Abbey's Road

It was a marathon drive from the San Juans to San Diego -1250 miles in 2 days - but I finally made it on the evening of the 12th. Mary Beth’s brother, Bob, and his kids – Kelsey, Robbie, Juliana, and Gabriella – were staying at Bob’s cousin Andy’s house overlooking Mission Bay. Andy’s wife, Jenni, and daughter, Melanie, were also there. And Abbey had four-legged company, Calvin and Hobbes, Andy’s two dogs. (This is Hobbes, I think, but Calvin looks nearly identical.) They were about the same size as Abbey and they were real good dogs, but Abbey didn’t pay much attention to them. The heat wave that has been following me around most of the summer followed me to San Diego, too. San Diego actually doesn’t get all that hot in summer, at least not when you’re near the coast, but it was in the mid to upper 80s while I was there. Since there is some humidity and Andy doesn’t have AC, it felt pretty hot. I took Abbey down to Mission Bay every morning, but that was about her excitement for the day. Unfortunately, there were signs warning of pollution from storm water runoff but luckily there weren’t any storms while we were there and Abbey can’t read. Andy and Jenni have an in ground pool and hot tub in their backyard and every night the ritual was to go for a swim, then sit in the hot tub and watch the fireworks at Sea World. Not a bad way to end the day. The first night we were there, though, Abbey was out in the back when the fireworks started and that was all it took. She barely went in the back yard the rest of the week.

On my first full day there Bob and the kids and I decided to go out on a boat to do some sport fishing. All of the kids, except Kelsey, that is. Being vegetarian she wasn’t too excited about spending half the day on a boat with 50 other people catching fish. I was getting pretty discouraged when everyone had caught at least one, if not several, fish except me. They were mostly calico bass and some mackerel which we had to toss back. I was thinking I was going to have to swallow my pride and ask one of the guys for help when they decided to move to a new location. People started reeling in barracuda like crazy, so I gave it another shot and sure enough, after a few minutes, I reeled one in myself. The bass weren’t bad eating, but the barracuda surprised us in that they were pretty good too. Too bad we didn’t get a yellowtail like some people on the boat. We didn’t get a lot of fish so it was probably the most expensive fish I’ve ever eaten. We had a good time though, so it was worth it. On Friday night the Atlanta Braves were in town taking on the hometown Padres. Robbie wanted to go see a game so the guys all went. We bit the bullet and spent the extra money on some decent seats and much to Robbie’s excitement we were treated to extra innings. We didn’t catch a foul ball but we did see an 11 inning, 15-12 marathon won by the Braves. Besides, where else can you get a hot dog and a beer for $14.

On Saturday we finally hit the beach. Good thing it was hot because the water was freezing. I went in a few times but came out after I was starting to feel numb. I think most people were at the beach just to party. We found out that Pacific Beach is the party beach. We saw shot luges, beer bongs and thousands of people including a group promoting the Rock/Paper/Scissors SuperChallenge. Every Monday at the Wave House in Pacific Beach you can go and watch the sunset and test your skills at Rock/Paper/Scissors. And you thought it was just for kids! Isn’t it amazing what people will come up with to accompany their drinking habits? Speaking of drinking games, while riding around Fiesta Island on Sunday we saw another unusual game. It was called OTL, or Over The Line, a very loose relation to baseball. The object is to hit the ball over a line, hence the name, and between two other lines without the other team catching it. The funniest thing about it was the “creative” names that most of the teams had. Let’s just say I can’t print them here. It reminded me of the Bookstore Basketball tournament we had at college. As my brother said, Americans must really be bored.

Sunday night Andy and Jenni took us all out on a dinner cruise around the San Diego harbor. It was their 25th anniversary the next week and Andy was going out of town so they decided to celebrate while we were there. All in all, it was great to spend time with both Andy’s and Bob’s families. The weather was a bit hot but we still had a good time. The drive back north was another killer but we made it all in one piece and just in time to return the rental car without incurring extra charges. My RV was still intact, too. Abbey sure seemed happy to see it after spending all that time in the car. It was good to be back in my RV though I will miss getting 32mpg.

Friends Imitation
Bringing Up the Bait
The 3 Sisters
Filleting the Fish
You call that art?
Now that's art!

Posted by Ed at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK, now what?

Last year I really enjoyed Lake Tahoe, especially the town of S. Lake Tahoe. It was also the scene of my infamous dog bowl accident so I wanted to go back this year and try to do some of the hikes I missed out on last year. And, of course, I wanted to visit my favorite coffee shop, the Alpina Café. I managed to go there everyday, though most days I drank tea. I actually go there for the free wifi and for the atmosphere. It’s mostly a local crowd and there’s usually at least one good conversation to eavesdrop on. This year an added bonus was the cute, friendly blonde working behind the counter most days I went. What more could you ask for? The coffee is good too, I’m sure.

