For the uninitiated, Camp Mather is a city-run camp on 350 acres near Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, offering cabins and tent sites at prices that won't make you weep into your sleeping bag. It's one of the few instances where the city actually delivers a service that residents love, come back to year after year, and doesn't require a six-figure consultant study to understand why it works. People show up. They swim in the lake. Kids run feral in the best way possible. Everyone goes home happy.

With reservation season underway, first-timers should know a few things the official website won't tell you. The cabins are rustic — think two-prong outlets and plasticky mattresses. One local parent advised bringing "a fitted sheet so your kid's sleeping bag doesn't slip off the plasticky mattress — don't ask me how I know." Smart. Another SF resident recommended bringing a box fan, mosquito repellent, and a two-prong adapter, since the electrical situation is decidedly vintage.

Coffee people, take note: one Camp Mather regular warned that "if coffee is important to you and others who interact with you, bring your own setup." The general store exists but runs pricey — though spending there supports the Friends of Camp Mather, which keeps the place running.

Other pro tips from veteran families: bring your own blackout curtain material (the Sierra sun rises early and the cabin curtains are basically decorative), pack a sun shade for the lake so you're not fighting for tree shade at dawn, and budget a couple bucks a day for your kids to pick treats at the general store. There's even a disc golf course behind the camping area.

Look, we spend most of our time here cataloging San Francisco's fiscal misadventures. Camp Mather is the opposite story — a century-old program that costs relatively little, generates enormous goodwill, and gives working families access to some of the most beautiful land in California. As one local put it simply: "I LOVED CAMP MATHER AS A KID."

That's the kind of return on investment we'd love to see more of.