Wednesday – Thursday (Sep 14)
Finally there is a nice lunch place in Crescent City.
Lots of road construction on 101 south of there, took longer than I thought to get to Eureka.
hang out, eat chili with the fam. hope I don’t get sick
Thursday
coffee and lox and bagel.
I am so far behind on puzzles I don’t even bother
yummy fishsticks for dinner
Friday – Saturday
mill around, leave, I hoped for Chad and Ty, but it was just me and Ty.
god what a tiring drive
This is Martha’s second year of celebrating her birthday with a weekend in Chico, and also the second year she has invited me! I feel honored and blessed! This year’s place is nicer in almost every possible way (except no hot tub!) than last year’s. Crucially, it is five blocks from Bidwell park and the swimming area, which is I think the main reason Martha likes Chico so much.
We all stayed home tonight, swam in the coooold pool – nobody heats their poll in Chico it seems, and tucked ourselves in for the night.
Saturday
A few times on the trip I’ve felt sickish in the evening, but by morning was all good, but not this time. I appear to have caught the creeping crud from cute little Rylan. I threw up maybe six times between 5 am and 1 pm, then that was over. However what for him was a coupla days of snot then back to 3 year old business as usual has for me become a pretty concerning respiratory issue.
We all walked downtown for a very indifferently prepared and served Greek takeout meal, then home. So far so good, then off to bed.
Sunday
emergency room!
Sunday continued…
I leave the Chico Walmart with my four days worth of steroid pills and my road trip is officially resumed, although sadly with a much diminished me :(
I am very tired and probably shouldn’t be driving, but I want to get places. I try to limit the “map reading while driving” kind of thing, which of course isn’t cool even when one is in top form. Rte 99 past Oroville and the wonderfully named XX Afterbay. Then Route 70 through the always annoying traffic maze around the lake in Marysville, then an assortment of freeways through Sacto and the frighteningly generic Elk Grove. After that a few miles of brown, grassy plains, then the Sierra foothills start. It’s very hot and the fire danger is almost a physical presence.
Eventually I am in Valley Springs and take the turn-off on the little road that Maps says takes me to my campgrouind.
WHUFU page for: Acorn Campground
On the road Maps sent me down there were no signs that campgrounds existed, and the first one was closed, which gave me a little fright. The second, Acorn was open, so all is well.
Army Corp campgrounds all seem to rely on having a person at a check-in gate. The gate wasn't manned so camping was free.
tonight:
On the road Maps sent me down there were no signs that campgrounds existed, and the first one was closed, which gave me a little fright. The second, Acorn was open, so all is well.
Army Corp campgrounds all seem to rely on having a person at a check-in gate. The gate wasn't manned so camping was free.
These Army Corps reservoir campgrounds make me kind of sad. They are very nice, build on a grand scale, but as the water level keeps dropping they are more and more underutilized. There are a few campers here, but the place has kind of a derelict feel. Not even an attempt to collect a fee. They designed these places seemingly without even a thought that there wouldn’t always be a person at the gate.
For all that, this is a great place to to stay, and I think Valley Springs is a nice little town. These scrub oak hills have a really pleasant feel when the sun gets low, they’ve been so hot all day, I swear it smells like roasted acorns :)
Monday
I did about as well as I could shade-wise, but by 10:30 my time was up. The nice sounding Common Grounds coffee shop lived up to it’s billing, although their power had been out all morning so their pastry selection was down to pre-packaged muffins – boooring!
Thanks to the wonders of air conditioning I really enjoyed my leisurely drive through the 100° heat of the Sierra foothills. Even the little wasteland of century old mining waste was interesting. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving. That place will be useless until the next ice age,
To my surprise it stayed in the high 90’s low / 100’s until about 4,000′ then started FINALLY cooling off. It is my fond hope I won’t see 90° again till next June.
Yosemite was a zoo. There was a 12 minutes backup at the entrance gate, with three gates on duty. Then the entire valley floor was closed, which created quite a clusterfuck at that intersection. I happily took the left and headed up the hill. to leave that madness behind
The first 2/3 of the Tioga Pass Road is quite boring, Just another two lane road through pine trees. It could be any pine forest in the Sierras. But then it gets really cool, an exfoliated granite wonderland!
