Butt Lake Trip

No. The title of this post is not a joke.

When I was growing up, my family would spend a week every summer camping at Butt Lake. 

Talking about camping at that lake was pretty much the only time we were allowed to say "butt" in our family so it's surprising that we continued to camp there. Lol.

Well this year in September, I mentioned to my mom that I missed picking blackberries in the summer and that John and I would love to go again. 

Her response? Come up next weekend!

With it being a three day weekend, we thought, "why not?!"

And so, after about a 5 year leave, I was finally going back to Butt Lake.

We ended up driving on Friday and got in around 1 am on Saturday morning. Then, Saturday was full of chilling at the lake, canoeing, swimming, and lounging around the campfire. 

Sunday was more of the same, with berry picking in the afternoon. 

My dad was worried it would be too hot and smokey on Monday (plus, for the first time ever at that campsite, we had pretty bad camping neighbors), so we headed back to my parent's house on Sunday.

As it turns out, it was much smokier at my parent's house, but with the wildfire spread and COVID, Butt Lake was going to be closed a few days later anyway. 

On Monday, we swam in my parent's pool and made blackberry jam! It was our first time making it and it turned out pretty good! I was worried it would be too sour, but John wanted it to be a little tart. It ended up being just right.

Tuesday was more of the same, except that it was too smokey to swim. My dad and John sat outside talking for a little while and after about ten minutes, they were covered in ash and had to come in. Large pieces of ash were falling all over their yard. Some were still together enough you could see it was a piece of a pine needle. 

Thankfully, my parent's house is far enough away from the fires that they probably won't have to evacuate, but it was still surprising to see ash falling in their yard!

Wednesday, we drove home. Only an hour away and the air was clearer and the skies were turning blue again. Hopefully, things will clear up for California again soon. The sky was literally an orange-grey all day. And I used to think the air quality in Utah was bad! 

Now, we're home again, and waiting for the next chance to camp at Butt Lake. At least we have some homemade blackberry jam to help us wait this time.