The Aimless Roamer: 4th of July, 2015 Lake Davis, CA

Every year around the 4th of July, some of my friends and coworkers and I go on a group camp trip. The purpose is not to pack in a ton of activities, but rather catch up and relax with good friends. We usually go out for four to five days and there's always a lot of good camp and Dutch oven food, great campfires and pretty respectable cocktail hour each evening.

This year (and last year) we went to Lake Davis, CA, where we camped in the Grasshopper Flat campground. Ever since getting my pop-up truck camper, I've been spoiled by all of the "boondock" camping a lightweight rig affords. Campgrounds are just a little too civilized for my taste, but I went for the friends, not for the level asphalt sites.

I was the first to arrive on June, 30th and the plan was for me to save four sites for my friends who would trickle in over the next two days. The campground was over half full in anticipation for the holiday, but I did manage to find four adjacent sites, over which I scattered various items to claim them as MINE!

A nice little site amongst the asphalt...

Shortly after getting my rig set up, the camp host came along and informed me that holding sites was not allowed and that I'd have to remove my things from the other sites I had tried to save. Luckily, one of my friends arrived shortly after I did and another friend arrived early the next morning and claimed two of the three sites I had tried to save. We all shared the three sites we had by squeezing in a little closer, which actually saved us money in the long run.

It rained every day that we were there (except for the day we left) and sometimes the rain was a downright cloudburst.

Views from inside the Bobcat during some of storms.

The good thing about the rain was that it drastically cooled down the area and gave the air an intensely good, clean smell.

Dexter always seemed to be a little damp, but amazingly, he stayed relatively clean.

One of my friends brought his boat in hopes of catching a few of Lake Davis' trout, but he never had it in the water for more than an hour before a wave of rain/lightning would come by and drive him out.

We did a lot of this over the long weekend.

Yay, the sun is out!

We did a mini pot luck on Friday evening and of course, the Dutch ovens were blazing.

Since the rain kept us from effectively stalking the local trout population, a late night crawdad hunt was in order.

From the boat dock.

Along the shoreline.

The low water was murky, making it difficult to spot the mud bugs.

Bringing home the catch.

It took an hour to catch these by hand.

Overcast, clouds and intermittent rain didn't keep us from having a little beach and swim time. Even though it looked cold outside, it was actually warm and humid and the lake was invigorating.

A slow, methodical easing into the water.

Indie, the Border Collie, swam non-stop for over 45 minutes. I don't know where
he got the energy.

As usual, Dexter found a friend right off the bat.

Saturday evening was our big pot luck and something we all look forward to every year. The food this year was amazing and with every passing season, we all get a little better with the Dutch ovens.

Of course, we had to start the evening off with a little Happy Hour...

Ready to dig in...

We had green chile chicken enchiladas, smoked/BBQ chicken wings, homemade mac-n-cheese, garlic baked potatoes, Polish sausage cooked in beer, handmade tamales, Spanish rice, steamed asparagus and vegetables. For dessert, we had homemade apple cobbler and an amazing batch of chocolate/peanut butter brownies, both of which were made in Dutch ovens, as well as a "make your own" S'more station. We were all stuffed like it was Thanksgiving.