We picked Robert up from school at 3:30 and hit the road:
Strawberry takes place at Camp Mather. Owned by San Francisco Parks & Recreation, Camp Mather is nestled deep in the Stanislaus National Forest, just beyond the Western edge of Yosemite National Park.
We figured it would take around 4 to 4.5 hours to get there from SF, although Google maps optimistically provided a travel time of 3.5 hours. It took us an hour to get to the bay bridge from Robert's school, and another hour to get through Oakland. By then it was time to feed Emi and eat some dinner. After dinner we got back on the road and attempted to high-tail it to camp, but when it was all said and done, we pulled up at the gate just before 10:00 pm.
The grounds are a mixed forest of pine, fir, sequoia, and oak, and there was no moon so it was quite dark. It seemed there were cars, RVs, and tents on every square inch of ground that wasn't marked as road. We got our wristbands from the gate attendant and asked about a "family camp" area. They kind of looked at us blankly and said "it's all family camp... just try and steer clear of areas with lights and folks pickin' if you want some quiet", which I did not find to be particularly helpful advice at the time.
The evening's entertainment had just ended, so we drove away slowly, along a dark dusty track dodging the folks who were leaving the main stage and heading back to their already-established camps. As it's a campground, the paths are winding and although we were given a map, we were soon a bit disoriented. My intention was to get toward the back of the campground because I figured it might be quieter, and I figured we might stand a better chance of finding a place to pitch our tent.
Most of the campground is taken up by people camping next to their vehicles, but eventually we found a spot at the back with walk-in camping where cars were parked in several rows, between 4 and 5 cars deep. There was just enough room for us to parallel park at the front, blocking two rows of cars. I was beyond caring whether this was OK, and decided that since we fit, we were going to take it. With the car parked, I took a short scouting trip and found an open, nearly-flat area between two other camps.
Robert and Emi snoozed in the car while Sarah and I set up camp. We were a bit envious of the REI Hobitat 6 tent that our friends Gerry and Cammy had at Hornings this year, so we purchased one for ourselves this summer; Strawberry was its inaugural run. I suppose that when you spend the money to buy a nice tent, what you're really paying for (aside from the ability to stand completely upright, even if you're 6'5"!) is the ability to pitch it quickly and without marital discord in the dark, even in the if you've never had it out of the bag before.
In the end, we got all of our gear stowed away and the beds made up, grabbed the kids, and we all settled right down for the night. It was pleasantly cool, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable.
Here is what we woke up to:
Yeah!
What you can't see in this picture is that there's a "No camping beyond this point" sign staked just to the left of Robert's play tent. We definitely found the back of camp... and yes, that is a plastic bag in the middle of the meadow. It got away from us just long enough to make a cameo appearance in this shot. *sigh*
Soon after taking this shot, we met some of our neighbors. Turns out we'd set up next to a group of 3 families that have been camping at Strawberry together for years. There were kids in the group ranging in age from 7 to 12, and Robert wasted no time in including himself in the mix.
We spent the morning at camp, taking in our surroundings and visiting with our neighbors about the festival: what to do, what to expect, social mores, etc. The Strawberry website suggests bringing musical instruments along to use at informal jam sessions throughout the camp, but I didn't realize that pretty much everyone would be participating. Through the camp I saw (and heard) folks with guitars, ukes, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, drums, lap guitars, stand-up basses (hauling a stand-up bass into the woods is extreme dedication!) and you could hear music being played throughout the campground all day and through most of the night, though at night, at least near our camp, it was quiet enough that it didn't interfere with our sleep. We'd brought earplugs just in case, but never needed to use them.
We did have a few close encounters with nature, including this little guy who we found on top of Robert's play-tent one morning:
Once we established our place, the whole Strawberry experience was just about perfect. We enjoyed lazy mornings at camp making breakfast, drinking coffee, and eventually meandering down to the main stage area
to claim a spot for the evening's entertainment. On Friday morning, there were free sign-ups for kid's fiddle lessons. Robert was quite enamored with this, so we signed him up. He was fairly broken up that he had to wait until the next day to get his lesson; all he could talk about for the next hour were violins! One lesson was enough for him though -- after 15 minutes or so he was past it and said that playing the violin was hard. We'll see if he comes around; I'd love to have a little fiddle player in the house.
Anyhow, after signing him up for the lesson we headed over to Birch Lake
to pass the heat of the day with some wading/swimming, and a whole lot of playing on the beach. There were a number of folk and kid-oriented acts playing at the Birch Lake Stage to keep us entertained throughout the day, and a variety of age-appropriate arts and craft projects for toddlers right up through teens. And there were a lot of kids! When the fellow at the gate told me the whole place was family camp, I guess I ought to have taken him at his word.
The entire campground and venue were consistently clean and organized. So organized in fact, that if you'd happened to have grabbed a bottle of beer for the walk to the venue, but hadn't quite managed to finish it by the time you'd arrived, the fellow at the gate checking wristbands would hand you a cup to pour your beer into since glass isn't allowed at the main stage. How's that for accommodating?
The porta-potties were regularly maintained, there was no unauthorized vending, and no hordes of scruffy tour kids. There were large bands of roving teenagers, but they all appeared to be attending the event with their parents, and as such were not getting up to too much mischief.
This festival was exactly what I had hoped it to be; I can't wait to head back next year! We spoke to a number of folks who said that the Spring festival (held over Memorial day weekend) is also great, but that the weather is less predictable. Camp Mather is at over 4500 feet elevation, so the Spring festival can be quite cold. Apparently last year's Spring festival featured four days of non-stop monsoon rain, and this year's Spring festival began with 6 inches of wet overnight snow that collapsed tents and canopies, and only partially melted over the rest of the festival, so we'll probably be giving the spring festival a miss, at least until our kiddos are a bit older:
