Upper Priest Weekend

With the camper packed Linda, Baka and I set our sights for the Priest Lake area. We had heard form a park ranger that the campground at Reeder Bay was open so we thought we would high tail it up that direction and stake out a spot for the weekend. We took Highway 41 North to Newport and then hung a right and followed Highway 2 into Priest River. Priest Lake is a great spot but we seldom travel this way because of the Washington population that takes over the area in the summer. I guess we should be a little more forgiving of our neighbors, but it seems like we seldom see Idaho license plates when we drive up there.

When we arrived at the campground we were one of two campers in the area. By the end of the weekend our group grew to about four campsites, but they were spread through out the area and none of the groups bothered the others. Our site overlooked the lake and included a fire pit and picnic table.

Linda and I set up the camper and detached the Jeep. By the time everything was in place the sun had gone down. The week had taken its toll and we stayed awake just long enough to eat and settle in to the camper.

Next morning we loaded up and drove up to Beaver Creek Campground. The trail into the upper lake is one of our favorites. We hiked into Plowboy Camp and checked out Upper Priest.

On the way back we found some firewood. We used the new chainsaw to cut it up and that worked out great. I now have an idea how much wood is needed for a weekend fire pit.

The evening’s events focused around our meal. I made up a rice dinner and corn bread both were cooked in the dutch ovens. Everything turned out fantastic, which proved to be a big mistake because we ate until we were so full we couldn’t move.

After dinner we watched Jack Black in The School of Rock. Yes, I know we were camping, but it was dark and cold and well I had my laptop. What can I say. We stayed up until about 10 PM. If we didn’t watch the movie we probably would have went to bed by 8:30 PM. It was a funny movie but I would not highly recommend it to everyone.

We got up the next morning and I cooked breakfast. Linda started the campfire and we sat around while the sun burned the fog off the lake. We could not have asked for a better weekend.