Camping in Coloma - July 29 - July 1, 2001

I got up very early on Friday, June 29, and departed my house before the sun even decided to think about coming up. The plan was to get to my Aunt's house at or about 8 am. I thought, sure, no problem, no one will be up that early. Wrong! Friday morning at 6:30 there is quite a bit of traffic on the I-10, I-210, California 134, and US 101 highways. Judging by my Aunt's reaction, I arrived exactly at 8 am.

Caleb had a last minute work emergency to take care of and then we left. A long 8-9 hours later, we arrived at the camp grounds outside of Coloma. Coloma is on California State Highway 49 in the heart of the Gold Rush Country. Coloma is also about one hour or so east of Sacramento. Very warm place, Coloma, particularly that time of year.

It was still light when we arrived, and Shayne, Ana, Nalani, and Malia weren't there yet. However, a large group of YMCA kids were there. They'd been there for a few days in the hopes of going rafting but the water level wasn't high enough so they weren't able to do so. They left early Saturday morning.

Soon after Aunt Marion, Caleb, and I arrived and began setting up camp, Shayne, Ana, and the girls arrived. They had spent the previous night at either Kings Canyon or Sequoia National Park, I forget which, and drove up to Coloma from there.

Going back to the setting up of camp for a minute. I was very impressed with my Aunt. I had borrowed a tent from my mother and had not practiced putting it up beforehand. (I don't camp normally so I had no idea how to put the thing up.) However, my Aunt knew exactly what to do. While I was reading the instructions, she had all the rods together and inserted in the correct places and pretty much had the whole thing up in no time.

The girls, Nalani and Malia, ran off immediately to explore the river while the rest of us "old" folks finished setting everything up. We had dinner at a pizza place across from the campground. Not great, not horrible. We ate outside so that the girls wouldn't watch TV. They were not happy about that at all. However, that was just too bad! There's no television while one is camping! But they were somewhat appeased with the S'mores we made later. And good S'mores they were, too!

The next day, we got up and were fed breakfast by our hosts, River Runners. River Runners is one of many rafting companies that operates on the American River. Our particular trip was to be a two-day affair. The first day, we would depart from the campground and head down the river, stopping for lunch along the way. A bus would then bring us back to the campground for dinner and a slideshow. The second day we would go on a bus to the top, or head, of the river and raft back down to the campsite. All meals on Day 1, and breakfast and lunch on Day 2 were included and were cooked by our guides. And those meals were good!

So, we got up, ate, got all ready for our big adventure, even had the orientation, and had to wait. Why? Because the water level of the American River is controlled further upstream at a dam. Don't know the name of the dam, but the authorities for said dam must release water from the dam in order for the water level to be high enough. Otherwise, you can't raft. Well, I guess you could but you'd get stuck on a lot of rocks.

So we waited. Some people played ping pong (not the YMCA kids because they'd already left), some talked, some ate some more food.It was getting kind of hot, so I just sat around. (I later learned that the temperature in the Coloma area got up over 100° that day.) But finally, lo and behold, the water level was high enough to raft. So everyone got their life jackets and paddles and rafts, and carried them over to the river. And we were off. There are actual pictures of us rafting and doing things with the raft on the Rafting page, so I won't go into all of that here.

After 7 hours, rafting for Day 1 finished up and we were bused back to the campground for relaxation, dinner, and the previously mentioned slide show.Dinner was great - steak and/or chicken, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, etc. Again, the guides cooked, and what a fine job they did. We had to wait until dark for the slideshow, so after dinner we sat around our campsite, or panned for gold or fished .

The slideshow was hilarious. At one point in our trip was a place called Satan's Cesspool. And at this point there were professional photographers. A lot of people apparently fall into the water at this point (or look funny trying not to). Not our raft - we were pretty boring by comparison. One of those pictures of us at Satan's Cesspool is on the Rafting page.

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