Carpe Dory (2)

Our final Oregon stop on this trip is a do over at Diamond Lake. Funny how it’s the things that go awry that stick with you. The last time we were here, I struggled with the altitude a bit (the campground is right about 5,000′). It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was enough to leave an impression. I was conscious of downing lots of water as we drove up, made sure not to have any alcohol, and all was well. I’ve proven to myself multiple times that, as long as I do those two things, altitude doesn’t need to cause concern. I wonder if I’ll remember that next time.

We had time in the day after arrival, so we got in a bike ride around the lake. As this was the first time I’ve had my e-bike here, I actually got to see the whole loop. The first stop, after riding through the lengthy campground loops, is the lodge at the north end. We checked out the little store there and discovered they sell Mint It’s Its, among other things. That is a rare treat. Nothing else spoke to us, but they carry an assortment of snacks and grocery type items, as well as little camping supplies or gifts. No produce at all, but they did have some limited dairy and lunch meats.

On we rode down the western side. This part of the loop takes you through the Thielsen View campground. It’s nice, but there are no hookups, better cell service, or lakeside sites, so I don’t think we would choose this one over the forest service sites on the eastern bank. Then the trail leaves the lake and goes inland most of the way until you get to the south side of the lake. There are so many trees down here. I knew there was a big fire that tore through a few years back, but I guess there must have been some big storms to knock down so many trees. Lots and lots of them just seem to have snapped in half. Some turned over at the roots, most not yet cleaned up. I wonder if the reduction in forest service personnel has impacted their ability to clean up the trails. That is sad.

There is another campground at the south end of the lake called Broken Arrow. The sites here are larger and easier for big rigs to get into. There are no hookups, but bathrooms with flush toilets, and a dump. Again, no particular draw for us to stay here, although we did end up filling potable water at the dump because the one in our campground had a broken handle. The one advantage going for Broken Arrow is that there is excellent cell service for both of us in the Day Use area. We walked over there several times to check in with things.

There are two opportunities for ice cream around the lake. One is at the little pizza place on the south side. They sell scooped Umpqua with sixteen flavors to choose from. Their blueberry cheesecake and mint chip are especially good, with little chunks of cheesecake in the former, and big chunks of chocolate in the latter. Yum! The second opportunity for ice cream is at the lodge on the north end. They sell breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with standard fare selections, but also have soft serve chocolate, vanilla, or swirl. We had that twice.

From Diamond Lake, it’s a relatively short drive to Crater Lake. We parked on the beginning of East Rim Road and discussed just riding from there to see how far we could get. We weren’t sure what roads had been plowed and open to traffic yet, so we wanted to talk to a knowledgeable ranger before trying to bike it. This turned out to be frustrating, as we got three different wrong answers from three different volunteers at two different visitor centers. The visitor center in Rim Village is teeny tiny and the person there basically said you can’t bike anything. We didn’t believe that and drove down to the main visitor center, about three miles down the road. Things were starting to get crowded, and it may be that the volunteers were feeling overwhelmed. One of them told us our best bet was to ride the south section closed to cars because of construction. The other said for sure not to do that and that the only good time to ride is during the annual Ride The Rim event. We ended up just driving back to where we started at East Rim Road. There was a park ranger passing through and we got the closest to accurate information from him. Yes, you can ride any of the roads open to cars. It is no fun, and not advised, to ride the section between Rim Village and Steel Visitor Center because it is the most trafficked by cars, and is also very narrow and deathy in places. After Steel Visitor Center the road is closed due to construction. You don’t want to ride that because it is literally under construction. It is also far from any views of the lake over there.

Really, the best section to ride is East Rim, which is what we did and where we had parked to begin with. There is a lot less car traffic, stunning views of the lake, and good roads with hardly any edginess. Though the ranger said we could keep going on the East Rim after the sign saying closed for construction, we found a person stationed there, stopping bicycles and anyone else who thought they might be able to go through. She works for the construction company and said they really don’t like cyclists mixing with construction equipment and that someone almost got run over. Fair enough. All told, we were able to get in an 18 mile ride, out and back, and had a really nice time.

At one of the viewpoints, people were pointing out a floating stick in the water they called “The Old Man.” This is a floating log, thirty feet tall, with a short section that sticks up above the water. It has been floating around in the lake since at least 1896. There is all kinds of lore and superstition surrounding this mysterious floating log and apparently it is a thing to try to always spot him in that deep rich expanse of blueness.

We spent another day biking around Diamond Lake, in reverse direction, and also got to try out a couple of short hikes. I mentioned this in my blog post last time, and I’ll mention it again: there are mosquitos here. This made hiking less pleasant than biking. Also, because there are so many downed trees, you have to go over or around barriers fairly often. We were content to ditch the hiking and outrun the skeeters on our bikes.

For dinners, we enjoyed our Vadouvan curry chicken and mango chutney fave, as well as a mango chutney, jalapeño grilled cheese with a pear, cucumber and lettuce salad. We also did an indoor dish of sesame brown rice and chicken, with peach pan sauce, and broccoli flavored with soy sauce and lemon juice. All outstanding!

On the equipment front, Richard proved his extreme Tech Support skills while on the road. Our projector sometimes acts funny by not pulling power from the pluggy thing while it’s running. Instead, it sometimes uses its internal battery, which has a maximum duration of 90 minutes. This can be frustrating if you’re watching a two hour movie. Richard has hobbled it along so it mostly works, but it conked out in the middle of an exciting episode of “White Lotus,” so he dove in to see if he could fix it. He carries a soldering iron as part of our travel tool kit. This is primarily for coffee machine emergencies, but it came in handy for the projector. He correctly diagnosed the problem as a loose connection in the power cord, right near the barrel connector (“pluggy thing that plugs into the projector thingy”). He used a campground bathroom with a power outlet as his laboratory and successfully healed the patient! I’m super impressed he could figure all that out and fix it on the road. My only solution was to buy a new projector. This is why we have money problems.

We had a fantastic stay at this beautiful lake. It’s funny. We’ve stopped at Emigrant Lake, Lost Creek Lake, and Diamond Lake, and not once has my boat come out of the roof box. It was almost hot enough one of the days, but then it got a teeny bit windy and I wimped out. Place your bets on whether I stop my whining and make it happen on this trip. Our next stop does not have a lake at least. Bye bye Oregon! See you later!

Total miles from Joseph H Stewart: 46, 14 mpg (or so, I lost the data, but it was all uphill), 1 hour 49 min. Site M17 no hookups. 1 bar LTE for both but didn’t really do anything. No wifi in lodge or anywhere around. Really good cell for both of us at the day use area of the Broken Arrow campground on the south side of the lake. Verizon got good signal from the lodge, but not ATT. Good dump but potable water handle broken. Got water in the dump at Broken Arrow.

Well this was an unexpected adventure! I can’t quite remember why we chose to come to this place, but I think it had to do with wanting some place to stop between Ashland and Diamond Lake, that wasn’t Crater Lake. This is a county park on Lost Creek Lake, right off highway 62, so it fit the bill. As it turned out, Darren had been contemplating bicycle camping at this very same place and had even bought himself a tent for that very purpose. We pitched the idea of having him try it out while we were there, so that if he needed a place to plug in and recharge his e-bike battery, he could use our outlets. We all saw that there would be some rain in the forecast, but we all poo-poo’ed it as being minimal.

We had an easy drive up I-5 to Medford before cutting off into the eastern hills on 62. We had Find My Friends on Darren and could see that we passed him somewhere around the Medford In N Out. He was making good time. We did notice how steep the final ten or so miles would be for him and we wondered if the weather would hold out. By the time we pulled in and set up, there was some light drizzle. After an hour or so though, we heard a huge clap of thunder and the rain started to come down, on and off, pretty heavily. Richard went exploring the campground during rain breaks, and I blogged, all while spying on Darren’s progress. He was moving, so I figured he would let us know if he’d had enough.