This year I stayed the whole time on the south shore at Fallen Leaf Lake. Most mornings Abbey and I would get up and take a walk by the lake. Sometimes Abbey would even go in which would really wake her up. I prefer tea for my morning wakeup. This year we parked closer to the lake and it was great except for the last night. I came back to my site before going out to dinner and someone had taken it. They thought I had left since I didn’t leave anything at the site. I was pretty ticked but they weren’t around so the rangers couldn’t ask them to move so I just found another site. Next time I’ll leave a chair out just to make sure. I went out and enjoyed a nice dinner anyways at a place that the cute blonde had recommended. Funny thing was that when I showed up, she was there at the bar. Imagine that. Too bad she was with a guy friend. She was a bit young anyways.

I took a chance and took Abbey on hikes two days in a row. Both days we did between 5 and 6 miles so I was a little worried, but they were both fairly level hikes. Each one had plenty of water and even a little bit of snow on the trail, both of which helped keep Abbey going. The second day she was playing in the lake by a dock and a couple hiking came down to take a break. We started talking while Abbey was entertaining them and I found out that they grew up in Kingston, NY, where I first started working for IBM. The guy had worked for IBM, though not in Kingston. Of course, they were RVers too, though not fulltimers. Below are Round Lake, Echo Lake, and Echo and Upper Echo Lakes.

I didn’t take many pictures there this year, and none of Lake Tahoe itself, because I took a lot last year. If you didn’t see them last year, you can still check them out in the archive by clicking here. On Friday morning we headed north out of town and saw the more touristy, not-so-nice side of S. Lake Tahoe. What was really funny was that as soon as you crossed the Nevada border there were casinos waiting for you. And I mean literally as soon as you crossed the border. The sign indicating the border was on the street corner and on the other side of the sidewalk was the casino. Welcome to Nevada! I drove through Reno on my way north with the benefit of being able to stop in and stock up once again at Trader Joe’s. I can’t help myself when I go in there, but I did manage somehow to get out for less than 100 bucks this time. We passed back into California and I was hoping to get fairly close to Lake Shasta before stopping. On the way, I pulled off down a dirt road that had a glorified puddle running alongside of it that couldn’t have been more than 50x20. But that was all it took for Abbey to entertain herself for close to an hour. I figured she needed it after being in the RV so long. After looking for nearly an hour trudging down one dirt road after another I found a place to pull over and park for the night on the edge of the national forest. It wasn’t great but it was free.

Saturday we drove to Lake Shasta to meet up with 2 fulltimers who are actually younger than I am. I met Brian and Leigh back in New Mexico in March when we were all freezing our butts off. I had a nice dinner with them then, so this time it was my turn to reciprocate. They ended up showing up pretty late, but it was a good thing. When I asked about the campground Leigh had picked out at the visitor center the woman smiled and said, “Well, let’s just say your neighbors will be a little unusual.” I checked it out anyways. It was supposed to be shoreline camping, but it was more on a hillside because the lake levels were so high and the people there definitely seemed to be the “Coors Light crowd”, as Leigh called it, with the beer flowing and the music blaring. I pulled over on the side to figure out what to do next and when I started up again, I heard this “Thump, thump, thump” followed by a loud hissing noise. It turned out to be my first flat. I had run over a rock just the right size in just the right spot for it to get wedged between the two rear tires on my right side (I have dual rear wheels on each side in back.) I tried to pump it back up with my handy little compressor and it held for a while until I hit 70 psi which apparently was its breaking point. When I crawled underneath I could see a big gash in the sidewall. So I slowly drove up to a marina and when I couldn’t budge the lug nuts with the cheap wrench they give you, I called my emergency roadside service. A big, young guy named Lurch came to my rescue in only 45 minutes. Even he had trouble getting the lug nuts off so I didn’t feel so bad. Another hour later and I was back on the road, but still with no campground and no Leigh and Brian. Suffice it to say that I found a decent spot for the night for all of us and made a nice dinner of chicken with pasta and pesto. We had a great time catching up and swapping stories of flat tires and other disasters.

Sunday morning it was on to Cottage Grove, OR where I agreed at the last minute to do an RV Care-A-Vanner build with Habitat for Humanity. I’ll be there for about 2 weeks working with a group of RVers working with the local affiliate on one of their houses. I was on the waiting list and someone cancelled at the last minute. So those of you who were worried that I was getting to used to being a bum can feel better that I will at least be doing something constructive for at least 2 weeks.

