The plan for this one is:
- join Martha in Chico for her birthday
- follow them home to Eureka for a while
- do something for the remaining week-ish to get home by Thursday October 1.
Yes, First Thursday will be the first day of the month, so it’s a short trip.
Thursday (Sep 17)
I wish to camp a day before Chico, and I identify a destination, a Forest Service campground off Route 70 called Gansner Bar, described as being on the Feather River. It’s actually on a robust creek feeding into the river (the North Fork of the Feather as it turns out!), but quite nice anyway.
WHUFU page for: Gansner Bar
Nice little spot, 1/2 mile off of 70, on the North Fork of the Feather River, near where it joins the main river. It is not well marked that the campground is at this turnoff so it's easy to drive right past. Once you make the turnoff it's well signed.
$25 seems like quite a high price, but the concessionaire needs to make a profit I guess. $12.50 ain't so bad!
tonight:
There are only two sites are on the creek side of the loop. The creek is noisy and cheerful-sounding, but an impenetrable hedge of blackberry brambles limits access to only a few openings.
In the morning site 14 is way better than my 13. My van is baking in the sun but would be perfectly shaded if I was one site over ... where I am writing this now, Check-out time 2pm and I'm using all of it :)
The campground is run by a concessionaire, so their registration envelopes are different from what I’m used to and kind of stupid in their own right. I miss the space for my license plate #, so the camp hosts cruises over in his golf cart, … and he’s a nice guy! Been doing this for twenty years! He tells me that this cute little creek (the North Fork) is the outflow of Butt Lake, where I camped a short ten days ago!
I can now make up a reason why this creek seems basically full while the Feather and most rivers are pitifully low. Last week we discussed that Lake Almanor was very low but the lake if feeds, Butt, was less low than before. I’m guessing the masters of the whole watershed – PG&E – are draining Almanor slowly to keep running all the turbines between there and Oroville. … just my theory …
I was kinda burnt out and jangly when I got here. Started very late – 4pm! – messed up my freeway exit in Reno and doomed myself to a few minutes of the mean boulevards of Sparks, and it’s a two hour trip anyway, so I pulled in at about 6:25, with sunset only an hour away.
I was instantly soothed by the excellence of my spot. The only other campers are quiet and invisible, there is a strong pine scent in the light breeze – from fresh mulch I think rather than the actual trees, but still :), and the gurgling of the invisible stream (behind the blackberry edge) is omnipresent. I was instantly filled with a baseline of joy that stuck with me all night.
Friday – Sunday
Stlll mighty pleasant this morning. Utterly quiet except for the happy stream and the occasional pickup on the little road. The host’s golf cart is the only vehicle that moved in the campground since I parked 20 hours ago!
I drive about 800 yards to the little trailer park at the confluence of the two Feather Rivers and the two roads. From the outside it looks like it’s just the office, but it’s a 6 table restaurant called Caribou Crossing, I had a very good breakfast, which set me up nicely for the 40 miles of curvy road I had to drive to get out of the canyon and onto the flatlands of the Central Valley.
Our AirBnB place is pretty nice! I had the place to myself for a few hours – had a beer, put in some time in the hot tub, read a little, watched most of Jackie Brown – very relaxing.
The family arrives from Eureka around 9:30. The happy look on the little guy’s face when he saw me was pretty cool. Time for me to head to the van so they can settle in.
Saturday
Coffee and hang out, then we all pile into their family van. Lunch at Chipotle – it’s Martha’s birthday weekend so we are doing Martha things, then enjoy One Mile Swimming Pool and environs. Drive the one way park road, then back home. That night we have an epic dinner at the Sierra Taphouse, the restaurant attached to the Sierra Nevada Brewery. Just for the hell of it, I asked Josh at our Sierra Tap House if he could hook me up there, and he did. It was really excellent!
Sunday
Monday
The ridiculous, baking heat here got me going around 9:30 as usual, and when I rounded the corner into the courtyard the kids were almost moved out!
Uptown Bakery had really good almond croissants but pretty bad service. Quite enjoyable overall though, table by the window watching Chico life go by.
Explored the Sacramento River a bit on the way up 99. Checked out the bridge at Vina. There’s Wildlife Refuge hike (too hot for me today) and Woodson’s Bridge State Park, where the state charges $31 for no-hookup camping. Not surprising that there is no one there. It would be a nice place at $15 a site.