I had planned to stay up here, at Porcupine Flats or White Wolf or even Toulomne Meadows. The first two were just too boring to contemplate that early in the day, and the third is the opposite. It’s in a beautiful spot, but is such a hive of activity it wore me out to think about it. Also the campground road is really awful. Also I can’t breath today. So onward to the Inyo National Forest campgrounds outside the park.
This was the decision that messed me up with Tioga Lake. If I had stay in Yosemite tonight I would have rolled into Tioga Lake at 2 pm, not almost 6 pm as I ended up doing today
I’m going to try something new here, describe all the campgrounds I checked out, not just the one I ended up at.
WHUFU page for: Aspen Campground
The third campground after leaving Tioga Pass. It is a few miles and a few thousand feet elevation down, more properly thought of as up from Mono Lake than down from Yosemite.
As you're angling down the canyon wall you see a road hundreds of feet down in the valley below. This campground and Big Bend Campground are here. Eventually you get to the turnoff and drive up the road almost two miles and there you are. For some reason the signage is for Bid Bend, but Aspen is the first option you get to.
Shady, near the same stream as Ellery Lake, lots of happy trout fishermen, a lovely meadow at the east edge of the campground. Nice enough place, but it ain't no Tioga Lake.
tonight:
The third campground after leaving Tioga Pass. It is a few miles and a few thousand feet elevation down, more properly thought of as up from Mono Lake than down from Yosemite.
As you're angling down the canyon wall you see a road hundreds of feet down in the valley below. This campground and Big Bend Campground are here. Eventually you get to the turnoff and drive up the road almost two miles and there you are. For some reason the signage is for Bid Bend, but Aspen is the first option you get to.
Shady, near the same stream as Ellery Lake, lots of happy trout fishermen, a lovely meadow at the east edge of the campground. Nice enough place, but it ain't no Tioga Lake.
This is where I should have stayed. There was a cool Euro couple in the camp host site who were not actually camp hosts but had been told to say it was ok to just set up in the extra parking spaces. I gave it some thought but did not. This is by far the coolest of the campgrounds up here, and it is always full. I tuned up this whole leg of the trip to nail a site here and now I am walking away from an almost site.
This new situation of extreme windedness has me kind of spooked. It seemed possible i would have a bad night at 9,700′ so I bailed.
WHUFU page for: Ellery Lake Campground
The second campground after leaving Yosemite at Tioga Pass, a little bit down from the Tioga Lodge. Unlike the first campground, there is no spectacular view. You're tucked in a little alcove created by a huge rock. There is a lovely stream however.
tonight:
The second campground after leaving Yosemite at Tioga Pass, a little bit down from the Tioga Lodge. Unlike the first campground, there is no spectacular view. You're tucked in a little alcove created by a huge rock. There is a lovely stream however.
This place is only a few hundred feet lower and a lot less interesting.
WHUFU page for: Aspen Campground
The third campground after leaving Tioga Pass. It is a few miles and a few thousand feet elevation down, more properly thought of as up from Mono Lake than down from Yosemite.
As you're angling down the canyon wall you see a road hundreds of feet down in the valley below. This campground and Big Bend Campground are here. Eventually you get to the turnoff and drive up the road almost two miles and there you are. For some reason the signage is for Bid Bend, but Aspen is the first option you get to.
Shady, near the same stream as Ellery Lake, lots of happy trout fishermen, a lovely meadow at the east edge of the campground. Nice enough place, but it ain't no Tioga Lake.
tonight:
The third campground after leaving Tioga Pass. It is a few miles and a few thousand feet elevation down, more properly thought of as up from Mono Lake than down from Yosemite.
As you're angling down the canyon wall you see a road hundreds of feet down in the valley below. This campground and Big Bend Campground are here. Eventually you get to the turnoff and drive up the road almost two miles and there you are. For some reason the signage is for Bid Bend, but Aspen is the first option you get to.
Shady, near the same stream as Ellery Lake, lots of happy trout fishermen, a lovely meadow at the east edge of the campground. Nice enough place, but it ain't no Tioga Lake.
Not much to report. Sun is setting earlier, about 7:30, I got here around 6:30 and had some drama finding my site, so I don’t really have that much time to enjoy it. Whatever the hell is going on with my lungs makes it a production to walk the 120 yards to the check-in station.
