Each summer starting in 2017, I’ve spent time with a dear friend at her Hume Lake cabin. Most years we gather in June, last year in July, and this year in August. It was HOT, REALLY HOT, so we didn’t rent any watercraft or walk around the lake. Mostly we just hung out in and around the cabin.

We strolled along the lake, hoping to find a place to wade in. However, the level was lower than usual, and wading meant mushing through mud, so we passed on that option.

The Rest of a Story

If you live in the Central Valley, you may have heard that a Hume Lake cabin burned in a storm last February. It was one of the boys dorm-like cabins, which caught fire when a tree fell on some wires. It has been temporarily replaced with a couple of huge tents, WITH A/C IN THEM!! Camp has certainly changed since I was a happy camper. (We only viewed the tents from a distance.)

I got up one morning and followed the road to the bridge over Ten-Mile Creek, the main feeder into the lake. The lake is so still in the morning.

There are Forest Service cabins along that stretch, and of course I speculated about knocking on doors and leaving notes with a business card and price list on each one. Maybe next year. . . but prolly not.

I was very heartened to see that the Forest Service is doing a lot of mechanical thinning. Forest management is the way to stop many of those devastating wildfires.

In case you were wondering where some of the things are, or how far away, this sign might be helpful. This is the way I usually leave Hume rather than driving through Grant Grove and past Wilsonia. Then I drive the Generals Highway through Sequoia, straight home without having to drop down into the valley.

This is looking up Ten Mile Creek from the driving bridge.

Ten Mile Creek, as viewed from the footbridge on the trail, which is downstream from the road.

This is the view I used in my 2026 calendar for June. It looks different this year.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, my friends were fixing to take a walk later that morning, hopefully before it got too hot. Nothing too strenuous, just exploring a bit through the cabins. These things caught my attention.

It was too hot to go to the Little Brown Church. We briefly considered it, but none of us were wearing proper shoes for that much steepness. Here is one other post about it.

We went to The Tree House, something I’ve heard about for years but never seen. WOW!! This is in Wagon Train, which is the little kids’ camp. The big groups are finished for the summer now that school starts so early for most students, so we were free to poke around.

It is made partially from old barrels, so the sides are convex and things are purposely curved. It is reached by a very slick suspension bridge and has many levels. It is utterly charming, kind of Disneyesque.

Then of course we meandered through the wagons, and I was astonished to see how many have been added since we last had the opportunity to go exploring. It was in 2020 when the camps weren’t operating.

We did a little bushwacking, a bit of crosscountry meandering and ended up at another suspension bridge, this one leading to a fort on an island in a very sluggish green muddy stream.

There was a lot of time just lollygagging around the cabin, catching up with one another, knitting, and talking talking talking talking talking…. I love these friends, the cabin owner’s cousins, a certain neighbor, the whole thing.

Let’s wrap it up with some lake shots, and then I’ll shut up about Hume Lake for another year.