He had made a valiant effort, but by around 5:30, his battery had conked out, just as he was hitting the big uphill climb to the lake. It was raining pretty solidly at that point, and his last text was: “Bike battery dead, legs sore, phone about to die. This sucks.” Say no more. We immediately engaged Rescue Protocol. The only questions were: who was going to drive, and how were we going to retrieve him and get his bike in the car. Richard’s bike made the supreme sacrifice and we put it outside in the rain, protected by a tablecloth. Our car is crammed with camping stuff, making it a 2 person vehicle unless you start pulling things out. Not knowing whether I would be as effective at lifting Darren’s bike into the car, Richard was assigned the job of rescue driver. He had the last location for Darren before his phone died, and there weren’t any other ways he could go, so off he went into the rain to retrieve the miserable biker.

Meanwhile, I set about getting ready to host a guest. Dory2 has never entertained an overnight guest before. But without too much effort at all, I was able to set up the front dining table as a bed and make it cozy with a couple of blankets. My admiration for the Alto design is refreshed and renewed at how smartly put together these things are. It turns out we even have a privacy curtain that we must have chosen as an option, just sitting there, tucked out of the way and feeling superfluous. This was the first time it has been put to use and it was super handy. I do have a complaint though: the privacy curtain in the 1723 (bathroom model) does not go all the way across from wall to wall because the track hits the shower area. In Dory1, I solved this problem by adding another short stretch of track and custom sewing a curtain that would wrap around the corner of the shower track. Said modification was named the “Sad Room,” because it gave me a completely dark place where I could sit and brood while Richard made dinner, if we were out on Friday after a particularly bad week at work. I should really take Sad Room out of Dory1 and install it in Dory2. It is useful at night to create two separate spaces, whether for unexpected guest privacy, or in case someone wants lights on while someone else wants to sleep. We always carry extra towels and washcloths, plus blankets, so I would say the only thing we were really lacking was a pillow. We made do, but I’ve made a note to myself to squirrel away a camping pillow somewhere, just in case.

Richard found Darren huddled inside a bathroom off 62, charging his phone from a wall outlet, which was very smart. They were easily able to fit the big e-bike into the car, and the bedraggled bike tourer was saved from having to pedal unpowered, uphill, in the rain. Darren arrived at our campsite laughing, which is the best attitude to have when half baked plans go bottoms up. Phone and e-bike batteries got plugged in, hair got dried off, and all dripping jackets got hung in the shower. I put on a skillet of a couple of Bertoli pan dinners to warm the wet ones, and all was warm and cozy.

After dinner, we all watched “Fences” on the projector screen, with a little microwave popcorn for ambiance. This was a follow up movie, added to the list after having seen “Jitney” at the Festival. Now we’re on an August Wilson film mission.

Richard treated Darren to a Cafe Dory specialty 12v latte in the morning and we all talked about what we could do for the day. Darren decided to head home, having completed his fact finding expedition, but wanted to see the lake first. He was not interested in trying to ride the whole thing, and accepted the offer to drop him off in Medford where he could pick up the Greenway and bike all the way to Ashland. Meanwhile Richard, who is not a happy camper when it’s raining, took on the task of getting laundry done in the town of Shady Cove. Given how we can only really carry two people at a time in the car, there were some logistics that needed to happen for all of this to take place. It’s kind of like that logic puzzle of how to get a fox, a chicken and a bag of grain across a river, minus the danger of anyone eating anyone else.

First order of business was to drive Richard to the little laundromat in Shady Cove. It was a gamble, but the place had nice clean machines. There I left him and went back to get Darren, who spent that time walking around the park and lake to see what’s what. Now he has a way better sense of the scale of e-bike touring and figures he could do it if he broke the travel days into two stops. It’s about 25 miles from Ashland to Medford, and again as much to get up to Lost Creek Lake. He’s gone to Medford and back home before, so he thought he could make it on one charge. The difference in those two sections is the climbing, and now he knows just how much that depletes a bike battery. He knew he’d be fine on a fully charged battery if I got him back to Medford.

Richard had gotten through the laundry by the time Darren and I were driving back down, so we stopped and put it all in the car. We left Richard behind to go explore the Shady Cove Market, and then see if he could find the potentially excellent tacos he’d read about, up the road in Trail. That was his job while I went to deposit Darren at the Medford In N Out, where we said our farewells.

The Trail Market has a tiny gas station and a tiny store. It also has a tiny Mexican restaurant inside that gets very good reviews. I was skeptical, but oh man. This place is seriously worth the stop, just for the food. These were some of the best tacos I’ve ever had, I’m not even kidding. I couldn’t figure out what about them was so good, but we learned that all of the tortillas are hand made and fresh with each order. We are now committed to learning how to make our own corn tortillas. We also got four weekend special tamales to go, one of each kind. They included chicken, pork, beef, and jalapeño and cheese. Just outstanding. If you’re ever passing by Trail, OR, you simply must stop at the market and have some tacos!

We returned to Dory with one fewer inhabitant, clean clothes, and delicious dinner. The rain eventually let up in the late afternoon and we put on all our rain gear for a walk. Yes, the rain kilt came out, loud and proud! Darren had mentioned hearing some strange booms when walking around the park, and we heard one too, with no plausible explanation. It didn’t sound like a firing range, and there didn’t seem to be any quarries nearby. The mystery was solved when we saw historical cannons set up in the day use area. It turns out there happened to be a Civil War reenactment event happening that weekend, and the participants were having fun shooting at each other. We chatted with them about their gear and how one gets into this kind of thing. It was a little awkward discussing how people literally choose a side to defend, even if it’s only a pretend Civil War. I noted equal numbers in the confederate and union camps. Interesting implications for modern times, no?

We wrapped up our day hiking the park trails, most of which were narrow, but paved. They skirt the lake a lot of the way, and cross little streams and waterfalls via wooden bridges every so often. We stopped at the marina and discovered they sell soft serve at the little store there. I didn’t take a picture, but should have. These are, thus far, the smallest soft serve portions we have yet encountered. I mean, they were cute, but also $3.

This was a really nice park. It made the whole stop a thousand times more fun because we got to camp with Darren. I’m impressed that we have as much of a set up as we do to host a guest. Touring with an e-bike would present a whole other set of challenges, so I’m glad my bicycle touring days are over. We far prefer Dory traveling, but it was fun to see Darren get out there and figure it all out. We will for sure come again for a non rainy do-over.

The big takeaways here: Altos are incredible, Trail Market tacos are a must stop, fresh corn tortillas transform a normal taco into a leveled up dining experience. Smaller takeaways: don’t try to freeze extra ice cream in the freezer, no matter how much on sale it is. It is mush at 4, but if you turn the fridge up to 6, the lemon waters will freeze and explode.

Total miles from Emigrant Lake: 55.2, 17.1 mpg, 1 hour 32 min. Site C24 hookups. Great cell service for both. Good dump with potable water. Day use, boat launch, campground store with soft serve.

Ashland is always a welcome refuge, either as a destination of its own, or as a stop along the way during longer trips. We always count on the full service experience at Emigrant Lake and it never ever disappoints. I have learned over time to not reserve the ridiculously long RV21 because it just feels silly to set up where the services are and still have a hundred feet of site in front of you. The normal hookup sites have views too, and with the water levels super high like they are now, sites 8, 9, 10, and 19 have pretty easy access to the water. If one wanted to boat. Assuming that the one who wanted to boat was not too lazy to get a boat out of the roof box and set it up. Absent that theoretical person, we will never know how easy it would actually be to get a boat to the water from site 9. Seemed easy.

Replenishing was the first order of business, including a bicycle mission for Richard up to Best Buy in Medford, a grocery run, and a catch up on the blog. We got to hook up with our son, Darren, for dinner at Louie’s and walked the trails in Lithia park beforehand. We always love seeing him and we caught up on news, followed by a trip to the candy store afterwards. The city is buzzing right now, which feels wonderful compared to the past couple of years following Covid. I missed out on some show tickets in fact because some are sold out. Though a little disappointed, I was mostly thrilled to see things filling up. Besides our groceries, from the lake to the Bowmer and Elizabethan theaters, all things look full and in the process of replenishment. A deep soul felt sigh of relief welcomes these signs that this special place can perhaps rekindle and return to its glory days.

