Garden Valley Camping Trip

El Dorado County, Ca

By Nos Étapes

July 10^th, 2017

07.02.17

Just a few days before the 4th of July weekend, we found out Jared had Monday and Tuesday off (July 3rd and 4th), and we had to take advantage of it! Unfortunately, I had work on July 4th and July 2nd. We only had Sunday and Monday, so we decided to do a camping trip. Since it was just last minute, we didn’t reserve any public ones and it was the holiday weekend so first-come-first-serve would suck. We booked a private campground at Irish Creek Camping, a few minutes away from Placerville, Ca. My car also had tire issues that I noticed on Saturday, so we asked to borrow Jared’s parents car since he was already there that Saturday. Jared got back Sunday morning, we packed, and headed to the site. The drive was 2 hours, so not that bad. The only thing we needed to get was local firewood and something to cook with since we forgot our pan.

The property was beautiful and the host was really friendly. The instant we got there, two of his dogs came to greet us. He lead us to our site, and we got settled. We hike within his land and his dogs followed us the whole time lol. We set-up our tent just before it got dark, and then we realized we ran out of water! We bought beer and wine for the trip, but we drank all the water on the drive. The campfire was up and running so one of us had to stay. Again, we had no GPS! We relied on the map the host gave us. One of us was either the drive and the other was the map reader… I ended up going, since I felt more familiar with the place. I was racing the sunset! Without light, the roads would get very unrecognizable to me. I was on a mission, and (Itzhak Perlman) was playing. It was intense. I made it back just a bit after sunset, so there was a little light left in the sky. It worked out, and Jared had dinner ready. :)

It was super romantic, I think. *’-’* We brought our folding Chabudai (small table) and our picnic blanket. Right in front of our tent we placed the Chabudai on the blanket, and a dim lighting (mosquito lamp and phone light under a water bottle lol). With that setup, we had beer, hot links, and carnitas under the stars <3<3<3 When we were done, we took our blanket out into the field and listened to The Shins and Death Cab under the stars <3<3<3

07.03.17.

We made breakfast and headed out looking for swimming holes. We stopped by a cafe and asked the baristas about any. There were two around the area. We decided to check both. We saw the first one that was about a five minute drive. Then we drove about 20 minutes for the other. The barista that suggested it, mentioned that the lady of the property closed off her property to keep people from parking to get to the swimming hole. We somehow found parking, and got down to the swimming hole. We found a spot under a bridge that was exclusive and stayed there for a few hours. The swimming hole was technically a river. So it was kinda tough get our stuff across. I kept insisting in getting our stuff across so it’d be harder for it to be stolen. After we got that done, we explored downstream and found gold! It was a nice breather with my behbeh.