Camping at Dogwood in Lake Arrowhead
Quote of the weekend: “This is madness.” by Cindy while siting around the campfire at night.
Flickr Photoset, Emmanuel’s Flickr Photoset
Friday started out kinda sketchy. At home, it was overcast with intermittent thunderstorms in the forecast. By the time we got to the base of the mountains it was raining hard. When we got above 5,000 feet we had 10 feet visibility with the rain, hail and snow taking turns. There was no way we were going to attempt setting up camp in this weather. The thermostat only reached 44 degrees on the last day as we were leaving. Most of the time it was in the mid 30’s.
We stopped into town to decide what to do. Emmanuel found a bed and breakfast that had a two bedroom suite, which worked out really well for us.
Others of our group arrived at the campsite a couple hours after us and came to the same conclusion. They found a 3 bedroom cottage less than half a mile away from our place. We ended up keeping this cottage for the remainder of the trip, and as each night progressed, more people stayed here.
Saturday morning – the kids were amazed at the snow. A few of us went to scout out the campsite. It had stopped snowing, but was still very foggy, cold, and wet. We decided to go for it.
We pitched our tents, and half the group decided to stay at the campsite. The rest would stay at the cottage. Our kids stayed at the cottage to play with all the other kids, and Cindy and I spent the night in the tent. Cindy froze.
None of us were fully prepared for snow. Most of the kid’s feet were freezing in their sneakers. Saturday night twelve of us camped. Sunday night only four of us did – Stephen, Kelly, Jon and myself.
On Sunday – we all met at the cottage and spent the day in the cottage and in the Village. Lake Arrowhead must be at a little lower elevation, because it was only partly cloudy and windy. We went into the village and walked around during the day. It’d be a great place to vacation in the spring/summer.
Since we brought up our mountain bikes, we had to ride. Emmanuel went to Unified Ride Shop, which was a 100 yards from our cottage, and they set us up with maps and directions. The trails were OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) trails. We rode the motorcycle single track which was quite a bit of fun and had the added thrill of possibly being run down by a flying motorcycle. I was exhausted from the cold from the campsite, so barely survived.
All in all, we had alot of fun. The kids had a blast playing with everyone. We had an adventure. And I’m still thawing out two days later.
Yes, it was quite the adventure. On the drive back home, Elise looked confused and asked us, “Where are we going? I thought we are going camping?!”
[...] This was the first camping trip that we had gone on as a family since Elise was born. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very cooperative, dumping snow, hail and rain the day we arrived. We were able to find a cabin to stay in for the first night. Here’s Elijah’s take on it. [...]