We began our Tuesday with a bike ride on the Greenway, with a donut destination in mind. The Greenway is a nice multiuse path that sometimes follows Bear Creek, and sometimes skirts I-5. It starts on the north end of Ashland and continues through Medford. Puck’s Donuts used to be a regularly frequented spot, from the time I was a high school thespian visiting annually with all the theatre kids. It sadly closed in 2017, apparently because the owner wanted to move to Texas. But at least there are two remaining descendants, one in Phoenix and one in Medford. The one in Phoenix burned down in the Almeda Fire of 2020, but it is now completely rebuilt and open for business. This was our mission and we were not disappointed. For the record, we both thought the lemon filled and the chocolate glazed raised were as good as our beloved Johnny’s in Lafayette. That is a high bar and once you reach that level in the Doughnut Olympics, this judge can no longer determine a clear winner. They’re just really good.

We took care of some business that afternoon by shopping around downtown Ashland. My little Altoistes facebook group just hit the 10,000 members mark! I started this thing back in 2014 because I had no one to talk to about Altos while we waited for our pickup date. There was an online forum, mostly in French, but not the kind of instant feedback community I really wanted. I saw that kind of thing happening with some other RV brands and took a shot by starting a facebook group to see what might come of it. Here we are ten years later with 10k people, representing the US, Canada, Australia, and a number of other countries. From this group came a spinoff group for french speaking Canadians, a group for the Down Under folks when Safari Condo shipped Altos to Australia for a while, as well as a group for current owners, pet lovers, and camping cooks. I count many of the people in these groups as my best friends and have happily traveled across the continent to hang with them. If you have an Alto and have a problem on the road, you can rest assured that if you post something, someone somewhere will answer you within minutes, trying to help. We have Altogathers where we share meals and stories and make friends for life. Who’d have thought all this would come from starting with a silly little group of 2 way back when! To honor the milestone, I needed to send a silly something to the 10,000th member, and to the person who guessed the closest in terms of when our group would hit that mark. Cute camping themed prizes were acquired at Paddington Station and mailed directly from the post office, one to Quebec, and one to Colorado.

While I was at it, I snapped and sent a picture of an empty survival kit container to my dear s’mores friend. The friend who purchased a s’mores caddy and brought it camping, only to unintentionally devastate her children when she opened it up in the campground to find it empty. In very small letters on the box were the words, “food not included.” She found herself running around the campground begging for marshmallows in order to prevent multiple meltdowns and I have never, ever let her forget it. Until the day I die, I will be sending her shots of s’mores displays everywhere I go. This time I sent her the empty survival kit as a way to say, “At least your story was only s’mores. Can you imagine how this story might play out??”

That night, we got together with our Ashland friends as well as Darren. Though he has been living in Ashland for four years now, he has never crossed paths with them. Different circles no doubt. It was a delightful dinner at Martino’s with good company and outstanding calzone. Being a Tuesday, we figured we could do Italian Taco Tuesday and still honor the spirit of the day.

Darren came with us to see August Wilson’s “Jitney” that night in the Bowmer. I’d never seen this play and it was incredibly well done by an outstanding ensemble cast. Classic high quality festival production here and I highly recommend the show.

The next day Richard went out on a bike ride up Old Highway 99 while I reconnected with transplanted Lafayette friends. These people also bought an Alto and Sue used to work at my school. I remember the day she walked into my classroom. I was busy talking teacher talk with a colleague, deeply discussing something. I paused to see what Sue might need, and she simply said, “You have an Alto!” I completely dropped whoever it was I was speaking with and just talked to Sue forever. It was wonderful to catch up with her and Bob.

We saw a matinee of “Julius Caesar,” again in the Bowmer. This production was done with an all female cast. I found it really fascinating which bits felt completely plausible and which didn’t. It was very well acted of course, and has brought up conversations around male power vs female power, how they are the same, and how they are different. Very thought provoking and timely. The evening show of “Merry Wives of Winsor” was in the outdoor Elizabethan theatre. It was lively and humorous. It’s not one of my favorite plays, but it was entertaining. We were reminded that outdoor plays are cold and we came equipped the next night with a fuzzy comfy bankie.

And finally, on our last day in town, I got to reconnect with my dear friend Darcy. She was the musical director at the Cabaret, as well as at the Festival, for many many years. We’ve stayed in touch online, but nothing replaces the in person time. That’s when you can ask, “So what was really happening there?” I love her and I’m so glad we got to grab a few hours next to the lake.

Richard was meanwhile doing an exploration mission of the trails on the other side. Having determined they are full of burrs, we opted to drive up Dead Indian Memorial Road to the Grizzly Peak Trail. All told, this is a five mile trail with a sustained climb the first mile. It offers stunning views of the entire Rogue Valley, Mt. Ashland, and even Shasta in the distance. The drive to get to it is no small deal. You climb three thousand feet in about ten miles, so while I was hot back at Dory, foolishly leaving all my warm jackets behind, I found myself chilly on the exposed parts of the trail at the top, especially when it got windy. Lesson learned: never don’t take clothes.

We wrapped up our stay with “Into the Woods” in the Elizabethan. I have seen this show once before, apparently during a legendary performance. When I saw it, the character Jack had climbed to the top of the stage backdrop, and had just finished belting out: “There are giants in the sky!” Right at that moment, a huge flash of lightning and immediate boom of thunder stopped the performance dead in its tracks. He shot a priceless look to the audience and exclaimed, “Did you see that??!” as the stage manager announced, “Hold please.” The performance was paused for a full 40 minutes while management assessed whether it was safe to continue. I’m not sure if I knew this, but Darcy told me she was one of the people on stage at the time, frantically wiping all of the instruments with soft cloths to try to protect them from the rain. Something at the time told me that cast would be telling that story forever, and it seems that is indeed the case.

The performance did resume, but I swear, I remember absolutely nothing about it. When I saw this year’s performance, it was as though I’d never seen a production of the show before. It was absolutely outstanding and I’m so glad we wrapped up with it. The performances, music, staging, things coming up out of the floor, all of it, are a whole new level in production spectacle. I was really impressed, but also so tired. These old country mice are not used to late nights anymore and the show closed around 11. Then, it was home for a late shower for Richard and sound sleep for both of us.

I will never not stop in Ashland if we are anywhere in the vicinity. This place will always be part of who I am and remind me of so many happy years, visiting and living there. I get in as much social time as possible, and it’s an added bonus to accidentally run into Darren at Safeway. I love all of it and it’s a highlight of any trip.

Total miles from Sarah Totten: 61.9, 17.7 mpg, 1 hour 57 min. Site 9 full hookups. Excellent cell. Solar, but hookups so doesn’t matter. Good dump on entry, but full hookups so doesn’t matter. Free campground showers, but have Dory, so doesn’t matter.

This stay completes our Highway 96 Klamath River grand do over. I’m giving high marks to Sarah Totten campground, but boy, we very nearly bailed on it. We sure do get triggered by long sections of no connectivity. I knew that going into this area of California was going to feel remote and “rugged,” but I think that is mainly due to the general lack of cell service. Interesting how when we rolled through as bicycle tourers twenty years ago, cell service wasn’t even a thing. I vaguely recall this stretch being a highlight of that whole trip and I can now see why. We are finding it interesting how the convenience of the internet has created a reciprocal mental burden when it is not there.

Twenty years ago, we flew down I-5 until the rest area at the start of 96. There, we made a decision whether to follow the Klamath River, or to go south to Etna and then up and over a huge climb to the Salmon River. That would have routed us through Forks of Salmon; hence the decision to dip our toes on that road by staying close to Somes Bar. This stay put us on another river ride along the Scott River. Sarah Totten is located right at the start of that ride, so it made sense. However, given we had to stop to dump tanks along our way, we got a brief burst of internet in Happy Camp. We paid $20 to use a hookup site with a sewer at Bigfoot RV Park, and while we were doing that, we both tapped into the free internet. That quick shot of adrenaline got me all activated and simultaneously created a strong desire to stay connected. In that state of mind, I began looking at other campground options in the general vicinity of where we were going. I saw that there was a place called Quigley’s RV Resort that boasted wifi and “waterfront hookups sites.” It was tempting. I went so far as to look at their reservation website and saw that they had availability for $69/night. That was a lot more than the first come first serve forest service campground, but it felt worth it at the time. This all played out in the back of my mind as we moved across the street to the grocery store (which also has wifi) and we did some shopping. As we were getting ready to continue back on the road, we discussed all of this and both of us were feeling pulled to go past Sarah Totten and instead continue to Quigley’s. We agreed to at least stop and look at the campground and make a decision then. On we went.

