Lake Lewiston

We left the Mt Shasta area on Monday morning and headed south.  With a full tank of water and empty tanks we could camp anywhere we wanted so let the adventure begin!

We passed through the Whiskeytown area and headed to Lake Lewiston.  Mommy was determined to camp on a lake somewhere and there is no stopping her when her mind is made up and of course I wouldn’t mind camping on a lake!

You are not allowed to disperse camp at Whiskeytown and Trinity Lake was too low so we opted for Lake Lewiston. It is part of the Trinity National Forest so we thought our chances would be better there.

There wasn’t much in that area.  We passed a gas station, campground and fish hatchery and that was about it!   We were looking for the forest service road that the Ranger told us about but mommy couldn’t find it so we just drove around the lake.  We saw a bunch of deer hanging out next to the Mobile Home Park.

There were a few very small paid campgrounds and they had a few sites on the lake but they were taken.  Mommy was not giving up so she kept driving.  There were a bunch of little day use areas and pullouts but they all had signs that said “no camping”.  Finally mommy found one that didn’t have a sign!  Score!   There was even a little area for Spirit so we thought that must be a sign!

We took our chances and camped there.  As soon as we parked, we inflated the SUP and were on the lake.  It was like glass.  So calm and nice with pretty scenery to look at including a lot of different kinds of birds.

Once again we experienced an amazing sunset on the water!

It was such a cool place to camp and I was so happy!  My own swimming pool right outside the door!

We realized when putting the SUP under Spirit that the bracket broke on the house battery case.  Like I mentioned, there was not many businesses in the area so we asked a local fisherman if there were any welding shops and he pointed us in the right direction about 20 minutes from where we were in a small town called Weaverville.   We would go there tomorrow after our morning SUP.

We slept great! The moon was so bright and the stars were outrageous over the lake.  It was our coolest night yet but all of the reason to snuggle under the covers!   We love it here!

We woke the next morning to another glassy lake.  Let’s go!

We set out on the SUP and paddled a mile up the lake.  An older gentleman and his dog were out enjoying their kayak and they stopped us.  He had never seen a SUP before!  Mommy told the man that we may paddle to Trinity dam and he told her it was 2.5 miles from there.  Hmmm, not sure we wanted to paddle that much more.

We started heading in that direction.  One bend led to another and before we knew it, we were near the dam.  The current started getting really strong as the water comes out from under the dam from Trinity Lake.  The water is a freezing 47 degrees because it is coming from the bottom of Trinity Lake.  For once, mommy did not swim but I did!  Mommy took my life jacket off between swims so that I would warm up in the sun! I was shivering!

We made it all the way to the dam.  Mommy had a great workout fighting the head wind and the current!  It was 4.85 miles from our camp.  It was pretty cool being that close and the current was really strong! I know because I dropped my ball in the water and it floated away really fast!

When we left, we just let the current take us and we floated down the lake.  That was fun until the wind picked up and it was like a tornado!  There were whitecaps on the lake!  I felt like I was back in the ocean!  Mommy was getting blown all over the place!  She got a killer workout in both directions and she was tired by the time we got back to camp.

Needless to say, we were gone longer that we thought so we ended up staying at our lake front spot another night.  Mommy had fun chatting with the locals when they stopped at our private beach to let their dogs swim.  One guy was telling her that the river that leaves the lake has beavers, otters, and even Salmon swimming in it!  He said that is why they moved there from Huntington beach because of the cold river and the cool animals.

After the wind finally died down, it was another relaxing night at camp.  We woke the next morning and pulled out of our spot.  We heard a loud BANG and then a tree branch fell.  Uh ooooo!   That is never good.  Mommy backed out and drove down the road and pulled over.  She climbed up on the roof to find that she had drove into a big branch and put a hole in Spirit!  YIKES!!  She was happy that she didn’t rip the air conditioner off.  Poor Spirit got beat up on this trip!

Since we were so close, we decided to drive to the dam and take a look at Trinity Lake.  They were correct when they said it was very low! It sure is a large lake!

Weaverville was a cute little town.  It even had an old time movie theatre.  We walked around to the little stores while we waited for Matt from Trinity Welding to be ready for us and he fixed us up in about 20 minutes!

We headed back to Whiskeytown and stopped at the Visitor Center and paid $10. for a pass so we could check out one of the trails.  Whiskeytown is a National Recreation Area so you have to have a permit to park anywhere and hike plus we wanted to swim one more time.  There are a few different waterfall trails to choose from.

Now that mommy’s shoes were taped up, we ventured back on the trail that we had started on our first day, Brandy Creek Falls Trail.  We started and ended our vacation at the same exact spot!

We started our hike at the trailhead along the road across from Brandy Creek Beach.  We hiked 2 miles up the Brandy Creek trail.  There was a really nice trail but we kind of bushwhacked our way up the creek so that I could swim along the way and see all of the little waterfalls. The water wasn’t real deep but there were some pools that were just right for my little body!  Watch this short video to see how cool it was.

It was really pretty and the bugs were not bad this time.  My feet felt so much better with my new booties on!  I was running like a puppy again!  We crossed a bridge and headed up the trail to a little parking area where the other trail started to the bigger Boulder Creek waterfall a few more miles up the trail.

We turned around there because mommy didn’t want to push it with my feet issues and headed back down so that we had time to go to the lake and swim before it got dark.   It was a fun hike and we would highly recommend it.

We  had one last swim in Whiskeytown lake together. Mommy and I raced for my new toy and we had a ton of fun.  Mommy also got washed off with technu soap because she was not sure if the red plants on the trail were poison oak or not! Better to be safe than sorry.

We were very sad to leave the lake but we wanted to break up the drive a little.  Mommy went and did one final RV dump at the Boulder Creek Campground and then we were on our way.

We stopped in Redding for our Grand Finale.  We went to the Sundial Bridge and took a walk across it at sunset.  The bridge is really cool!  It took them 11 years to build it with parts from 7 different countries.   It has 2,245 glass panels in the deck and was the first steel, inclined pylon, cable stayed bridge in the country!  Crazy huh?

We timed it perfect as we got to see the sunset….

And the full moon rise at the same time!

Great Grand Finale for a very adventurous and super fun week!

We drove 3 hours south that night to Stockton and stayed in a big dirt lot with other trucks and campers.  We headed the 7 hours back to San Diego the next day.

It was sad but the good news is that we stopped at Souly Raw on the way home and Miss Lisa gave me some treats!

Thanks so much for following us on our journey.  We will be taking another one soon so stay tuned.  In the meantime, don’t forget to follow our other adventures on our Instagram and Facebook pages.  We are always doing something fun!