At the beginning of June I started looking at our summer schedule. I didn't think we would necessarily have a weekend open to get away...but then I noticed that we did! One single weekend for the entire summer (insert sad face). Justin was originally scheduled to work that Saturday so I begged him to swap with someone else for a different Saturday, which he did, and I planned a little getaway.
Justin has really been wanting to get out and do a paddleboarding day trip where you stay on your board all day, eat lunch on your board, and explore. So that's the one criteria we had for the weekend. I researched and decided to go north to Eden, Utah where we could explore either Pineview or Causey Reservoirs. Instead of camping with our trailer (that was a little worse for wear after the long winter), I booked a condo. We left Thursday night after Molly and Justin both got home from work and got to our condo around 8:45. We went to the front door, put in the code, walked in, and noticed that it was definitely already occupied. Back to the car. I texted the owners/managers to let them know what was going on and they quickly found us an unoccupied condo...a definite upgrade from the very basic condo that I had booked. This was brand new, three floors, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and...a hot tub. The kids were super excited and, I had to admit, so was I! This was definitely my kind of camping! They wasted no time trying out the hot tub. Brynn and Ivy took the triple bunk bed in the basement, Molly and and Stockton each got their own rooms (Stockton had a king-sized bed!) and Justin and I got the master suite.
We took our time in the morning and were lazy. We had egg mcmuffins for breakfast and then got ready and headed to Causey Reservoir. Justin had read about this lake and decided it was exactly what he had in mind for the day. Causey was beautiful with mountains rising all around. There was no shore so we stayed on our boards the entire day. The layout was not one big lake but lots of little fingers that we could explore. Some parts almost felt like we were on a river, without the current.
We lucked out with weather. Up until that day, we had had a lot of rain and more spring-like temps instead of summer weather. We were happy that there was no rain in the forecast and the temperature hovered around 70 degrees-a little cooler than I would have preferred but we didn't get too cold. The water temperature was super cold so no one got in to play. That would have been fun but it wasn't hot enough outside to justify getting entirely wet.
We swapped around riding with each other. The only combination that didn't work was Justin and Stockton because it made the paddleboard a little too heavy. We packed a lunch in a cooler and took a break to eat-I got yummy bagels from The Bagel Den in Heber and we had cream cheese, salami or turkey, sugar snap peas, string cheese, yogurt drinks, chips, mini cans of Sprite, and some treats. It tasted yummy out there on the water. We had a good laugh at Justin though who wanted to eat lunch on the lake so bad and then had a hard time sitting comfortably on his board and ended up in a layout-type pose toward the end of lunch.
We got out at one spot to explore the bank and river but it didn't lead us very far. We had heard that there was a spot for cliff-jumping but didn't see anyone doing that until the very end of the day. We had been on the water for several hours and were going to start heading back to shore and our car when we saw someone jump. The water temperature did not stop Justin and Molly from trying it. It was shockingly cold but they both said once the got back on the board and started paddling some more, they were okay. They were both glad they did it.
We made it back to the car and got the boards loaded on top and drove back the condo. Everyone got right into the hot tub...it was an impressive view at that time of the day! I had made tin foil dinners before we left home and I baked them in the oven for dinner. After dinner we took a drive over the Ogden Divide and found an ice cream shop and had our treat for the night. We drove back over the divide, watched a movie, and went to bed. I think there might have been more hot-tubbing that night as well. It felt wonderful to take a hot shower and sleep in a comfy bed.
In the morning we packed up and then decided to go look for a hike. We drove up above Powder Mountain ski resort to one of the trails called "Woody's World." It was chilly on top! But provided some really great views...at one point I could look out and see the Eden/Huntsville valley, the Ogden Valley, and then all the way out to the Great Salt Lake. The trail was okay, about halfway down the bugs got really bad and we decided to turn around. There was a super short trail that connected and led to a paper airplane metal structure. The kids and Justin had a super time climbing around the airplane and we played there for a while before heading back to the car and driving home.
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