T@Bcasa's first trip

Jimbo

I spent three days at Collins Lake California <collinslake.com>. This lake is 10 miles north of Marysville CA on State Hwy 20. I used to take my wife and kids on vacations here back in the 70's. Had not been back since then. It is now about double in developed campsite and developed area. This is a typical central California landscape in the foothills. California is still in a drought condition and this lake is no exception. Collins is down about 50 vertical feet. From my site it was about 100 yards to the water. If the lake were full my site would have been lake front. I won't go into a lot of detail since their website will give you photos and the information better than I can here. This is not an economical ground. My site with electric and water was $54/night. Fortunately they were offering 3 nights for the price of 2. I wanted electric and water hookups to check out the on board systems. Yeah I had already checked them out in the driveway but, well no other good excuse. 

Everything worked perfectly. Even the cheap and dirty door prop I came up with as a temporary solution to the hold the door open but not interfering with the Visor. Think it is not a "good enough" item. I discovered that when installing the Visor's fiberglass rod, that if you lay the rod parallel to the unit and start inserting the rod then as it goes in part way push the Visor up and in a vertical position instead of letting it extend outward as it would normally do the rod slides through the entry point fairly easy and does not ride against the plastic trim. Once it is fully in place and still in the vertical position, let it down to the normal extended out position. Then if you push the rod firmly into the reinforced pocket on the other end and pull the Visor material pocket firmly back to give slake in the fabric to insert the feed in end of the rod into it's pocket.  Hope this helps someone. I should have probably posted this in the right discussion, sorry.

Had a nice relaxing time and did some exploring of the campgrounds. OH..I knew I would forget one thing...Yep the BBQ sauce..but picked some up some at the really nice new camp store the next day. I fished a couple of hours each day but only caught one 12-lb bass,,Ok it may some day be 12 lbs but at this point it was about 2 lbs. The Ridgeline pulled the T@B easily. But in the foothill climbs the gas mileage is significantly impacted. "Well what did you expect Dummy"...Plenty of power to maintain the speed limit on hill climbs.

All of us out here in California certainly hope we get some rain this winter. We rarely get rain in the other seasons. Our lakes are getting very low or close to dry. The downside to rain aside form some flooding and mud slides etc. is forest fires from lighting strikes. 

Bottom line; looking forward to a return visit when the lake has more water. Nice facilities and a clean campground. Some sites are a bit close to each other but there is a "Open" area near the dam and a lot of sites with out hook up. Nice place to take the kids. Nice big sandy beach swimming area, volleyball court with sand, big playground for the kids. Selection of boat rentals form Kayaks to Pontoon boats. Good security and patrolled. Now I realize this is not the type of campground most on the forum desire, but it is a nice place but you pay for it to be that way.

Well thanks to Mike for sending me instructions of how to post pictures here are some pictures. The first 4 are of Collins and my rig. The last 3 are of Clear Lake where I live. The last one of the group is the view from my backyard of Mount Konocti. This is the large mountian in the two photos of the lake. There is a nice State park in the water so thought I would includes these also. Hope all this post correctly..

Michigan_Mike

Great shots Jim and thanks for sharing your travels as that's what makes these trailers so versatile and fun, having your own lakefront property wherever you set up shop!   That's a cool shot of the small community nestled down along the water and a spectacular shot of the sun on the lake!  Makes me want to head out this morning!  Beautiful location and brings back a lot of memories of all the beautiful spots I was able to enjoy on my journey up through California.  You're lucky to be so close to all of it.  

Wanderoo

Very nice, Jim, and thanks for posting up pictures.  I hope to visit campgrounds in California when I retire in a little over a year.  The nice sites always cost more!!!  Just like real estate . . . location, location, location.

SunnyTAB

WOWEE - that sunset pic is crazy! I only want to camp by the water. Just out in the woods doesn't really do much for me.

Jimbo

Thanks for the kind comments folks. I also prefer to camp on a lake or river or ocean since I prefer to have the option of to fish when camping. And it's just me now so just me to please. I will probably camp some of the Forest Service campgrounds in the Redwoods just for the beauty and tranquility. Will play it by ear and will enjoy it all. 

gilbutler

Jimbo, Thanks for your post. it looks like we are almost in sync.  We took our first trip about the same time, but to New Brighton State Beach, and for the same reason.  We fondly remember taking our kids there tent camping at about the same time.  It was a great trip. Like most California state campgrounds, hookups are limited (if any). We saw a  a section with hookups while walking through to the beautiful beach that actually allowed dogs.  When we saw another T@B, we checked it out and found it was 10 years old, in fantastic condition, and from our hometown of Folsom.We are meeting friends at Lake of the Springs this weekend.  That's about two miles east of Collins Lake and about the same price.  Although a bit on the pricey side, it looks promising. I'll post about it after our trip.  

Jimbo

Gilbutler,

I just saw your pictures posted of this trip, and I like your color scheme ( since essentially the same as mine). When I went to Collins I saw the sign for Lake of the Springs, but did not go check it out this trip. I am pretty sure I had gone there back in the late 80's with my motor home. We were Thousand Trail members back then and I think Lake of the Springs was or maybe still is a Thousand Trials campground. No longer a TT member, long story, but as I recall there was a nice small lake that they kept stocked. Looking forward to some pictures and a report about Lake of the Springs. I should have gone to check it out when I was at Collins. Do you happen to know if there is golf course close in this area? One of my son-in-laws is not a fisherman but is a golfer. He may want to go play a few rounds if we (the kids that is) decide to make one of these our destination. I told my kids to pick the place they would want to go. 

I am getting the idea that California camping prices might be a bit more in general than other states now days. Sounds in line with just about everything else one pays for in California. I have been in California for about 49 years now so have learned to expect it. I intend to go to Blue Lakes, at Pine Acres campground as soon as I complete jury duty. Hopefully in a week or two. This is only about 15 miles form my place. If you have traveled Hwy 20 between Clear Lake and Ukiah you would have driven along the north shore. Beautiful little lake with stocked trout and resident bass and crappie.Blue Lakes and Pine Acres campground is quite small due it all being in a steep canyon. Their camping fees are almost the same as Collins. But I want to cook some fresh trout on a camping trip and this is so close. 

Keep us posted and hope you guys are happy with your T@B,.