HIKING CINDER CONE

Cinder Cone is located at Lassen Volcanic National Park, on the Butte Lake side.

Cinder Cone has to be about the third most difficult hikes we have done in our lives.  The other two were at Zion National Park-one being Angel's Landing.

As Brian keeps putting it: “It felt more like rock climbing than hiking”.  Every step you made-the rocks underneath would move.  One step forward-two steps backwards….

As we started the hike near Butte Lake, we see this huge wall of rocks.  At a glance and without knowing, it would appear to be a man made dam for the lake.  We soon learned differently.

It was actual blocks of Lava that spewed hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

As we start our adventure on this hike, we picked up a Nature Trail brochure that explains things as we go about the first mile or so.

We  learned that the trial that we were on, was also the same trail that Emigrants took and became a small section of the California Trail.

We learned that the last eruption to Cinder Cone was back in 1650 A.D.

As we go along, the trail is made of Lava Rocks that has broken down and almost appears to look like black sand.  It’s kind of difficult, but the first mile is relativity level, with shade trees.  As difficult it is to walk on the Lava rocks, can you imagine what it was like to take loaded wagons across this same section?

Then we finally see the Cinder Cone Volcanic and think: “That can’t be that hard”…..yeah right…..

Here we go, determine to make it to the top….

We made sure we have brought plenty of water, snack and lunch along.  It’s a good thing…for the climb was VERY difficult.  As I stated earlier-one step forward, two step backwards.  We would take about 10 steps, stop, rest, 10 more steps, stop, rest. 10 more steps, empty out shoe-without trying to fall back down the hillside. This continue all the way to the top.

From the bottom of the hill to the top, took 45 minutes.  But once at the top, we were reward with the most spectacular views and a look of what inside a Cinder Cone Volcanic looks like.

I’m just in total awe of the view, So breathtaking!!  Where else do you get a view of lakes, other volcanic mountains and painted dunes?

It’s time to take pictures, rest and eat lunch,  empty out shoes (again). 

As we look down into the Cinder Cone, there is a trail to the floor, where others have adventure down and place a rock on a mound.  It was mutually decided that I would adventure down, place a rock on the mound while Brian snaps pictures of me doing this. 

Not too many others would take the extra steps downwards (knowing they had to climb back out), but at least I can say I did it!  the part that amazes me the most as I place a rock on the mound; is that about 6 miles below me, the volcanic is still very much alive and active. 

Now it’s time to head back down.  I notice a trail on the back side of the Cinder Cone.  I was pretty sure that it meandered downwards and then around the bottom of the Cinder Cone, or we could take the easy route and go straight down the way we came up.  But why make it easy??

Going down the back way wasn’t the easiest route.  The Lava rocks were much bigger and one point I somehow landed on my bottom side.  No worry-no injury…

We get what we thought was down, rested, emptied out our shoes (again) and continued on.  Climbing down more, and gaining yet more rocks in our shoes, we once again have to… yep, you guessed it…empty out our shoes!

As I thought we ended up on the backside of Cinder Cone(of what is called a bypass route, for those that don’t want to climb upwards).  We could have easily been down off the mountain at third of the time-but we didn’t want the easy route!

We can’t even begin to count how many times we stopped to clean out our shoes.  The final was when we got back to the truck and took off both shoes and socks; my feet were about as black as the Lava Rocks themselves!  Thank goodness for baby wipes that we keep in the truck!!

We were completely tuckered out and we know by morning our leg muscles will be sore.  But it was all well worth it to us.  Would we do it again?  Yes-but we would NOT take the back route coming out again…that was too much.

 

RECONNECTING….

I grew up in Freeport IL, where I was an orphan along with my 3 other brothers.  When I was six years old, I was adopted and lived with loving parents that took good care of me.  I knew of my other brothers and were told that they too eventually were adopted out.

Growing up I often wondered about my biological family.  What were my “real” parents like?  Do I look like any of them?  Do I have any other biological brothers or sisters and where were my Brothers?

In my teen age years I learned a little more about my 3 brothers.  One of them was fostered out and lived right there in Freeport while the other two were adopted and lived close by in the city of Rockford.  I finally got to meet my one brother, Randy.

