SETTLING IN-ONCE AGAIN

Our summer time adventure has come to an end and once again it’s time to settle down for a few months here in Fernley RV park in Fernley NV.

We took advantage on our last day at Lake Almanor and did a thorough cleaning inside of the truck and rig.  Scrubbing down the walls, ceiling and floors.  Once we had it all done and we looked at the time and decided to go ahead and head into Fernley one day early.

Right after supper, we took off, knowing we had only a few hours drive ahead of us-we would reach our destination right after sunset.

As we drove we could start seeing the smoke more clearly from the Yosemite fire.  Not too long afterwards-we were in the haziness of all that smoke.

As I’m driving I look back to when we visited that particular area in May and the beauty we saw there-it’s hard to believe it’s going up in flames. 

    

Anyways, we made it safely shortly after 9pm and parked for the night at Wal-Mart.  As we arrived we see strange things that we haven’t seen too often in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  People partying, people loading up bikes and camping gear galore, more drinking and more parties.  You see, the Black Rock Desert has what is called the Annual “Burning Man” festival.  It’s a festival out in the middle of no where and ANYTHING goes!  Not something that I think nor Brian or half of our friends would want to ever consider going to! 

We did manage to find a nice quiet corner, got loaded up on groceries and actually had a half way decent night sleep.  Got up bright and early the next morning.

Now it was time to scrub the outside of the RV and the truck.  So off to the car wash we go.  As I pluck in the quarters, Brian washes down both units.  Then we worked together to shammie off before spots can build and dry.  I think we both did a fairly good job-if I say so myself!

Now it’s time to head into Fernley RV Park and get settled in.  As I pull into the drive way I told Brian “Home Sweet Home”….It actually felt pretty good to know that we are going to be stationary for a spell and in a place that we have met friends.  We arrived before the office is actually but was still greeted with warm smiles by the manager of the park.

We got to choose any site that was open, and we choose one that the previous tenant grew some beautiful roses and is no longer here, so we took her space and now I have a rose garden in my back yard! 

As we were inspecting sites, it was nice to see familiar faces to come out and greet us.  Now, getting backed into the site became a challenge.  I thought I had done pretty darn good all summer long in back our home into sites-until we arrived here….

I have a light pole that I had to dodge and miss hitting, then I had to also make sure that I didn’t’ get on the grass and hit any sprinklers…

With the help of Brian and our one neighbor and a few back and forth, and about a half hour later-we are finally parked…whew….

After a very long morning, we soon discovered that we were bit on the tired side and decided to lay down and take a siesta.  Not soon afterwards we hear a knock on our door.

We discovered it was a neighbor from the back in the mobile home park that we met last year.  He had a Min Pin pup with him.  Of course I flew out the door to see what he had!  Sure enough it was a tiny puppy, looking almost like Leah and scared to death.  As I look at the cute little thing-I knew immediately that it wasn’t a full blood Min Pin, but instead half and half Chihuahua.  That didn’t matter for as I play with her on the grass, and we introduce Leah to her, I knew that I just couldn’t pass this little girl up. 

I thought for sure Brian would be adamant about having just one dog, but to my surprise he agrees to give her a try, with the understanding that if Leah did not accept her and we develop issues with her, that the puppy would go back.  (I prayed that it would work out).

So now the challenge began-Leah was okay with the little girl-outside, but inside became the little more of a challenge.  But soon Leah became okay with her inside.

I had named her Kaylee.  Kaylee wasn’t sure about her surroundings or what was happening to her, so we try to make her feel safe and secure and at the same time, letting Leah know that she is and will be the “Alpha Dog” between the two.

Bedtime really became a challenge at first.  Leah wasn’t wanting to share the bed at first, but before long, I was holding Leah in my arms while Brian help Kaylee in his.  All went smooth until about 3am.  Brain took Kaylee out to go potty and then she came in a full of spunk and spitfire and ready to play.  She pounced on Leah and then me-causing a bit of a ruckus…After 30 minutes, we finally got everyone settled backed down-with Leah laying between my legs and me holding Kaylee….