It is a gorgeous drive along 96, with never ending views of the Klamath, and well maintained roads. We had gotten a really early start, mostly because we are always nervous about first come first serve situations, so we arrived at Sarah Totten just before 11. It was nice. And totally empty. No problem getting a site, as is almost always the case. We determined which one was the nicest and, without yet committing to staying there, backed in and had some lunch. We both sat at the picnic table and made sandwiches, gazing at the river through a gap in the trees. As I sat there, I could literally feel my body relax. Like I noticed my shoulders lower, my chest open up, and my jaw loosen. It was so striking that it made me realize just how much that short shot of internet had gotten me wound up. I made the call right there that this was where I needed to be for the next three nights. We unhitched leisurely and wrote a check for $30; $10/night for three nights.

Given how much time there was left on the day, we decided to ride our bikes 17 miles up the road to see what Quigley’s was like, and either confirm or regret our decision. With $30 invested, it would not have been a giant loss if we’d somehow decided to change our minds, so I wasn’t worried about that part. And I did want one more check in with the world. Our daughter is having a rough time right now, but so is a major part of the whole country. The plan for the next day was to participate in a national protest in the nearest place I could find that was holding an event. I was really anxious about that, but reading reports of potential violence breaking out did nothing helpful for my psyche. Still, I was drawn to the news about it, and wanted to wrap up a conversation with our daughter and make sure she was ok.

Off we went, going slightly uphill and upstream. I remember how, twenty years ago, I had noticed that following 96 in the south westerly direction meant traveling downstream, which logically meant we would be mostly biking downhill. I was absolutely right about that, and I suspect that played a big role in how much I loved this area at the time. There was very little traffic, although this is the way truckers take, especially given all the road construction. Truckers tend to be very courteous to bikers and give lots of passing space, so it’s not really a problem, just something to note. We encountered a couple of one lane construction points, either with a timed light, or with a flagger, and we saw a whole lot of standing dead trees when we got to the wildfire zone. The Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire (SRF) in burned from August to November of 2022, devastating 41,596 acres. Its mark is quite apparent in the north eastern side of the wilderness and set an ominous tone as we eventually arrived at Quigley’s.

Immediately on arrival, I gestured to Richard that we had made a really good call. The whole feel around Quigley’s is not as peaceful. Yes, you can sort of see the river from the slotty hookup “waterfront” sites, but you have to stand on a table to catch the view over the top of the shrubs. The sites are all in rows next to each other, so there is no privacy. But there would be hookups. Yes, there is excellent wifi and the store is cute and fun. We both got enough service, and an ice cream from the store, to feel we’d done enough civilizationing for the day. Then we turned around and rode all the way back to our blissful state of natural beauty and worldly ignorance. It would have been more pleasant if there hadn’t been a headwind, but that was only a problem for Richard. I tried my best to be a wind block for him so he could draft.

The rest of the day was spent dozing off in our Nemo chairs to the sound of the river and a cold margarita for me. Dinner was a scrumptious sour cherry glazed pork roast with foil packets of fresh thyme infused potatoes and garlicky green beans. This was topped with a sour cherry-mayo sauce, sprinkled with parmesan, and it was absolutely amazing. I saw, but did not photograph quickly enough, a river otter swimming upstream.

The next day was a big one. Either 5 million or 13 million, depending on whom you listen to, came out to protest the current regime. Whatever the actual number, it was a historical showing of opposition and it mattered a lot. I knew I needed to be part of that, it was just a question of how that was going to happen on the road. I sort of shifted the timing of our stays so that we could be a reasonable drive away from a sanctioned gathering, and that meant Yreka, deep in a very red county of northern California. We thought it was a good idea for Richard to get in a ride in the morning to help regulate him before the protest, so he rode and I drove, meeting up again at Quigley’s. This turned out to sort of backfire on him because he got very tense when he found the ride to be a lot more difficult and time consuming than he had assumed from the previous day. For my part, as soon as I got service again and scanned the news to see that there were no outbreaks of violence, I felt a huge wave of relief. Richard rolled in kind of stressed, but he was able to shake it off and we drove the rest of the way to downtown Yreka.

We found a showing of maybe two hundred (?) people gathered in front of the county health building, all with signs and American flags. I absolutely love connecting with people at these things. It reminds me how many people feel the same way, and how not alone we are, even in deep red counties. There were overwhelmingly more honks, waves, and thumbs ups than flipped birds, which is also encouraging. The energy was positive and full of determination. It was like a mainline infusion of hope, which I desperately needed.

I think we had about as much fun as it is possible to have in Yreka, since we were also there accidentally on their “Gold Rush Days” street fair. Obviously, Richard had already found an ice cream place to visit, which doubles as a clay crafts studio. Bella Art Works Creative Cafe serves specialty grilled cheese sandwiches, a variety of cafe foods, and ice cream that includes flavors made by BJ’s, an ice cream parlor we (obviously) visited in Florence. They also run a studio where you can paint clay items, like bowls, cups, statues, etc. individually, or for a party. Super fun place!

The street fair had several blocks closed to car traffic. There were some food booths, bouncy houses for kids, a band stage, and information on community organizations. It was located in the historic part of town, which was both cute and fun. We walked around for a little while and then drove over to their community park to go on a little hike. We discovered a disc golf course, which made me think of my friend Caz’s kids. The trail through the course continues uphill to a nice viewpoint overlooking the town. At the bottom, there is a small reservoir that is plentifully filled with trout and bass. A local person fishing showed us a little nursery near the shore where there were lots of good size baby fish just hanging out in the shallow water. It was a really great day.

Our last day in Six Rivers was spent on Scott River Road. In case you’re curious, the six rivers of this region’s namesake are: Klamath, Smith, Trinity, Eel, Van Duzen, and the Mad. The road begins much like the other one; a two lane well paved road with little traffic, which gradually narrows and starts to climb away from the river. There is then a long descent and you stay fairly flat and close to the shore for five or six miles. Along the way, you pass an incongruously manicured section surrounding a lodge and several satellite cabins. This is part of the Scott River Lodge resort. We passed by a couple in a golf cart, and as Richard is often wont to do, he asked them some questions about the area. The husband referred to the resort as a “husband and wife retreat.” My curiosity was piqued at the specificity of the label, so we made a note to look it up later. It turns out it is a religiously based retreat for married couples where you can spent $6-8,000 for a six night stay. The organization running it is named “JH,” which explains the couple of signs I saw along the road stating “Stop the JH expansion.” It seems, even in the remote places, there is no escape from politics.

We rode as far as the Indian Scotty Campground and had lunch in one of the empty sites. You could definitely fit a trailer in there, and I would not be as nervous towing Dory on that road as I would have on Salmon River Road, but it would still be tense and for not much more value than just staying at Sarah Totten. The road continues on to Fort Jones and we don’t know what that side is like, but we did for sure see some trailers in the campground, so people can do it.

We wrapped our stay with a delicious grilled chicken and poblano taco dinner with chipotle mayo and melty cheese tortillas, with Mexican spiced carrots on the side. I made a decree that taco dishes must be grilled, but we’ll see if I keep to that. The campground, and our site in particular, were just phenomenal. We saw multiple people putting rafts in the water there, with a plan to take out downstream at a place where they parked a pre-planned vehicle. Personally, I wouldn’t want to float this river unless I was with someone incredibly knowledgeable. Wide, calm waters turn to rapids very quickly. I saw a little deer swim across the river and I was genuinely worried about it. Maybe they do that far more than I realize because they made it without getting swept away.

Total miles from Pearch Creek: 72.5, 18.1 mpg, 3 hours 10 min with stop in Happy Camp to dump and shop. No hookups, ok solar, no dump. Water spigots. NO cell service and no wifi until Quigley’s 17 miles away.

