Dinkey Creek

While we were up at Shaver Lake, I had to take Jamie to a place I spent a lot of time as a kid. We spent a few summer vacations at a place called Dinkey Creek. It's about 13 miles up the road from Shaver and my Grandpa has been taking my Dad there since he was a kid and my Dad took us there when we were kids.

We spent a lot of time playing in the creek. We would bring inflatable rafts to float around in and walk all over the rocks trying not to slip.

We got there early and took a small hike up the creek. It really is beautiful and at this time in the morning there wasn't too many people around.

The rocks are pretty massive!

This is one of the "little falls" we used to slide down as kids. We would wrap black trash bags around our waists and then slide down. They are horrible for your bathing suit as many kids found out when they eventually created holes in them. The water is freezing though. It's all melted snow. We walked across a shallow piece to have lunch on the other side. We had water shoes on so we wouldn't slip but the water was ice cold. It's much colder than I remember but I guess as kids you are just happy to be playing in the water.

Later in the week, my parents, took a day trip to explore the lakes further up the mountain. It was a very steep, narrow one way road. They had to maneuver around cars coming down the mountain as they drove up and again on the way down. My Mom is afraid of heights so it was a challenge for here to make the trip but she did just fine. Further up the mountain there were still snow packs along the road and my Parents packed one of the small coolers full of snow to bring down to us. My Dad created two small snowmen on our campsite. They didn't last very long but it was pretty cool.

Island Life

On Wednesday, we headed out on the lake on Aaron's boat, which his parents kindly let Aaron bring (Aaron's only 20 years old, so it was a big privilege that his parents allowed him to bring it, he did a great job taking care it). Milissa, Mike, Valerie and Aaron found these two islands just a few yards apart from each other while they were exploring on Tuesday. So when they asked us if we wanted to see their islands, we jumped at the offer.

So we loaded up the boat with coolers, towels, fishing equipment and even a bbq for the day. The above picture is the island we used for fishing. My Dad and Mike fished all day long. Remember my Dad didn't catch anything on Monday, he managed to catch 6 on his own while on the island, not too bad. Mike caught two, so it was a pretty good day for them. I think they both needed to relax and enjoy a slower pace.

How did they get to the other island you ask? Well, there was a small sand bank. My Dad is crossing at the deepest part so we all could cross pretty easily without having to swim. So we carried all of their stuff over for them and the rest of us stayed on the other island.

Here is our other island, mainly the swimming island. We set up the bbq and easy-up for shade and the rest of us played in the water and laid out in the sun all day. Lily, Valerie's dog, also came along so she was able to roam the island without a leash.

Some of us did take the occasional boat ride.

Valerie and Aaron got a bit of island fever and rented a tube for the day... Milissa and Jamie joined in on the fun as well.

Classic!

The water was a bit cold but it got pretty hot by mid-afternoon so it felt really nice to jump in. Even Lily, Valerie's lab, was in and out of the water all day. She did get a bite on the tail which swelled up a bit but she still had fun in the water and made it to the other island to be with the guys fishing.

The water wasn't too deep around the island until you ventured out further, we mostly waded around and got a much needed tan.

Valerie preferred laying out on the boat rather than the sand.

This picture was actually taken the next day. This is what vacation is all about!

Camping at Shaver Lake

We are back from vacation. We spent a week at Shaver Lake, which is about an hour inland from Fresno, CA. We camped at Camp Edison, owned and operated by Edison International, which means it was pretty clean, well run, and had free electricity. We drove up to our campsite on 6/20 and got there in the late afternoon. My Aunt Milissa, my cousin Valerie and her boyfriend, Aaron came up as well. Valerie's Dad, Mike, joined us on Tuesday.

On our first day up there this hawk comes and lands right next to our campsite. Jamie was even able to get pretty close and take several pictures before it flew away. It was beautiful and a nice way to start our holiday.

Setting up camp wasn't too difficult. We went through a company that delivers campers to sites to rent for the week. So when we turned up, everything was set up and we just had to unload our stuff and fill the fridge. (so it's not the rugged camping some people like but for us it was a happy medium).

Here is my Mom, Dad, my aunt Milissa and myself sitting outside one morning for breakfast.

Our first day we just explored the lake. It was about a 10 minute walk to the lake from our site and you could drive a good distance along the lake. It is a huge lake and we only explored a small portion.

Here are my parents as we walked down to have a look at the lake.

The first couple of days were pretty cool, I froze the first night. So of course, I was all bundled up. Luckily, as the week went on it continued to get warmer.

This was a nice little part of the lake near our campsite. It was pretty quiet and boats and jet ski's weren't allowed to make wake in it. So it turned out to be the perfect swimming area.

Over the next couple of days I'll post more pictures. To Be Continued...