Posted by Ed at 8:30 PM | Permalink

In the campground just west of Sonora Pass I saw 2 forms of “camping” I had never seen before. There was a Swiss couple next to me who had shipped their Toyota Landcruiser over to the States and they had this expandable sleeping compartment that sat on top of the roof rack of the car. It looked kind of like the extendable roofs that VW campers have, but you can’t access it from the car. They had a little ladder on the side they used to climb up into it. They also had something on the side called a Safari Snorkel but don’t even ask me what that’s for. I have no idea. The other funny thing I saw was a group of 3 pickups that all had regular mattresses in the bed of the truck. One had a tarp rigged up over the truck bed, another had something that looked like a tent over the bed, and the 3rd just opted for sleeping under the stars in their sleeping bag on top of the mattress. Quite bizarre.

Anyways, in the morning we made the daunting climb (26% grade in spots!) up to the top of Sonora pass. It was real slow going but other than that and using a ton of gas it was fine. We stopped at the top to do a little exploring and playing in the snow.

There were some people who put climbing skins on their skis and were hiking up the mountain so they could ski down. I wasn’t quite as technically prepared so I grabbed a garbage bag, Abbey and I climbed up the slope and I used the time-tested method of sliding down on my butt with the garbage bag helping to keep me from getting completely soaked. It was a little bumpy, but it was a fun ride.

After eating lunch while checking out the view from the pass, we made our way down the other side unscathed. I found a spot to do a moderate hike to Secret Lake, a nice little sub-alpine lake on the eastern slope of the Sierras. Going up the trail I quickly overtook another guy who was going quite slowly. I was just going to say hello and pass on by, but he started talking to me right away so I didn’t want to be rude. He was an interesting guy, but boy did he like to talk. I didn’t mind so much, but I had planned to leave Abbey for only an hour or two. We stopped at the lake and had a long, leisurely lunch and it turned into a 5 hour hike. Abbey turned out to be fine as usual and it’s not like I had anywhere important to go.

I decided I wanted to do some boondocking so I took a dirt forest service road towards a couple of campgrounds in hopes of finding something along the way. About a mile before the first campground we found a nice wide open spot by a stream and stayed there for the night. It turns out there is a hot spring right down the stream from where we camped. I only found out because some people came by asking if it was nearby, and in the morning when I was walking Abbey by the stream I saw it on the other side. So after breakfast I treated myself to a soak in the spring. It was great lying in the hot water watching the cold water in the stream rush by only a few feet away. Not a bad way to start the day. Later we drove over to a place called Twin Lakes and after having lunch I let Abbey play in the stream for a while. Then I took a hike up to another sub-alpine lake, though this one didn’t turn out to be that nice of a lake. At least the views were nice. There were a whole bunch of campgrounds near there, but I decided to save a few bucks and go back to our boondocking spot. I figured another soak in the hot spring in the morning would make the bumpy, washboard road worthwhile. Then it’s on to Lake Tahoe.

Posted by Ed at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I’ve been to the mountain. I can die now. Well…maybe not yet. But I finally made it to Yosemite. Mary Beth and I had always wanted to come here, but we never made it. At least now I can say I have. Believe it or not, I wasn’t overwhelmed at first. Maybe it’s because I’ve been to so many beautiful places lately, or maybe it’s because the Kupecs treated me so well, not to mention fed me pretty well, too. Maybe it was the gray, cloudy weather the first day. Or, maybe it’s just because I’m slow. But it didn’t take too long for the sense of awe to settle in. Everywhere you look there are granite walls (and crazy people climbing them) and waterfalls. Being spring still, the waterfalls were spectacular – raging torrents and mist as heavy as rainstorms.

I know it’s hard to believe, but some of them were so loud that Abbey was scared of the noise. Yosemite Falls is the 5th highest waterfall in the world, and what’s amazing is that you can see it from almost everywhere in the valley and many points above.

And it is just one of the many waterfalls (during spring and early summer) in the park. Half Dome dominates the view from most places. The funny thing is that geologists were so upset about the name that they refused to accept it for over 50 years. They said that only about 1/8 of it broke off. I guess 7/8’s Dome just didn’t have the same ring. El Capitan is said to be the largest slab of granite in the world, but that doesn’t make me want to go out and climb it. About 2000 people a year feel otherwise, even though it takes most of them 3-5 days to do it. I can’t imagine them getting a good night’s sleep. Enough of the accolades. Yosemite is just a really cool place. And I didn’t even get to go into the backcountry at all. Tioga Rd. was still not open for the season. It’s projected to open June 16th, so I missed it by about a week. The good and bad thing about Yosemite is that it is different in every season. Good because you can see a different place in each season and no matter when you go there is something beautiful to see. Bad because you have to be able to go back many times to enjoy it all.