Highway 96 along the Klamath River is literally why we have Dory. Twenty or so years ago, Richard and I bike toured through this area. I learned then that I am not the biker that Richard is. I also learned that I really don’t care for campground showers. But I did love the traveling. Life sort of ceased for us for about ten years, but then our son went on an adventure through Northern California and Oregon. He carried a satellite tracker and I remember following his progress wistfully as his little blip made its way through the Klamath and Six Rivers National Forest. His trip rekindled in me feelings of wanderlust, but I had to find a way to do it that was compatible with reality. Teardrop web searches led to small trailer searches, led to the Alto 1723, still the only solution that does 100% of everything we need. It is strange that it took eleven years of Dorying before we tried a grand do over on Highway 96.

Leaving the Eureka/Arcata coast, we knew we would need to top everything up. Richard filled the fresh water tank in Sue Meg using a jerry can. We got gas for the car and for the generator, and enough food to last a week before heading over the pass on Highway 299. There are two big climbs and descents, which I pedaled myself over once upon a time, thank you very much. Doing this in a car brings fewer bragging rights, but also less crying, so it’s an overall win.

There is a lot of road work happening at the moment. On the upside, almost all of the road surface is in excellent, freshly painted, condition. On the downside, we spent a good amount of time waiting for pilot cars to take us past ongoing construction. The views are every bit as thrilling as I remember, and there is very little traffic.

As for services, there is the town of Willow Creek, at the bottom of the pass. We didn’t explore that much, but it has some restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, a hospital, and even an Ace Hardware. This whole region is known as Bigfoot country, so many of the businesses are going to be named accordingly. In fact, this part of 96 is called the “Bigfoot Scenic Highway.” So we will for sure be looking for him.

Hoopa is the next town, right in the middle of reservation land. This is smaller, but has a grocery store, museum, a couple of restaurants, and a gas station with a mini mart. Cell service went in and out along the road. We rolled on through though, looking forward to seeing how much Orleans had to offer. 

We found the answer to the question to be: not a lot. There is one functional, but not modern gas station. No credit card pay at the pump 24/7 here. There is one store, and there is a conservation center with free WiFi. No cell service anywhere in town.

We had a reservation in the Forest Service campground of Pearch Creek. Originally our plan was to stay closer to our bike ride at Oak Bottom, but they closed due to downed power lines. This was just a couple of miles away, so no biggie. 

When we pulled in to the campground, there was almost no one else there. Almost. Just behind our site, I could see someone was lying on the ground, surrounded by plastic bags and various pieces of clothes and things strewn about. He was talking to someone, which was confusing since there was no cell service. We also noticed he had something plugged in to a power pole located a few yards behind our site. Benefit of the doubt said he had a power booster or satellite system, but other signs indicated he was simply talking to someone who wasn’t there. We unhitched and got set up as per usual, but I had in the back of my mind that we might be leaving, depending on how our friend seemed. I saw him start to pick up his things and put them in bags. By the time we were set up, he was carrying all the bags and walking out of the site. He gave a friendly, “Hi, how are you?” and followed with “Did you have any trouble backing in?” Casual, not hostile in any way. We greeted him back. And with the expected social interaction completed, he closed with, “Bye.” He walked over to another site and carried on the conversation with his invisible companions. Sometimes he gestured wildly, or clapped, or waved his arms. I decided he seemed harmless, just in his own world.

Richard rode into “town” to get all the info while I watched our friend. I was alert, but not afraid. I did activate “bear protocol,” just in case, with all the windows fully closed and door locked. When Richard returned, he said he spoke at length with one of the locals, and apparently there are lots of these guys around these parts, harmless she says. Our friend stayed in his area the entire time we were there. He seemed to have food and a sleeping bag of some kind. It wasn’t too cold at night or I would have been worried about him. It must be a hard life, just finding food and shelter. Maybe people mess with him, maybe people are kind. It’s a whole lot of small close knit communities out there, so I imagine people kind of take care of each other. That’s what I hope anyway.

After a very nice dinner of seared pork with grape agrodulce, we drove out to a small store in Somes Bar called Salmon River Outfitter. And really, the “town” of Somes Bar is just that store. It is a great store though! We need to remember to time our visits in the future to line up with doughnut days. We just missed this one, which happens every Wednesday morning. The owner bakes a whole bunch of delights and they sell out immediately. They had everything we could have needed and they have free wifi. We got our fill of outside world news and went to look at Oak Bottom campground, just to see what that would have been like. There was nothing particularly special about that place vs Pearch Creek, except that it is right on Salmon River Road, which was our planned ride for the next day. To do again, I’d be fine staying in either place. Forest Service campgrounds are only $10 a night, usually with no services and no dump. Some are reservable and some are first come first serve. Both Pearch Creek and Oak Bottom were reservable.

The next morning, we drove into Orleans to gas up before our bike ride. In areas with no service, we quickly find out where all the wifi is. The Mid Klamath Watershed Council building has fast wifi, but you have to go inside to get the password and they close at 6. Once you have the password, it works 24/7. We chatted with a guy who works there who has done all the bike rides around. He gave us some good intel for the next couple of days.

We parked the car at the first turnout on Salmon River Road and started from there. This is a glorious bike ride to Forks of Salmon and back. Twenty years ago, we considered taking this route from Etna and wow. I would have been very challenged by the lack of any services whatsoever for that whole 57 mile stretch. I guess our plan would have been to do the whole thing and land in Somes Bar or Orleans where we could have gotten food. We were pulling 80-90 mile days on that trip though, so I suppose it would have been doable. In a car, I’m not sure how well I’d do. There are a lot of places that are super narrow, with hundreds of feet of dropoff on your left or right. I don’t think there was anything that would have caused an outright panic attack, but I would be very tense the whole drive. On bikes is definitely the better way to go.

The first seven miles is a normal two lane road, with the river running to your right. The road rises and falls gently, following the flow of Salmon River. Eventually, you cross the river and come to a place with a sign saying the road will be narrow and winding for the next 35 miles. It’s not kidding. It also warns against trailers and I whole heartedly agree. Someone painted “Begin Freeway” on a rock wall just before a particularly deathy part. I think if this was a one way only road, I could do it, maybe even with Dory, but the thought of having to squeeze past someone when up on those hight points makes me panicky. There are certainly sections of maybe up to a quarter mile where one of you would have to back up to get to a pull out. No thank you.

Once you get to the Nordheimer Campground, the road calms the hell down all the way to Forks of Salmon. And since that is the big metropolis of the area, the road is marked with a “Congested Area” sign. This is funny. There is an elementary school and a post office and a tiny little park with a vault toilet and some mining equipment on display. The population in 2020 was 118 and we didn’t see any of them. Not sure what children are going to that school, but there was a crosswalk. I wonder if they have a crossing guard. Maybe that person is also the teacher. So many questions.

Forks of Salmon is so named because of the literal forks in the Salmon River that divide there. From that intersection, you can get back to the Highway 3 area either through Sawyer’s Bar to Etna, or through Cecilville to Calahan. Any way you go, it’s going to be a narrow edgy road experience. Our ride took us 17 miles from Highway 96, and we just turned around and rode it back. I made it all the way on one battery, but again, was glad to have a spare strapped on my bike rack.

We celebrated tackling this once pondered, never taken, road by going back to Salmon River Outfitters to get a treat. Finding their ice cream coffin selections to not quite hit the spot, we drove instead to the market in Orleans, so named the Orleans Market. They had Haagen Dazs, and that was just perfect.

Dinner was a saffron chicken with kale rice and aioli. While cooking, we ran an extension cord from the power pole behind our site so I could properly charge up the bike battery. When using the generator, we try not to let it charge until the light on the charger turns green. For some reason, this seems to trip the fuse and the generator shuts off. We’ve had that happen twice now. Instead, we wait until the light on the battery itself turns blue, time 45 min, and then unplug. It reads 100% when you put it on the bike, but I do notice that it drops from 100% faster than when it charges all the way to green. Either way, having two batteries and a generator for times when we don’t have hookups works just fine. Too bad I couldn’t have bike toured this way. But then again, touring with a Dory is worlds better than actual tent camping. *shudder* Life is good. This has been an excellent do over so far.