Now I’m on the west side of the river. I follow a little country road due north to the next bridge, at Los Molinos. I took a couple of mile detour to a county park with boat ramp right on the river. Looked like a perfect place to swim, although there were signs not to. I didn’t. The little cove looked safe enough, you could thar the river currents were tricky and could take you away if you’re not careful.
Drove through Red Bluff, then a little bit of I-5, exit at Anderson Road for good ole Route 273, which is effectively the Redding to 299 bypass. Then I’m on my way to Eureka. It’s after 3, so I missed the super long road repair stop on Brown’s Mountain, but I sadly did not miss a 20 minute stop in the 98° sun along Whiskeytown Lake. Very annoying,
Through Weaverville and Junction City, I should have stopped at Pigeon Point, but I was determined to check out Hayden Flat, so I did.
WHUFU page for: Hayden Flat
The campground is on both sides of 299:
- a few cramped little spots downhill on the bluff above the Trinity River,
- another set of much more spacious sites on the uphill side, in a pleasant little wooded glen away from the river.
tonight:
The parking spaces at the back of the loop farthest from the road did not appear to be level.
The host told me that site #2 was good, and it is.
My spot is pretty nice, notwithstanding the hordes of little black flies. I walk across the highway and down the hill, through the other part of the campground on down the short path to a small beach area on the river. I will say this is a nicer swimming area than at Pigeon. I sit in the water for a while and enjoy it all.
The flies are still annoying in the morning. Pigeon Point doesn’t have stupid hordes of flies…
If I had stayed at Pigeon I would have that nice Strawberry coffee place to look forward to, but alas, it’s about 8 curvy miles behind me here.
Tuesday – Thursday
Awake, hang out in the pines until my 1 pm checkout deadline. Decide to try out a little espresso shop in Willlow Creek, which sadly turned out to be a dump … but I did get caffienated.
WHUFU page for: Martha's house #2
They moved from a tiny one bedroom on a busy corner to a more spacious two bedroom on a quiet cul de sac in a better neighborhood. Even better, there is an upstairs where I can:
1. sleep,
2. barricade the top of the stairs so the cat can't sleep with me.
So woo!
Nobody’s here when I arrive, so I am able to do the favorite thing I do at most overnight stops, get out my lawn chair and and the laptop and blog about today!
They come home, chaos ensues, we get Tyler to soccer practice and have a normal boring evening.
Wednesday
Thursday
Such and easy day. Katie’s (Because Coffee) again, then home to do more or less nothing. We actually stay at soccer practice this time, then I accompany Chad to Arcata, so he can go to band practice and I can do … something. I have one beer at the Goat – not very satisfactory – then wander the streets of Arcata – I did have jambalaya at Jambalaya (not bad, not great) – but other than that, just killing time from 7:30 to 10:30.
Friday
Always hard to achieve escape velocity to get outside of the family orbit. Coffee at Katie’s, but no Katie :( The plan for everyone to eat in Trinidad fell through because of bad timing, but I went anyway and baaaaarely made it! Breakfast stops at 2, and I was seated at about 2:02, but since I didn’t want anything requiring the griddle they served me a yummy salmon and cream cheese omelet that was very tasty.
WHUFU page for: Florence Keller County Park
really cool little spot, right at the intersection of 101 and 199. It's 5 minutes outside Crescent City, but is whole different reason. $15 to camp in the redwoods!
tonight:
The bathroom looked gross but the toilet was very clean. Much better that way than the opposite. And for some reason a country music radio station is piped into it!
Got there around 6. It’s either amazing or pretty boring, or maybe both. There is nothing quite like nestling into the redwoods, but really, there’s not much to do here. There is some kind of Basic Training-like obstacle course set up in the forest behind my campsite, I guess that would be something to do.
A random pennypincher note: A site here in the redwoods at full price ($15) is cheaper than one at the Redwoods National Park campground a few miles south of Crescent City even at the senior price ($35 / 2 = $17.50).
Saturday
Gosh it’s quiet in the redwoods. I won’t use the cliche deathly still, because it’s not deathly – it’s pretty cheerful in fact. It appears to be a cloudless day, but the light that filtered through the trees is bright enough but soft and mostly shadowless.
