Sunday, June 14, 2009

Lake Roberts




Camping at Lake Roberts was much like I'd remembered it, in some ways... and not, in others. Growing up we always had a trailer, this time we tented. I've tented it a lot in the SCA, so that was not a problem. Our new tent was nice, well ventilated and kept the rain out. (of course there was rain!). The Mesa campground was lovely, our spot was fairly isolated. The bathrooms have flush toilets. The hike down to the lake and up to the campground was one I didn't want to torture my knees with, but there are other hikes in the area that aren't so steeply sloped. Our friends that joined us hadn't been in the area for years, and really seemed to enjoy themselves.

Lake Roberts itself, has filled with water weeds and is viney quite a ways out. There is no swimming or even wading in the lake any more, to protect people from getting tangled in them. The park service has moved the boat ramp, and added a few floating piers to fish off of. The oak tree that my dad often fished under while we climbed in and around it, is still there. Grown older and wiser, I think, good old friend.

We saw some fish, but did not catch them. Saw some buzzards, and enjoyed watching them flying. We even managed to spot them in their roosting tree. There were robins and blue birds and hummingbirds. We spotted rabbits and even a couple deer. We listened to the ducks and the frogs call at night, when things would start to quiet down. And stars! My word!

The kids played, and hiked and fished. They entertained us by putting on plays. We roasted marshmallows. Raine discovered camel back water holders... and wore one on a short hike to the lake, drinking almost 2 liters of water in the process. Let's just say I didn't worry about her being dehydrated today... and we both got our exercise visiting the bathrooms through the evening. We had camp food that was - of course - delicious and the rain didn't start until almost dark last night.

It rained off and on most of the night, and occasionally the wind would gust up, once or twice teasing up our rain fly a little and dripping a few drops into the mesh of the ceiling of the tent. When we got up, the clouds were breaking up some, and we even got a little sun. Enough for it to warm up while we broke camp, watching more clouds start to move in. We had a lovely breakfast buffet at a little restaurant about 5 miles towards Silver City, and it rained while we were eating. We didn't care, of course. We said our good byes and headed home.

1 comment:

Fran said...

Oh, what a wonderful time, and what great pictures! Thank you so much for sharing!