COLLINS:
too.
“Collins Lake has become a refuge for families,” Jacob Young said. “Memorial Day Weekend is sold out and 4th of July weekend almost sold out.”
Planning ahead for camping is critical but they have plenty of day use activities to keep families busy.
“In January 2017, we open up for reservations through December 2018,” Jacob Young said. “People start planning a year and a half in advance for camping trips here – the phones ring all day and there’s a line out the door.”
Reno resident Randy Theel and his wife stopped for an overnight stay at the lake while returning home after a trip to Coos Bay, Ore.
“This is our first time here; we stumbled across it coming home,” Theel said. “What an atmosphere. And the people here are great.”
Fish on Oakland resident Bill Baldwin is the chef for a fishing tournament where more than 300 people in the swimming pool industry come for a weekend of family, fishing and fun.
“We started doing this with about 40 guys and now we have 318 people,” Baldwin said. “It’s very fun and good for camaraderie for us in the industry to hang out and our families come with us.”
For more than a decade, the group, which is comprised of pool builders, electricians, a solar specialist and more, have made Collins Lake their refuge for a weekend.
“For us, we enjoy the getaway, the cooking and the social aspect,” Baldwin said. “Even though it’s raining, people come out for the fun and the fishing.”
About 50,000 fish are added to Collins Lake each year through the fish they raise on-site and ones that are trucked to the lake and planted.
“We have the largest private plant operation in Northern California, north of Sacramento,” Young said. “We mainly plant trout and have bass, crappie, blue gill and catfish.”
That will help in the coming months because there are three fishing tournaments scheduled for April and one more, benefiting Collins Lake and Young Life, in early May.
“Fishing, camping and ice cream – those are the main reasons people come to the lake,” Young said. “People come from all over the North State for the fishing, and camping is a big thing for a lot of people with the water activity, and it doesn’t matter if is 20 degrees or 120 degrees, they’ll come and get ice cream.”
Kids time Young said there are a host of children’s activates in the peak season.
“Saturday nights, there’s live music on the back deck with local bands,” he said. “Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, during main season, there’s a familyfriendly movie on the main beach, where we set up a theater, and people take their blankets and chairs and watch the good old classics. There are stars above while you’re watching a movie with a lake in the background.”
He said there’s canvas painting, on the deck and playground areas and a roped off swimming area for children.
Day trip or longer According to Young, most guests stay for the weekend or a week but there is a small group who stay for up to a month.
About half of the more than 300 campsites have hookups for trailers and RVs and the others are intended for camping out of the car or truck.
“Expanding campgrounds in the future is something we’re looking at,” Young said. “Back in the ’60s and ’70s, the biggest trailers were about 20 feet long and now you looking at 40-foot trailers and they want more power – the whole camping industry has evolved.”
He said campground expansion is complicated due to the rolling hills where the lake is situated but they’re growing in other ways.
Young said they have an annual meeting to discuss improvements to the organization and its operation.
“We’re working on an outdoor exercise area for people who want to do CrossFit,” Young said. “So when people are here, they can keep up with their exercise routine.”
A two-mile hiking trail on the lake’s north shore is nearing completion and Young said they would ultimately like to make the trail circumnavigate the lake.
“We want to build a swimming dock – it’s a good way to get out to the swimming area and will have a slide,” Young said.
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