As I got older and moved to Sioux Falls SD, Randy would call me and come for visits.  He also helped out on a few occasions…He would drive all the way to Sioux Falls, just to bring me back to Freeport so that I could visit my adopted parents, and then turn around and bring me back to Sioux Falls again…Randy with my oldest daughter, Becky

One day he called and said that he had found our biological mother and that we had two other sisters as well. Before I knew it I was united with my brothers and sisters…

  Randy and my other brother DannyDuane another Brother

My Younger sister, Kenna and me

My beautiful sister, Kay

Shortly after that visit, my sisters came for yet another visit, bringing along my biological mother.  It was an awkward moment, but one I will never forget…

I came to a point in my life that even though I wanted to know my biological family, I felt some kind of loyalty to those that adopted me and knew this would upset them greatly.  So at that point in my life-I lost all contact with my sisters and brothers.  Occasionally I would see Randy and we would have short visits-but yet I needed to get my own life in order and didn’t want the extra drama at that time. 

So I have let years and years go by…..

Recently I have had the time to do some serious soul searching.  With both of my adopted parents gone now and having the feeling of lost of family connection in my life, I decided to reconnect with Randy and two of my sisters once again.

Wow!  How the years have changed all of us!  Each of us have gone our own ways and raised beautiful children.  Kay and I are both grandparents while Kenna still has two daughters home with her yet.  And Randy, well, Randy will always be Randy and special in my heart.  He too has a son that has grown into what appears a fine looking young man. 

I did learn that we lost one of our brothers, Danny and that sadden my heart.  My biological mother is still going strong at the age of 75 and goes to South Padre Island in the winter time.  I haven’t communicate just yet with her, but in time I will.

I can’t wait to the day comes that we can be face to face and reunite once again.  But for now we will communicate via phone and FB!

I have learned to forgive the past and live for the present…..

LIVING OFF THE GRID

(NOTE:  This is an exceptionally LONG blog-so sit back and enjoy my story)

For well over a month and a half now we have lived nearly off the grid.  Cell phone and internet connection has been impossible to find.  Oh it was out there and could be found if one truly wanted it.  But we choose not to seek either of them out-for the most part.  So how did we do?

I find that I could easily go without cell phone and internet.  Brian I think missed it a bit more than I did.  He likes to check the weather on a daily basis.

Being off the grid meant that I lost all communication with my Facebook friends and family, and at one point we even forgot to take the time to check in with our daughter, Lissi. 

During this time it gave us the opportunity to do some serious soul searching and some looking back at our past.  It allowed me to decide whether I wanted to keep the connection going with Facebook and continue with my blogging.  At one point I think I was eager to give both up, it was sort of nice not worrying about finding that 3G Verizon tower to get connected or a Wi-Fi service.  But that wouldn’t be fair for those few that do follow us both on Facebook and through my blogging-so here I am-back at it again, and I have to honestly say: I do miss being connected with ALL of our Facebook Friends and Family after all!!

So here is what and where we have been during our time of “Living Of The Grid”:

After leaving Bass Lake and going in for some minor warranty work on our rig, we took this time and drove over to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  Now how can one say they  are touring California and not make a stop there?  So we did just that.  It was a fast track trip there and back with just the truck (leaving Leah back in a nice comfy environment).  It reminded me how much I hate city life and driving through the cities was pure crazy.  But worth the stop non-the-less. 

It was a foggy morning and a bit on the chilly side.  Leaving the 90+ degree behind, we forgot to grab our sweatshirt.  So here we are in shorts and shirt and one long sleeve shirt, freezing our fannies off, and yet very determined to walk the mile long bridge from one end to the other and back again.

        

The fog did lift a bit at times, allowing me to shoot some pictures of San Francisco and Alcatraz and Angels Island.

 

Thank goodness for Ms. Garmin in her help in getting me through San Francisco!  What a confusing city it is!  Again I’m in total awe with how the streets and homes are built!  We saw a garbage truck that appeared to almost be on his nose-literally! 

