Lake Camanche- North Shore (2)

This was our second visit to Lake Camanche, though many other reservations here had been made, and cancelled, when fires made air quality too dangerous to come. We stayed in the same loop as before and I came away with the impression that this is the nicest section to be in, with respect to views and space.

We did get a chance to drive over to the other big campground out here – Lake Camanche South Shore. Boy, that is one big operation. So is the North Shore campground, so between the two of them, there must be over five hundred sites. In the South Shore campground, there is a loop with full hookups and that was where the people were this weekend. Our side was mostly deserted except a dozen or so campers who were all bunched up at the end of the loop. Just like we were.

There are boat launches, and marina stores, and tons of day use areas, with the South Shore having more amenities than the North. Fishing seemed to be the main activity, and there were a couple of nice little ponds, in addition to the very large reservoir. And there were tons of big beautiful birds all over the place.

I enjoyed the routes out and back, and have decided going over Kirker Pass from Clayton to Antioch is quite pleasant. It is steep for sure, but it avoids almost all highway driving. Heading up on Friday, we took a little detour along the Delta that proved to be a bit more narrow than we’d bargained for. Note to future Delta driving self: when given the choice to take either W Brannan Island Road vs W Twitchell Island Road, take the latter. I was a little worried we would hit a dead end with no way of turning around, but we made it through. The roads out there are in various stages of falling off the levees and into the water, so don’t expect a smooth ride anywhere around the Delta loop. On our way back, we stayed on Highway 160 and that was preferable.

Richard did a big loop around the lake, stopping at Clements Ridge Bakery for a tri tip sandwich and blackberry pie to go. He brought the pie back to share and that was awesome. Speaking of pie, now is the time in the blog where I talk about my personal health status. So if you are just here for the camping, you can tap out now.

Things have been going well and I have made some gains, which is to say, losses. That is primarily thanks to my nutrition tracking app and my innate personality type as a rule follower. Having been down this road several times before, I am aware that after the initial ‘hooray!’ things start to taper off with respect to the positive reinforcement of numbers on the scale. It is also when the adrenaline from whatever health scare kickstarted the process has started to wear off. This is Trouble Time. What is needed at that point, to continue the forward momentum, is a renewed foray into the land of exercise. So I spent a good deal of the weekend thinking about how that might look, especially during summer months in Dory.

I have experienced great success in the past using Kathy Smith videos. Like video tapes. I still have a whole library of ten to twenty year old tapes, but no VHS player. I did some Google searching, and it turns out she is still out there, doing her thing and kicking ass, but now she’s 70. I downloaded some of her ‘now we are old women’ themed series, and instantly loved it. I have spent hundreds of hours of my life listening to Kathy Smith telling me I can do it, I’m doing a good job, and there are only eight more reps to go. Like I had memorized every nuance of so many of her routines, knowing exactly when she was going to laugh, or screw up, or say “Whoo! Now let’s march it out!” I went through my first pregnancy with her pregnancy workout and she taught me about kegels. I seriously love this woman, like on a deep, deep level. If she is actually a terrible person in real life, I do not want anyone to ever tell me. But as soon as I heard her familiar voice again, I felt reassured. She will help me do this again.

And that brings up several logistical questions for Dory workouts. Sure, there will be some days I go out hiking, and that will be great. But there will also be a whole lot of days when I’ve spent the whole day driving. I’m looking for things I can do that further the fitness feeling without so much set up that I just go, ‘nah.’ The ‘nah’ bar is really low. I’ve already spent time obsessing about outdoor setups and there are just so many nah factors, I don’t see anything working in real life. It’s too cold. It’s too buggy. It’s raining. It rained last week. The anti cold, anti buggy, outdoor exercise tent I bought to solve these problems takes too much time to set up. I would use the anti cold, anti buggy, instant set up, outdoor exercise tent, but there are too many rocks on the ground and it will be uncomfortable…

So the most likely set up for success is to do what I can indoory in Dory. That limits the type of workout, but does not eliminate everything. Like I can totally do an upper body hand weights workout. And I can probably do one of her lower body leg strengthening workouts. And some stretching, with a few modifications to fit the space. And that’s not bad. What I need now is for my doctor to call and say I had some alarming test results on my upper arm strength and unless I’m careful, I might need to go on arm meds, which have side effects and I can’t drink coffee or wine anymore. I’d be all over that, adding blue hand weights to the shopping cart, with overnight shipping, yelling, “ON IT!!”

So that’s where I am. Just keep swimming. But add some hand weights.

Total miles: 88.0. 15.8 mpg, 3 hours 11 min. Site 121 no hookups, Blue Oaks Loop. Great LTE for me, not quite as good for Verizon. Good dump. Water spigots. Showers at bathroom (or so sign said).