Total miles from Sue Meg: 98.9, 16.7 mpg, 5 hours 1 min. No hookups. No cell. No dump. Water spigots and vault toilet. Site 1. Little tiny bits of solar. Electric pole behind site has 110 outlets. Ran extension cord from pole to Dory to charge bike battery.

We learned an important lesson the last night at Burlington: if in doubt, run the generator. The redwoods are super dark and virtually no solar was coming in. We had run it once, and figured Dory’s battery was fine for the last night, but we woke up to a pretty low voltage in the morning. We had enough charge for coffee, but I wasn’t going to mess around with running the water pump for a shower. We decided to pack it up and move to our next reservation, with a stopover at a Safeway for grocery shopping and solar charging in the parking lot. This was all fine and decided without urgency, but Richard did feel a little bummed because he wanted to do a morning hike along the river while I showered. We will have a do over some day and not hesitate about running the generator in the afternoon. It only takes 2-3 hours to fully charge everything, including my bike battery, so getting this done around making dinner time works pretty well. FWIW, I like the little Honda 1000 better than the blue Yamaha. It is much quieter, despite what the specs said on paper. Also worth noting is that once my bike battery starts blinking blue, you can let it go for another 30-45 min and it will be charged to 100%.

Last time we came through, we stopped at the McKinleyville Safeway and Richard attempted to ride from there to the campground. While he was ultimately successful, it was not a fun ride, because Google routed him onto a dead end road and he had to do a lot of uphill pedaling on Highway 101. This time we topped up at the Fortuna Safeway. There is a dump there, behind the Chevron station, that costs $10 and has water for rinsing. After logistics were done, I blogged in Dory and Richard rode out to the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Strava, the exercise charting app, showed a popular ride going up Tompkins Hill Road. He said it would not have been a good Dory road, but for bikes it offered a nice climb and an easy way to get across 101. We met up at a staging area near the south Jetty of a spit that encloses the bay around Eureka.

The weather was overcast and chilly, so Richard was good to stop for the day. He stretched, and we gawked at a paraglider getting ready to leap off the cliff overlooking the beach. It was a fascinating show, but in no way enticed us toward trying this as our new hobby. 

With all logistics out of the way, and some time killed so we wouldn’t arrive too early, we were set up for a nice three night stay. We ran the generator to top up all the things and went for a lovely walk along the rim trail after dinner. The site was very nice, with lots of room for outdoor lounging, which we didn’t use, and a secret path to the Rim Trail, which we didn’t use except to verify that’s what it was. Everything in the park is lush and tropical feeling, with rhododendrons of all colors blooming wildly.

For our first full day, we got out on our bikes. Riding out of the park and onto Patrick’s Point Drive will get you spectacular views, but also a lot of bumpy or fully unpaved sections of road. I wonder if the locals are opposed to ever fixing these. If the conditions were decent, I’ll bet everyone would be getting off the highway to take this breathtaking route. As it is, you really have to earn it, and I imagine that keeps traffic down. 

From Trinidad, you continue on Scenic Drive until it ends and puts you onto the highway. You can ride this to the next exit, which is about two miles downhill, and get off at Crannell Road. This gets you to Clam Beach Drive for the next few miles. We stopped and walked our bikes out to the beach for a nice lunch, which seems to be a popular activity, as evidenced by a long  flexible boardwalk surface, just perfect for wheeling bikes or wagons full of beach picnic supplies. 

At the very south end of Clam Beach, we picked up the Hammond Trail. This is a multi-use, mostly paved, trail that runs along the coast all the way to the Mad River Bridge. Sometimes if follows surface streets, but it is always clearly marked so there is little danger of getting lost. Speaking of getting lost, this was the trail Richard had been trying to get to on our last trip. He never found it, because, well, he is gifted at getting lost. We established that it is actually incredibly easy to get from the McKinleyville Safeway to the Hammond Trail. Turn right on Hiller Road and go 1 mile. Boom, can’t miss it. I mean, you can, I suppose, but it takes talent.

We made it all the way across the Mad River Bridge and even checked out the day use county park by the beach. It’s a beach. Got it. It’s a full twenty mile bike ride from Sue Meg to the bridge, and the out and back landed my battery at 7% as I rolled into the campsite. Perfect day. I did take my backup battery, with no regrets, but it turns out I didn’t need it.

We celebrated on the way back by stopping at the Lighthouse Grill in Trinidad. This place has some of the best ice cream I have ever had. It is made in house and maybe that’s why it is so good. They also make their waffle cones fresh and warm, so the ice cream slowly melts as you eat it. I had blueberry cheesecake on that day, Richard had vanilla and cookies and cream. I had banana fudge and Richard had chocolate almond on the return trip the next day.

Our second full day was spent hiking the state park trails. We had done all of these before and nothing was new or different. A heavy mist made things chilly all day. We did all of the out and backs from the Rim Trail and ended up with about a five mile hike. Some of the trails are getting a bit overgrown, an indication that this is a rainy area. And some of the steps down to rocky tide pools are falling apart, an indication that this is a stormy, wave battered area. It is gorgeous, with or without blue skies and you can stare at the rocks out in the ocean surf forever. 

We tried a wing it recipe for TACO Tuesday with Mexican spiced beef and poblano pepper, with a side of corn and pickled pepper salad. I’d say it was good, but needed something saucy. I also really love tortillas heated on the grill. Don’t know how to capture that in Dory when it’s not grilling weather.

This is a lovely park with lots to do. If you know how to find agates, you can hunt for them on Agate Beach. I don’t at all know how to spot agates, but I do know pretty rocks when I see them and you are allowed to gather 15 lbs. The pond will be getting some Agate Beach bling. There are plenty of amenities in gorgeous nearby Trinidad, including gas and a good market. And for everything else, Eureka and Arcata are the big towns nearby. This marks our last stop on the coast. From here we turn inland for the rest of the summer. Fun stay!

Total miles from Burlington: 89.9, 16.0 mpg, 6 hours 40 min with stop for shopping in Fortuna and detour to Table Bluff. 4 bars of LTE or 2 bars of 5g for both of us. Spigots nearby. No dump. There is a dump on the northbound side of the rest area just before the park exit. It is free and a good dump, with rinse water, but no potable water. After you exit, you get off at the very next exit for Sue Meg park. On our departure, we went south from the campground so we could pick up 101 going north. Then we did a loop de loop to get off the freeway and once again head down south. For the future, it is way easier to just take the freeway for this maneuver, rather than take the Scenic Drive, as you hit all the unpaved bits before you get to the exit. It’s some rigamarole, but it’s a free dump.

Beginning with the important bit: June 6th is National Donut Day. We had celebrated, quite well in fact, but still Richard wanted to demonstrate his donut devotion on the day itself. He found a bakery on our way in the tiny town of Garberville. The towns along 101 in this part of California are really teeny tiny. There was however Il Forno Bakery, known in the area for its fresh pastries, breads, and donuts. Sadly, though we got there before 9:30 am, they were out. Boo.

Not to be daunted, we stopped at the last possible place on our way, Miranda. The Big Foot statue in front of the Avenue Cafe is practically as big as the whole town. But lo and behold, inside the Miranda Market, they did have packaged donuts. This was our fall back option. Like we were pretty sure we could get gas station donettes somewhere, but we did better. There was a display of Bon Appetit “Gourmet” donuts and we got the chocolate and crumb varieties. You guys! For packaged donuts, these are actually really good. The chocolate ones are what I always want the Hostess ones to be, but they never live up to my expectations. We have also now tried the strawberry cheesecake, and those are yummy too. I think this blog is now just going to be about finding donuts on the road. “Just keep swimming” will refer to the need for constant exercise in order to work off the donut calories.

With Donut Day in the bag, we still had a problem: arriving too early at the campground. We were lucky in that there was a safe spot in front of the Visitor Center to leave Dory until we could get into our site. Not sure what we would have done had that not been the case. The parking lot was too small and there weren’t a lot of pull outs where I’d feel fine just leaving her. But happily, we were able to get out our bikes and do a lovely ride up the Avenue of the Giants and up Mattole Road. There was a slide a little past the campground and a section of the avenue is closed to cars. No problem scooting past on bikes though.

