Friday, July 30

Ice House Reservoir

This is the fourth time we've camped at Ice House Reservoir in the past five years.

The lake is small enough that there isn't too much activity. The weather is warm enough for swimming but we're still in a mountain environment. We just love it.

My sister and her husband drove their 5th-wheel down from Washington to join us. Along the drive their trailer had two flat tires; the first they changed with the spare and the second happened close enough to my house that Walt was able to go "rescue" them. After a trip to the tire store, they had five new tires and were back on the road again. Needless to say, the first day started out a little later than planned.

We camped four nights. Here's what we did while we were there.

Meals:
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An easy hike(it was listed as easy but it totally wasn't) along a creek to find a waterfall that only Walt managed to get to after scaling granite rocks:
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Our friend, Wendy, visited us on Monday. She took the hike with us, had breakfast and lunch, and hung out by the lake.
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Around camp:
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This was a balancing-on-one-foot show down.
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We hunted down two geocaches:
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Walt, the kids and I went up to Big Hill Lookout for the views:

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It's a fire lookout with a vista point.
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This is Union Valley Reservoir. It's not far from Ice House but it's a much larger lake.

And at the lake:
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Walt's boat was a source of frustration. The motor only worked for one day.
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He had to use the electric trolling motor to take the family out fishing. It was a four hour tour.
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Although neither dog likes being in water, both dogs are very different. At the beach, Smokey would run back and forth in the water biting at the small waves from wakes.
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Buddy would sit in any shade he could find.
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That's another camping trip down. Who knows what next year will bring?

Sunday, July 25

A Little Nature Goes a Long Way

We went camping with my sister, Shelly, and her husband, Nick for four nights at Ice House Reservoir. The kids and I have been camping with Shelly for five years in a row now and no matter how many nights we stay it just never feels long enough.

Here is a peek into the trip. I'll post more soon.

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