 

After all that, we was totally ready to head out now to the boondocks and live off that grid!  We now headed towards Westport-Union State Beach.  We both wanted to spend time on the ocean and walk the beaches.

We had the most perfect campsite one could possibly ask for.  Our door faced the ocean and we had the constant sound of the waves hitting down below us.  Out of the 13 days we stayed there, I think less than half of it was fogged in.  But we did manage to have some nice sunny days.

There was only a short section of beach that we could actually walk on.  During low tides, one could walk about a mile, but only at low tide.  Only time the tide would be low enough to get around some very large rocks and boulders was early morning.  So one morning, we got up and did just that. 

I love exploring the tide pools and looking at the sea urchins that come in during this low tide. 

 

We did at one point had to decide if we wanted to turn back around, or continue on.  We got ourselves into literally piles and piles of soft kelp!  It stunk to high heaven and was gushy under our feet!  But turning around at this time really wasn’t the best idea, for the tides were already starting to come in and we didn’t’ think we could get around the large boulders.  So we plugged our nose and went for it-yuck!!

Each morning and evening we would walk with Leah a portion of old Hwy One that runs through the State Beach.  This section of what once use to be Hwy One, has literally fallen off into the ocean-mainly due to extreme high tides (winter months) and surprisingly little due to earthquakes.  Part of Hwy One had to be re-routed inland to keep it from all falling into the Pacific Ocean.  This walk was always peaceful and very enjoyable.

 

And of course the one and only morning, our last day there, we decided not to take Leah for her usual morning walk and headed into Fort Braggs to do our laundry and grocery shopping.  As I’m driving along, we notice something brown on the path that we normally took, at second glance and quickly pulling the truck over we realized it was a bear!

We watched him as he climbed the fence post as if it was nothing, heading behind our truck, taking his sweat time, he stops in the middle of the road, looking at me-deciding if I was interesting or not, I see from afar a car coming, so I start yelling at him and off he runs into the high grass and towards the nearby mountains.  One time I didn’t have the camera, and of course the phone cell phone wasn’t up (it takes 3 minutes for our cell phone to start up!). 

The best part of this particular campground was not only watching the ocean, but the sunsets that we did mange to get!

Now onto our next destination:  We were going to head into Kings Canyon Range, but soon discovered that we would not fit and they only allowed RV’s under 24 feet only.  Disappointing us greatly, and not knowing which direction to head-we again had to find what our next move would be.  At this time we choose to go deep into no man land: Six Rivers National Forest.  Here is literally “Living Of The Grid”!  No big towns nearby, no close neighbors parked on top of you, nothing but pure nature and serenity. (don’t ask how we came upon this-but we did and loved it).

Our first stop into Six Rivers National Forest is Aikens Creek.  Upon arrival, the campsites didn’t look to be used much and not sure if we would like it here or not.  But after parking and then walking farther back in we found us a nice secluded huge area to park.  We had the campground basically all to ourselves for the most part and what was really nice-no one could park near or on top of us.  And what a view we had from all directions!

 

At times it did feel a bit eerie, being the only ones back there.  We weren’t sure if we would feel comfortable being all by ourselves, with an occasional vehicle driving through to head down to the Klamath River to fish, but we stuck it out.  As we explored, we found yet another campground just across the road from us.  We would take Leah for daily walks over there and back. 

We became fast friends with the lonely camp host at E-Nu-Nuck.  We would have moved over to that campground-but all the sites were completely shaded and where we were at, our solar worked great.  As the friendship grew, we soon were taking supper meals with him, and let me tell you-the man could cook!  Being in Salmon country-we enjoyed meals like fried salmon, clam salmon soup, and just plain smoked salmon.  On a few occasion-I did the cooking while Brian and John played cards.

Every Saturday he made his specialty- Chili Verde with beans and topping it off with a good Marguerita (or two).  Any campers in the campground all was invited.

