campgrounds – Page 2 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Writer’s Block

Current Location: Rocky Point, Oregon: nice evening after a gorgeous day

I really didn’t want to fall into the trap of trying to explain why I haven’t written. Kind of like writing in your diary, “Dear Diary…sorry I haven’t written”. Diary doesn’t care, I am sure. Every one of us who write these open ended online journals run into writer’s block now and then. This time it hit me half way home from our last trip. If you don’t know me from elsewhere, you might think that we are still lost somewhere along the California coast. If I were to return to my blog a year from now, trying to figure out where we were in April, I might be rather disappointed to see that we possibly beamed ourselves, Star Trek Style, from Eureka to Rocky Point. Trinity Scenic Byway (2 of 36)

There is so much going on at the moment in our lives that travel memories have taken a bit of a back seat, but that is another story. Maybe I’ll get to it eventually, but not right now.

In actuality, the last two days of our short little vacation were spent ambling along at a snail’s pace. We decided that Highway 299 would be a good route back toward home, over the beautiful Trinity Mountains and following along the gorgeous Trinity River. Called the Trinity Scenic Byway, the route is the main road that connects the upper Sacramento Valley to the California coast.

When we left Eureka, the fog was still hanging in over Humboldt Bay, but by the time we reached Berry Summit the fog was just a wisp in the wind shrouding the mountain but not obscuring the beautiful views. The day was brilliant, the skies gorgeous, the traffic minimal. Redbuds were in bloom and the hills were Ireland green. That springtime green thing in the coast range can be so incredibly vivid. Like no other green I have ever seen anywhere.

We had a destination in mind, a mere 100 miles over the mountain to the little town of Weaverville, where I had scoped out a small RV park. We were in no hurry, and stopped along the river for photos and views. A few miles west of Weaverville, we found a forest service campground and pulled in to check it out.

Not a soul in sight, and the camp host site was empty, but there were no gates to keep us out and after walking around a bit, listening to the river, we said, “Why not?!” Our tanks were empty, we had plenty of water and no need for power so we pulled into the sweet little spot, opened up the door to the sunshine and the river and settled in for a lovely evening. Three bucks with our senior pass. Much better than that 35 bucks it would have cost in Weaverville.

The next morning we rose at our leisure and ambled on down the road to the sweet little gold rush town of Weaverville. It was charming in the way that California gold towns can be, with interesting store fronts and historical signs on the buildings.

We visited the Joss House museum visitor center, enjoying the well done displays of the Chinese culture that thrived in Weaverville during the gold rush. Neither of us felt like waiting around for a tour, so we skipped the inside of the Chinese Temple.

Once again, we were reminded of the great contribution made by the Chinese to the development of the American West.

With no desire to continue east to a boring interstate, we turned north on Highway 3, following the western shore of Trinity Lake. The road was narrow and steep in places, but not unmanageable. We stopped to view the nearly empty lake and read the non existent signs. Sign vandalism is just stupid. Although perhaps not as stupid as damming a river and backing up a lake over miles and miles of placer mine tailings.

Now that the California drought has exposed the land drowned by the reservoir, I wonder if people who are users of the millions of gallons delivered annually to the California water project are at all worried about the lead and mercury left in those tailings. I still can’t figure out the mindset of certain news pundits who say the California water problem is due to the environmentalists stopping the building of more reservoirs. The ones already there have no water in them! Talk about a waste of money! Let’s build more dams so we can have more empty reservoirs? This drought is long term, and not going to end next week.

We did see several warning signs stating that in 42 miles or so, the road would be unsuitable for trailers. No problem. We have driven those kinds of roads many times in the past. After passing the little community of Coffee Creek, where we found nothing at all, we continued north toward Scott Mountain Pass.

We ignored the sign that said no trailers once again, and within a mile knew that had been a mistake. Picture a hairpin turn with a 15 percent grade. MoHo groaned up the hill and we managed to find a turnout on the very narrow road to unhook the baby car. Next time we will pay attention. This is not an easy climb, and definitely not a place to be towing. And no, there are no photos of these few challenging moments.

Mo drove on ahead with the MoHo while I followed along in the Tracker, enjoying the gorgeous views and the beautiful wild landscape of the Trinities. Descending into the Scott Valley is a treat, with a landscape of ranching and river that is the heart of the old west.

Our evening destination, a mere 80 miles north of Weaverville, was the tiny community of Etna, California. Just 20 miles south of Eureka, Etna is charming and quiet, and boasts a great little RV park, Mountain Village. A Passport America park, there were level sites, full hookups, and grassy spaces between rigs. With the park nearly empty, we enjoyed the late afternoon thoroughly. For a mere $16.00, we spent our last night before returning to the cottage at Grants Pass the next day.

That leaning oak on the left will have to go when the house is built. That is where the western wall will extend It has been just over three weeks since that day. In that short time we spent a few days working at the cottage. Mo managed to get the 30 amp to the MoHo shed and we mowed the acre that is greening up and growing fast. My scheduled surgery required a few visits to Eugene and those overnight trips are always more delightful with the MoHo. The one time we stayed in a hotel we decided, never again. taking a break from electrical work in the RV shed

After Eugene, it was time to bring the MoHo back over the mountain to her berth in Grants Pass. We missed having her at home and with winter behind us, it was time. Of course, the only winter we had this year showed up on Easter Sunday with 1/2 an inch of snow and then again on April 14 with another half inch. Crazy.

old fort road middle In the last couple of months, we have made some big decisions about the future, moving toward a final goal of building a “forever” home on the cottage property. I also decided that it was time to sell the little house I bought in Klamath Falls back in 2002. Daughter Melody decided that as a now single mom, she needed a bit less house to manage. She has lived in the Klamath house since 2008.

