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Last Summer Hurrah at Dinkey Creek
School is about to start so we squeezed in one last camping trip into this short but very hot summer break. I can’t believe how fast it’s slipped by already. It seems like yesterday we were mapping out all the activities we’d do and now it’s almost already over. We have a few more fun things up our sleeves but overall we’ve done a lot this summer and I’m feeling pretty good about it. These kids better not come up blank if they have to write a “What I did this summer” essay, that’s all I’m saying.
Payam has friends up north who have connections at Dinkey Creek so we stayed at a sweet cabin in the woods. The girls were a bit disappointed that we weren’t tenting it this time but I was just fine with a nice cabin with a clean bed and a warm shower. Give me some trees, a campfire, a glass of wine or a warm cup of coffee in my hand and I am the happiest camper ever.
It was my kind of roughing it. And of course nobody complained about the abundance of wifi.
Ah… the campfire. What’s not to love?
The next day we took the dogs to the creek and Cody was in love instantly. He is such a water dog. You can’t watch him without feeling your own heart explode with joy when you see how much he loves the water.
Sometimes he would just walk up to the water and lay down immediately, like he was sighing inside to have finally found his natural habitat.
Sometimes he’d high center himself on rocks and just lay there. This dog was completely at home in the stream.
Cody butt.
The girls and the dogs could have played in the creek all day and they kind-of did. I secretly wish we lived here and this is what they really did all day. I bet Minecraft addiction wouldn’t even be a problem here!
“All I need is this river and this stick”, says Cody in a Steve Martin voice from “The Jerk.”
River, river, river… or maybe I should say creek, creek, creek. The water level is pretty low but not as bad as we were afraid it might be with the drought that just keeps going on in spite of the wimpy El Niño year we supposedly had.
Joon being cute….
After the river-romping, everyone was wiped out.
Especially the dogs.The dogs love camping. In fact, I think they are a bit depressed that we are now home in boring old suburbia. They stayed outside the cabin most of the day, lazing around in the dirt or hiking around with us and then they slept uncrated (!) at our feet in the loft at night. It was their first night sleeping indoors with freedom and I’m super happy to say that it went pretty smoothly. They were tied to the railing by their leashes so it wasn’t complete freedom but I had worries that they would gnaw at the carpet or find random socks to eat and they didn’t! They were perfect little puppy angels. They were also very tired puppies which makes for very good puppies.
See that scruffy mutt? Take a good look at him because he doesn’t look like that anymore. That’s a camping dog right there.
The next day, right before we had to hit the road to head home, we took a quick hike up to an old milling camp that was built in the 1920’s. It was a dry, dusty hike but so worth it.
The whole camp is preserved remarkably but yet not protected. It’s open for anyone to wander around and I couldn’t believe how untouched it was. There were even old rusty cans on the store shelves. If this existed down here in Southern California it would be a camp of homeless people or meth labs or burned down completely. It was a photographer’s dream location. There was a tiny bit of tagging inside some cabins but most of it was as if it had just been abandoned in the 30’s and never touched again.
Cody was kind enough to pose for me.
He’s such a pretty boy.
Whiskey too.
Whiskey is so funny with his scruffy fur that grows over his eyes. He constantly looks like an old stuffed animal that has been well-loved and not washed.
So anyway, the mill. We went inside and it was huge. It was dark and all these little holes in the exterior shot tiny beams of light down onto the floor. It was so pretty and expansive, it kind of felt like you were stepping into a cool, dry, dusty observatory and the tiny beams of light looked like stars.
The inside of the mill just added to my photographer’s dream location. If I lived here I would come back constantly to shoot portraits. Bug took one of me but of course I don’t like it much because you know, I’m old and vain and stuff.
I really love this time we had at Dinky Creek and I’m always going to hold a special spot in my heart for this road going down to the creek and this cabin. It was cute and little and just right.
And these people! They are always so good to us! Until next time guys!
It was our last camping trip and it was short and sweet and to the point. It was perfect for making good memories so we can start another year of the regular boring old grind. Just kidding! We love school too but you know what I mean, it’s nice to end summer feeling like you did a lot. Like we tied a bow on it.
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Camping 2016: with kids AND dogs!