While here we learned the history of Aikens Creek.  There is a portion of the campground that is completely been closed off.  And what I mean by closed off, is they literally took and built a huge berm, and then the gate so that no one can get back there-unless on foot.  Apparently many years ago, the local native Americans discovered a cave just adjacent to this part of the campground and found some artifacts.  They wanted the campground shut down to save this sacred part of the land.  Well, the head ranger in charge at the time was married to a local Native woman, and instead of going through proper channels and procedure, he took it upon himself to close the campground completely down.  This causing a ruckus among both locals and the fisherman that loved to come here-he retired and that portion of the campground would remain closed. 

So as we explored what once use to be a really nice campground-is now run by skunk and other wildlife.  In fact that skunk let us know that he was still in charge of the area by leaving his lovely fragrance one wee hour of the morning.

Also while there, we got a very unusual 4 days of heavy clouds and rain.  By that 4th day and going stir crazy-we decided to take a drive; ending over a 100 miles away to Redding, CA.  We went from being cold and wet, to hot and sticky.  It gave us a chance to see what Whiskey-Town was like for that was going to a stop down the road-eventually.

As the days went by, it started to heat up.  Being out in the sun was great for the solar, but getting too toasty with little shade upon us.  As much as we did enjoy the camp host, John, we also notice that we were putting on weight-that we didn’t need.  It was time to move on….

Next stop is still in the Six Rivers National Forest, but now closer to the small town of Willow Creek.  This campground is now called Boise Creek and is much more civilized.  The sites are defined with a camp host on premises.  We found a wonderful site with a huge area.  The temps are still toasty-but with lots of shade it was tolerable.  The downfall to it all was that we were right off of Hwy 299 and we could hear the constant roar of the vehicles and the J-Brakes of the semis. 

Taking a drive the next day, we discovered another campground just a few miles up the road that actually would accommodate our rig.  and the best part-it was farther off the Hwy so we didn’t hear the traffic.  It was no brainer-we moved to East Fork Campground and stayed there for another 13 days. 

This campground was very rustic in comparison to Boise Creek and although there were campers-no one was piled on top of another and we all lived in unison of each other.

As the temps were reaching into the upper 90’s six miles away in the town of Willow Creek, we stayed mainly in the 80’s with shade.  The solar would get a few hours of mid morning sun but by afternoon (when it was the hottest), we would be in all shade with a nice breeze.  We would go to bed at night with the sound of the creek running very close to our site. 

Once again we got to meet the camp host and soon became friends.  They are in the process of building their dream home just out of  the town of Willow Creek.  They took us to their property where she has a garden going.  It was nice that they shared their dream with us.

Oh, and did I mention all the time that we were spending here in the Six Rivers National Forest that we are also in Big Foot (Sasquatch) country?  No, never heard their calls at night, nor did we find a foot print-other than at the museum.

                     

So now it’s time to get back to civilization and our next destination into the Redwoods National Park; where we have reservations. 

We did enjoy living off that grid-with no worries or much to care about.  As I mention earlier-we could have found that internet connection-it was out there.  But it was also nice not firing up the computer all the time and living with all the electronics that we so much seem to depend on these days.  It makes one do appreciate for what they do have…..

 

 

BASS LAKE, CA-A HIDDEN GEM

As Memorial Day Weekend approached us on our travel through California we knew that we needed to make reservations somewhere.  Looking at our the map and our route, we somehow came across Forks Campground in the Sierra National Forest-little be known that we would be on a small resort lake.

Following the directions that I got off our reservation-it actually was a bit confusing to find our particular campsite.  First mistake we made-was that the sign wasn’t posted in the direction we were coming from-therefore missing our turn onto Hwy 222.  ending up in Oakhurst, turning around, getting lost for the second time-not seeing that Hwy 222 now veer in one direction- once again ended up on another Hwy and had to turn around for the second time.

At least our campsite was very easy for me to back in and got it in just one shot!  Now it was time to relax and explore for the next 11 days of our stay.

There are several hiking trails that intrigued us and knew that we wanted to take.  First trail we attempted was to Goat Mountain Lookout Tower.  It would be a 4.4 hike-one way.  That sure was one LONG hike!  It really wasn’t too strenuous, but we climbed up and up.