I exit the campground in a mellow, well-oxygenated mood, and lose it immediately, because the dorks who design the roads around here do not provide a lane to go east on 199 from 101 southbound. I looked later, and there is a cutoff some miles north, so if you are coming from Oregon you’re covered, but poor ole me, entering the road from 1 mile north, I am screwed. I drive south, getting increasingly agitated until I ignore the Not Allowed signs on the third of the little gravel cutoffs for emergency vehicles, and get back on track.
Shoulda stopped at the little cafe about 5 miles along. I went too long without any sustenance. By the time I got to my favorite stop in Grants Pass I was pretty jangled.
Taprock Grill was an excellent break as always. I really like that place. Every time I look at the menu with an open mind, and every time it’s the fish and chips. That seems to be theonly choice that hits the right price point for me. No prob, good fish and chips is awesome. Excellent wifi and unlimited iced tea – I was there for a while.
I avoid I5, sticking to route 99 which follows the Rogue River to Gold City past the state park campground where I stayed this winter. There I am forced onto the interstate for a few exits into Medford where I pick up route 140, my escape route eastward.
WHUFU page for: Doe Point Campground
Right on scenic Fish Lake. Very pleasant. Next time I will try Fish Lake Campground, which is very close and only a few hundred yards from Fish Lake Resort.
tonight:
Closes for the season in two weeks, It is pretty empty here on Saturday night, so I am able to score a prime lake access spot! Fish Lake is very low. Shoreline is about 40 steep yards out from where it appears it should be, Sites 8, 10 and 12 are prime lake access sites. Very pleasant.
Great spot. I am having digestive issues, kind of cutting into my fun. Beautiful, nearly full moon tonight.
Sunday
Everybody left early as always, so I’ve got the place more or less to myself here on Sunday morning. I got a new neighbor that reminded me that tonight is the blood moon lunar eclipse. Glad he reminded me!
By a cruel twist of fate, the last three times I have wandered through Klamath Falls it has been on a Sunday, and as it happens, the cute hipster coffee houses downtown are all closed on Sunday. Downtown KF is sleepy enough any day, but is basically a ghost town on Sunday. Last time I was further dismayed to navigate to a likely looking breakfast place at about 2:10, to find that it closed at 2. I have all that in mind as I wrap up my stay at Doe Point by about 12:30. Maybe I’ll make it, and maybe I won’t, but I’ll give myself a chance.
It’s about 40 miles to KF. I take the aptly named Lakeview Road cutoff, to enjoy the beautiful southwest corner of Upper Klamath Lake.
I take my time, don’t hurry, fully accepting the possibility that I won’t make it, and I make it! I was the last person to leave the restaurant around 2:25, but I got there in time to be served and enjoyed my pretty nice sausage and eggs and some leisurely wifi-ing.
Next stop Fred Meyer, to FAIL to get the Sunday Oregonian containing my beloved 16×16 Sunday sudoku. That paper has really gone downhill in the last couple of years. Next stop US Bank for some hard cash, then a couple of fruitless stops at gas marts still looking for the paper, then I give up the search and continue ever eastward on 140.
Driving west-east, it’s really noticeable that the Klamath Valley is a border between ecozones. Where I came from, west of Klamath, 140 is all pine trees and the occasional glimpse of a lake through the branches. Where I am headed now, east of Klamath, 140 is the harsh high desert of southeastern Oregon, basically the terrain and climate that I will see all the rest of the way to Reno.
Bly was an interesting looking little town, at least in comparison to anything else on that lonely road. I kinda wish I had stopped and explored. At tonight’s campground I read that Bly is the site of the only fatalities of World War II in the mainland United States due to enemy attack.
Googling for a link to that, I found that the “barren rangeland is suggestive of Afghanistan”, prompting a local terrorism drama. Who knew!
WHUFU page for: Junipers Reservoir RV Resort
Far from everything, in the high desert of southeast Oregon, a few miles east of Lakeview.
tonight:
I am at a $20 tent site, which happens to be maybe the coolest site in the place, a little willow tree right on the corner, looking out over cow pastures and low mountains in the distance. Wifi seems pretty good! The most common sound is cows complaining in the middle distance.