Melody and my granddaughter Axel each now have an apartment at the small complex that Mo has on the edge of town in Klamath Falls. working at the apartments (10 of 12) Mo and I put some time in refurbishing those apartments, painting and cleaning, getting carpets and flooring installed so they are all nice and fresh. It was hard work but also a fun project, nice to see the apartments all pretty again. Renters are not often much fun, and don’t seem to care about how they live. I am glad that we no longer have to deal with crummy renters who trash the place.

With Melody out of the Klamath house, it was time to spruce it up for sale. I had renters in there during the time I lived in California for my final working years, and it needed fresh paint when Melody moved in back in 2008! Again, Mo and I have been busy painting, fixing, repairing and getting the house ready for market. I am really hoping that the time is right, and that she will sell quickly.

working on Painter (16 of 19) It is a great little historic bungalow in an historic neighborhood in a nice part of Klamath Falls.

finished13 Early on during this three week process, I got a phone call from the two surgeons who will be working on me, saying that the surgery had to be rescheduled from April 13 to May 4, so I gained an extra three weeks to actually get the Klamath Falls house project done. At least hopefully.

Mo and I feel like we are working again. We leave the house every morning to go to one town or another, work all day, and drive home late all tired and worn out. After surgery I am not supposed to lift anything over five pounds for 3 months! Crazy. So everything has to be done NOW or it won’t get done, at least not by me.

So, writer’s block? Yeah. I think I have a reasonable excuse.

08-14-2014 The Long Way Home from Kaslo Part 1

Current Location: at home in Rocky Point

There are many options when planning the route home, but there was no option that didn’t include visiting the little town of Nelson on the west arm of Kootenay Lake. I remember Nelson as a small logging community, but even back in the 70’s and 80’s there was some cute stuff there. By the time my friend Maryruth and I saw it, the cultural creative boom was already happening.

Our last day in British Columbia started with rain, and it only got heavier as we traveled south. Big thunderheads loomed above us as we packed up the rig and the first big drops fell just as we drove out of the campground.

There is a dump station associated with the campground in Kaslo. It costs $5 Canadian if you are a registered camper, $8. if not, but it is only open for a couple of hours in the morning and in the evening. We wanted to leave early morning, but the 9am opening of the dump lock gave us the luxury of a leisurely breakfast. We decided to go get in line about 8:45, just in time to be ahead of a big fifth wheel that thought they were going to dump immediately. Sorry, I told them, the manager doesn’t get up till nine. She has a big sign on her door that is a pretty good indication that she doesn’t want to be bothered until exactly 9AM. Who can blame her. Being a campground host must be awful sometimes, everyone always wants something.

Nelson and homeward (5 of 70) Sure enough, just at 9, she showed up looking a bit sleep rumpled and unlocked the cover. We were ready with hoses out and ready to go so it only took us a few minutes to dump. We have that teamwork down pat. We also have the hookup the car thing down pat as well, and I laughed to see a couple of people in the campground taking time out from morning coffee to watch us hook up the Tracker in a few quick clicks. Moments like that I get all cocky and like to show off. Men especially get a kick out of watching us do things efficiently. I have to be careful to not get too cocky because I could just as easily do something stupid or the hitch would stick or the pins would drop in a manhole or something.

Still, we were on the road by 9:10 after a particularly good dump. You know the ones. The tank sensors are all the way green, the flashlight down the toilet reflects on the shiny bottom, and all is good. I can’t figure out why they all aren’t like that.

The road to Nelson followed our route to Balfour and continued along the West Arm of Kootenay Lake, where we saw gorgeous sandy beaches along the beautiful wide river/lake and homes to match. The closer we got to Nelson, the more waterside mansions began to appear. Hmmm, I could live here, I thought. It was breathtakingly beautiful. A bit later, as I perused the Real Estate magazines in Nelson, I saw that those houses were in the vicinity of a couple million bucks. Gentrification is everywhere. What happened to the sleepy logging town in the wilds of BC??

We did love Nelson, and did our usual initial search for the Visitor Center. Right in front of the building, across the street, was curb parking for the MoHo and Tracker. No parking meters, and a driveway behind us so that if someone parked in front of us we could still exit gracefully. A quick stop inside yielded a pretty young thing who knew ALL the best places to eat a great breakfast and told me we could park for a few hours free if we wanted to.

With the cool rain falling, Abby was quite content to remain inside resting. This is a new phenomena. At 12, it seems her separation anxiety has subsided enough that sometimes, not always, she will wait in the MoHo without barking and going into a general state of panic. Lucky for us. Hard rain means that even with dog friendly patios for dining, we might not want to sit outside in the rain with the dog.

Nelson and homeward (1 of 70) Climbing the stairs in the lovely little town built on the side of a cliff, we found the main drag and the string of shops and restaurants that are the mainstay of Nelson. Full Circle Cafe at 11AM still had a long line of folks waiting, but it was the best and we wanted to try it so we put our name on the list and waited. What a great place. More of that signature British Columbia organic stuff with tofu scrambles, and 6 kinds of free range eggs benedict selections. I think they specialized in hollandaise because it came on everything, even the tofu!

