Opening camp…

This weekend we wimped out and didn’t go to camp since it was not slated to be a very good weekend but last weekend the road to our camp finally opened. To get to camp we must travel on almost thirty miles of dirt road. For anyone familiar with our area, we travel the County RD out of Old Town and then the Stud Mill RD to get to our camp. The roads were in excellent condition since no one could travel on them for most of the month of April, when the frost was coming out of the ground. Often time, we traverse over rutted and washed out area’s in the spring.
Click on any photo’s to enlarge …

We look forward to opening camp each year even though it means a lot of work. We didn’t do much playing in the three days that we were there but we got the stuff done that will make us more comfortable during our future stays.

First, we got the water in, both to the shower and to the hand pump in the kitchen. The shower room, which is a separate building, took some heavy duty cleaning. A few squirrels decided to move in during the winter. They also decided that they would be warmer if they dragged in a TON of leaves so you can imagine the mess we found when we opened the door. The water heater fights us each year but after much ado, we were able to light it. Now I was a really happy camper!!! Once that shower is running, life at camp is good. Ok, it is always good but the shower makes it just that much better.

Next, we picked up the larger pieces of branches that had fallen off from the fierce winter winds that blow across the lake. Last year was a banner year for pine cones and we will probably be picking them up for most of the summer.

We keep our dock in the water each winter but we must move it across the cove where it is somewhat sheltered. In the spring, Steve paddles over in the kayak with a bunch of ropes that are tied together. He attaches the rope to it  and I pull it pack into place on our side. Once that is done we usually have to put our boat lift in the water. It is metal and weighs a lot. We fought with it for quite a few years and since we are getting older, we decided to leave it in the water last winter. Low and behold, it made it. It was moved around a bit from the ice but came through in all-in-all good condition. The hard part was talking Steve into putting on a wet suit and getting into the water to turn it so that it was in the proper place beside the dock. He put it off until Monday but once he got in the water, it didn’t take too long at all to get it placed where it needed to be.

Finally, it was time to clean the boat and take it to the water. It is such a good feeling to know that we don’t have to do this each time we arrive at camp.

We sat out on the deck on our last evening and we were able to enjoy this glorious sunset. All our hard work was forgotten!!