This ride is one of our all time favorites. Majestic redwoods line both sides of the meandering road, keeping you in shade and awe the whole time. At times, the Eel River reveals itself to your left. You can stop and partake of some of the named grove trail hikes, like Rockefeller, Founders Grove, Big Trees. We had done most of these before, but we are not yet tired of the sky high natural wonder of this place.

Besides the sheer loftiness of the standing giants, the other thing that gets your attention in these groves is the ginormous fallen trees. They just go on and on, stretching hundreds of feet across the forest floor. These are an integral part of the old growth ecosystem and you can see multiple plant species taking advantage of the nutrients. One of the trees, the Dyerville Giant, was said to have created such a booming sound when it fell, that it was heard by a resident living more than a mile away. So that answers the question about the tree falling in a forest with no one around to hear it.

We got as far as the Albee Creek Campground and turned around. Mattole Road goes on to the Lost Coast and all the way to Ferndale, which marks the top of the Lost Coast. We dipped our toes into that world once and it’s a lot of narrow unpaved road for miles and miles. There is a campground out there somewhere, but it would be a brutal drive we’d not want to take Dory on. Past the Albee Creek Campground, Mattole Road seems like just a road, as it leaves the redwood forest, so we were content to head back.

Dinner that night was another Blue Apron recreation of stir fried ground turkey and Bok Choy, fresh ginger, garlic, and scallions. Radishes marinated in rice wine vinegar and sesame oil, with a sauce of soy sauce and a tbs of sugar. Over the top is a mayo Gochujang mixure. It was really good.

In the evening, we walked over to the amphitheater (which we will forever call “campground wifi”) where there was a ranger talk. It was all about the mammals that live in the forest, and I learned a lot. For example, I did not know Ring Tailed Cats were even a thing. Now, I would really love to spot one. There are foxes apparently, as well as the regulars, like bears, skunks, flying squirrels, and raccoons. My pond cam at home is showing me clips of late night raccoon spa parties in the pond, so I get my fill of raccoons regularly. One interesting fact we learned was that the Humboldt Flying Squirrel is a “cryptic species,” which means it hides among other similar species, so they didn’t know for a long time how many were left. Also, the Ring Tailed Cat, which is not a cat, can completely rotate its feet, allowing it to climb down trees head first.

The next day we rode north on the the Avenue of the Giants as far as the Drury-Chaney Trail. This hike is well worth the extra trip. The trees are enormous and the fallen ones seem ancient. The forest floor is covered in thick carpets of clover and ferns, making you feel like you have stepped into Rivendell.

On the way back, we caught the small loop trail at Grieg-French-Bell grove. This trail has been majorly messed up by tree fall. We had a hard time navigating because it seems that a giant tree has blocked the loop. There are informal smaller trails to get you around it, but you’ll have to do a little scrambling through branch piles. Unless you want to climb over the enormous trunk.

To celebrate, we stopped for ice cream at the little gift store by the Immortal Tree. That tree got its name from the number of natural, and unnatural, disasters it has survived. I honored its tenacity with a mint It’s It.

Dinner that night was chicken tacos in Guajillo pepper paste with a roasted corn and pickled jalapeño pepper salad. This was cooked on the grill, and it was wonderful. It has been mostly too cool so far for grilling, but I’ll take advantage of any nice weather that presents itself. I do love to grill.

One last thing to note about this campground: it is really really dark. This matters if you are trying to keep your batteries charged with solar panels. We ran the generator one night for a while until it ran out of gas and shut off. We figured that was fine. We should have run it again the second night to get a full charge. We woke up with batteries on the low side and decided, since generator hours don’t start before 10 am, to pack it up and head out. No big deal, but it’s worth remembering. Great place, wonderful stay.

Total miles from Standish Hickey: 44.4, 19.0 mpg, 2 hours 19 min. Site 56 no hookups. No solar. Next time: run the generator every day a little. Occasionally functional 1 bar of LTE, better for Verizon than ATT. Good wifi in Visitor Center but doesn’t do pictures. Workable cell here and there when out and about. No dump. Spigot in site.

Lest you think I can’t get bored of repeat stays, here is one that I will say we don’t need to do again. I chose it because it falls right at the intersection of the twisty turny final hurrah of Highway 1 as it bends inland to hit 101. I have traditionally been frazzled after that drive and have appreciated the opportunity to stop. Maybe I’m getting more used to that drive, or maybe we are leaving earlier in the day than we used to, but for whatever reason, I really did not need to stop when we pulled in around 1pm.

Yes, we consistently enjoy stopping at the Peg House (“Never Don’t Stop”), but I think we could do that without the overnight in the campground. Richard has been looking forward to the “world famous” blackberry sundae and it did not disappoint. I have a thing about vanilla ice cream in the same way I have a thing about whipped cream. To me, neither one has enough taste to warrant the calories. Like, I’m happy skipping whipped cream in almost all scenarios. And when something is too vanilla ice cream forward, I’m kind of meh about it. So though I understand the appeal of the sundaes, I spent my calories on a silly treat purchased in the Peg House store. And they certainly do have a wide array of treats there, so no worries.

That said, once we had walked the short nature trail, and had our fill of sundaes or non sundaes, there wasn’t a whole lot to do. We figured we could walk down the steep road to the river, just to kill time. A few yards along, there was a noise. Richard froze. I did not immediately recognize what the noise was. It sounded like maybe insects or something and neither of us could make out exactly where it was coming from. You all know I’m hearing impaired right? Hearing aids are not super at giving you the location of where sound is coming from. It was very good that Richard had frozen in his tracks. I looked around, not terribly alarmed, until I saw a gigantic rattlesnake just off the road, and only a few feet away from where Richard was standing. I began backing away and I think I said, “It’s a snake.” He still didn’t know where the sound was coming from and I urged him, really insistently, to “walk toward me.” I would have grabbed and pulled him if he hadn’t started moving.

From further away, we could see the rattlesnake, all nicely coiled and ready to strike. There was a sign near the kiosk warning of rattlesnakes, but honestly, we see those everywhere, and have come to tune them out. This was the first time we have ever encountered a really big rattler in a situation that could have potentially ended badly. We closely watched everything everywhere the rest of the walk.

After dinner, we went back over to the Peg House because I was still a little peckish. We split a grilled cheese sandwich and a brownie and chilled to the sound of a live music. There is nothing to complain about here. I think I just could have continued on further up the road. We spent a lot of time discussing whether the section of 1 between the coast and 101 would be reasonable to bike, like if Richard wanted to pedal campground to campground. So first off, that would be a very long ride. But to my mind, the important point is that it seems excessively dangerous. There are nonstop blind corners, no shoulder, big climbs at the outset, and highway driving expectations from the cars. He will forget how thoroughly we discussed this, but I will not. Let’s leave it at: should he get really excited about riding that stretch in the future, he should know that he’s going to have to engage in a big discussion with me about it.

We both think it would be a good idea to shoot for Richardson Grove State Park a little further up the road. Yes, we will of course stop at Peg House (cause it’s a rule). I will remember that they have Root Beer Floats, which is one of the few applications of vanilla ice cream that I fully support. But as for staying again in the rattlesnake campground, I think we’re good and can try something else next time.

Total miles from MacKerricher: 42.4, 14.7 mpg, 1 hour 56 min. Site 3 no hookups. No solar. Water spigot in site. No dump. 1-2 bars functional LTE.

Fort Bragg is a no fail fun time stop on our way up the coast. This time, we had a very important mission to accomplish right out of the gate. As Richard is well attuned to all things ice cream and donuts, he has been looking forward to celebrating National Donut Day (which is June 6th just in case you didn’t know) for quite some time. In fact, he already realized that we would not be in an ideal location to properly observe the holiday on the official date. Furthermore, he researched the best donut places in ALL of the proximate locations and determined the most worthy contender would be Drop In Donuts in Fort Bragg. And finally, he found out ahead of time that it would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday. That left us Monday only to sample the doughy offerings. And since this place is a small batch specialty bakery, making only what they feel like putting out there and selling until they are sold out, they can run out a couple of hours after they open. This presented us with a seriously stressful situation.

