100 degrees? No problem!
This past weekend was a hot one, not only here in North Idaho, but all across the country it seems. We spent it the way anyone with any sense would spend a weekend with temperatures hovering around the hundred degree mark – in the water. Our kids and their families set out Friday morning for a campground on the lake just a few miles from our house. The campsite is most easily accessed via boat, though there is a dirt road to the campground. Via road you have to park in a parking lot and lug your stuff about 500 yards to the campsite, while via boat, you simply pull up onto the beach, and walk about 50 feet to the campsite.
About noon Saturday, we drove to the marina from which they launched their boat and jet skis, parked our car, and waited for them to pick us up in the boat and take us to the campsite, about a 10 minute boat ride away. We were told all we needed to bring was the meat we wanted to cook for dinner, something to drink, and ourselves. We considered staying the night, but decided we’d rather sleep in our bed in an air-conditioned bedroom than on some rocky ground somewhere.
We had been to this campground once before several years ago, but I had forgotten that. I really had no idea what it was like. It turned out to be much nicer than I had imagined it would be. The tents were set up in amongst the trees overlooking the beach below. There was a picnic table and a fire ring with a grate, and the kids had a really nice setup with coolers, camp stoves, hibachis, storage totes, and camp chairs. The beach is made up of smooth, flat stones (not sand) upon which they had sheets and towels laid out next to beach chairs and umbrellas, positioned to provide shade. The jet skis and boat were beached and available to play on, as were a wide variety of beach toys like air mattresses for floating on the water, snorkeling gear, and sundry children’s toys. It was a very nice setup and we found ourselves wishing we’d brought camping gear.
We spent the day riding the jet skis, pulling the grandkids on the tube behind the boat, swimming, sunbathing, and napping. It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday. When it was time for dinner, we grilled our tri-tip and t-bones, baked some potatoes in the fire, cooked corn-on-the-cob and steamed broccoli on the camp stove, and all enjoyed an outstanding meal together. At about 8 p.m., the kids took us back to our car, we drove home, and fell into bed, exhausted. We were to meet them at the dock at 9 a.m. Sunday so we could enjoy a breakfast of sausages, pancakes, strawberries, and whipped cream with them.
The next morning, while we ate breakfast together, they related the events of the previous night. Turns out, it was a good thing we didn’t spend the night. Apparently, at about 9 p.m., a large group of twenty-something “granola people” invaded the campground, coming in on sailboats, motor boats, and a catamaran. They proceeded to party very loudly, screaming, laughing, banging drums, and performing some sort of apparent spiritual dance until the wee hours of the morning. No one got any sleep. The kids decided the best way to retaliate was to jump on the jet skis and roar around making as much noise as they could at about 7 a.m. Before doing so, they went down the beach to let the folks in the next camp in on the plan – a plan they enthusiastically endorsed. The day before, as I was floating around the lake, a guy on a jet ski rode up and asked me to save the beach and campsite for him, explaining they’d been looking all day for a spot to camp and finding everything full. As I talked with him, my daughter-in-law recognized him. Turned out, he and his wife work for the same company in Spokane as she and our son do. Small world. They too were camping with their folks and siblings. They too were upset by the “invaders” who had kept them awake all night, and agreed it was only fair that they fight fire with fire. So, the kids zipped around just a few hundred feet from the beach on the jet skis and watched as heads popped up, like prairie dogs on the lookout, from amongst the group sleeping on the beach. By the time we arrived, the twenty-something “hippies” were up, including one girl who decided to strip naked, apply sunscreen, and then sunbathe nude for the next few hours. Considering we had small children in tow, it was a good thing they were about 100 yards up the beach from us, though the men in our party were looking for excuses to wander down the beach in that direction.
I spent pretty much the rest of the day floating on the lake, getting a nice sunburn on my back and legs, although not a bad one. I did put on sunscreen. We were going to go via boat to the next bay over at about noon, where the library was having a staff picnic, but the boat started having problems. It wouldn’t idle, it was becoming difficult to start, and it kept dying once you did get it started. Everyone was worried that we’d be stuck there if we didn’t just get going back to the marina. So, we helped the kids pack up, hopped in the boat, and headed back to the cars – and I missed the staff picnic. But we had a very relaxing weekend. Weather permitting, we’re going to go camping in two weeks in one of the coves about 1000 yards from the campsite – a cove you can only access by boat, and that has room for just one camping party, so you can’t be invaded by noise-making partiers in the middle of the night. It will be a lot of fun, provided the weather holds. Right now, I’m kind of a big fan of global warming.
