lewiston lake

Fourth of July fell on a Thursday this year, so most people took Friday off to make it a four day weekend. With the weather being so hot lately, a camping trip at a lake sounded like a good idea. We ended up at Mary Smith Campground on Lewiston Lake, which is just outside of the Trinity Alps Wilderness.

On our way up to the campground we stopped in Redding for lunch and also stopped for pictures at Redding’s famous Sundial Bridge. In the gift shop I saw a cool shot of the bridge from an interesting perspective, so I decided to try to replicate the shot.

Apparently Lewiston Lake belongs to me.

There are a few campsites that are actually right on the lake, but they were all booked by the time we got our site. Our campsite was higher up the hill away from the lake, but it still had a nice view of the lake where the girls pitched their tent.

There was no place to hang my hammock with a view of the lake, so I ended up a bit farther back in the woods.

When car camping I usually eat pretty well, my trusty (but thankfully not rusty) old cast iron skillet has cooked everything from bacon to steaks to salmon. Since the girls outnumbered the guys on this camping trip (that almost never happens) I decided to crank it up a notch and attempted to cook paella. It came out okay, but the rice on top was a bit undercooked. If I do this again I definitely need to invest in a paella pan, or at the very least a wider cast iron skillet.

Flo made patriotic red, white and blue drinks in honor of Independence day. They were quite tasty.

After dinner we attempted to float on the lake, but found it was a bit cold. I guess these tubes still work okay out of the water.

The next day we drove along the Trinity Heritage National Scenic Byway. We ended up driving almost the entire length of the byway.

We had intended to find some place to hike. It was here that I discovered that “hiking” with three girls actually means driving my air conditioned car on dirt roads.

We got back from “hiking” early enough that the sun was still out on the lake. So it was warm enough to play in the water. In one of the campsites near the lake I met Toby, who really liked fetching his tennis ball in the water.

Toby is quite popular with the ladies.

The first part of the long fourth of July weekend was quite relaxing. It was nice just eating, drinking, “hiking,” and relaxing in the water. Plus it was nice to just take it easy before the backpacking trip into the Trinity Alps that we have planned for the next couple of days.