I actually didn’t do a lot of hiking while I was there. Partly because of Abbey, partly because you don’t have to hike much to see many of the sites, and partly because I’m out of shape and was worried about my knee. But on my second full day there I decided to do the Panorama Trail from Glacier Point, high above the valley, down to the valley floor. It’s an 8.5 mile trail that goes past 2 of the year-round falls and has views of many of the main sites. Glacier Point is about 2000 ft. above the valley floor. There are 2 ways to get to the start – hike up the 2000 ft. in 4 miles (on the aptly named 4 Mile Trail), or take a tour bus. I thought $20 for the one-way “tour” (glorified hiker’s shuttle) was a bit steep, but not as steep as the 4 Mile Trail so I opted to fork over the cash and save my legs. After my experience with my knee on my last couple of hikes I was a bit worried so I brought my hiking sticks along (sorry Tommy). I was still debating on using them (OK, so I’m vain), until I saw an attractive blonde woman in her 30s or 40s using them. So I decided if they were good enough for her, they were good enough for me. The sticks must have done the trick as my knees held out pretty good. I only felt a slight twinge now and then. The trail was incredible with great views of 3 different waterfalls that you can’t see from the valley floor. Plus, it was nearly all downhill. I felt bad, though, ‘cause I left Abbey for nearly 7 hours. So to make it up to her I took her on a walk on the bike path through the valley. Part of it was still flooded so she had a ball playing in the water for most of the time. She entertained many park visitors with her “fishing” routine and her normal antics in the water.

I am now sitting in a campground at the beginning of the steep climb to Sonora Pass. Since Tioga Pass is closed, and I wanted to go to the east side of Yosemite, I had to go countless miles and hours out of the way. Luckily, I stopped at a ranger station before starting up the road to the pass where I found out that the road up is a 26% grade (to put it in perspective, the most I’ve ever done in my RV is about 12%) and it goes for about 20 miles. Seeing that it was almost 5PM I decided to stop in the last campground before the pass. I had had enough (and I’m sure Abbey did too) of steep winding roads for one day. Besides this area is beautiful so I don’t mind spending the night here. Tomorrow I’m headed to Highway 395 and the eastern slope of the Sierras. I’m not sure where I’ll stay, but I’m sure it will be pretty nice. Next time I come back to Yosemite, though, I want to come in summer so I can backpack up in the high country. I can’t imagine anything much better. (Can you guess that I drank a little wine while I was writing this? I guess it got my creative juices flowing a bit!)

Posted by Ed at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I arrived on Saturday a few hours after Steve and Mimi and the kids left for the weekend. It’s kind of become an annual event – I come into town Memorial Day weekend and they go away. Luckily, a mutual friend of ours, Dennis, was going to take his sailboat out for a spin on San Francisco Bay and invited me along. The first day the wind was quite light in the morning and we weren’t making a lot of headway until we decided to take the reef out of the main sail. (Sorry for all the sailing lingo, but suffice it to say that we were hoping to get more speed because of the light wind.) As you would expect, the wind picked up considerably within minutes so we had to re-reef the main. It turned out to be a good sail after all and lunch in the cockpit back at the marina was just as good. Not only can Dennis sail, he can cook too. I brought Abbey to the marina in the RV so Dennis and I took her for a walk along the bay where she managed to find a few dead fish. After feeding Abbey Dennis and I headed into San Francisco to a blues club. We got the last seats in the place, but unfortunately they were right under the speakers. It was so loud that the sound vibrations blew out our candle twice. The band put on a great show, though. They were really smokin’.

On Monday we headed out again, this time, Tim, a friend of Dennis who works with him, and an old friend of Tim’s came along. Tim grew up sailing so he was having a ball trimming the sails trying to catch more wind and improve our speed. The wind was pretty constant and pretty much ideal all day. It was another great day and another great lunch back at the dock.

Steve, Mimi, Katie and Sean came home on Tuesday, but the kids had school so things were pretty mild ‘til the weekend. Friday night we hit a Greek Festival and the partying continued on Saturday at one of their neighbors who was turning 50. They had the perfect party backyard.- a kidney-shaped pool with fountains, a bar with a built-in grill, 2 refrigerators and a keg tap, an outdoor fireplace, a smoker and the piece de resistance – a wood-fired pizza oven that they had just installed that week. The food was unbelievable and they had Rolling Rock on top. I’m sure my friends from the University of Delaware have fond memories of drinking some Rocks back in their college days. Steve and I certainly had our share, but the only problem was we were supposed to make scalloped potatoes that night for a cookout the next day. Mimi was too nervous watching us using a razor-sharp mandolin to slice the potatoes that she went to bed. It actually didn’t turn out too bad, which is more than I can say for Steve. We were supposed to go sailing with Dennis again early Sunday morning, but someone (I won’t mention who) was a bit under the weather. He claims it must’ve been the food.