Yum. I had an omelet with perfect caramelized onions, goat cheese, and French ham, topped with hollandaise. Insanely good. Mo had what was called the Redneck Burger, free range beef, but that is where the redneck adjective stopped working. I never saw spinach and sprouts on a redneck anything! Her salad was one of the best I have tried. Yum again.

We wanted to get back on the road, with no idea of where we might spend the night, but knew it would be somewhere back in the US. I navigated toward the border, but my BC map in the big Atlas didn’t have enough detail, and with my phone turned off I also didn’t have Google to help out. The GPS is worthless if you don’t have an address, and we didn’t really know exactly where we were headed anyway.

Nelson and homeward (11 of 70) Somehow we ended up going through Salmo instead of Trail and to the beautifully quiet border crossing at Metaline Falls. We didn’t stop at Salmo, but in passing I caught glimpses of some rather amazing stone murals that are the pride of this small town. Hard rain and the upcoming border nixed any ideas of exploring.

Getting back into the US was a bit more complicated than we have ever experienced, and the main culprit was dog food! We knew about the requirements, so Mo was prepared with food in the original bags, but they saw the doggie treat bag and had to check that as well to be sure the treats were made in the USA. They also asked to come in the rig and would we please restrain the dog. Then they asked for the keys to the baby car where the big sack of dog food was stored.

After searching the car and part of the rig, they then wanted an additional photo that matched our passports. While looking at our passports and drivers’ license, they asked what we did before we retired, where we were going, where we had been, and the names of our firstborn children. Oh not that last part actually. They were kind and we had nothing to hide so it was more entertaining than anything, but different than we are used to. After 20 minutes or so we rolled back into the good ole USA.

Metaline Falls is a tiny town on the gorgeous Pend Oreille River, the downriver part of the same river we traveled on our trip north previously. I had never been on this route and it was gorgeous. Even in the rain we stopped to hike up to the lovely falls at the Sweet Creek Falls Wayside on the route of the North Pend Oreille Scenic Byway. For those not familiar with the northwest, the pronunciation is Pond er Ray. Just thought I would mention that. As Spokane is Spo Can, not Spo Kane…and Oregon is Or E Gun not Or E Gone…and Nevada…ooops. guess I got carried away. I have been writing these posts for a couple of days now and am getting a bit rummy.

We turned west toward Kettle Falls through the town of Colville. It was originally the plan to enter the states through Northport and possibly find a place to camp somewhere along the Columbia River. Instead, far south of good camping spots on the river, we continued west on Highway 20 toward Sherman Pass. Stopping in Kettle Falls to top off our fuel, (did I mention we didn’t have to add fuel to the MoHo in Canada?) we wanted to be sure we were ready for boondocking and using the generator. Sometimes it is easy to think, oh we have more than a quarter tank, we can fuel up tomorrow. Not so smart when you want to run the generator. It doesn’t take much fuel, but it doesn’t like a tank below a quarter full and will not run when it drops below that point.

We started up Sherman Pass with a couple of campgrounds in mind, but looking more closely I could see that the more distant one was at 5200 feet and only allowed rigs less than 24 feet long. We could fudge that sometimes, at 26 feet, but why bother when the closer campground had a 30 foot length limit.

Turned out to be a fabulous choice. Except for one other rig on the opposite side of the campground, we were the only ones there. We got a perfectly level site with a campfire ring and no campfire restrictions, and best of all a nice big stash of ready cut firewood for Mo to split. Mo loves a good campfire and with fire restrictions being all over the place it was nice to enjoy a big fire and some marshmallows. The campsite fee was a hefty $3.00 with our senior pass.

There were bear warnings at the campground kiosk, so we kept Abby close, but most of the huckleberries were gone so I didn’t worry too much. Would have been nice to see a bear from the safety of the rig. The signs indicated that in addition to black bear, there were also grizzly in the area. What I didn’t know at the time is that there are also some viable, active wolf packs in that part of the country as well.

After our yellow lighted nights at the Kaslo Campground, the thick darkness and quiet of the Canyon Creek FS campground on Sherman Pass was incredible. The sounds of the rain and a huge thunderstorm only added to the coziness of the MoHo, and actually being cool enough for a blanket was pretty nice, too.

I thought I could fit the entire trip home into one post, but it seems that isn’t to be the case. We did some cool new stuff on the rest of the route that I don’t want to skimp on. Guess I’ll have to go change the title for this one.

Next: The Long Way Home Part 2

08-13-2014 Four Days in Kaslo

Current Location: Home in Rocky Point Oregon

I spent a lot of time reviewing the few options for RV parks in the vicinity of Kaslo before we made our reservation. I know that reviews are not always accurate, but if there are bad reviews, I try to check for the date and then see if the good reviews are a response to the bad ones. Sometimes it is fairly clear that the park owners or managers have tried to offset the negativity.

In this case, I decided to ignore the few bad remarks about the Municipal Park and pay attention the bad remarks about some of the other places. Turns out I made a good choice. I wanted hookups, and what I didn’t learn from the reviews is that anything more than 15 amp power is rarely available. The Kaslo Municipal Campground had just three sites with 30 amp power, so I was extremely glad that I had made a reservation.