That next morning, Leah took the few toys that she was willing to share with Kaylee; set them by the door, and hurdle Kaylee towards the door and would not let her pass!  It was so funny, but we had to correct Leah and let her know that Kaylee wasn’t going anywhere.

With Leah being such an aggressive eater herself, our biggest worry was feeding time.  So we choose to make sure that Leah eats first, and then we would put Kaylee in the kennel and let her eat in there.  That seemed to work, but now we are feeding her outside of the kennel and Leah is accepting and allowing her to eat her meals.

We did have two bad scruff where Leah snapped pretty bad at Kaylee, scaring her and making her cry really loud.  We scolded Leah, comforted Kaylee and then comfort Leah.  Since those two incident-everything has been going pretty smoothly.

Leah still has her moments where she still wants to growl at her, but Kaylee is learning to stand up to Leah.  We are finding them playing, and we take them over to doggie row to romp around and they both seem to love it. 

As I work on this blog, I have Leah wrapped in her blankie asleep on my lap, as usual and Kaylee snuggled up tight in her blankie right beside us.  all doggies are happy. 

The challenge will soon come when I go to work and Brian is left with both girls-I wonder what I will come home to and what stories will be told….

 

 

END OF THE CALIFORNIA TRAIL

As I get ready to prepare myself for work at Amazon in a few weeks, Brian and I sit back and reflect on our California trip and it’s hard to believe end of the trail is here for this summer.

I have always dreamed of California and wonder what it really was like.  When one thinks of California the first thing they think about is all the big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego just to name a few. And what about earthquakes or California falling off into the ocean? 

What amazed us the most is all the beauty that California does have to offer. If there truly is a God’s county-well California sure has to have a part-that’s for sure!  Where else can one go and get desert, ocean, mountains, forest with largest trees-or that big city?  California has it all.

As we started out on our journey back in early April, our first stop was Slab City.  Now, one cannot be THAT close and at least spend a short time there –just to see what it really was all about.  All that you have read or heard about Slab City on the internet or news-is mostly true. 

There was plenty of homeless (but happy) folks, lots, and lots of garbage, interesting art, and although we didn’t witness any-we were sure of drug activity…But for the most-everyone left us alone.

 

Next on the CA Trail was Joshua Tree, where I continue to heal with my foot and was able to finally do a little more walking and short hikes.  Here we were in high desert country with large boulders and mountains surrounding us, not to mention those unique Joshua Trees.

Down the road next was Sequoia National Monument.  We thought when we made our reservation that we would be in the “middle” of the Sequoia, but once we got to our destination-we learned we were not.  Wishon campground is in the middle of the National Monument, but the big trees were located mostly in the National park instead.

Although driving to this particular campground was a challenge in itself, not to mention the campground really couldn’t accommodate our travel trailer, I still wouldn’t trade what we did.  We had the most peaceful and beautiful park that one could even ask for. 

Would we have seen a mountain lion or have her baby cub wake us up with an eerie cry in the middle of the night if we had stayed anywhere else?  Maybe-maybe not.  Or what about the bear that try to get into our trash can?  Oh and let’s not forget this is also the same place that we had a momma bear first huff and then growled twice at us!  Yep, here we heard and seen more nature than we ever had!

Oh, and we still took adventures to see those big giant of trees.

Next on the trail was Yosemite National Park.  As much as we did try, here we could NOT get reservations inside the park.  They were booked up solid.  Closes we could get was at the North end at Dimond O’ Campground.  Although we were only a short distant from the entrance, it was still a long ways down into Yosemite Valley-where majority of the attractions was.

So again trips were planned.  After a few trips in, and soon not liking the crowd, we both were very thankful NOT to be camped inside the park itself! 

We did several hikes, a few of them having to struggle with other tourist, soon was not becoming a fun thing for neither of us.

