Blog: Entries Tagged With 'camping'
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Coyote Lake Camping - Friday, June 11, 2021
Because we haven't been doing too much traveling and Priscilla has the travel itch, she booked a camping reservation for us at Coyote Lake for Memorial Day weekend last month. So that Saturday, we hauled it over 45 minutes down near Gilroy. Traffic was heavier than usual due to holiday travel but not terrible.
It was our second time camping at Coyote Lake, the first time being in 2017. We arrived around 4:30pm and found that most other people had already arrived and set up. Check-in starts at 3pm, so I guess people wanted to make use of as much of the day as they could.
We set up our tarp and tent, split some wood (I just bought an axe that morning), and then hiked until 7:15 (and saw a coyote in the distance while hiking - very fitting given the name of the place). Back at the campsite, we got the fire going and cooked the hash brown, cheese, chicken and tomato foil wraps that Priscilla had prepared, while eating chicken salads.
We were pretty tired after eating, and our fire had died down because we hadn't bothered to cut all the wood into smaller pieces, so we turned in early for the night. Doing so also allowed us to brush our teeth at the restroom and not really have to wait for others, since many people were still at their campfires enjoying the night. But people generally weren't too loud, and by around 10pm, the campground was pretty quiet.
It was a cold night, but the three sets of blankets that we brought helped. And I guess the design of the tent sort of kept some heat in. So by the middle of the night, we had shed a couple blankets.
We used our camping pads and were able to set the tent at a more level angle compared to last time, but sleeping on the ground still was not very comfortable. So as a result of going to bed early and not being able to sleep too well, we woke up around 5am. At least this allowed us to get a jump start on things while most others were still asleep. No line at the restroom again.
After staying in the car for a bit while Priscilla did her devos (we were also waiting out the weather since it was really cold outside), and having a quick breakfast, we went out for another hike. This time I hiked/ran 15 miles while Priscilla hiked 5.8 miles. I did a lot of the western side of the park where there's a good amount of elevation and a nice view of the valley with its farmland and scattered homes, and I looped back along the eastern side close to the lake. It was nice to get some vantage points looking out towards the lake, especially since the lake was dried up on the south side where the campground is. The drought is real.
Priscilla had everything packed up by the time I got back, and after another salad, it was time to head home. We're glad we went, but we realized during this trip that we're not really camping people. We enjoy having a comfortable bed and amenities and being able to shower after getting smokey. And camping (at least for us) involves a lot of food prep that's disproportionately high compared to the return we get. Maybe we'll do this again, but not for several years. And it would be more fun to do it with people who are actually camping minded and can show us how to have a more rewarding time.
It was our second time camping at Coyote Lake, the first time being in 2017. We arrived around 4:30pm and found that most other people had already arrived and set up. Check-in starts at 3pm, so I guess people wanted to make use of as much of the day as they could.
We set up our tarp and tent, split some wood (I just bought an axe that morning), and then hiked until 7:15 (and saw a coyote in the distance while hiking - very fitting given the name of the place). Back at the campsite, we got the fire going and cooked the hash brown, cheese, chicken and tomato foil wraps that Priscilla had prepared, while eating chicken salads.
We were pretty tired after eating, and our fire had died down because we hadn't bothered to cut all the wood into smaller pieces, so we turned in early for the night. Doing so also allowed us to brush our teeth at the restroom and not really have to wait for others, since many people were still at their campfires enjoying the night. But people generally weren't too loud, and by around 10pm, the campground was pretty quiet.
It was a cold night, but the three sets of blankets that we brought helped. And I guess the design of the tent sort of kept some heat in. So by the middle of the night, we had shed a couple blankets.
We used our camping pads and were able to set the tent at a more level angle compared to last time, but sleeping on the ground still was not very comfortable. So as a result of going to bed early and not being able to sleep too well, we woke up around 5am. At least this allowed us to get a jump start on things while most others were still asleep. No line at the restroom again.
After staying in the car for a bit while Priscilla did her devos (we were also waiting out the weather since it was really cold outside), and having a quick breakfast, we went out for another hike. This time I hiked/ran 15 miles while Priscilla hiked 5.8 miles. I did a lot of the western side of the park where there's a good amount of elevation and a nice view of the valley with its farmland and scattered homes, and I looped back along the eastern side close to the lake. It was nice to get some vantage points looking out towards the lake, especially since the lake was dried up on the south side where the campground is. The drought is real.
Priscilla had everything packed up by the time I got back, and after another salad, it was time to head home. We're glad we went, but we realized during this trip that we're not really camping people. We enjoy having a comfortable bed and amenities and being able to shower after getting smokey. And camping (at least for us) involves a lot of food prep that's disproportionately high compared to the return we get. Maybe we'll do this again, but not for several years. And it would be more fun to do it with people who are actually camping minded and can show us how to have a more rewarding time.
