Monday, July 20, 2015

Underdog

 

Or maybe I should call him “Moisture Dog”.

This will be a short blog post as I just hit the road again a little over a week ago.

Before leaving, Freddy did a rain dance in Brother Mike’s backyard.

Sprinkler 1

Sprinkler 2

Sprinkler 3

It worked great! SoCal enjoyed some much needed rain over the past few days. An Angels game was rained out for the first time in 20 years.

Moisture Man and his sidekick Moisture Dog are unstoppable!

My first stop was at Chino Hills State Park. $30 per night. Flush toilets and free showers.

Chino Hills Sign

The campground was reopened after four years on the day I arrived. I was the first one there so I walked the 20 empty sites right away.

The best site is number 2, with 12 and 20 being other good choices.

Chino Hills_002

Chino Hills_012

Chino Hills_020

It was hot and dry. Best time to visit and hike the trails would be in the winter, hopefully after some rain so the hills would be green instead of brown.

Chino Hills View

I continued north to a campground just east of Ojai called Wheeler Gorge.

Wheeler Gorge Sign

This is a nice shady camp alongside a little creek.

Wheeler Gorge Creek

Some choice sites were 34, 46, and 56 among the 70 available.

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Wheeler Gorge_046

Wheeler Gorge_056

Be aware that there has been no potable water available here for the past few years. They should lower the $23 fee to reflect that issue.

Freddy enjoys walking campgrounds with me so far.

Wheeler Gorge_051

But If a site is occupied, he feels compelled to stop and chat with the campers.

Wheeler Gorge_035

He is a very friendly puppy.

He likes hanging out on his bed nibbling on a cow hoof.

Cow Foot

Taking a nap.

Bed Time

And seeing how much stuff will stick to him.

Dirty Dog

Our next stop was at one of my favorite campgrounds near Santa Barbara. Not the beach ones, but just over the pass into the Santa Ynez Recreation Area.

Santa Ynez Valley View

Los Prietos Sign

I used to camp here quite frequently while going to school in town. Must have been 10 years ago. Or 20. Make that 30. Jeepers.

For $25 you get your choice of 37 sites in the oaks. All were decent and numbers 27 and 35 were good examples.

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Los Prietos_035

We rambled farther north, crossing Brother Mike’s favorite bridge.

Bridge 1

Bridge 2

I made the horizon line just a little bit off in each pic to mess with him.

Our next stop will be in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I am hoping that all the tall trees will inspire Freddy to lift his leg when he tinkles. Maybe I will have to show him.

Meanwhile, I am trying to teach this young dog a few other basic activities.

Like fetch.

I believe he will be a fast learner.

Ball

Regards,

Greg

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Humbug Day

 

We all have one. Nothing seems to go right and you just want to yell “Bah Humbug” and go back to bed.

But if you want to celebrate Humbug Day, you need to show up at the tiny historic town of North Bloomfield on June 13th.

North Bloomfield Sign

I just happened to be there along with bunch of other folks.

Humbug Day 1

Humbug Day 3

Giant water cannons were used to literally wash apart hillsides in one of the largest hydraulic mining operations of the day.

Humbug Day 6

Some people arrived by car, others by horse drawn cart.

Humbug Day 2

Humbug Day 4

I walked…from Malakoff Diggins State Historical Park just up the road.

Malakoff Diggins Sign

It is a smaller park with just 30 sites, but they are nicely shaded. Prime examples are 10, 14, 17, and 19.

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Malakoff Diggins_014

Malakoff Diggins_017

Malakoff Diggins_019

It is located about 25 miles east of Grass Valley in the Sierra foothills with typical Cal SP pricing.

From there it was on to Lake Tahoe.

I stopped by Tahoe State Recreation Area right in the town of North Tahoe.

Tahoe SRA Sign

I drove around this tiny noisy campground and not a single site would fit my small car and small trailer. Unless you are tent camping and need to walk to a supermarket, I would avoid this place.

I spent the next few nights at Ed Z’Berg Sugar Pine Point State Park. Turns out we already have the campsite pics on our website so I spent some time down at the day use area and beach.

Lake Tahoe

Sugar Pine Point Beach

Sugar Pine Point Pier

Lake Tahoe is really blue. And deep. There is enough water in the lake to provide every person in America 75 gallons of water per day. For five years.

I stopped at a grocery store in South Lake Tahoe on my way to Silver Lake. Turns out they have a special parking area for little trailers.

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Trailer 3

Pretty cool old school trailer. Look at the tiny wheels. And the nifty front window. We chatted briefly and agreed that smaller is better. For most things.

Anyway, on to Silver Lake.

Silver Lake Sign

Keep in mind that there are two Silver Lake campgrounds in the Sierra’s. This one near Lake Tahoe and the other near Mammoth.

Last time I camped here was in 2004. I was in my tent sound asleep when I heard a ruckus from my neighbor’s site. Turns out they left a cooler in the backseat.

Bear Damage

No problem for a determined bear.

Bear Damage Closeup

The Stellar Jays enjoyed the feast as well.