I haven’t been out sailing in a long time so going for the 3rd time in a week was a real treat. And the last day was definitely the best. Mary, Dennis’ partner in the boat, Dennis’ brother, Dave, and I picked the perfect day for a sail on the bay. We made such good time that we made it almost all the way to San Francisco. It was too bad that I didn’t bring my camera along that day. We got some great views of the city. To make things more exciting the wind picked up right at the end and we hit a new speed record for the boat at a whopping 5.38 knots. I know that doesn’t sound real impressive, but it sure felt like we were flying. After sailing I met Mimi and the recovered Steve and the kids at yet another cookout with some more great food and drinks. After this weekend I felt like I needed a rest. Tomorrow we’re saying goodbye to the Kupecs and heading for Yosemite for 3 nights. It’s always a great time when I visit here, and if you know the Kupecs you know there’s always plenty of good food around. They are like family to me. As Sean said, it’s like a pitstop for Abbey and me. Abbey didn’t get a lot of exercise this week but she did get a lot of attention and she had lots of great grass to roll in.

The Skipper The Crack Crew
The Kupecs (I finally remembered)

Posted by Ed at 2:54 AM | Permalink

ADDENDUM: I must make an addendum to this post as John pointed out to me that I was grossly mistaken in saying that we didn't go to the beach. John even went in the water, not on purpose, when Duke got excited over Abbey being in the water he tried to pull John in. In John's words, "...we DID go to the beach while you visited us in Manhattan Beach. We did so when we took the dogs and hiked the trails around Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes. We took Abbey and Duke (my yellow lab puppy) down to the beach, where they leaped, paddled, swam, and chased each other (and Abbey searched for edible sea life.)" I also forgot to mention Duke, their puppy. The poor guy was so excited to see Abbey but she wanted to have nothing to do with him. All he wanted to do was play like a normal 9 month old puppy.

I spent the previous weekend in Manhattan Beach with John Daegele, a friend from college, and his family. As is my bad habit, I forgot to get a family picture. Sorry, John. It was great to see them and spend more time with their kids. Like most families these days the kids were busy running around to sporting and other events most of the weekend. I got to see one of Nick’s soccer games and a hockey game, too. I actually have fun watching the games of my friends’ and families’ kids since I don’t have kids of my own. The weather was still a little cool, and the water definitely too cold, to go to the beach.

On Monday I took off up the coast and stopped first at Santa Barbara, a very nice and scenic city north of LA. We camped in the national forest about 10 miles out of town and in the morning drove further up the canyon. We had to cross the river, driving the RV through the water, 6 or 7 times to get to the end of the road. The water was pretty low and it was paved all the way across the river, luckily. I was tempted to get out and take a picture of the RV in the middle of the creek, but I didn’t really want to leave it sitting in the middle of the river. We hiked up along the river until it got too rocky and Abbey had a ball in the water as usual. It was so green and lush it didn’t seem like we were still in southern California. We camped at Morro Bay on Tuesday night and Abbey got to go to the beach for the first time since the Gulf Coast.
The waves were pretty tame so she even went in the ocean. As usual she found all kinds of interesting things to eat like dead fish and sand crabs.

She got to go to the beach again on Wednesday, at San Simeon, and I got to do some wine tasting at a few wineries in Paso Robles. Paso is not as well-known as Napa or Sonoma, but there are several good wineries there and it is a beautiful area. I spent too much money on wine so I decided to skip the Hearst Castle tour the next day, even though it came highly recommended. Moving on up the coast we stopped at a few more beaches plus we stopped at an elephant seal sanctuary.
There were hundreds of them mostly lying around the beach, but they were quite vocal and some were even sparring.
Abbey was dying to get a closer look, but they are supposed to be pretty mean so I didn't dare let her.