When we arrived, there were a couple of other rigs in line, and as I walked up to the crowd of people, the manager said, “Excuse me, but I need to attend to Sue here before I check you in because she has a reservation”. She knew who I was from our rig! Pretty nice. Then she gave me a choice. We could take the nice shady site on the hill, not very level, and with 15 amp power, or we could take the crowded sunny (hot) site with a sliver of lake view next to the park and 15 amp power until the next day when we would get the 30 amp post.

I was all for the shade, but Mo opted for the 30 amp. Either way, our first night was going to be a hot one. Once again, we put the fridge on gas only and didn’t even bother trying to turn on the air. The fan had to be enough and with the temps a hot and somewhat humid (for the west) 90 degrees F we waited for a breeze.

Nice thing about our site, however is that it backed up to the park, with just a few hundred yards to a spot where we could launch the kayaks. With fairly strong winds on the lake, we didn’t unload them the first night, deciding to wait for better weather the next morning. Instead we had supper before taking a lovely stroll along the lake and up toward the sweet little town of Kaslo.

It still had the charm that I remembered, but just a bit more so, with many eateries, little shops, and the beautiful Kaslo Hotel right above the shoreline and the marina. Even with the smoky skies, the surrounding mountains were magnificent.

My favorite moment, however, was spying these two ladies in their rigs visiting along the park in front of their lovely retirement home. If it weren’t for winter, this might be a really nice place to spend your last days.

The next day we launched the kayaks, in spite of the strong breezes and managed a few miles south of town along the shore, and then back north and into Kaslo Bay. The water was deep and clear, but the beaches near the campground are made up of large rocks, making for some gingerly walking to get the boats in and out of the water.

On another day we decided to explore the road north toward Duncan Lake, and took the long dirt road to the towns of Argenta and Johnsons Landing. We read about these two historic places in the Kaslo travel guide and Mo loves old small historic towns, so 30 miles or so round trip on a dirt road seemed worth it. To our surprise, Johnson’s Landing is completely locked up and private, and we didn’t drive as far as the world famous trailhead at the entrance to Fry Canyon. There are a LOT of day hikes and longer hikes in the Kaslo area.

Someday, when Abby doesn’t need to be pampered with short walks, we may come back and hike the canyon, but on this day we knew long hikes were not on the agenda. Abby is doing well, but long hikes are out of the question.

On a bit more sober note, I took several photos of what looked to me like a glacial outburst type of landform, adjacent to the lake near Johnson’s Landing. Nowhere did I find information about this until today, researching links for this blog, when I found the story of the devastating Johnson’s Landing Landslide of 2012. (link here) It is somewhat disturbing to me that I could blithely drive around this area, that I could talk to people in Kaslo about being there and going there, and not one local person mentioned this tragedy. Just for perspective, here is another ( link ) to what we read about Argenta and Johnson’s Landing from the BC tourism website. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

We did finally find something to look at in the community of Argenta, where the travel guide said “there are many self sufficient types located here.” I imagined hunters and fishermen, but instead we found huge organic gardens and lovely tanned men in colorful sarongs and young women with beautiful hair driving older SUV’s. Not many mind you, but enough to realize that this area was an enclave to hippies in the best sense of what that word can mean.

Today, while researching this post, I found this rather fascinating story about Argenta that wasn’t in the Kaslo Visitor Guide. Seems as though a group of California Quakers established the community, building the Argenta Friends School where they taught homesteading skills and welcomed draft dodgers. The school was closed but the nature of the community has remained intact. Peace loving, simple living Quakers and peace loving, simple living hippies have a lot in common.

north of Kaslo (18 of 46) We drove north toward the Duncan Dam, found the beautiful overlook and gorgeous lake, and then traveled north even further to the tiny hamlet of Howser.

There is a lovely Provincial campground at the end of the road, and we were really sorry we hadn’t put the kayaks back on the car after our day on the water at the bigger and windier Kootenay Lake. I took photos of campsites where the MoHo could fit, with only a couple of miles of dirt road to navigate. I am sure we will return to this place. Both of us loved Duncan Lake more than Kootenay Lake: it was far more remote and protected with the glassy water kind of kayaking and bird life that we love.

We also checked out the two Provincial campgrounds right on Kootenay Lake just a few miles north of Kaslo. Both Davis Creek and Lost Ledge campgrounds are on the water with beautiful views. No hookups and no reservations, but there were spaces available on the day we visited, so we do hope to someday return and camp. We decided a few days of boondocking would be interspersed with a day or two at the Municipal Campground where we could charge up and dump before going back to the north.

A nice advantage of returning to Kaslo was the delightful outdoor eatery, boasting gluten free sourdough bread, and non GMO foods. Healthy alternative lifestyles are the norm in this part of British Columbia and it was so refreshing. Of course, I had a Rueben hot dog, not very healthy or gluten free, but oh so yummy! They had home made ice cream there as well, but we never managed a return visit.

Kootenai Lake and Kaslo (54 of 71) Our last day turned out to be cooler and rainy, and we just took some time to relax, go for town walks, and in the afternoon Mo drove me 12 miles or so back south along Highway 31 to Ainsworth Hot Springs, high on my list of todo’s in this area. Mo didn’t want to leave Abby for an extended time, so while I went to the springs, she explored the lakeshore toward Balfour and found a gorgeous beach with beautiful water and sand where Abby played and swam. Mo said she even swam all on her own just for fun without Mo having to throw something to encourage her.

