wrights lake

So far this calendar year, our children have spent a total of thirteen nights sleeping in a tent. When we got to Wrights Lake last Saturday, Sava declared, unprompted, that there is nothing better than family and the outdoors; Raya piped in that she loved camping.

I swear I am not making this up.

Truthfully, at the end of five nights and six days, they were both also very happy to take warm showers and to sleep in their soft beds. When we stopped for lunch at a small sushi restaurant on the way back along Highway 50, Raya marveled at the flush toilets and the bathroom soap. She declared the camping trip to have been a "nine out of ten" because of the pesky mosquitos and the vault toilets. Sava noted that those small inconveniences had detracted only about 0.01 from his otherwise perfect-ten rating.

California can look like hell on earth to anyone visiting here briefly and observing the dense traffic and the frenetic pace. But behind the facade of congestion and speed, there is the "other" California of exquisitely varied landscape and jealously guarded shared natural spaces. Our aspiration in raising our children is to imbue them with love and appreciation for these spaces. Camping--alone or with friends--allows us to make some of that aspiration a reality. 

We first heard about Wrights lake two summers ago when two sets of friends independently mentioned it to us. Like all coveted and well-kept secrets, it has a campground whose reservations get booked within minutes months ahead of time. (If you've never camped in California, you probably can't imagine what that means.) One family during our stay had its fifth generation of children camping in the same spot; another family--four out of five siblings in their seventies--had been camping there since they were kids. People offered advice on where to hike in order to watch the most spectacular sunset and which hole to fish for the best chance of catching a twelve-inch trout (the latter didn't work). No one seemed to mind the absence of showers, and everyone found a reason to dip in the lake at least once over the course of each warm summer day. For some of the more seasoned Wrights Lake campers, canoeing and kayaking seemed like a way of life.

For us, the best part about being at the lake--besides the spectacular landscape--was sharing time with some of our favorite California people. It was good all around.

Much Tin-Tin was read by everyone.

Much swinging was had.

Kids whittled with knives and climbed lots and lots of boulders.

 

The lovely thing about sharing these kinds of places with like-minded people is that we never feel pressure to do--or make our children do--something that we don't feel like doing. There are the parents who take their kids camping and then proceed to drag them through long hikes just to prove that they are all outdoorsy people. And then there's us who, like our friends, believe in allowing children to enjoy the outdoors in whatever manner seems best suited to them, whether it be lounging in an inner tube for an hour while staring at the distant mountain, or hanging off a rock, enjoying one's reflection.

Given a reasonable choice, kids might even opt for a hike that ends up at a lake.

Hidden Beauty Lake (about 1 mile from the campground)

They'll also sometimes just goof around.

essential for happy camping? hitting the farmer's market--aka heaven on earth--right before we leave

Or they'll shoot arrows, 

make fire, 

write in a journal, 

chop wood, 

or (re)read an outdoor guide.

They might even just sunbathe.

 

And in their most inspired moments of connection to the outdoors, they'll do something truly cool, like try to fish.

can you spot Sava?

his casting now looks professional

This paean to camping on the shores of an alpine lake at 7000 feet above sea level would not be complete without a candid confession that we now officially have kayak envy. Our car can't possibly hold a kayak, in addition to a top box and a bike rack, but we're starting to think about how to acquire one eventually. At a place like Wrights Lake, having a boat of some kind is essential for fully experiencing the beauty of the place. 

yes, that's three kids six and under in charge of a kayak; alone

Rado & Sava off to an adventure

Our renewed resolution at the end of this wonderful trip? To camp more and to begin backpacking. 

Both kids are finally at an age when going off into the wilderness with minimum equipment makes good sense and could be truly fun. Sava has the soul of a backpacker already. Everything about him is primed to enjoy the beauty and solitude of the backcountry. 

Raya is eager to learn to enjoy what the rest of us already like.

Next on the list is buying them backpacks so that they can carry their own sleeping bags and such. The day when we drive to Wrights Lake in order to hike into Desolation Wilderness is not too far.

Happy summer.