The next few days I reserved a campsite at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in Big Sur. The drive along the California coast starting a little north of Santa Barbara up to Monterey is gorgeous with the highway right along the water most of the way, and Big Sur is probably the most popular, and most beautiful, spots along the way.
Besides having a rugged coastline, Big Sur also has huge redwood trees and the campground is in the middle of the redwood forest. The trees are so tall and thick that I had to use the lights inside the RV even in the middle of the day ‘cause it was so dark. My pictures were even too dark. On Friday, we hiked a couple miles down a road to Pfeiffer beach ‘cause they didn’t “recommend” driving RV’s down it. It was yet another beautiful spot, but unfortunately we got “sandblasted” on the beach because it was so windy. Even Abbey didn’t want to stick around. Being Memorial Day weekend it was getting really crowded so I left Big Sur and headed up to see the Kupecs again in San Jose. It seems like Memorial Day weekend at their house is becoming an annual thing for me.

Posted by Ed at 1:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I left the Kaibab National Forest in the morning, where it was in the 30s when I woke up, and arrived at Lake Meade NRA in Nevada in the afternoon where it was in the 100s. It didn’t take me long to decide to keep moving on. I only stayed long enough to let Abbey swim in the lake for a while and take a look at the map to figure out where to try next. I drove along the lake which took me around Las Vegas so I can still say I’ve never been there. By 6PM I was starving so I stopped at the Mad Greek Café in Baker which is home of the world’s tallest thermometer and is also the gateway to both Death Valley and the Mojave Desert. If my picture was halfway decent you’d be able to see that it says it was 110. Not only did I have a great gyro at the Mad Greek, but I also stopped at Alien Fresh Jerky to get some fresh jerky (made without preservatives, of course). Presumably, it’s the first choice in jerky of all aliens.

I was hoping to make it to the Angeles National Forest northeast of LA, but I was too tired and it got too late. So I did the next best thing. I found the Walmart in Barstow and succumbed to the siren song of all RVers. I “camped” for the night in my first Walmart. I didn’t get to meet any of my neighbors, but it was a pretty quiet night.

Can you make out the "Walmart"?
Some of my neighbors

Posted by Ed at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

After picking DeeAnne up at the Sacramento airport on Wednesday evening, we drove as far north as we could get before I got too tired. We stayed the night in some non-descript campground, but at least it was only $12/nt and it was very convenient to the highway. On Thursday morning, we headed to Mt. Shasta city, which was a real nice little town. Mt. Shasta is by far the largest mountain in the area and can be seen from quite a distance. It's also purported to have very strong energy according to a friend of mine. I'm not sure I felt any different, but it sure was a beautiful mountain.

After sampling some of the Mt. Shasta spring water, we drove up the mountain as far as we could and then took a short hike. There was quite a bit of snow after a while so we headed back down when my toes started feeling numb.

A forest ranger gave us a good tip for a nice trail and a nice place to boondock. The trailhead was a bit of a drive up a narrow, one-lane road, but at least the road was paved. The trail was actually part of the Pacific Crest Trail and had great views of Mt. Shasta as well as some real nice wildflowers.

I have seen so many different types of wildflowers so far, but I have no idea what most of them are. After the hike we drove back down the road part way and found a real nice, secluded spot next to a stream to camp. It was the best kind of camp - real nice spot, quiet except for a running stream and free. Abbey was so worn out after the hike she didn't even want to jump in the water.

Posted by Ed at 8:59 PM | Permalink

I arrived back from NY last night. The funeral and everything went well, all things considered. It felt like I had been away more than 2 months, so it was nice to see Bob and the kids and some old friends. I also saw my sister-in-law Carol who is also Bob's cousin, and Veronica, another one of Bob's cousins. It was real nice to see both of them and spend time talking with them. I also got to spend a lot of time with the kids which was really nice. It was strange staying in Elsie's house with her not there. While I was there, I met up with Stephanie Moore, the wife of my friend Paul who died a few weeks ago. She happened to be travelling back from Buffalo and passing right by Amsterdam. We had a good long talk, and we probably could have talked longer if it weren't for her daughters who were patiently waiting with Steph's sister. I know what it's like to talk to someone who has also lost a loved one so I was more than happy to talk to her.

After cleaning up the RV and getting the frig. stocked up again I'm heading up north and back on the road again. I'm stopping in Sacramento to pick up DeeAnne who was able to get last-minute flights for an unexpected visit for the holiday weekend. We're heading up towards Oregon from there. I hope you all have a great 4th.

Posted by Ed at 2:26 PM | Permalink

Boondocking went fine last night. No one bothered us at all. Last night I heard a noise and looked out the window and saw a deer walking by. It must have known it wasn't deer season because I think that it was a favorite spot of deer hunters. There was even a small memorial to a couple of deer hunters who died, but none to the dead deer of course.