The trail started inside our campground-which made it easy to access.  But about an 1/8 of a mile up the hill, we came to a wide forest service road and wasn’t sure which direction to go.  The trail continued on just a ways from there.  I kept questioning if we were even on the right path.  Our goal was to find the fire tower;  I was being  leery, while Brian was being optimistic.

One thing was for sure-I was extremely enjoying all the different and beautiful wild flowers that we crossed-only if I knew what they were….

         

        

As we kept on hiking, we came across other hikers and soon learned that we were very close to Goat Mountain road.  They gave us further instruction on which direction to turn-for once again their was no signs as to which direction we should go, so we were thankful for their helpful tip.  However, we still had yet well over another mile plus to go!

As we traveled on the Goat Mountain Trail/road-the view was getting more and more spectacular of Bass Lake.

What I thought that I would never reach to the top, we finally found the Goat Mountain Fire Tower!  And what a spectacular view we had from there!!

     

Oh this was so well worth the hike up, now it’s time to head back, and I know we were both exhausted and slept like babies that night!

After giving our bodies a days rest, we now adventure onto the Willow Creek Trail to the Angels & Devils Slide Falls.  The literature we received stressed that this would be possibly a dangerous hike.  We both decided that at any point it got way to hairy for either one of us-we would simply turn around.  The reason this hike could be considered “dangerous” was due to the very slippery rocks near the falls.

This trail is not located in the campgrounds, but off of Hwy 274.  Once again, there was no signage to help  us along, after crossing a bridge, we knew that we went too far.  Knowing that waterfalls has to be part of some source of waterway-the only one nearby was the creek we just crossed over.  Found a hidden road near the bridge and sure enough it was the parking lot to Willow Creek Trail.

As a general rule and from our own experience, a trail is nearby their trail sign.  So we started on this particular trail, to learn that it ended very soon. 

Turning around, we took the other direction and it did lead us towards a water fall.  True to it’s warnings, we found that the trail did follow the rocks and they could be slippery. 

  

We think we are on some kind of trail, but was hard to determined. for there was one or two other intertwining paths, we choose to follow carefully along the water way.

Then we came to a point, that we just wasn’t sure what we should do.  There actually was a cable with a locked roller platform that someone apparently uses from time to time. 

   

We turned around, took yet another trail that ended up leading us out onto some forest service road.  Not ready to stop our hike, we just continued on this road.  After about a mile or so, we came across another trail and followed it.  We now believed we have found Devil Slide Fall….

We finally got to a point where we just turned around and headed back…enough for one day….

After getting back, and studying the map once again, we discovered that the trail is actually on the opposite side of the creek-the same trail we thought ended at one point.  So after a couple of days, we went  back once again.  Found the trail-again, just to loose it again….feeling frustrated, we gave up.  We did learn later on that we did make it to Devils Slide Fall-just in a round about way-or maybe it was the right way.  All we know is the Forest Service in conjunction with California Land Management need to work on maybe putting up some kind of trail marker to help guide us safely to these two beautiful waterfalls….

We hiked all the areas that we could find to hike, enjoying ourselves-even if the trail markers need to be improved.  We even took the trail from our campground, Forks to Spring Cove Campground-a 3.4 mile hike-one way.  We walked the roadway back and again-was completely tuckered out.

As Memorial Weekend came, we sat back and let everyone else enjoy what Bass Lake had to offer.  all the Day-use areas were busting at the seam, vehicles parked all along the roadway, finding a cove to have a family gathering and the lake itself was literally crazy!  I never knew that that so many boats, pontoons, and jet-ski could fit on this small little lake-but they did and they all seem to had fun.  What we found interesting is no water patrol but instead the local sheriff handles and controls the boating on this particular lake.

Bass Lake is a nice little hidden get-away with 3 resorts/lodges and several really nice campgrounds.  It’s surround by the Sierra Mountains.  It’s well known by the locals and those that live in the cities like Sacramento and San Francisco, but for tourist like you and me-it’s a hidden secret that we just happen to come across.  We enjoyed our stay here and the weather was near perfect for us. 

 

We had supposedly a cold front moving in on Memorial Day with possible high winds-but we never got the winds, but sure got a beautiful shot of a huge ring around the sun!