The evening did confirm why I love this time of year. Well after dark, I hung out in the van with the door wide open and the orange party lights on, lap-topping away. No bugs! Well, one determined moth, but no swarms of anything. I could hear the stream, I could hear the lovely sound of the aspen leaves rattling in the breeze, pretty sweet.
I did bestir myself for a short wheezy walk back to the meadow about 11pm. The waning gibbous moon was up by then and I wanted to enjoy the stream and meadow by moonlight.
To complete the record my experiences on Route 120 to Tioga Pass, here is the last campground before you get to 395, where I stayed last year:
WHUFU page for: Lower Lee Vining Campground
In the style of Inyo Forest campgrounds(*), this one is hard to find(**) and kind of shabby and rough, but it's in a really beautiful location.
This one is on Lee Vining Creek, in the aspen/pine forest on top of the glacial till. It's the first campground on CA 120 west of Mono Lake heading up to spectacular Tioga Pass.
It's pretty cool. It's very popular with fishermen.
(*) Except the Inyo campgrounds around June Lake/Mammoth. They are run by a concessionare. They are a little nicer, cost twice as much, and have three times as many rules.
(**) There is an arrow for "camping", but you must turn off the road to see the "Lower Lee Vining" sign.
tonight:
A sense of closure! I tried to stay here three nights ago and it was full beyond capacity.
Maybe it's the time of year or my mood, but I am preferring the sites with space around them to the cozy tucked away sites. #9 is at the far western edge of the roundabout where the bathroom is. I can hear the creek and could see it when the leaves fall, and I have lots of sky and pine trees and yellow aspens.
Tuesday
Lovely morning. Turns out my site is in the middle of everything in the daytime. I stayed inside then I took off the creekside picnic table.
Noonish off to Mammoth and Looney Bean. Then Von’s, then the Garden Cafe?, which was very nice. Then the very short drive to:
WHUFU page for: Convict Lake Campground
Large campground at the foot of Convict Lake. Really cool place, mountains on three sides, nice little bite-sized hike around the perimeter of the lake (2.6 miles). Quite popular, but it's a big campground so there are usually open sites.
Downtown Mammoth is fifteen minutes away.
tonight:
First time I've been here when they're not repaving!
Price goes up every year. That's what happens when you sign away government functions to for-profit companies.
It is still a couple of weeks away from peak fall colors.
This is a great site, shielded from the road and the bathroom light, facing onto a meadow that gives a great view towards the lake.
Love my spot, just wish I had the wind to enjoy it better.
Wednesday
What a beautiful place to wake up! Through the wide and front windows I can see across the meadow the sheer mountain faces that ring Convict Lake. So I can watch the progress of sunrise from the comfort of bed.
Repeat yesterday: an even shorter drive, Looney Bean, then the little restaurant I liked yesterday. Today’s twist is that it started raining pretty hard when I was in Looney Bean. In normal times this might have caused me to just head on home tonight instead of tomorrow, but since I can’t walk anywhere anyway I had already planned to hang out at the van tonight.
This time at the restaurant, instead of getting a sandwich that was meh, I got a scrambled egg breakfast with chorizo as my meat and it was just great!
Then a very leisurely drive to the June Lake Loop, where it started raining pretty hard again. This time I was moving so I got to wipe the bugs off my windshield!
WHUFU page for: Silver Lake Campground
at the end of beautiful Silver Lake. Probably has great lake swimming/kayaking in the summer. Sites 16-27-ish have best lake access. Spectacular fall color spot.
All the June Loop campgrounds no longer allow checking yourself in at the kiosk. A stressed-out concession employee must come and personally check you in. A step backwards, IMO.
tonight:
quite a bustling place this time of year. It's before fall color time, so it's all fishermen, either in bro-packs or with their wives. Site 36 is near the bathroom in the open with a spectacular view of the mountains behind the lake.
I’m jsut here for the view, I guess.
Thursday
Cold and miserable for me last night.
Coffee in Lee Vining. Relief map at the Vis Cen, rest in the parking lot for a while.
Drive up Virginia Lakes Road to catch a little fall color, then power though the rest of the beautiful drive up 395 – Bridgeport, that next valley, Walker Canyon, Antelope Valley, Topaz Lake, then that dependable excellent steak and eggs at Topaz Casino.
Drive the rest of the way in the dark.
It’s kind of exciting to think I will be home tonight. I wish I felt better.