem the new camp host didn’t really have it under control. But no mishaps. I caught two nice size trout, which Kate really appreciated. Both real fighters too. Water was out again, so the bathroom situation was porta pottys and the faucets were dry. Lake was down as you can see from the pics but Pass Creek was running quite strong. Amazing how much snow was still on the mountains. Weather was in the 70’s.

Ben at Pass Creek

Look at the snow drift along the ridge on Mt. Lola

English Mtn in the background

Pass Creek

Biggs and Ben

Perrazo Meadows

Mount Lola at 9148 feet

Lake Davis Campout May 2014

May 16th we had our first RV campout of the season going to Lake Davis, near the town of Portola, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mtns. It was the first time camping there and the sites were terrific. We brought kayaks this time but found it quite windy which limited the amount of kayaking we could do, comfortably. My experience of fishing was lousy. Lots of weeds in the water. I understand Mallard Bay is a good fishing spot. I did try it when I was leaving but also had no luck there either. A couple days after we got back I went up to Lake Valley Reservoir for the morning and redeemed myself as a fisherman by catching two nice sized trout. It was interesting to see so many pelicans at this freshwater lake.

Jackson Meadows November 2013

My last campout at Jackson Meadows 11/4 – 11/7/13. The forest service left open Pass Creek campground but there was no one there. I had the whole lake to myself for three whole days. It was amazing. Actually when I got there on Monday, there was a solo fisherman camped just below me in the overload CG. He left early the next morning after catching four trout Monday nite, one huge one.

The Hennesey Pass road out there, had some icy spots which made me a little nervous if I was to meet up with a logging truck going the opposite direction. That could have put me out of the dry ruts and onto some slippery stuff, however, it didn’t happen. Weather was gorgeous in the low 30s at nite and 50s during the day.

As far as fishing, they didn’t seem to want what I had to offer for the first 2 days. I was using power bait then I tried every lure in my tackle box. Finally I decided to add more weight to my sliders and use the red powerbait. This allowed me to cast out further and into deeper water. Bingo! It resulted in a beauty. A 19″ rainbow trout who was a real fighter getting him in. This was Wednesday nite, then the next morning, I caught another smaller one, around 12″ but I let him go. I figured that big boy was enough for me.

Kate and I had it for dinner when I got back, and between the two of us we could only eat half of it. The rest will be another meal. We cooked it on the bbq and tried a new method of slicing it down the sides and back, and stuffing it with garlic, butter, rosemary and lemon. Then Kate made a butter, wine and capers sauce to put over it. So tender and tasty.

With no one around, I only heard the sounds of the geese, ducks, birds, lapping of water on the lake and wind in the pines. It was such a heartwarming feeling. A really sweet connection with this place. I also find it interesting and fun to walk thru the empty campgrounds, the absolute stillness as a contrast to the summertime hustle and bustle of campers which ended only a month earlier. And walking along the shoreline as the water level keeps dropping, displaying new things to see and places to explore, all previously hidden under the water.

Cool stump

English mountain in the background

Sierra Buttes in the background

Ben loves rolling in the snow patches.

The dogs exploring what was previously hidden underwater.

Site 19 at Pass Creek Campground

Reflections

Lake was down over 50 ft.

Biggs had a sweater and his Patagonia

Reflections in the water

English Mountain

Ben and Freddie the big trout

My favorite spot to fish.

Wrights Beach for Halloween

On October 31st, Kate, I and the dogs went to Wrights Beach for her birthday weekend. We lucked out with the weather, being nice and sunny, no wind and mild temperatures. Brought our bikes and road the Kartum trail along the cliffs. It was gorgeous. We saw no whales this time but did see a seal checking us out in Duncan Cove. We stayed in site #1 which was pretty nice, good for handling the dogs and easy access to the beach, right outside our door.

Ben

Wrights Beach from Duncans Landing viewpoint

Kate getting cell service at duncans landing

Down to Duncans Cove

At duncans cove

Looking south from duncans cove

Biggs

Seal at duncans cove

So relaxing reading at the beach

Site #1

Riding along Kartum trail

View to Wrights Beach from Kartum trail

looking north from Kartum

Awesome view from this rock.

Jackson Meadows Reservoir 10/13

Due to the government shutdown most campgrounds were closed. Many prematurely since they were due to close later on in October. However, the Pass Creek overload campground, by the boat launch was still open as it is every year. No facilities like water and bathrooms but a nice place to camp right on the lake. So for the five days 10/14 to 10/18 I stayed there with Ben and Biggs, fishing. I caught a couple nice rainbows however I didnt do as well as others, especially the boat fisherman. Weather was delightful but cold at night, waking in the morning to 35 in the camper. Lucky I had two dogs to keep me warm. The lake was down the most so far this year, as you can see from the photos which provided some real interesting beach combing. I think I have found about 4 or 5 rampela fishing lures this year once the water started receding. Found one huge one on this trip.

The sunset Wednesday nite was truly amazing. I am having such a tough time selecting which sunset photos to put up since it just kept getting better and better. I am showing the top two but there are 3 others that are definitely worthy of showing also.

Although, I can go up to this Pass Creek CG again this year (since they don’t close it) it will not be accessible once it snows. Hopefully I can fit in one more trip before that happens.

Pass Creek overflow campground. I was the RV far right, nestled near the trees and a quick path to the lake.

Mergansers

A couple fellows I was sharing the campground with had some great luck. Here Denny caught a 3.5lb – 21″ Rainbow.

This is the shoreline for East Meadows campground where I usually stay.

Ben looking for crawdads

Patiently waiting for me to catch a fish

Me and the guys fishing

Ben

Kate’s favorite sunset photo

My favorite sunset photo

Loon Lake Campout

Due to the ridiculous government shutdown, my plans to go to Wrights lake were aborted. However, since Loon Lake is run for the govt. by a concessionaire it was still open. Loon is also right next to desolation wilderness, the beautiful granite laden high country of the Sierra. I hadn’t been to Loon in 5 years, I believe, and it was a great reminder of how beautiful it is. I think its now my favorite lake to camp at. It’s about 1.75 hours from the house with all smooth road and no traffic.

Fishing was terrific with one day getting strikes or nibbles on practically every cast of rainbow colored powerbait. I ended up with 5 nice rainbow trout. It was cold and windy at night with huge winds on Friday morning easily bringing the temperatures into the 30’s considering wind chill factor. A couple fishing boats left out on the lake overnight were swamped with water from the waves splashing over the stern. Bad luck had my heater deciding not to work in the rv, but I was able to use the oven and it heated the place up just fine.

With the lake down considerably, hiking along the shore was perfect. Loon has amazing boulders combined with beautiful sandy beaches, reminiscent of Sand Harbor in Lake Tahoe. The ferns and grassy areas all had a yellow autumn color to them however the Aspen trees were just beginning to change. When the shoreline got a little rough for hiking with the dogs I was able to use my Garmin and bushwack over to the Rubicon trail running parallel to my hike and came back that way.

My campsite, #17, was right next to the lakeshore, protected from the wind by plenty of trees and with a little path directly to the lake. A really sweet spot.