Krysta Martinez: Camping Capers

A few years ago, I began a tradition of getting my family together to go camping annually. My mom, Uncle Mark, and my brothers and sister all get together, pitch a village of tents and have a good time. Last year we didn't get to go since Vivian and I both had newborn babies, so we were excited to take our little ones camping for the first time this year. We usually camp at the beach, the past two times being at a campground in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park near Santa Cruz. This year I really wanted to go back to one of our favorite spots, Montana de Oro State Park (where I have camped all my life) but unfortunately I waited too long to make our reservation and the campground was full. After desperately searching for a seaside campground to no avail, Brent suggested camping at the Wishon Point campground at Bass Lake in the Sierra Nevada Forest. I figured if I already didn't get to go to my campground of choice, I might as well go with what someone else wanted to do. I'm glad we agreed to go to Bass Lake. It was our first time camping there and we had a great time. The weather was perfect in the mid 80s, it only takes just over an hour to get there, the campground was quiet, our double campsite was large enough to accommodate our group of 10 adults and 4 cars and was fairly secluded. It was also just a short walk to the lake and you could even see a sliver of the lake through the dense trees and brush.

As I mentioned previously, Liana doesn't like to nap anywhere besides her crib and she will reluctantly nap in the car seat. I was hoping that she would take a good nap in the car on the drive there, but after she had only been asleep about 30 minutes, I had to put on the brakes pretty hard for a light that turned red on the highway and it woke her up. She spent the rest of the day pretty grumpy and tired. My mom finally got her to fall asleep at about 9:30 by walking her in the pitch dark. She said any light she saw would keep her awake so she even had to stay out of the moonlight. Then she slept solid as a rock all night in her crib in the tent. Keira is a seasoned camper and had a great time hiking around, putting sticks in the fire, tossing the Frisbee with Grandma, and swimming in the lake with Daddy.

My mom and I prepared our foil pack or "hobo" dinners for the first night. We used her yummy chicken, broccoli, carrot, cheesy casserole recipe of deliciousness, wrapped in foil and cooked on briquettes in the fire ring for about 20 minutes on each side. It came out very good, except for the couple of foil packs that didn't get sprayed with nonstick cooking spray before we put the food in. For breakfast, we just warmed up some Costco muffins and pastries on the fire. At lunch time, Brent and Vivian rented us a patio boat on the lake and we barbecued hamburgers on the gas grill. It was a fun experience trying to cook on a moving boat. Every time a ski boat went by, moments later the waves would hit our boat and rock it back and forth. Everyone had a good time on the boat, snacking, eating burgers, and riding around the lake. Once again, Liana, who only likes to nap in her crib, was pretty grumpy on the boat because she was so tired and toward the end, we laid her on the seat in the boat and she finally fell asleep for maybe 30 minutes. Crazy girl. I guess I can't blame her though. I'm not the type to fall asleep anywhere besides my bed either.

At the very end of our boat ride, we saw an eagle fly across the sky and land in the very top of a tall pine tree. We could see it's nest and at least one more eagle in the nest. I don't think any of us had seen an eagle in the wild before. That was a very cool ending to a very fun trip. We may be adding Bass Lake to our list of regular camping spots.