On Tuesday, July 18th Donna and I went to Dam Site Campground on Greers Ferry lake for a few days with the Matt, Sarah and the girls. We initially had reservations for three days in campsites H16 and H17 (one for Matt and one for our trailer). Upon arrival we were warned by the gate attendant of how close the area was but I was sure that we would fit in a 40' site. What we found was that Loop H road to the site was a twisting narrow one lane and the site was tight in the trees. We did like the site so we squeezed the trailer around the trees and got is situated just how we wanted. That's when I realized that we had not filled our fresh water tank. After debating making 10 trips to the water hydrant with the 5 gallon jerrycan to fill the fresh water holding tank we decided to pull out and and take the trailer around to a hydrant. That's where the trouble started. We found a water hydrant at the first bath house outside Loop H. I pulled the trailer into the parking lot across the parking spots parallel to the road. Looking for the hydrant I hadn't noticed that the edge of the asphalt dropped off at a culvert and into the ditch the front left tire of the truck went. We were high centered on the running board with the front left tire in the air and 4 tons of trailer behind. Luckily I was going really slow and felt it when it went I rolled over the edge. A good Samaritan from the camp across the street came over to help me with the situation. He and I got my 2x6 leveling ramps and placed them under the front tire. I put the GMC in granny low and she pulled right out no worse for the wear. However, I couldn't say the same for Donna and we didn't return to campsite H17. After filling the fresh water tank at a different hydrant we drove back to the gate attendant and changed to the more suitable loop N sites N18 and N19. These sites had no view of the lake, but they we simple to park and had water hookups (didn't need fresh water!).
The weather was hot so we planned some cool outings for the trip. On Wednesday we drove to Blanchard Springs Caverns. We had all been to the caverns in years past but never taken the Discovery Trail cave tour. This is the longer tour at about 1.2 miles with about 750 stair steps. At 58 degrees inside the cave it was a great choose for a 95 degree day.
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| Soda Straw Room on the Discovery Trail Tour |
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| Group Camping Area at Blanchard Springs Campground |
Thursday it was time for another cool activity. We rented a party barge from the Dam Site Marina. This was such a hit last summer at Shiloh Campground we just could pass it up ...and renting someone else's boat is always better than owning a boat.
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| Captain Ron |
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| Captain Ron's First Mate |
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| The Crew |
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| The Crew |
We found someones lost anchor rope and tied up for a swim / float.
The highlight of party barge day was tubing. Addie was the champion able to hang on with all I threw at her.
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| Zoey Ready for a Pull |
For some reason we didn't get any pictures of the campsite(s). Maybe it was just the trauma associated with getting setup that we didn't want to remember; or, maybe it was just too hot to take pictures.
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| H17 - The site we abandoned (Recreation.gov Website photo) |
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| N18 - Our Final Site (Recreation.gov Website photo - Not our trailer) |
We had a great time but I think maybe we are just ready for some Fall camping!
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