I have a camping trip in July 31st weekend. The lake looks nice and the campground looks nice, but I have not heard much about it. Anyone have any insight to the lake?

ride as early as you can.

its a pretty open lake not many coves. Like crash said ride early or you will be in soup city.

Bring a gun for the campground... LOL!!! <BR> <BR>Kidding, but seriously... I've seen some rough crowds roll through there on the weekends. The rangers have implemented some strict policies to combat this. Obey their rules and you'll be OK. If you're noisy at night they'll be all over you. Also, careful with the curfew if you leave camp. They'll lock it down and you wont be able to get back in before morning. <BR> <BR>FWIW... I've had a lot of great times at that lake. These are just some observations I've made. Definitely be ready to ride early morning. It can get rough during the day.

You should hit HOGAN instead

Yep, stay on the same hwy for another 30-45 mins and hit Hogans. Better everything.

Haha Evan. I read this and thought of that crazy ass weekend several years back. Nice place but wouldn't call it a primo wakeboard lake.

<img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65919/713221.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>NICE!

Is it true that Hogan is a "dry" lake now. No drinking outside the campgrounds on the water? <BR> <BR>Mike.... Ha, ha, ha. The time your boat was stuck in reverse. That was awesome. <BR> <BR>(Message edited by guido on July 06, 2009)

My friends were at camanche this weekend. They had a very large crew, about 20 campsites, so I'm sure they had extra attention on them. One guy was arrested for bein drunk. When he was released the next morning they were evicted. They were also told to turn the music off on the boat at about 2PM cuz they were being too loud. Its a great family camp trip lake or low key partying but don't get too loud

When asked what's the worst boating experience I've had....I have to play the card for the one and only time I've been to Camanche. The lake itself played a small part in it. I recall the lake being a big round, open and windy place with very few coves. <BR> <BR>The bad experience part was being "caught" in an impromptu rap band event. We later found out the group was reportedly supposed to be at the lake, but not for any scheduled / planned event. <BR> <BR>We thought we would take out our relatively new boat for a family day. Kids at the time were roughly 4 &amp; 7. The place was calm and empty when we arrived in the morning. Later in the day, while hanging out in one of the few coves, the police helicopterS buzzing low caught our interest. We pulled anchor and headed out of the cove. Looking towards the Marina would could hear and see some chaos.....time to go. <BR> <BR>When we got to the ramp, there were about 10 cops on horses in full riot gear keeping a mob of several hundred "fans" off the ramp. More cops in gear on the dock and around the marina. We pull up (blonde wife, small kids) to a cop on the dock. He takes one look at us with the "WTF are you doing here look" and says, you folks should get outta here. Our rig is on the other side of the mob, so I ask the cop if we could get an escort. <BR> <BR>Back to the point of the new boat....the wife does not do the boat around the dock, let alone the trailer. However, she can back the trailer through the eye of a needle (or through a mob of people it turns out). We talk, she opts for the quickest way to get out....she backs the trailer. She gets the (4) cop escort to the truck. <BR> <BR>The cop on the ramp gives me his name. badge # and says to keep the rig rolling right out of the park and out onto the highway....with myself and the kids still in the boat. He said if any other cops stop us, just tell them I said to do it and give them my badge #. <BR> <BR>Wife breaks through the crowd at ramming speed with everybody in the crowd yelling and us, and I'm motoring to where the trailer needs to be. I'm on the trailer as it's still moving into the water, land it, strap the front, tell the kids to stay sitting down and hold on, tell the wife go, and we were out of there. <BR> <BR>Near the park exit a cop tells us to stop. Wife has window up and foot down. As we're going by, I yell to the guy the cop on the ramp suggested we get clear of the park before stopping. Cop nods and says keep going. About a mile down the highway we pull over, secure the boat, and get the kids back in the car. <BR> <BR>After that I tore the "Camanche Lake" page from the "Lakes of California" book.

Steve, That is one of the funniest (yet disturbing) posts I've read. I hope it we'll be OK for us, but I have about 6 cops with attitudes going. Everything you guys have said is this place is ghetto!

Ha ha great story Steve! <BR>I have that "Lakes of California" book, and throughout the 80's and 90's we trekked all over Cali visiting dozens of different lakes. Never did try Comanche because it looked to open without coves or arms, ...sounds like I made the right choice <img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/lol.gif" border=0>

Hey does anyone remember the story on here a few years ago where a family woke to the sound of someone running through their boat stealing stuff? The wife apparently held the theifs at gun point until the cops showed up. I want to say that was at Don Pedro or something. <BR> <BR>Anyways....crazy story. Cammanche is ghet-tow!

Besides that this lake is usually worthless most of the day, the Full hookup section at South shore is definitely not ghetto. The make sure if a motorhome is in the spot, it is actually hooked up. I just spent the weekend there with the group Callen was talking about and can say they are very strict in this section and wont hesitate to kick you out. <BR> <BR>I've also stayed in north shore in the motorhome spots and it wasn't that bad, but not as nice as the south shore.

We live about an hour from Camanche and went camping there for the weekend with some friends and our boat...campgrounds can be pretty rough especially on weekends. We got stuck with a site smack in the middle of a huge group and suffered the whole weekend. Also the facilities are not very well maintained...by saturday night the bathrooms were practially unusable. <BR>The lake itself is really windy most of the day so get out early...and the lake is currently only at about 30% of capacity...When we went we had fun but there are so many other lakes in the area that imo are better I don't think we would go back....I agree Hogan is a good choice...if you are flexible and want to venture farther toward Tuolumne/Calaveras county New Melones is huge, deep, has very clean campgrounds , and the water up river toward the bridges is nicely sheltered and useable all day. This is our lake of choice and have never had problems....

NAW MELONES is pretty bad TOO lots of trash <img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/proud.gif" border=0>