(I took no camera or phone to the springs, so these photos are from the internet)

I spent two glorious hours, for the paltry sum of $11.00 Canadian, soaking in the hot odor free mineral waters that have made Ainsworth famous. The springs are no longer in their natural state, but the water is wonderful, and in the big pool the exchange rate is about 6 times per day. I was glad it wasn’t a weekend, but the place was quite crowded with kids and people, mostly Canadians, but I heard many different languages being spoken. French, of course, but also Russian and I heard a woman with a beautiful accent from South Africa.

It was fun being there alone, and I didn’t engage much, but listened to the Canadians talking about their country and their towns. Especially interesting were the conversations about Calgary becoming way too big with crime coming into the neighborhoods and Lethbridge being a gorgeous place to live with a wonderful university. I do love my country, I wouldn’t choose any other, but I did find myself unwilling to give away my US accent. I felt like a true foreigner in a foreign land. Don’t let the similarities fool you, Canada is NOT the USA.

ainsworth_caves2 The best part about Ainsworth Hot Springs are the caves. They are shaped like a big horseshoe, and the water is about waist deep and the temps were 104F on the day I visited. You enter the cave, and then walk through into the dark hot steamy interior. Part way in a very hot waterfall provides a great neck massage if you can stand it and by the time you reach the other end of the horseshoe you are ready for some cool air! The cave ends in another hot pool, and adjacent to that is the ice plunge pool. On this hot day, the ice plunge was a balmy 49 degrees F, but after the heat and steam it was still enough of a shock to get your blood tingling. The ice pool also has a waterfall that is a bit harder to stand under than the hot one.

After a few rounds through the cave and the ice plunge, I would go back to the main pool and eavesdrop on all sorts of nearby conversations. When Mo returned two hours later to pick me up I was limp as a dishrag. Once again, don’t pay attention to the negative reviews. Ainsworth is a treasure to enjoy for exactly what it is. Not fancy, not natural, but a special place.

There is so much to see in the area, great art galleries and some small museums in Kaslo, including the beautiful sternwheeler the Moyie, but on this trip even three full days and half another didn’t give us enough time to enjoy all of it. The S.S. Moyie is the world’s oldest intact passenger sternwheeler and has been lovingly restored in the last few years. It represents a great era of the history of Kootenay Lake and Kaslo. I loved hearing the loud steam horn blow in the afternoons.

Kootenay Lake kayak (27 of 27) It was with a bit of melancholy that we left on Thursday morning. But there was something very special waiting for me back in Klamath Falls on the coming weekend and I wasn’t about to miss it. We knew our time wouldn’t be long enough but it was OK. We saw enough to know that this is a place we will return without question. It is under 1,000 miles from home and best of all, it isn’t at all crowded! After being in the Canadian National Parks of Banff and Jasper when it felt like a crazy zoo, it was so refreshing to enjoy the beautiful Canadian Rockies in such peace.

If you are interested in ALL the photos, they are here in my SmugMug trip gallery:

Next: the Long Way Home

Medicine Lake Once Again and Some Sad Abby News

Current Location: Rocky Point Oregon 59F and smoky at 7AM

It has been hot here this summer, hotter than we are used to in Rocky Point at least. We don’t have air conditioning at this house, and except for a very few days in the summertime, that is just fine. The forest cools us and the open windows let in the evening breezes for good sleeping. Most of the time. The big fans spin high above us to keep the air moving. Even so, when it is in the high 90’s in Klamath Falls, in the triple digits in Grants Pass, our low 90’s out here in the woods can feel pretty darn warm.

Great time to head 100 miles south to our favorite little lake south of Lava Beds National Monument high on the Medicine Lake Highlands at 7,000 feet or so. In the last post, I put in a link to my writings from our previous camping trip here last summer. (Here is the link again: Medicine Lake 2013). With a simple 2 hour drive from home, it is a great getaway.

Many things we love about this sweet little campground, not the least of which is the absence of mosquitoes. I have no idea why that is the case, but for the entire six days we were there, I delighted in being outdoors without having to fight the little stinkers.

When I read what I wrote last year I thought there was just no way I could write about this place again. We often do the same things when we visit. The highlight is kayaking at least twice a day from our campsite, having beautiful sunset campfires, and sleeping well through the chilly dark night skies. This trip was a bit different, however. We managed to convince our neighbors, Wes and Gayle, to spend a few days with us. They have a sweet little Casita that they brought north from their Tucson home for the Rocky Point summer and it was a perfect time to show them our favorite little camping lake.

There are three campgrounds lined along the northern shore of the lake, and our favorite is the Al Hogue camp. We planned an early arrival, just before noon on a Tuesday, hoping to at least snag some kind of site with a lake view. The local tribe has a Medicine Gathering at this sacred land every year, and we arrived on the weekday after the official gathering was over. They close the third campground, Medicine Campground, for this gathering, but there is usually quite a spillover after the weekend. It is expedient to check with the Modoc National Forest for the dates of this gathering. It isn’t open to the public as a pow wow might be, and things can get quite rowdy and very busy around the lake during their celebrations.