When I arrived at the park entrance I found out that the trail to Bumpass Hell was under several feet of snow. I was quite disappointed, but drove through the park anyways. I'll have to be satisfied with seeing Devil's Kitchen, Boiling Lake and the Sulfur Works. And, I'm sure the rotten egg smell would have been the same. Lassen is quite a nice park. It's much less well-known than the big name parks, so it also tends to be much less crowded. I did get to see some more steaming vents and mudpots and I managed to find a real nice hike that started down lower. It soon climbed up though and there was quite a bit of snow to walk over. It was fairly hard-packed so it wasn't too bad. It ended at a place called Paradise Meadows, which was a big meadow with several streams going through it, but right now it is still pretty well covered in snow. It was a gorgeous blue-sky day though so everything looked great. I would definitely recommend Lassen to anyone though I would go a little later in the season if you like to do more hiking.

We made it to the north end of the park and it was still fairly early. Neither of the campgrounds at that end looked all that nice, so I finally decided to check out a few outside the park. I went to one on Lake McCumber that sounded like it might work, but when I got there it looked like there were only walk-in sites. Since we were at a lake (reservoir actually) I got Abbey out for a walk. When we walked up further I saw that there was a nice little campground for RVs as well. So that is where we're spending the night. Tomorrow I plan to head into Redding, the nearest decent-sized city, to hopefully get on the internet to take a look at some possible alternatives for our next destinations. I know I won't get any sympathy from anyone, but that is one of my few stressors I have - figuring out where to go next all the time. It does end up taking a fair amount of my time, but I guess it's a small price to pay and I'm willing to deal with it for the benefits.

The other thing I have to do is figure out a place I can have my mail sent in the next week. I haven't had it forwarded in 3 weeks. Hopefully I don't have any important bills or anything waiting. Such is life on the road.

Sulfur Works
Lassen Peak
Hat Creek on way to Paradise Meadows
A Glacial Erratic

Posted by Ed at 2:20 PM | Permalink

This morning we headed out of camp fairly early to drive up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. There was a layer of fog still on the water which made for some good pictures.

Miraculously, I remembered to call my father for Father's Day while I still had cell phone coverage. I'm usually out in the woods somewhere with really weak coverage. Before getting to the Park, I took a slight detour to take Abbey on a hike since she can't go on the trails in the National Parks. This has me a bit perturbed since horses are allowed on trails, but I better not get started on that subject. I won't let Abbey get started either. Anyways, we hiked part of the Pacific Crest Trail which is supposed to go from Canada to Mexico, but it has a number of breaks in between. I'm sure the section we hiked (2 miles out and back) isn't one of the more significant stretches of the PCT, but it was fine for us and got Abbey out for a bit. On the way back she was a maniac. I thought for sure she smelled a bear or something, but we never saw anything. So we then drove to a remote entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Most people have never heard of this park in northern California, but from what I've seen so far it is pretty cool. The Lassen volcano last blew in 1914, but before Mt. St. Helens it was the last eruption in the contiguous US. I've never been to Yellowstone, so my perspective probably isn't the best, but the geothermal springs, boiling lakes, mud pots and steaming fumaroles were very cool (actually they were quite hot and smelled like rotten eggs.) I saw Boiling Lake which was like this turquoise green color and you could actually see it bubbling ...
... and I saw Devil's Kitchen which had a lot of steam coming out of holes in the ground and the streams were steaming as well.
Technically, there aren't any geysers, but it's still a cool park. And I've only seen one small part of it so far. Tomorrow I'm going to drive around to one of the main entrances and check out a place called Bumpass Hell. With a name like that I've gotta go see it. Poor Abbey will be relegated to the RV once again.

Tonight I am boondocking it in Lassen National Forest. Boondocking, for the uninitiated, just means I am camping outside of a campground or RV park with no hookups at all. Most of the time in the campgrounds I don't have hookups so I figure why pay for the campground. Plus I finally found a good place to do it. Haven't had a chance in a while.

