Lake Trip

Sunday afternoon,

we left to explore the

northern end of the McCloud

arm of Shasta Lake.

We usually don't go too far

from our marina

on the lake in an effort

to be frugal with the gasoline.

But for camping,
I thought it would be nice to go explore

some new places up the McCloud arm
and  find a good place to camp.
 ~

    I thought we

needed a change of scenery.

So we topped off the gas tank
at the marina pumps as our tank 

was just three quarters full.
~

Um, gasoline on the lake

 is $5.29 a gallon.  
We usually take the boat off

the lake for refueling and cleanup.
It's  absolutely worth the hassle.

   I didn't take into

consideration that the further

north we went, the steeper the

canyon walls would be with

very few (if any) suitable sites to camp.

To make a long day/story shorter,

we came back towards the main body

of the lake and ended up camping

about midway back down the McCloud.

  Here's our morning view

from the back of our boat.

Notice how wonderfully still the water is.

~

Now onto Monday.

Since it was going to be a long

and hot day on the lake,

we found a quiet and shady

cove to hide out in for the afternoon.

It had its own campfire ring

 and a nice flat area for chairs.

~

Yeah,  the campfire ring

 was forty feet or

so up the steep hillside,

and there were a lot of

 annoying deer flies

  hovering around our eyes,

but what ever.

Shady coves during the mid day

are few and far between.

See how private,

and sheltered we were from

the rest of the lake?

It's one of those naturally

air conditioned spots as well.

It was a 74 degrees,

rather than 100 degrees 

out there in the sun.

We probably should have made

that our camping spot for the night.

Instead, we left

to find ourselves

spending the rest of the

afternoon heading back towards

the marina  and not finding

any other spot worthy of spending

another night.  The marina

was within sight, when we

decided to try one more area

with camping spots that the house-boaters

seem to love.  It's late in the season,

so we were hopeful.

~

 The houseboats were

 already there and

settled in for the night.

Rather than give up and go home,

 we settled on a less than

desirable site.

It was kind of pretty,

for a barren sort of space

  on a hilly lake bed

area without nearby trees.

We made use of the campfire

ring at the crest of the hill,

with beautiful views of the 

lake on both sides of us.

 The stars were gorgeous

and it was dark enough on the lake

to see the Milky Way,

before the moon rise that is.

There's a long ~ long night

between the photo above

and the one below.

~

At one o'clock in the morning

the wind slammed into us

with a strong gust. 
~

We were no longer anchored out

away from the shore line.

Nope, we were still tied to the

shore, but the anchor was no longer

keeping us at a comfortable

 (critter free and level) position

away from the shore.

~

   I couldn't sleep,

while the love of my life

had already gone back to

slept for the

rest of the night...ahem.

Meanwhile:

  Wind gusts are pushing us around.

We're bumping against the sandy shore.

 I'm listening to noisy waves

against said shoreline.

I'm peeking out the window screening

to see whether or not

we're heading for the rocks which

I can see clearly because of

the excessively bright moon light.

Our tent siding was flapping in the wind.

 The wind was whistling (loudly)

 through the trees further up the hillsides.

 My brain wont shut off and

worrying sets in

 about not being able to

get back to sleep. 

 We have very firm

 Hide a Mat beds,

which make for achy hips.

The ropes straining against the cleat 

tie downs on R's side of the boat 

 were making enough noise to

almost drown out the snoring...

~

I think I'll be in trouble when he reads

that last line.

~

I couldn't wait for daylight.

 

The way home

is just around the peninsula

and across an open area of the lake

where the wind has

  whipped the lake into white caps... 

~

Yeah, there's absolutely no place

like home.

Previous Camping Story   <----- Click here

To see a very similar story

on the last time we boat camped on the lake.

It was two years ago...

No wonder

we don't spend the night

 out there more often.