MoHo view site 43 Imagine my delighted surprise when we pulled into the campground with our two rigs and found not only our favorite site 43 wide open, but our second favorite site 45, right next to it, open as well. Without a bit of difficulty, we unhooked our trailer and parked the MoHo in our favorite spot overlooking the lake with the short easy trail down to the beach.

Wes and Gayle parked their little Casita in 45, with a gorgeous view, albeit with a steeper rocky path to the lake. It couldn’t have been a more perfect introduction to Medicine Lake. On that first afternoon, it was cloudy and 15 degrees cooler than the Klamath Basin, with thunderstorms predicted and even a bit of wind and hail to greet us. Maybe that is why we managed to snag the best sites in the entire complex.

With the cool temperatures and windy conditions at the lake, it was a perfect time to show Wes and Gayle the trail from the campground to the Medicine Lake Glass Flow, just 1/4 mile north. The trail was a simple one, and there was barely a breeze once we were away from the lake.

Gayle and I had planned shared meals, with each of us being responsible for one dinner, and then a shared meal. Our first night was a delight of BBQd beef ribs that were tasty and in addition provided Abby with a nice stash of bones that lasted the entire week. Gayle and Wes also have the Happy Hour thing down pat, and Gayle arrived at our dining table before dinner with a shaker of perfectly concocted cosmopolitans and some yummy “snacks” as she calls them. We were very happy to have room at the dinette for four people since it was too chilly and windy outside to sit at the picnic table.

Of course, Jeremy is quite polite, but thinks he should be at the table as well. He doesn’t beg much, and will patiently wait for someone to decide to give him a snack as well. Gayle was very good at dispensing the tiny bites for my geriatric cat.

Jeremy also entertained us in the evenings with his daily walk down to the water to drink. Reminded me so much of a big old lion at the watering hole. He would lap and lap and watch the horizon as he did so. Jeremy loves to be in a campground where he can roam free, and he especially loves the lakes.

In the last few years, when we have camped here, we only bring the trailer with the kayaks and bikes instead of hauling the baby car. While that makes for a relaxing week, there are some local sites that are a bit too far for walking that we were able to explore this time with Wes and Gayle along to drive their car. Hoffman Lookout_032

Wes drove the ten miles round trip of dirt road to the high point at Hoffman Lookout, where Mo and I went a few years ago. The skies were incredibly clear and we could see Mt Lassen to the south and the Klamath Basin to the north. Mt Shasta was shrouded in clouds, only adding to her mystery and beauty.

This morning as I am writing, smelling the smoke from the fires south of us, I realized how lucky we were to have chosen last week for this trip instead of the current week. On July 30th, a lightning storm exploded in the Cascades west of us and east of Ashland/Medford, burning thousands of acres so far. Currently the fire is only 5 percent contained, and has grown south into California. I am sure the skies are thick with smoke over Medicine Lake this week and the views from the Hoffman Lookout would be nil.

But last week was different, and we had gorgeous blue skies during the rest of the time we spent in the Highlands. After our trip to the lookout, we relaxed at the campsite a bit before embarking on another dirt road journey to Glass Mountain. The Medicine Lake Highlands and caldera have been volcanically active in the last 1,000 years, with the obsidian of Glass Mountain formed about 950 years ago. This link from USGS has more detailed information about the Medicine Lake Volcano. In addition, if you want even more detail, here is a link to the volcanic history and types of lava that erupted during five major stages of volcanism.

We had a great time hiking around Glass Mountain. It is extremely important to have good shoes when you are here because that obsidian is sharper than any knife. I wish I could share the sound of walking on tinkly glass shards. The weather had warmed quite a bit on this afternoon and the breeze lightened up enough to be only a slight deterrent to the heat.

(Notice the difference between the first photo in this post in the afternoon and the morning stillness on the water in this photo)

The next few days we stayed closer to camp. With the winds dying down and the heat returning, we enjoyed early morning kayaks on the glassy water, and afternoon paddles across the lake in the evening winds. One morning was so chilly that we woke to ice on the kayaks, but once out on the water it was perfect. 31 degrees on Thurday morning

The most dramatic difference this year, however, was the lake level. I have never seen the lake like this, with the severe drought in California reflected in the extreme low water at Medicine Lake. Across from our camp was a sweet man with his grandsons, who said he had been coming here for 50 years and he had never seen the lake this low either.

Medicine Lake lower than we have ever seen it Surprisingly, when we took a morning to hike to Little Medicine Lake, we discovered that the level of the water in this small spring fed pond to be perfectly normal. Medicine Lake has no outlet and is fed by a few springs and snow melt. It is a closed system, with no outlet, however the ground is porous pumice so who knows where the water is going. I can’t imagine that evaporation can account for the visible daily drop in water levels that we saw while we were there.

That same sweet man and his boys were catching a LOT of trout, and one afternoon he came over with a bit string of fish and asked if we might like to have some. I looked a bit guilty as I said, “I don’t know how to clean them”. He laughed and said, “What if I cleaned them?”. The result was a fabulous supper of fresh caught trout on our grill, with a couple of sweet pink native brookies in the mix. Yum!

Fishing is very popular on this lake, with rules that don’t allow fast boats until after ten in the morning and before 5 in the evening so people can fish in peace. We saw only two jet skis on our last afternoon at the lake, and they weren’t out there very long. Nice. I even managed to get in for a swim when the weather warmed a bit. The lake was chilly, but not so bad that I couldn’t get my head all the way under water a couple of times.