Some of my favorite sites there are 18 and 58.

Silver Lake_018

Silver Lake_058

Last time I was in site 40, a great tent site.

Silver Lake_040

This time I was in site 44, along with my friend Melanie who came up for a visit.

Silver Lake_044 

Between my small trailer and her rooftop tent we had plenty of inquisitive visitors.

The next morning Mel, Fred, and I enjoyed a decadent breakfast.

Big Breakfast

Then we walked to the Kit Carson Lodge next door.

Kit Carson Lodge

Kit Carson Store

That is one of the reasons this campground is so popular. Campers can use the store and restaurant, as well as rent boats.

Silver Lake Boat Rentals

Silver Lake

Be sure to make reservations in the summer. Otherwise you will see this sign as I did when leaving on a Saturday morning. It was $28 per night this time. Last visit. $12 in 2004.

Campground Full

I made a brief stop at Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park.

Indian Grinding Rock Sign

It was heating up as the elevation dropped so I just walked the 23 sites without visiting the museum.

Sites 11 and 17 were typical of this pretty campground.

Indian Grinding Rock_011

Indian Grinding Rock_017

I ended up in the central valley with it’s 110 degree heat at New Hogan Lake, specifically Oak Knoll campground.

Oak Knoll Sign

There was still some water left…

New Hogan Lake

But the boat ramp wasn’t too happy.

New Hogan Lake Boat Ramp

Luckily most of the sites had shade. Either trees or ramadas.

I liked sites 14, 37, 44, and 50, with 50 being closest to the lake. And they are only $14 per night.

Oak Knoll_014

Oak Knoll_037

Oak Knoll_044

Oak Knoll_050

From there I continued south, hung a left at Fresno, and headed back up into the mountains to Dorabelle.

Dorabelle Sign

Located in the quaint town of Shaver Lake, this is one of several lakeside campgrounds in the area. The water level is kept quite high for the boating crowd.

Shaver Lake

There are 61 sites available with a mixture of tent and RV accommodations.

Take note that some of the RV sites have the picnic table and fire ring on the “wrong” side of the site. Like mine, number 33.

Dorabelle_033

But my site was one of closest to the lake, where I watched a nice sunrise and checked out the beach.

Dorabelle Sunrise

Dorabelle Beach

Other nice sites are 13, 23, 32, and 41.

Dorabelle_013

Dorabelle_023

Dorabelle_032

Dorabelle_041

20 miles east and 2000 feet higher than Dorabelle (around 7200 feet) is Huntington Lake and Rancheria Campground.

Rancheria Sign

There are several campgrounds around this lake as well, but Rancheria is the largest. Along with Dorabelle, they were repaved and renumbered in the past few years which is why I am here. That, and the fact the temps are in the high 70’s. Which I like. A whole lot.

Prices seem to have settled at $28 for the popular Forest Service campgrounds. But no flush toilets or showers. Which I don’t like. A whole lot.

At this time the lake is a little less than half full.

Rancheria Beach

A Ranger told me that they are draining Florence Lake because of dam repairs so Huntington should stay fine all summer as it collects the flow.

Plenty of good sites here and the tables and rings are on the correct side. 12, 20, 49, 65, and 112 (mine) were sweet.

Rancheria_012

Rancheria_020

Rancheria_049

Rancheria_065

Rancheria_112

I walked down to the lake on Friday morning to watch the sunrise.

Rancheria Sunrise

Then gritted my teeth and drove 300+ miles to Brother Mike’s house. Experienced the wonderful LA traffic. On a Friday afternoon. Pure culture shock.

Traffic

Ughhh! Not my world.

I don’t understand how freeways can be stopped in both directions. The peeps heading south need to talk to the peeps heading north and do some kinda swap. Then the freeway would be empty. In my world.

So I eventually arrived at Brother Mike’s and said hi. He said bye and he and his family flew to Cabo San Lucas. No problem. I needed to take a brief break and he has some cats that can play with my little plastic dog Fred.

So Fred and I were sitting in the backyard taking photos. Fred has dreams of being a model.

Fred 1

He has gotten the “stay still” part down pat.

Out of nowhere a hairy creature pounced on him.

Freddy 1

I managed to pry Fred from his jaws and the beast moved off, circling, giving poor little Fred the hungry eye.

Freddy 2

Freddy 3

I noticed that the beast was wearing a collar. It actually said Freddy!

Could something magical be happening?

Freddy told us he is a F1 Goldendoodle. Just nine weeks old. A first generation cross between a gorgeous male Standard Poodle and an equally beautiful female Golden Retriever.

Fred and I talked about asking Freddy if he wanted to join us on our journey. We both agreed and asked him.. I did the talking. As usual.

“You want to come along and explore the open road?” I asked.

“Does that come will all meals and lodging included?” He replied.

“Yes, but little Fred is not be be considered a snack.”

“Not even a nibble?”

“No.”

“Fine. Let’s go have an adventure.”

He posed for a formal portrait.

Freddy 4

Big blocky head and huge paws and all. It will be an extraordinarily excellent adventure!

Regards,

Greg