Next down the road was Bass Lake.  How we picked this particular place-I’m not really sure.  One thing is that I’m glad that we did!  We called it our “Hidden Gem”.  It seems only the locals knew about this little lake. 

Here we got to hike (a very long hike) to a fire tower not to mention taking other walks as well.

   

Now it was time for some minor RV repairs and a short stop near Sacramento.  While the rig was in getting repaired we took this time to take a quick drive over to San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

To continue on our trail in California, the next stop would be spending some time along the Pacific coast.  So Westport-Union State Beach would be our spot for a few weeks.

Spending time here, meant much cooler weather and dealing with fog.  I think out of 12 days we had 5 of those days that were clear of fog by mid morning.

We did enjoy daily walks on the ridge of what use to be part of Hwy One and going to sleep at night with the waves crashing in the rocks below us.

 

Let’s not forget the most beautiful sunsets that one could ask for!

While here, we learned that if Central California was heating up into the upper 90’s to the triple digit, it was a given that the coast would be completely fogged in for the most.  Daily normal highs were only in the 60’s.  Summertime is notorious for fog while winters are not.

Hoping to enjoy the coast a little more, we soon learned that our next destination would not accommodate our size of rig.  We had planned on heading to Kings Range, but had to make different plans. 

Looking at our map we came across Six Rivers National Forest.  We found a campground that fit us nicely.

Aikens Creek Campground allowed us to have a little corner to ourselves and was only disturbed by a skunk letting us know he was still the ruler of the area.

There was yet another campground (E-Nu-Nuck) just across the road from us and we soon became fast friends with the camp host over there.  We enjoy many meals and a few marguerita's with him.  Let’s just say we got our fill of fresh Salmon!

 Liking the Six Rivers National Forest, we found yet another campground that would fit us.  Here we had a fast moving creek right at our campsite!

It was so peaceful to fall asleep at night listening to the babbling of the creek.

It was finally time for us to move on and head to our next reservation into the Redwoods National Park.  We had reservations one week at Del Norte, and one week at Prairie Creek.

Upon arrival at Del Norte, once again we learned that our reservation would not fit our needs-again.  But we manage to find a site that would work very nicely for us. 

We enjoyed hikes and exploring all the tall, tall trees of California and more of the coast.

Once again we were socked in with fog nearly every day.  That was getting hard for us to get use to….

By the time we were to move and head over to Prairie Creek, once again we ran into a problem with our reservation.  This time it just wasn’t going to work and there was no place to actually put us. 

Upon making our reservation, it clearly stated that the site would fit our size of rig.  The site did fit our rig, but the problem was getting to that campsite.  As you enter the park itself, it clearly is posted that two of the loops would NOT fit RV’s over 24 feet in length-but this was NOT posted on the reserved web page!   So now we are in the process of fighting to get our money back…but that’s another story for another time.

We were finally getting tired of the fog day after day, and decided to head into Redding.   We found an RV park with full hook-up and a swimming pool.  It was nice to take a week and actually watch a little TV, enjoy shopping and of course-swimming.

Our first original plan was to spend time at Whiskeytown-Shasta National Forest, but with the temps reaching triple digit every day and nights not cooling down-this wasn’t going to work-specially without electric.

Our last National Park to visit here in California would be Lassen National Park.  I have to say I think this has become our most favorite so far.  Knowing that the mountains surrounding you are actually volcano's, was amazing alone.  But to know that there is still activity going on below is another thing!

Here there was plenty to hike and explore and really one can never say they could get bored.  Although the campground prove to be busy with many travelers, no one was ever out of control or noisy at night.

So here we are now spending our last few weeks in the Plumas National Forest at Lake Almanor Reservoir, just outside of Lassen NP.  We have a great site with sunshine to power our solar panel, great view (not of lake) and plenty to walk and hike each day.