We got our friends out on the water in the kayaks and they found it was much easier than they thought it might be. As experienced canoe paddlers, it took a bit of convincing, but once on the water they were hooked. Who knows, a couple of kayaks might be in their future.

I have no reason for adding this photo of Mo I took at Little Medicine Lake other than the fact that I just love it.

Wes and Gayle left a few days before we did, and Mo and I continued to enjoy days on the water and evenings by the fire until we left last Sunday to return home. The week ahead was supposed to be leisurely, with time to prepare for our next big trip coming up, the Oukrop Family Reunion in Spokane, Washington,with an extra trip north into British Columbia for the MoHo.

Instead we spent a few days camped at the Grants Pass Cottage, working with the plumber to rework the cottage bathroom and trying to stay cool in the MoHo with temperatures at 104 degrees each day we were there. Whew! I did manage to finish the cottage curtain tab top panels that I worked on for much longer than I had thought it might take. Sewing something with all that fabric and all those long seams takes a very long time! I can’t believe I never got a photo of the finished product, but I can do that next time we are there. I think Daughter Deb will enjoy have pretty lined curtains to keep out the heat rather than the 80’s nubby heavy drapes that were too dirty to clean and were also ugly!

Coming back home this weekend to Rocky Point was quite a shock, because the smoke from the Beaver Fire is hanging heavy and dark over much of the landscape. Highway 97 east of us has been closed due to smoke, and our neighbors had heavy ash raining down on them the day before we returned. We are safe enough here for the time being. The fire is many miles south and west of us, and the many lightning fires triggered by the storm that started nearby in the Sky Lakes Wilderness, near Crater Lake, and on Pelican Butte behind us were suppressed almost immediately by diligent fire crews. local current smoke 08-04-2014

On a final note, our lives were saddened before we left for our Medicine Lake trip with Mo’s trip to the vet with Abby.

We knew that things might not be good, and Abby was tested positive for lymphoma. We have decided to not subject our sweet 12 year old dog to chemo or radiation, which would be terrible for her, and instead she is on a special diet and prednisone.

For the time being, she seems her sweet self, and isn’t unhappy or uncomfortable. She is slowing down a bit, but aren’t we all. The vet said maybe three months, but that doesn’t seem real, and we are hoping for more. We are taking it a day at a time, and treasuring every extra day with our sweet girl.

No Bears! Great Basin National Park

Current Location: Lower Lehman Creek Campground GBNP sunny and 78F predicted high today

I worked in the mountains of the west for a bazillion years. I lived in the mountains of the west for a bazillion years. Mountains and bears seem synonymous to me. Imagine my surprise when we arrived at Great Basin National Park and there are shabby tin garbage cans, and not a bear warning anywhere. There are no bears here! I couldn’t figure it out for the longest time. I came up with all sorts of reasons, maybe they were hunted out and the great deserts that lie between the mountain islands kept them from coming back.

Well, the last bear was here about 30,000 years ago, and not only are there no bears in Great Basin National Park, there are no bears anywhere in the Great Basin! Looking at a map of black bear distribution in the US, even the historic range of the black bear leaves a giant conspicuous hole in the map of the US encompassing almost all of Nevada and all of the Great Basin.

When our June calendar showed no plans for a camping trip, we knew something must be done. Where to go. June is often full of mosquitos in our local mountains, and our home place is so convenient to kayaking and hiking, but we wanted to be sure to get somewhere new. That is getting more and more difficult it seems.

Great Basin National Park came to mind. We have traveled in the vicinity several times, looking up at the great mountains of the Snake Range and thinking, “We need to get there someday”. We came really close on our way home last March from our three month trip east, but storms and wind and snow convinced us to reroute south toward the Mojave instead of north into the wilds of Nevada.

The trip to Great Basin NP requires commitment. It isn’t near anything or on the way to anywhere. We traveled a gorgeous route down 395 taking an easy day and spending our first night out at the Desert Rose RV Park in Fernley. It is a nice little Passport America park, clean and tidy, with “the best TV east of the Mississippi”. All that has changed, however, with the advent of Charter Cable requirements for individual receiver boxes for each site, and the owner said, Nope, no more TV here. We had our little satellite, but TV wasn’t high on the agenda for only one night, so we didn’t bother to set it up.

The next morning we headed west on Highway 50, and once beyond Fallon, the route lived up to its reputation as the “Loneliest Road in America”. That title was a bit more apt when it was first declared a few decades ago, but it still is one of the few places in the country where you can drive for miles without seeing another vehicle. Actually, the stretch between Alturas and Susanville on 395 was almost as empty of traffic. Daughter Deanna warned me when we left that school was out, vacationers were on the road, and traffic was completely crazy. Not in the world we have traveled this week. Lucky us.

We decided to take the old Route 50 between White Rock Springs and Austin, a beautiful route with some serious curves and climbs but nothing too difficult, and again, no traffic.

By the time we reached the park, it was mid afternoon, early enough to hopefully find a campsite in the first come/first serve campgrounds. There are four listed campgrounds in the park, and another couple of locations for what they call “overflow camping”, with picnic tables and fire grills but no water. The camp at the lowest elevation, just a couple of miles from the Lehman Caves Visitor Center, is Lower Lehman Creek, with a few pull-through sites, water in the campground, and pit toilets.

