laguna meadows, camp fire, drew neumann, mr and mrs adventure, adventure, camping california

To crave: to have an intense desire for, to need urgently.

By definition, Drew and I are cravers, more specifically, we are cravers of nature and adventure (and warm fires when it's 30 degrees out). This past weekend Drew and I found ourselves craving one last camping experience to round off the year, so we headed out somewhere someone, whom we met while summitting Mount Jacinto, had once recommend to us a while back: the incredible Laguna Meadows in the Cleveland National Forest.

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It was about a 3 hour drive before we arrived to our destination, which was located an hour inland from San Diego. No reservations, no forward thinking, just an idea and the craving to execute it. El Prado campground, the only campground open during winter, is $20 a pop year round, and during the busy season you must reserve one of these epic spots way in advance on ReserveAmerica.com

After driving around and accessing which spot would be best, we settled on spot #2, threw up our hammock, set up our tent and refueled before exploring the nearby lands and mountains by bike.

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We took the trailhead out the backend of the campground and decided to be spontaneous. We followed it along the stunning Laguna Meadow to no path in particular, taking turns and simply riding whatever path felt right.

map laguna meadows, noble canyon map, el prado campground

It was an incredibly beautiful day, the sun was shining, ducks were sunbathing on Big Laguna Lake, the breeze was perfect and I had never seen so many pine cones in my life! We would later be resourceful and use this plethora of pine cones to help build our fire.

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We rode for about 3 hours along a trail we later highlighted (in yellow) below.

Our adventure took us through the woods (literally, the trail cut out sections of fallen trees so we could ride through), over bridges, into freezing ravines, over rocks, sand, giant roots and old fire roads. Overall, we both really enjoyed ourselves, it was challenging enough for Drew and not too much for me to handle - a great trail for people of mixed skill levels to explore together.

That night we enjoyed our pine cone fire, grilled Portabella burgers and left over Christmas wine, which helped warm us up from the inside out for the chilly night ahead.

After sleeping in for a healthy 11 hours (!) we woke up, made some hot water on the Jet Boil for our morning cup of Joe and ate whatever our midnight squirrel bandit hadn't gotten into the night before - turns out California squirrels really like oatmeal and Trader Joe's Nacho Chips!Our adventure for day 2 you ask? Biking Noble Canyon, an advanced single track trail with lots of rocks, roots and elevation..!

We rode from El Prado campground, through the meadow and followed the signs, like the one above, to Noble Canyon.

Dodging rocks left and right, braving long, thigh burning, uphill stretches and watching out for giant protruding roots and the occasional over grown pine cone, made this trail one of the most technical we had ever been on.