We sit and look back at our adventure.  We notice that we nearly saw no rain at all this summer.  California temps can vary so much, more than any other place than we have seen or visited.  If you want cool weather-head to the coast-anywhere from San Francisco on north.  If you want dry hot days, head to central California.  Right now, we have very cool mornings, with days reaching into the mid 80’s-perfect weather!

I don’t think we have been on so many windy, twisty, curvy roads as we have been on here in California.  You know the saying “What Goes Up Must Come Down”?  Well all summer I have repeatedly told Brian: “What Goes Down, Must Go Back Up”!  That goes for both roads and hiking trails!

I don’t think we have been anywhere where Marijuana is so openly smoked.  We saw it at about every turn we took, there would be someone smoking or sharing that “stuff”….just not use to that….

We have lived majority of the summer without TV, Cell Phone reception, not to mention Internet.  Only power we had was what sunlight we had for our solar or the generator.  We have enjoyed many nights having campfires.

We found California interesting and now I can check mark that off my bucket list and move onto the next thing….

(It’s a secret for now).

NINE MILES OF HIKING….

Lassen Volcanic NP offers many varies types of hike.  Easy for those less enthusiast, moderate for those that like a little more challenge and strenuous for the really enthusiast, like us…

Spending almost two weeks here, we had to pick and choose which hikes we wanted to go on-one of them being Bumpass Hell.   My father always use to tell me that I got the cart before the horse too many times and in this instant-I bought our Bumpass Hell T-Shirts BEFORE doing the actual hike.  So it was no brainer- we HAD to do that particular hike.

Another hike that I really wanted to do was hike to the top of Lassen Peak-but that isn’t going to happen on this trip.  One they are doing some serious trail maintenance and repairs and only can hike a short distant and the second is that they are resurfacing the parking lot during the time we were here…

I wrote about our adventure on top of Cinder Cone.  Now it was time to do an all day hike.  All the hikes that we chose to do was nearly in the middle or at the opposite end of where we were camped. 

We had first planned on breaking up the hikes into two different days, but we soon learned that they would be doing some major road resurfacing; causing major delays in travel time, not to mention that bump outs, and parking lot closure.  Also looking at the weather-it seems now that we could be fighting against some thunder showers for the remainder of the week.  So instead of hassling with this road construction day after day and not knowing if we could get rained on-we choose to do it in just one day.  Here is how it went:

Got up enjoyed some coffee; I started to make a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs and fried potatoes.  Brian took Miss Leah out for a short stroll (to take care of her business).

Packed sandwiches, fruits and snacks, made sure we had our walking sticks, hats, maps of trails and we can’t forget the camera!  We knew that at the end of the day, our feet would be pretty ranked-so we took along plenty of baby wipe-ups, clean socks and our regular tennis shoes.  Oh and we can’t forget to make sure that Leah has plenty of water.

We knew that they were closing the parking lot to Bumpass Hell (for resurfacing) and had to park at Lake Helen picnic area.  Since there was limited spaces, we had to make that this hike was our first stop.  And it’s a good thing we did-by the end of the hike there literally was no room for another vehicle to park!

By now it’s 10:00am, the sun is out, but a cool start to the hike.  I choose though to leave my long sleeve shirt in the truck and brave it; where Brian wore his.  we walk a very short distant along the highway that was being resurface, looking back we had a great view of Lake Helen and Lassen Volcanic.

We jumped on the short spur to the main trail of Bumpass Hell.  Now this hike is considered to be moderate.  The trail was narrow with us having to dodge large rocks here and there-but at least we didn’t have to keep emptying out our shoes. 

Just a short distant we were first greeted with beautiful purple flowers growing all along the trail.

We took a very short side trek off the trail to get a beautiful over view of the land around us!  I was in just awe-that Brian had to remind me that we didn’t have all day for me to stand there and keep gawking.

The trail slowly starts to descend on us and as we march forward the air went from a refreshing smell to an acrid retched smell. And we soon seen why…

We get a quick glance as to what Bumpass Hell was all about and how it got it’s name:

   

The closer we got to Bumpass Hell, the more ranked the air got.  Soon we were on top of fumarole, mudpots and boiling pools.  We went from walking on solid ground to a boardwalk with strict notices all around stating to stay on the boardwalk.