Camping 2012 - Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Another entry late by a month. I really need to get on top of blogging about things right after they happen. I tend to take care of things in a LIFO manner, and when too many new things come up, the older things get buried. Hence I still have a bunch of Yelp reviews to write for Oahu.
So from the 28-30th of September, I was down in Central California with the wifey, Kenny and Raymond on our de facto annual camping trip. We camped at Montana de Oro State Park in Los Osos and visited Morro Bay during the day. The location was ideal because it's roughly halfway between the SoCal and NorCal folks. Bao, Minh and Christine were supposed to join us, but they bailed at the last minute to do house shopping. At least Minh and Christine were nice enough to hand off a ton of food and supplies to Raymond, who brought them up from SoCal.
So the three of us NorCal people carpooled down in Kenny's car early Friday afternoon. We grabbed lunch at Vito's Famous Pizza (meh) in Sunnyvale, stopped at an archery shop in Gilroy for Kenny to scope out prices, then continued the rest of the way to the campgrounds. The total drive took about 4 hours and traffic was light.
When we got to the campground, we scoped out sites (they're available on a first come, first serve basis) and decided on one that was flat, spacious and isolated - pretty much perfect. Being a Friday and not during peak season, fewer than half of the sites were occupied when we arrived. Priscilla and I set up our tent while Kenny bought us some firewood, we walked to Spooner's Cove nearby, walked back to camp when it started getting dark, and waited.
Meanwhile, Raymond had gotten a late start up from LA (understandable, since he had to pick up gear from Minh), had been stuck for a couple hours in LA traffic, and still had a ways to go. Unfortunately he had Minh's tent and all the food, so there wasn't much the rest of us were able to do while we waited. He finally arrived around 9pm, and we all worked to prepare chicken foil wraps and steak and pitched the large tent that Raymond and Kenny would be sharing. We ate until we were stuffed, Kenny brought out Bourbon for us to try, Raymond got humorously tipsy, and we all went to bed. Priscilla and I were extremely comfortable, since we had new sleeping pads that I got from Amazon (having learned my lesson from being very uncomfortable the last time we went camping). But Priscilla was cold, since her sleeping bag is old and thin.
We got better at starting campfires compared to the last time we went camping, since this time Kenny knew to use more kindling. He brought an axe to split firewood, and Priscilla somehow had the best wood splitting technique of us all. After a steak and egg breakfast in the morning, we drove over to Morro Bay and went to Rock Kayak where we rented two doubles. We weren't allowed out of the bay, so we just paddled around looking at boats and sea lions, saw Morro Rock semi-close up, and docked on the sandbar on the opposite side of the bay. Kenny and Raymond went for a walk while Priscilla and I made our signature heart with A+P in the sand.
For lunch, we went to a plaza and had turkey sandwiches. Afterwards, we bought three containers of redworms at a fishing shop and headed down to the north t-pier for some fishing. Kenny, Raymond and I had all bought fishing poles from Amazon specifically for this trip. Priscilla was the only one with prior fishing experience, and she was the only one who caught something! She caught a small jacksmelt, which we would gut, cook and eat a few days later. Meanwhile, the more experienced family fishing off the end of the pier was catching fish left and right.
We had more chicken wraps and steak that night. Bourbon followed again, and I showed a slightly higher tolerance for it this time, drinking three standard pours without getting too red.
After breakfast the following morning, Kenny took us on a hike on the trails around the campground. We probably hiked a good 3-4 miles, and we got a great view of Spooner's Cove and the camp site below from atop a hill.
It was late after camping, and we decided that we would have time only for lunch. We had two containers of redworms remaining, so we just dumped them at the edge of camp. In hindsight, Kenny realized that they were the right kind of worms that he could've used in his home garden.
After packing up and debating where to get lunch, we finally agreed to go back to Morro Bay. We ended up eating a late lunch at one of the few places that was still open - Giovanni's Fish Market. The food was ok; I enjoyed eating some of Priscilla's clam chowder bowl, but it was a little pricey for such a small bowl.
We parted ways here, with Raymond heading back to Irvine, and the rest of us heading back to NorCal with Kenny. The trip was fun and the basic level of amenities are probably the lowest I'm comfortable with. I was starting to feel dirty from getting smokey from the campfires and not showering for two days. Any longer than that and I would've started to feel really gross. Needless to say, one of the first things I did when getting back home was to take a thorough, hot shower!