Summer is here and we are packing in the activities! Well, at least the few weeks have been packed so far. The kids started tennis camp today (on the hottest day ever–91 degrees in the shade and it’s only June!) and we went camping (with puppies!) the week before last. I feel like I can take the rest of the summer off we’ve accomplished so much already.
We were super excited to take the puppies with us camping but also dreading it because we really had no idea what we were in for. We can hardly handle them at home under controlled situations! But of course they loved it and it was a big, fat, dusty blast. When we came home our dogs were a completely different color than when we left. They got sooooo dirty.
My mom and dad came too and brought their dog, Speckles. It was a very dog-friendly affair.
The girls got their own tent and did really well. I thought they might get cold or lonely during the night and crash our tent but they faired just fine. Probably because they were so dead tired from having so much fun.
Camp cooking is always my favorite part. I know hiking and enjoying nature is the basic premise of camping but I’m perfectly content to stay at camp and play pioneer all day. I like to cook, eat and drink beverages while watching sunsets and admiring the trees. I have to say I’m so thankful to live in California where there are relatively no bugs. I probably wouldn’t love camping half as much if we got eaten alive like they do on Naked and Afraid. I love nature but dang, the bugs would get to me every time.
Bug and I did get a chance to take a little hike behind our camp while Payam and Joon went horseback riding. We had a really nice time following a rugged path through the trees searching for pinecones and just kicking the dirt while we discussed mother daughter things. At one point we thought we heard rushing water and we were so excited to see a waterfall or a stream. So you can imagine our disappointment when we rounded the bend and found a chain link fence protecting a water treatment plant. Denied! It didn’t even stink though. You’d think it would smell like sewage or something. But no, just green water being sprayed up in the air in a green pond.
Payam and Joon had a nice time on their horses. You might be wondering about now where we were camping. Where would they have such amenities as water treatment plants and horseback riding? We weren’t roughing it by far. We were staying at an RV resort park called Thousand Trails. We have some friends who live there who we were visiting. It was a good first camping trip for us with dogs since we didn’t really know what we could handle.
My mom and dad came too with their trailer. They’re old pros at RV camping.
Apparently RV camping comes naturally to dogs.
Dogs + Dirt = No problem! Just keep them cool and it’s all good.
Back to not roughing it. There were so many activities scheduled at this resort. There was an ice cream social, swimming, pine cone races, some kind of craft that we didn’t make it to and an organized campfire s’more making night. Actually, the organized s’more-making fire was because of fire danger. You’re not allowed to make fires in your camp (which was a huge bummer when night temperatures drop) because everything is really dry up there and the smallest little stray spark could cause a huge forest fire.
We listened to Cowboy Jack play some tunes and we had our designated one s’more apiece. It wasn’t so bad. In fact it was really cool because Idyllwild is very dog-friendly and they even had a designated dog sitting area in the campfire amphitheater. I’m sure a fire in our camp would have been nice but we probably would have gotten bored eventually and ended up either going to bed super early or playing on our phones.
The next day we went into town. Which is also very dog-friendly. Who knew! Need something fun to do this summer but you can’t leave your dog at home while you go on vacation? Take them with and go camping! There’s plenty to do in the great outdoors.
Not to completely mislead you… there was plenty of phone activity going on too.
The kids were missing minecraft pretty bad and took up Instagram to hold them over.
And then we went home! The end.
Actually, after we got home and shipped the kids off to their respective other parents, we took our dogs to the day spa and they came back a completely different color. Whiskey was a rusty brown orange and now he’s white!
The groomer cut off all his puppy fur! Or most of it. He’ll probably lose the black on his ears someday too. Good thing he looks super cute this way too. It’s so funny, we knew nothing about Soft-haired Wheaten Terriers when we got him. Joon just fell in love with this scruffy, teddy bear of a dog. I would have never picked him out, personally. I’m more of a big-dog-loving kind of person. I usually turn up my nose at small aka yappy dogs. But Whiskey is not that small and he has wiggled his way into my heart. He has sooooo much personality. He is smart and very playful. He makes Cody (who was my first choice in dogs) look like a big, lazy, stubborn oaf of a dog. Don’t get me wrong, I love them both equally for such different reasons. They are perfect and all-consuming and now I am one of those crazy dog people who can only talk about her dogs.
Sorry, not sorry.