We had steam rising all around us and the smell was beyond anyone's imagination.  Like Brian put it-“it smells like a 100 rotten eggs fermenting in 100 degree temp”.

Once again I’m just amazed as to how active our earth really is….Here is sulfur and boiling pools -hidden behind the surrounding mountains…

 

We soon learned why we MUST stay on the boardwalk and we also made sure that our hat was tied onto us.  Here is what happens when one looses their hat:
notice how the hat is starting to burn holes?

As we completed this hike and heading back, Brian has now taken off his long sleeve shirt and those hiking into Bumpass Hell passes him and makes comments about his T-shirt.  I realized he was wearing his shirt that says: “This Body Went To Bumpass Hell”….

This hike was 3 miles round trip…..

Next on the way was a quick stop at Sulphur Works.  I guess our nostril hadn’t got enough of the stinky smell and thought it needed more.  This really wasn’t a hike, but just another wondrous part of how our earth works.

 

Our next hike will take us to the other end of the park near the visitor center.  It’s called Mill Creek Fall Trail.  This too would be a moderate hike and a little longer.  Before doing this hike-time to refuel the body with our sandwiches.

The hike started out in the clearing and again was very narrow.

I seem to carry this saying this summer: What goes down, must go up….On this particular hike that’s exactly what we kept doing, going down, then back up…

we went from being in the open to forest with peaks of mountains and other volcanoes, in which I don’t know all the names (yet).

As much as I’m intrigued with the volcanoes, I also love waterfalls, so any trails that have waterfalls-it’s almost a must for us to do. 

Being that it’s August, the water fall was still flowing, but I bet it was much prettier in the springtime with the snowmelt. 

After this hike-our bodies needed the fruit.  We also needed to replenish our water bottles as well.

This hike was 4.6 round trip.

The last hike of the day would be to Cold Boiling Lake.  The name alone was intriguing to us.  Is it really a Cold Boiling Lake?  We soon found out.  This was to be an easy hike-so our tired hoofs won’t have to work has hard now…

We get to the parking lot, and there are two trail heads-one leading up a steep embankment and one was along a creek and level.  Since it stated to be an easy walk-we assumed it would be the flat level trail.  Someone here has apparently taking the trail marker off the post to take home for a souvenir-leaving us to guess our destination…

We walked along a beautiful rushing creek.

Thinking it would lead us to the lake, but instead it led us right back to the highway….leaving us to scratch our head.  We left the trail map in the truck-so we couldn’t study it to figure out where we went wrong. 

Well we weren’t the only ones to mess up, right behind us was two ladies-also scratching their heads…But-she had the trail map.  So we all looked at it, and I soon figured out that we must jump on the Kings Creek Falls trailhead to find this particular lake.  So back the way we came, only to climb that steep embankment…

They claim the trail was to be easy, but for us tired hoofers, it didn’t seem that simple to us at first….But shortly we soon found signs that we were finally on the right track and soon we were at Cold Boiling Lake.

So is the Lake actually Cold Boing??? Well, sort of…

We didn’t seen any bubbles coming out of the lake directly, but near the lake was a small pool with bubbles rising from it and yes-it was cold.

  

We both were just a bit disappointed in this hike, but all in all it still was well worth it.

This hike was 1.4 round trip. PLUS 1 mile round trip on the WRONG trail.

Well our 9 mile hike this day turned out to be actually 10 miles.  No wonder our hoofs were so tired.  As we got back to the truck it’s now time to take of the shoes and those stinky smelly socks off.  My socks were completely black and as I look at the bottom of my hikers, I notice that I have worn them completely through the bottom!

After about a dozen baby wipes each, a little rest, clean socks and shoes-we are ready to head home….it was a good day, very relaxing and enjoyable.