Fish Lake

 In August we went camping at Fish Lake. Fish Lake is a high altitude lake at about 9,000 feet in elevation. It is very remote, and I had never heard of it before, but Daddo had been there once in college and wanted to go back.

 

We set up our tent, broken pole and all, in the flattest spot on our campsite we could find. We've begun to see our large tent as a liability at some of these campgrounds. There just isn't a large enough flat space for it. 

 

The elevation bothered some of us with headaches and had a funny effect on the air in this bag of chips as well.

 

 

We packed along all of our food for three days, as we knew there wouldn't be many food options around. (There really weren't.) One of our favorite new camp meals this summer has been Bubble & Squeak. There are lots of ways to prepare this traditional British "leftovers" meal. Ours is sausage, potatoes, cabbage, and onions sauteed in a bit of butter and then cooked with a bit of water, salt, and pepper until the veggies are all soft. Cooking at high elevation takes longer.

 

We played cards, relaxed in the hammock, and made s'mores. And that was it for the first night... until after dark. That night in the tent was really rough. The ground was rocky, despite our extra padding we brought along. We had to walk kids to the bathroom twice during the night, which was not close and did not have electricity. The silver lining of that though was that we got to see the stars at night and we could see ALL of them. Also, it was cold. And then, something was scratching and biting at the side of our tent. It growled. I turned on the lantern and kicked the side of the tent and that seemed to scare it off, but there was no sleep happening after that. It was a horrible night and in the morning we decided to enjoy the lake for the day and then drive home. I think we've had enough of tent camping for a while frankly.

 

The lake was pretty but very cold, and not very swimmer friendly.  Really, the main reason people come here is to fish. And that is just not an activity that interests us.

 

We did bring our inflatable kayak, so we took turns rowing out around the middle of the lake, which was fun. And we enjoyed a picnic lunch I packed along. In the late afternoon we went back to camp and packed up to head home.

 

We drove through the nearby Pando on our way out of Fish Lake. Pando is an individual Quaking Aspen system that is genetically one organism. It covers 108 acres and is the heaviest known organism and one of the oldest known living organisms. Also, I think it's pretty.

So that brings to an end our pandemic summer of camping trips. Our tent is being retired, and we aren't rushing out to buy a new one right now. We are thinking more and more about buying an RV, but we just can't justify spending the money right now. It seems like an expensive hobby, with a fair amount of upkeep, and we're really not interested in taking that on right now. We do have some plans for the rest of the year, and some more birthdays to celebrate, so we look forward to seeing what comes next!