We made the decision to hook up and roll as early as we could without being nuts about it. Richard wanted to ride up the coast, but even at his fastest donut motivated pedaling speed, it was going to be a journey fraught with disappearing donut dread. So my mission was to fly ahead with Dory and hope to get a parking spot close to Drop In. I was to then use my best judgement to procure a properly representative selection of one or two to share, and have something waiting for Richard when he arrived at the campground. I arrived at 10:00, with ample parking and a non empty display case. SUCCESS!! The thing is, you really cannot put me in charge of narrowing down the selection of unique specialty donuts and expect restraint. The owner listed off all of the varieties in the case: maple spice, chili hot chocolate, chocolate cream filled, coconut, cinnamon sugar, and chocolate strawberry. I struggled visibly for a while and finally said, “What would happen if I said one of each?” She had already perceived my dilemma and had the number “21 dollars” at the ready. “Perfect. Let’s do that.” I did use some restraint in not ALSO getting a slice of donut bread pudding. I might have FOMO about that.

I waited for Richard in the Day Use area by the lake and waited a respectable amount of time before losing patience and sampling one, then two, then three of the donuts. Of course I left him half of each. Oh my dear god, those were good. The chocolate filling was like some kind of rich custardy pudding and the strawberry glaze on the chocolate cake donut was intense. We both thought the maple glazed spice was the best overall. We have made a note to make sure future visits to Fort Bragg do not happen on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, just so we can go back to Drop In.

Our site this time was in the Surfwood loop and we are fans. It is closer to the beach, and quieter than the main campground. It is only open for part of the year, so that is worth noting. I managed to pick a site with the least solar, but the most privacy. We needed to run the generator on the second day to charge up my bike battery, so it really didn’t matter. And we loved the privacy. There was maybe one site at the beginning of the loop that would have a view of the ocean, but then you’d lose the privacy. I think I would try for this one again in the future. We spent the rest of the day walking out on Ten Mile Beach in the fog. Dinner was a pork and vegetable stir fry, which was delicious. 

The next day we spent biking up and down the multi-use trail. That is a favorite activity for sure. You can’t get better scenery and there are short little trails down to the water, like at Glass Beach. On the other side of the bridge at Noyo Harbor, you can go a short distance to another day use area and catch views of the harbor from the other side. And of course, on your way back, you can head into town for a stop at Cowlick’s Ice Cream. They not only have great ice cream, but also great hot fudge.

We tootled around a little and made a visit to the local music and gaming store. I text argued with our daughter for a bit on what constitutes “too many DND dice.” I did not get her another set, and in retaliation, she sent me a super cute picture of our cat showing his fluffy belly so I’d miss him. Diabolical, she is.

Soon, we started thinking about dinner. If you are on social media at all, you may have seen the word “TACO” thrown around more than usual. The trend amuses us and it was a Tuesday, so we decided to enjoy a TACO Tuesday dinner at Los Gallitos (appropriately slang for: “cocky little tough guys”). They had a $10 two taco + margarita special, almost as though they knew I was coming.

And on our last full day, we redid the Fern Canyon Loop Trail in Russian Gulch State Park. Boy was that a good call! We just happened to be there at exactly the right time to see all of the rhododendrons in full bloom. This is just a spectacular trail. You can do a loop up through a lush fern canyon, then cut up through dense redwood forest, swinging around to a nice waterfall at the top. On your way back, you can take the North Trail which tracks a little higher above the valley and ends back in the Russian Gulch Campground. The whole entire way, we were gifted with glorious pink blooms, filling the forest floor and lining the sides of our path. 

We could easily stay in this campground some time. It is also only open part of the year, but there were plenty of sites that could have fit Dory. The cell service there was not great, but it was pretty, with the little creek running through it. It is about fifteen miles south of Fort Bragg, so close enough to services.

We wrapped up our stay with a delicious recipe of Shawarma spiced rice with currants, carrots, and ground turkey. Fort Bragg gave us our last evening with clear skies for the sunset and we walked the boardwalks, entertained by bobbing seals splashing about in the sea foam. Richard is thoroughly enjoying his first official week of actual vacation, and we have learned that we can recharge my bike battery in under two hours of generator time. All wins.

I doubt I will ever get bored of Fort Bragg. Even if we do the same things over and over, they are always fun. It’s also always a good replenishing stop, where you can refill groceries, propane, gas, and of course donuts. Of the three approaches to Fort Bragg (Highway 1 from the south, Highway 1 from the north, Highway 20 through the mountains) I prefer the coastal route from the south by far. If I wanted to cut off some of the roller coaster, I could take 128 from Cloverdale, landing on the coast at Navarro Beach. But when there is time, I really like the Salt Point-Navarro-Fort Bragg trio to get in the summer spirit.

Total miles from Navarro Beach: 27.2. 15.0 mpg, 1 hour 10 min. Site 139 Surfwood loop. No hookups. Water spigot in loop. Some solar, but topped up with generator. $10 dump and hole is too small for dump hose. Water spigot in dump is on wrong side, so have to do a maneuver to turn around or run the hose underneath. Potable water tasted weird. Something to consider for the future. Generally, not our favorite dump, but at least you can dump. 1-2 bars 5g. Surprisingly slow given proximity to Fort Bragg, but workable cell service for both.

Now we work our way up the coast for a couple of stops. It was windy, so Richard opted to get in his exercise by power walking the bluff trail at Salt Point while I was taking a shower. This is almost always a good idea for him. It gets him regulated first thing in the morning, thus making him far less tense about traveling, getting a site, all the unknowns for the day. Highway 1 has gotten a lot of new pavement and, despite a couple of short waits at one lane construction points, it was a lovely drive. The secret to driving in wind is to go slow. That is not a problem on this section of 1. You’re supposed to go slow here.

We were the first ones in to grab a site, so we unhitched and walked on the beach for a while. We decided later to do a short trip to the tiny town of Elk to see if the store had their fancy caramel popcorn (aka “crack”). They were out, which is just as well really, because it is very hard to stop eating that stuff once you start. We walked down to the beach and enjoyed the view before heading back to Dory.

It was a chill day, so we continued just beach walking. Two things were interesting. First, when the tide comes in at a river outlet, it is jaw dropping how much of an inland current forms. The water was rushing in through a narrow sand channel, raising the banks of the entire delta lake by many feet. The power of the ocean blows me away sometimes, even though I realize this phenomenon takes place twice a day, every day.

The other interesting thing was that we came upon a pile of someone’s beach things that was being attacked by a clever crow. There was a plastic bag with potato chips inside that the crow had managed to open up. It was feasting on Ruffles and flying away, one chip at a time, leaving pieces of wrapper blowing in the wind. We scooped up the trash and tried to use the towel and shoes to cover things up. We noticed whoever left it also left their iPhone just sitting on the beach. The crow circled overhead and waited for us to walk away before diving down again. It had no trouble removing the towel and shoes barrier to get back to the chips. We became kind of obsessed with who this pile might belong to. We approached a couple on the far side of the beach and asked if they had left stuff. They had indeed and we described the state of their former lunch. They laughed and seemed to appreciate our efforts, and then slowly walked back to salvage the remains. We were puzzled about why someone would leave a phone on the beach. The waves were coming up pretty close to their spot. But I guess if you don’t have pockets and/or really don’t care about your phone?

We weren’t going to get a sunset, so I stalked a little white seal for a while and called it a night. This is a great stopover spot. I can’t tell if there was too little cell service or not enough cell service. Maybe it was a perfect amount. Like if you really want to know something, you can walk your butt out to the waves. Otherwise, ignorance is bliss. There were only a few surfers and other campers there. The porta potties are fine, but even better is having your own bathroom. Perfect for a one nighter on the way along the coast.

Total miles from MacKerricher: 58.7, 2 hours 6 min, 16.6 mpg. Site 1 first come first serve, no hookups. No dump, no water. Very little cell, but 1 bar of 5g or LTE out by the water to the right.