Earlier last week I decided that it was time for me to take my first camping trip of the year. So I took a day off of work and went for a nice long drive in the hopes that I might find a nice mountain camp spot that wasn’t snowed in. I figured that it might not be an easy task, but it was worth a try.
With a full tank of gas, I hopped in the trusty little Geo and set off on my quest. My first stop was Strawberry Resiviour. Strawberry is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. It has lots of good fishing if your into that sort of thing. My favorite thing about Strawberry is the fact that you can catch all the crawfish you can eat! Me being a southerner, I love me some fresh cooked crawfish!!! So I am sure you can imagine my excitement about having the chance to catch and cook up a good southern favorite of mine.
Well, as excited as I may have been, luck wasn’t on my side that day. Almost the entire lake was frozen over. That and all of the free camping areas were still snowed in. Looks like I will have to wait until later in the year to fill my belly full of mud bugs.
After a fun drive around a frozen lake I decided to take my chances with the Uinta National Forest. Didn’t think I would have much luck, but again, I figured it was worth the try. So I pointed the Geo toward Kamas, UT and set out for Mirror Lake Highway. Once I arrived in Kamas and headed up towards Mirror Lake I noticed a sign saying that the road was closed 14 miles ahead. Trying not to get discouraged I stayed the course and headed up into the mountains.
Boy was I surprised once I got up there! I was able to find two suitable camping spots! The weather was beautiful. It was nice enough that I was able to walk around in a T-shirt during the day and not a lot of snow could be seen throughout the areas I chose to camp. Boy was I happy! Being satisfied that I had found a campsite in one of my favorite areas to camp I set down the mountain and back to civilization.
Finally the big day arrived, camping day! We got the trailer all loaded up and stocked full of supplies. Even had time to register the the truck and make sure the insurance was up to date. Once we were satisfied that we were all ready, and completely packed, we set out for the mountains. After about an hour and a half of driving we finally made it to the mountains that I had been so excited to see.
Boy was I pumped up and excited to do a little camping. Unfortunately the excitement was short lived. Apparently there had been a snow storm in the three days since I had been there. Even so, I decided to check it out anyway. I turned down the road that I wanted to camp on. There was a little snow on the road but I wasn’t worried. Ha, little did I know. After I got a little ways down the road it was completely covered in snow. Seeing that, I made the command decision to back the truck and trailer out over the snow that I had previously driven over with no issues.
And that’s when the problems really started! After driving over snow when it is below freezing it just turns to ice! Ice, a truck and trailer do not mix! I ended up getting stuck in the snow and ice. No fun, let me tell you. Even with four wheel drive and shoveling snow and ice off the road, it took over an hour to get out of about a 100 yard stretch of road that we went down.
Still not discouraged we headed down to a lower spot to drop the trailer where it wasn’t snowy. After finding the exact spot that we wanted, we finally started to level the trailer and get ready to do some camping! Well, after our little adventure with the snow and ice we decided that 20 degrees in the daylight was just a little to cold for our comfort. So we packed up and headed down the mountain to a lower camp spot yet again.
We ended up at Rockport State Park. Still a beautiful little lake with plenty of mountains to look at on three sides. I had to pay a little, but at $10 a night, I figured it was worth it to finally have a spot to drop the trailer and call home. So that we did. It was no sooner than the trailer was dropped that we realized that we had forgotten our camping chairs. With no real stumps or rocks to use as make shift chairs we decided that we better run up to Park City, Utah to pick a few cheap chairs up.
We made it back to camp with some cheap new chairs, time for some fun. The lady was in the trailer taking care of things and I was outside of the trailer taking care of the outside stuff. We thought all of our problems were behind us. Boy were we wrong! Long story short, she forgot the hamburger meat for our supper, and after we turned on the water pump we discovered that the water heater had a massive leak! The meat was a minor issue, but the water heater is going to be a whole other issue. I am not looking forward to that!
Even after all of the initial issues we were still able to have a good time on our first camping trip of the year. There were a few other minor issues, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. Not quite sure what I will do about the water heater yet, but hopefully I can find some type of frugal fix for it. Now that I’ve gotten my first camping trip of the year under my belt, I am ready for more. Bring on the summer!