So from the 28-30th of September, I was down in Central California with the wifey, Kenny and Raymond on our de facto annual camping trip. We camped at Montana de Oro State Park in Los Osos and visited Morro Bay during the day. The location was ideal because it's roughly halfway between the SoCal and NorCal folks. Bao, Minh and Christine were supposed to join us, but they bailed at the last minute to do house shopping. At least Minh and Christine were nice enough to hand off a ton of food and supplies to Raymond, who brought them up from SoCal.
So the three of us NorCal people carpooled down in Kenny's car early Friday afternoon. We grabbed lunch at Vito's Famous Pizza (meh) in Sunnyvale, stopped at an archery shop in Gilroy for Kenny to scope out prices, then continued the rest of the way to the campgrounds. The total drive took about 4 hours and traffic was light.
When we got to the campground, we scoped out sites (they're available on a first come, first serve basis) and decided on one that was flat, spacious and isolated - pretty much perfect. Being a Friday and not during peak season, fewer than half of the sites were occupied when we arrived. Priscilla and I set up our tent while Kenny bought us some firewood, we walked to Spooner's Cove nearby, walked back to camp when it started getting dark, and waited.
Meanwhile, Raymond had gotten a late start up from LA (understandable, since he had to pick up gear from Minh), had been stuck for a couple hours in LA traffic, and still had a ways to go. Unfortunately he had Minh's tent and all the food, so there wasn't much the rest of us were able to do while we waited. He finally arrived around 9pm, and we all worked to prepare chicken foil wraps and steak and pitched the large tent that Raymond and Kenny would be sharing. We ate until we were stuffed, Kenny brought out Bourbon for us to try, Raymond got humorously tipsy, and we all went to bed. Priscilla and I were extremely comfortable, since we had new sleeping pads that I got from Amazon (having learned my lesson from being very uncomfortable the last time we went camping). But Priscilla was cold, since her sleeping bag is old and thin.
We got better at starting campfires compared to the last time we went camping, since this time Kenny knew to use more kindling. He brought an axe to split firewood, and Priscilla somehow had the best wood splitting technique of us all. After a steak and egg breakfast in the morning, we drove over to Morro Bay and went to Rock Kayak where we rented two doubles. We weren't allowed out of the bay, so we just paddled around looking at boats and sea lions, saw Morro Rock semi-close up, and docked on the sandbar on the opposite side of the bay. Kenny and Raymond went for a walk while Priscilla and I made our signature heart with A+P in the sand.
For lunch, we went to a plaza and had turkey sandwiches. Afterwards, we bought three containers of redworms at a fishing shop and headed down to the north t-pier for some fishing. Kenny, Raymond and I had all bought fishing poles from Amazon specifically for this trip. Priscilla was the only one with prior fishing experience, and she was the only one who caught something! She caught a small jacksmelt, which we would gut, cook and eat a few days later. Meanwhile, the more experienced family fishing off the end of the pier was catching fish left and right.
We had more chicken wraps and steak that night. Bourbon followed again, and I showed a slightly higher tolerance for it this time, drinking three standard pours without getting too red.
After breakfast the following morning, Kenny took us on a hike on the trails around the campground. We probably hiked a good 3-4 miles, and we got a great view of Spooner's Cove and the camp site below from atop a hill.
It was late after camping, and we decided that we would have time only for lunch. We had two containers of redworms remaining, so we just dumped them at the edge of camp. In hindsight, Kenny realized that they were the right kind of worms that he could've used in his home garden.
After packing up and debating where to get lunch, we finally agreed to go back to Morro Bay. We ended up eating a late lunch at one of the few places that was still open - Giovanni's Fish Market. The food was ok; I enjoyed eating some of Priscilla's clam chowder bowl, but it was a little pricey for such a small bowl.
We parted ways here, with Raymond heading back to Irvine, and the rest of us heading back to NorCal with Kenny. The trip was fun and the basic level of amenities are probably the lowest I'm comfortable with. I was starting to feel dirty from getting smokey from the campfires and not showering for two days. Any longer than that and I would've started to feel really gross. Needless to say, one of the first things I did when getting back home was to take a thorough, hot shower!
Camping and Rafting - Monday, August 15, 2011
I went camping and rafting this weekend with Kenny, Minh, Christine, and Christine's brother and cousin. Friday night we arrived at our campsites at American River Resort in Coloma. Unfortunately we drove up much later than planned, so we had to unload and pitch tents in the dark. We rented two adjacent sites, with Kenny in his small tent and me in my medium tent in one site, and everybody else in Minh's large tent in the other site. I thought I would be sharing my tent with somebody, but nobody cared for it, so I ended up having a lot of space.
