Trinity Lake, California

Ah, Trinity Lake, where should I begin?

I guess I will start with the drive. We found out the hard way that there is only one way to get there, straight up a mountain road, and one way to get out, back down the same road. Oh, and did I mention that the road is barely wide enough for both directions of traffic? And did I mention the 90 degree turns every 20 yards? And that it took us two hours to drive 70 miles? Good times.

We finally arrived at the Trinity Lake KOA. If you ever find yourself looking at this sign...run! LOL

Maybe it was just that the 4th of July weekend brought out the extra special breed of campers. I'm not sure if it was watching the guy who brought his pit bull with the heavy duty metal chain as a leash into the pool area that made me uncomfortable. Or if it was the drunk chic who stumbled through the pool area asking me if I had a "light for her smokes" that turned me off to the whole scene. I was definitely ready to go as I watched that same woman proceeded to ask various children if they had a lighter for her to use. Seriously people. Really?

OK, there was a silver lining and that was Trinity Lake itself beacuse it is beautiful.

The view from our boat on Trinity Lake.

We rented a pontoon boat for four hours and took off to explore the lake, do a little fishing and maybe take a swim. The kids were excited because we have never rented a boat before and I don't think they have ever swam in a lake before either.

The Skipper and Gilligan out for a four hour tour.

I guess it would be more accurate to say, they were excited to swim in the lake in theory only. When in came time to jump in, they where suddenly in fear for their lives. They were convinced something in the lake would get them after they jumped in.

So Tom "helped" Andrew get in. By helped, I mean he pushed him over the side. Tom claims Andrew told him to push him in but I'm not sure I'm buying that one.

For the first few seconds, I really thought Andrew was going to drown. Thank goodness we suggested he wear his life vest since it was so deep. My kids are great swimmers but the fear of the lake monster had a tight grip on Andrew until we could get him back on the boat.

Eventually, after getting in a few times and nothing ate them, they got over it and jumped in on their own free will. Tom and I even took a dip. The water was crisp and refreshing. (And by crisp and refreshing, I mean it was freaking cold!)

Kait and Andrew swim in Trinity Lake.

Everything was going smoothly until we refueled the boat and started the return trip back to the KOA marina where we rented the boat. As soon as we cleared the marina where we refueled, the engine stalled and wouldn't restart. There we sat drifting in the wake.

Fortunately, the guy who prepped the boat wrote down his cell number for us. "Just in case anything comes up, not that it will," he said.

Unfortunately, the guy who wrote down his cell phone number also carried it off with the clipboard he was carrying. Of course we didn't realize it until we were sitting on the dead boat, looking for his number and replaying those last few moments in our mind.

After calling information and getting the campground number and then calling the campground 5 times because it kept going to voicemail, we were able to get in touch with the guy who came out and towed us back to the marina.

He was nice enough to not charge us for returning the boat late.

And that about sums up the good times we had at Trinity Lake, California. Consider yourself duly warned.