Tips, Tricks & Recommendations

Sharing the cabin can be challenging, given the users' varied interests and expectations.  To help cabin visits be easier, safer and less confusing, let's all contribute to this list of tips, tricks & ideas.  Many issues are those we've learned the hard way!

• Occupancy Limit - 8 including dogs & children, there is only bedding for six
• Dogs must be under control at all times - clean & vacuum thoroughly if you bring a dog
• Recommend you keep a front door key in your pocket at all times so you don't lock yourself out
• Don't use wood cookstove or fireplace when fire danger is high - check with USFS
• Bedding:  Upon arrival, visitors make beds with clean sheets using their own or sheets from the Hume bag or storage bins. At departure, remove sheets & pillowcases & take them with you to launder but please replace bedspreads on beds and pillows into shams for dust protection.  You may wish to bring your own sheets & towels.  
• To avoid attracting Bears & other vermin:
  • Don't leave any food between visits - (check for spilled dogfood)
  • Clean all spills from floor, cooler, refrigerator, microwave, oven & burner drip pans
  • No messy, drippy broiling or baking unless you are willing to clean it thoroughly.  Don't forget to clean burner drip pans, too!
  • Keep BBQ clean & stored in shed
  • Take odorous kitchen trash to dumpster every night
• Cooler:  Note vent covers, upper & lower. If removed for cooler use, please replace covers to help keep dust & spiders out of the kitchen.
• Winter Use:  Our cabin is in the Hume Lake Summer Tract. The tract gate is locked from November 1 to May 31 unless USFS opens all gates. Any winter visitors should be prepared to provide their own firewood, water & toilet facilities and should be well-versed in protecting plumbing from the cold.
• Firewood:  Check the weather forecast – July & August are rarely cold but be prepared any other month.  There is a prepared firewood supply at the cabin and there is a lot of downed wood in the tract. If you burn the cabin stash, please make arrangements to replace it - try to use hardwood, cedar or pine.  White (piss) fir clogs up the flue.
• Fireplace:  Watch for fire restrictions in the summer.  If fires are allowed, build up heat in the fireplace slowly to avoid damaging the rock. Don't build large, hot fires that risk rollouts – smaller fires are safer and more efficient. Leave ashes so they can be cleaned out when very cold. Do NOT dispose of ashes on the ground or in the dumpster.
• Dumpster:  May - October only, there is a private dumpster for tract use at the corner of Aspen Hollow & Starling.  Household trash only – no building materials, ashes, pine needles, etc.  Please take care of your own recycling.
• Hume Lake Christian Camp offers:  meals in cafeteria, paintball, ropes course, kayak & canoe rentals, coffee, burgers & shakes - all for reasonable fees.  Check with their always friendly administration office.  During the summer, they offer a free breakfast on Tuesday mornings at Inspiration Point (near Needle Dump)
• The crowds of HLCC campers are a lot less annoying when you understand their schedule and their mission.  The campers arrive Sunday afternoon on big buses. Sunday night is noisy but far away.  Mornings and dinnertimes are very quiet. Afternoons are crowded on the lake.  Thursday night after dinner they have very noisy games on the lawn across from the dining hall - lots of cheering & roaring, feel free to go watch.  About 7 am Saturday morning the buses roll in.  From mid-morning Saturday until Sunday pm, it's wonderfully quiet, in spite of the USFS campground across the lake.
• In case of car trouble, try Michael's Towing in Reedley, AAA certified:  1-800-464-2423.