On Saturday we drove to the meetup location in Foresthill for rafting the Middle Fork of the American River. We went with a company called All Outdoors and our guide, Cory, really knew his stuff. Cory's steering and direction made even the Class IV rapids seem easy. He even told us a lot of history about the river, like about Gold Rush era settlements and a man-made flood caused by a burst dam that changed the landscape.
Cory was the head guide in our pack of 5 boats, so he played lookout for the other boats. At one point, two people from another boat fell out, one swam to a rock, and Cory's boat had to row across the rapid to save him. That was pretty awesome.
We ended up rafting a 16-mile stretch of the river, which took 6 hours at a comfortable pace, with one of those hours for lunch. Unfortunately during the rafting, my legs got massively sunburned and I didn't know it till the end. Either I wasn't thorough with the sunblock or it washed off. I probably didn't feel my legs getting sunburned because they were frequently getting wet.
The rest of Saturday and Sunday morning were spent back at camp. We had really good food that Minh and Christine prepared, but way too much of it. Saturday night we had chicken wraps, steak, hot links, corn and smores. Breakfasts consisted of eggs, potatoes and steak. There was also way too much fruit, some of which went bad. We ended up not eating half the food we brought. Next time we'll try to estimate better.
On Saturday we drove to the meetup location in Foresthill for rafting the Middle Fork of the American River. We went with a company called All Outdoors and our guide, Cory, really knew his stuff. Cory's steering and direction made even the Class IV rapids seem easy. He even told us a lot of history about the river, like about Gold Rush era settlements and a man-made flood caused by a burst dam that changed the landscape.
Cory was the head guide in our pack of 5 boats, so he played lookout for the other boats. At one point, two people from another boat fell out, one swam to a rock, and Cory's boat had to row across the rapid to save him. That was pretty awesome.
We ended up rafting a 16-mile stretch of the river, which took 6 hours at a comfortable pace, with one of those hours for lunch. Unfortunately during the rafting, my legs got massively sunburned and I didn't know it till the end. Either I wasn't thorough with the sunblock or it washed off. I probably didn't feel my legs getting sunburned because they were frequently getting wet.
The rest of Saturday and Sunday morning were spent back at camp. We had really good food that Minh and Christine prepared, but way too much of it. Saturday night we had chicken wraps, steak, hot links, corn and smores. Breakfasts consisted of eggs, potatoes and steak. There was also way too much fruit, some of which went bad. We ended up not eating half the food we brought. Next time we'll try to estimate better.
Camping and Alcohol? - Saturday, August 12, 2006
I've been meaning to write about the camping trip but didn't get around to it because I've been busy redesigning this site. The final layout revisions are looking promising!
On the camping trip, we didn't get to do some fun things as planned, such as waterskiing. But meeting and bonding with new people made it worth it. And the fond memory of eating a ton of fried food and getting sick because of it.
Tonight Priscilla treated me to an expensive dinner at Lulu's Cafe, where the main motive was alcohol. Prior to today, I've only tasted a couple sips of wine, but that didn't stop me from ordering a cranberry martini and a whole bottle of Chardonnay, which I somehow managed to finish 3/4 of. After that I felt really sick and threw up in the bathroom. So much for that expensive dinner.
Well now I know my limit, which isn't much at all (I got really red after those couple sips last time). Apparently my body really doesn't like "unhealthy" things. The college-induced craving to drink has been satisfied, and I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon. I don't think I'll ever be able to get drunk to the point where I start losing the ability to think, since I can't hold my liquor long enough. That's ok, it tastes like uh, crap, anyway.
On the camping trip, we didn't get to do some fun things as planned, such as waterskiing. But meeting and bonding with new people made it worth it. And the fond memory of eating a ton of fried food and getting sick because of it.
Tonight Priscilla treated me to an expensive dinner at Lulu's Cafe, where the main motive was alcohol. Prior to today, I've only tasted a couple sips of wine, but that didn't stop me from ordering a cranberry martini and a whole bottle of Chardonnay, which I somehow managed to finish 3/4 of. After that I felt really sick and threw up in the bathroom. So much for that expensive dinner.
Well now I know my limit, which isn't much at all (I got really red after those couple sips last time). Apparently my body really doesn't like "unhealthy" things. The college-induced craving to drink has been satisfied, and I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon. I don't think I'll ever be able to get drunk to the point where I start losing the ability to think, since I can't hold my liquor long enough. That's ok, it tastes like uh, crap, anyway.
Going Camping - Thursday, August 3, 2006
The college group from church is going on a camping trip from Friday to Sunday to Lake Lopez in San Luis Obispo. We're going to be camping out in tents and partaking in such activities as waterskiing. It'll be a lot of fun. I really should start packing though, it's almost midnight.