Tonight is a Blood Moon – a dramatic way of saying the moon is near its perigee and a lunar eclipse is happening. My GOOD LUCK is that with no advance planning I find myself at a nearly perfect place to watch it – high desert, eastern edge of the campground, no intrusive lighting. It was pretty awesome.
Monday
I finally did it! Last night I re-oriented my teeny weeny vehicle (it was badly out of scale at that RV Park :) so as to have maximum shade in the morning, and I got it right this time! The fact that it was a full moon, thus giving me a perfect template for the sun’s path helped quite a bit, but anyway, success! I might have slept for a long time except for the insistent need to hit the toilet, a theme, sadly, of this trip ever since I had a a healthy veggie smoothie with Martha a week ago. My body ain’t used to that stuff. [note: turns out it was giardia from swimming in sketchy water on a previous trip (I think).]
Anyway, I dawdled and enjoyed their wifi for another hour or so, then tore myself away from that perfect spot to hit the road.
Very short drive to Lakeview. Jerrys again, despite my attempt to try the Green Mountain Diner.I did not have my usual stress about wifi, since I’d had it all night at my excellent campground.
The next stretch is a very pretty drive due south to Alturas, with the Warner Mountains on the left and the grassy playa formerly known as Goose Lake on the right. I find Alturas to be generally ugly and lacking in civilized services (Lakeview too for that matter), but there is a wifi coffee shop in the Niles Hotel that I want to try someday. It is right before the turnoff to the Modoc NWR.
WHUFU page for: Modoc NWR
A must stop for me if I am in the area.
There is a nice auto tour around a little lake. My impression is that the Sand Cranes are the star attraction here.
tonight:
Greater Sand Cranes! Two couples about 300 yards apart, wading in the shallow water on the eastern leg of the auto loop. They were in the water on the inside of the loop. The other times I've seen Sand Cranes here they were grazing in the fallow field on the outside of the loop.
Not much else interesting - Canada geese, Grebes, Coots, one Shoveler, Grommets?
I called the beasts I saw last time Lesser Sand Cranes. Since those pics were taken in the spring I am upgrading them to Greater, on the notion that the littler ones are colts (yes, that’s what they’re called!).
After my oh so relaxing 5 mph interlude at the NWR, I gave serious thought to a mid afternoon chill-out at that coffee shop, but felt like I should get going. WRONG! I got to Ramhorn about 4:30, when the sun is still high and hot, and i could have just as happily arrived an hour or so later. Hurrying is almost always wrong.
So onward, then an hour or so of the long, wide South Pit River Valley. Pretty empty out here. The only relief was Likely, which has a little general store that looks charming, interesting, and maybe even useful. The only such in the long stretch from Alturas to Janesville.
As we approached my turnoff, we were close to the eastern edge of the valley, which is were my modest little campground is nestled. I am sitting here enjoying the windy silence, dreading the sound of a pickup truck which might signal that I will have company for the night. Just little ole me so far!
WHUFU page for: Ramhorn Springs
A washboardy, dusty couple of miles off 395. I clocked it at 2.7 miles. Very cool little spot once you get here ... in a lonely, boring kind of way.
tonight:
Mine is the only spot with any shade to speak of. There is a row of junipers along the north edge of the campground but the since the sun is to the south they give no useful shade.
Campground is free, donations accepted.
Nice and quiet here. Really boring also – low hills, high desert terrain. Restful and free and there are few other options, but not clear it’s worth the bumpy road from the highway.
Tuesday
A truck came through around 8:30 this morning. I didn’t even peek out to look at them, but they milled around for awhile, and are gone by the time I make my morning trek to the pit toilet. That’s been the only vehicle on the road.
Take my bumpy ride back to the highway. There is a very nice BLM roadside stop a few miles down the road. A bathroom (which sadly, I need again ): and a lovely vista of the valley below. There is a pipe providing the outflow of a natural spring. I had a cup of water which was really tasty, but then I noticed the small, unobtrusive sign with a cup and a red bar through it – i.e. a “Don’t Drink This” sign. My gut is already messed up so it didn’t matter much to me, but they coulda made that sign a little more prominent :-/
Pleasant drive the rest of the way home. Stop in Susanville for a coffee, then survive the rest of 395. Home in time for my beloved, boring little Museum party on Thursday.