With most sites filled, we opted for the remaining pull through site #3, in spite of the fact that it was listed on the camp information sign as ‘extremely unlevel’. Most sites were listed as ‘unlevel’ except for the one accessible site at the entrance to the campground. No biggy, at least I thought so until I tried to sleep that first night with my head down from my feet in spite of all our work at leveling as much as possible.

We spent the first evening enjoying the sound of the creek, and I took a walk up the trail toward the Upper Lehman Creek campground to check things out. I got a serious reality check trying to hike up the steep trail at 7500 feet elevation. I have obviously been sitting around too much for the last couple of months. My lungs were aching after just a mile or so. sheesh! I am glad we gave ourselves a couple of days to acclimate to the elevation before trying the main park hikes that all start at the Wheeler Peak campground at about 10,000 feet elevation.

The next morning we decided to seek out a lead on a young woman who might watch Abby for us while hiking, but as we were leaving, site 3 came open, and we nixed all plans and moved across the road to a lovely, almost level site right by the creek, with an open sky for the satellite. Perfect. With a bit of jockeying, I had the rig leveled, Mo had the solar panel out and the TV hooked up. We can run the inverter for the TV, satellite, and Direct TV box without taxing our batteries too much. Each day we do run the generator for a couple of hours to charge things up, but so far all is good.

Did I mention no bears? It just seems crazy to be in the mountains and not have to worry about critters getting into your stuff. There aren’t even raccoons or skunks around here either.

Once we settled into the new spot, we decided to go to the visitor centers. There are two of them for this park, the Lehman Caves center is within the park boundary, and the Great Basin visitor center is down in Baker. We wanted to tour Lehman Caves, and the tours do sell out, so getting tickets was first on our agenda. Later we found Rachel in the T and D Café in Baker, who agreed to watch Abby for us so we could do the tour together. Lucky find, if a bit expensive at $10. per hour. Rachel’s husband is the IT person for the park, and heard us at the visitor center asking about dog care in the vicinity. Rachel was a sweetheart and Abby enjoyed her two hour stay at her home with her two dogs.

A slogan for Great Basin NP is that “half the park is after dark”. They have great night sky programs, and as one of the ten darkest night sky locations in the US, there is much to see. It would be great to be here during the dark of the moon, with views of the Milky Way that many of us only remember from childhood.

Instead, we were here during the full moon, another perfect time, because the park has ranger guided full moon hikes each month during the season unless weather interferes. Free tickets for the hike are passed out only on the day of the full moon, beginning at 8 in the morning. The location of the hike is kept secret, and you are requested to bring your hiking shoes for inspection when signing up. In spite of the hard core rules about tough boots with ankle support, we saw several folks in tennis shoes, and Mo’s Keen sandals passed without a problem. We were afraid she might be denied a ticket at first, but it seems that the only real problem would be open toed sandals or flip flops.

Both our Cave Tour and Full Moon hike were scheduled for Thursday, so we spent Wednesday exploring the area a bit in the Tracker. We explored the Baker Creek Road, and the other campgrounds in the vicinity of Pole Creek and the Grey Cliffs. The road was steep, graveled, but without a serious washboard problem at least, so in a pinch, we could have managed a campsite along Baker Creek at a few locations.

By the time we visited the Great Basin Visitor Center, the sun was high and hot and Mo and I took turns going inside. As is usually the case, the visitor center was wonderful, with beautiful exhibits and I learned not only about Great Basin National Park, but the Great Basin in general. The term “Great Basin” was coined by one of my favorite guys, John C Fremont, the Pathfinder, back in the mid 1800’s. I’ll write more about that in my next post.

We also traveled back through Baker and north to the Baker Archaeological Site. Although there isn’t a lot to see at the site, there are great interpretive signs explaining about the major dig here in the mid 90’s that discovered a complex community of what is now called the Fremont Culture, estimated to have been around 1300 AD. The best part about the site is the vastness of the view, and the gorgeous skyline in the west dominated by the Snake Range and Wheeler Peak.

There are several dirt roads leading into the park, but the most traveled route is the paved Wheeler Peak Scenic Route that leads to the Summit Trailhead, and the trailheads for the Bristlecone Forest Hike, and several other high mountain hikes in that vicinity. The Wheeler Peak campground is gorgeous, but at 10,000 feet elevation, the weather up there was COLD. We saw folks in down coats and wool caps in the afternoon in their beautiful fir and aspen campsites. The campground was gorgeous, but the length limit for driving the road is 24 feet and we are 26. The level paved pads for camping were amazing, just too bad you can’t take a bigger rig up that road! Even so, it was nice to come back down the mountain to our warm campground.

Clouds were thick around Wheeler Peak on that first visit, but even with the cloud cover, the magnificence of the limestone mountains were evident. With more than 13 peaks over 11,000 feet high in the Snake Range that dominates most of the Great Basin National Park, there is no shortage of hiking opportunities for the hardy souls who can manage high elevation hiking.

I do actually have a Verizon signal here at the campground, not always fast, but it is much better than the weak “out of area” signal that I get on my ATT iPhone. Between TV and occasional internet, we haven’t been too far out of touch while camping here. More to come in the next post but it is time to go explore Snake Creek and the Johnson Lake trail.