Camping - Antlers Campground, Lake Shasta

 We lost a day off the front end of our trip....that day consisted of Brian sitting at Les Schwab from 10 - 3:30 getting the brake line replaced in the van.  We headed out of town in the evening, started setting up camp at 11pm. When we pulled into the campground, we discovered 2/3rds of it (including the 4 campsites we love and had been excited to have our pick of because none of them were reserved) was closed.  Oh, also the water in the spigots was off, so no water. We had a cooler full of food we got in Redding, and needed to get ice, so after camp was set up, Brian headed for the gas station..which closed 15 minutes early because it was slow. He ended up having to go into the local joint called The bASShole, (spelled just like that)  and asking some well endowed ladies if there was ice anywhere on the premises. One "lady" went in the back and came out with a garbage bag full of ice. I think he was traumatized for life by what he saw that night, lol.  Lets just say...the trip started off a bit rocky...or bouncy?? : )

 Above, that's us getting on the road...and below, we'll just fast forward to the first morning in camp, after everything was set up, and we could finally relax.

 There was lots of Lupine all around the camp,  a little hard to see here, but they are beautiful purple flowers.

 After my first pot of camping coffee, I was finally starting to be a happy camper!

 

 Brian is an excellent camp chef.  If there's any real cooking while camping, he does it all. Mostly we just roast stuff, but he makes a mean camping breakfast.

 Well, this is a nice look at what the lake looks like right now. It's not pretty, but makes a good shot of where mountains, desert, and a few drops of water meet.

 We definitely spent more time in camp this trip since getting to the lake was no easy task.

  One day we drove to a different part of the lake to see if getting to water was any easier. It wasn't, but we did check out a new campground (it was a dud). I took the below picture because I was thinking one of these trips, I would love to actually see a bear or a rattle snake. Not sure why I think this would be cool, but somehow I figure it would enhance our camping experience.

 Wallah- less than 5 minutes later, Brian spotted this good sized rattler.

 Coloring a map of the lake.

This shot gives you a great look at how steep the bank is down to the water. Some of the banks had roads that would get you down close to the water....but not in a mini van.

It was nice to get a way for a few days, and I'm glad we went now because by the end of summer when we would normally go again....we could easily be down to just the Sacramento river running through here and no more lake left.  Unless the level comes up somehow, we'll be looking for alternative camping.