I've been so busy lately, I haven't been able to keep up with my posts! Things have been really good though...I'm just trying to cram as much as I can in before the other shoe drops :) About a month ago, even before Sam's and my trip to Telluride, Nora and I went up to Blue Ridge Reservoir for a weekend on the water and to cool off from the Valley's crazy heat and humidity.
I loaded up the gear, picked up Nora, and after breakfast, we headed deep into the woods...hoping to find a spot that I'd researched but was unsure if even existed. A couple of days earlier, I'd met a guy who told me about being about to camp along the lake in sites only accessible by boat...right up my alley. After such a successful kayak/camping trip along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, I thought a little over-nighter not even 2 hours from town would be a piece of cake, and I love nothing more than finding secluded spots. We put in at the boat launch and set out without any idea where we were going or where we'd end up.
The lake was pretty quiet...there were a handful of people swimming right around the launch, but the farther back we paddled, the quieter it got. The water was really low though...I wasn't sure how we were going to find a campsite or how we were going to access it if we DID find a camp site, but we kept paddling, hoping to see something around each bend. We spotted a couple of spots up high that I climbed up to check out, but the risk of Nora hurting herself climbing up and the effort that it would take to haul our camping gear and food up the rocky cliffs just wasn't worth it.
A couple of hours later, we pulled up to the end of the lake (it's kind of a long strip of water) and a muddy little beach, complete with a stone fire pit and total seclusion. We drug out kayaks out of the water in calf-deep mud and set up camp on higher ground where it was dry and sandy.
While setting up our tent, we could hear thunder booming and raindrops began trickling down, but luckily, the storm was still quite a ways away, and not long after the sun popped back. Just to be safe though, we put the rain cover over the tent and flipped the kayaks over. I also threw some longs in the fire pit, and while digging through the bag looking for the lighter I'd packed, I heard the roar of flames and the fire just started up on it's own! I'm not sure if there were warm coals left over from previous campers or if the rocks were hot enough, or what was going on, but as scary as it was, it was pretty awesome :) Our campsite had tons of little sticks poking up through the ground that we gathered for kindling, but I decided to venture up into the woods for actual fire wood that I could find and a little exploring.
Once it got a little darker and cooler, we gathered around our cozy little fire and grilled up bratwurst and mashed potatoes. Later came marshmallows (an entire bag, by myself).
After a pretty amazing night of sleep (it got really chilly which always makes me sleep like a rock) we woke up with coffee, bacon, and pancakes on the fire. We hung out for a couple of hours and warmed up, then loaded everything back into the kayaks and hit the lake once again. Unfortunately, the water level dropped several inches overnight, exposing even more skin-sucking mud than we'd dealt with the day before, so we had to trudge back through it to get our kayaks out far enough to float, and then climb in...covered in it. Therefore, all of our gear INSIDE the kayaks got covered in it :( Oh well, this is camping after all, right? We paddled back out...enjoying the scenery around every bend.
By 9 am, we were back at the launch and loaded up, heading to a local burger joint for lunch. I've got to say, Nora and I are starting to get this whole "weekend warriors" gig down!