Boiling Lake

Posted by Ed at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Yesterday, I finally headed out of S. Lake Tahoe. I had one slight casualty on the way out of town. There was a bike race going on so we had to pull to the side of the road. Well, I got too close to one of the snow poles on the side of the road and it nailed the mirror on the passenger side. Luckily, it only cracked the corner of the mirror. Since it was a rainy day we didn't do much besides drive to the next campground. We headed to the Lakes Basin area of the northern Sierras. I decided to stay at a campground on Sardine Creek. Not bad, but nothing special. In the morning we took a short walk over to Sand Pond. There's a boardwalk that takes you over a marshy area that was pretty nice. After breakfast we headed out to find a good hike. We ended up doing 2. The first one went by Big Bear, Little Bear and Cub Lakes, and Long Lake. They are beautiful alpine lakes surrounded by pine trees and mountains. It was still pretty cloudy, but at least it didn't rain. It was a great hike for us, about 2 ' miles, with quite a bit of snow, which of course meant that Abbey got to roll in the snow a lot.
Not bad for a couple of gimps. We did so well that after lunch I decided we needed to do another hike. I found a mile long trail to Smith Lake. It didn't have any snow and was a little steeper than the previous hike but it was a good way to finish off the afternoon before getting back in the RV to drive to our next campsite. I decided to stay in a campground on Lake Almanor because it sounded pretty nice, but also because it had an RV dump station. Ah, my priorities sure have changed. The bummer was, though, that I found out in the morning that they charge you $5 to dump your tanks. It was still a nice campground though. We picked out a campsite with its own beach. It had a nice view of the lake which I enjoyed with a glass (read plastic cup) of wine from the dinette while I was waiting for the fire to kick in. This is the good life.

Big Bear Lake
Long Lake

Posted by Ed at 1:17 PM | Permalink

When I first drove around the lake I thought it was beautiful, but not really spectacular. I guess it had been hyped up so much by so many people that I wasn't as awestruck as I expected. But now I am changing my mind. Besides Lake Tahoe, there are hundreds of small alpine lakes that are equally spectacular (OK, so I admit it is now.) There is still a lot of snow so most of them aren't accessible, but at least I've been able to get out and see some of the other lakes.

Unfortunately though, hiking was a no-go for today. My ankle is way too sore so I'm just hanging out. It is my turn to limp now, so I probably won't be hiking for at least a few days, if not more. I didn't rest completely though. I found out that there is a trail from the campground to Fallen Leaf Lake so I took Abbey over for a swim and a walk. Then after icing my ankle for a while, I decided I wanted to see Echo Lake even if I couldn't hike the trail. There was still a lot of snow up there, but it was plenty warm and a beautiful day. The walk down to the lake was a little treacherous, for me at least, but we made it without any catastrophes. Abbey got to swim in the lake and roll in the snow all within 200 yards of each other. I decided I really like the campground, and I need to rest my ankle so I'm going to hang out here for a few more days. I'll probably head up north for the weekend.

Sorry, if you're tired of all the lake pictures, but here's a few more. They are probably all starting to look the same in pictures, but in person they're all amazing.
Fallen Leaf Lake
Echo Lake

Posted by Ed at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I got going fairly early this morning so I could get to the Eagle Falls Trailhead while there was still parking available. With the RV, parking is always a bit more challenging. When we got to the parking area Lake Tahoe was still covered in fog which made for a nice picture.

Abbey and I had a nice hike up to Eagle Lake, about a mile of somewhat steep climbing. The trail is really well-maintained, though, so it was pretty easy for both of us. The lake, with the snow-capped mountains in the background, was beautiful. We took a few side trails around the side of the lake until it got too rocky for Abbey to continue. It was so nice I just stayed there a while and enjoyed the scenery.

I was in no rush because after we got back down I headed into town to do laundry ' my first time doing it in a laundromat in years. They haven't changed much. Later on I took a drive around Fallen Leaf Lake to check out a trailhead and to find a place to let Abbey in the water. The road around the lake is a one lane road that was the busiest one lane road I've ever been on. It's not really meant for an RV. I'm getting the feeling I should've gotten something smaller and more rugged because I tend to take the RV on roads that it wasn't really meant for. Oh well, I'll have to get by with it for now.

I found a new campground, Fallen Leaf Campground, at the south end of the lake closer to the trailheads where I may hike tomorrow. I say "may" because while I was making dinner tonight I stepped on the edge of Abbey's bowl (which is ceramic) and it flipped up and hit me in the ankle. It's swelling up pretty good so hiking may be out for tomorrow. I am still going to try because I was really looking forward to a nice hike, after getting Abbey out for a short walk and possibly a swim. The scenery around here with the alpine lakes and the rocky peaks is one of my favorite types. I'll just have to figure something out.

Yesterday, I stopped at a caf?? with internet access and updated the blog, but I ran out of time and didn't get to post this recipe. Steve Kupec requested my chili recipe (actually it was Mary Beth's concoction). I had made it while at their house to take with me on the road and I left some behind for him. The recipe leaves a lot of room for experimentation and adaptation to your own tastes. The secret to it, in my mind, is the special types of chili powder that I got from Central Market in Austin. Hopefully, they will last me a while. If you know anyone in Austin, ask them to send you some.

Chili con Carne

2-3 lbs. of ground turkey or beef (or a mix of both)
garlic minced
olive oil
3 bell peppers chopped (I usually use red and/or yellow)
3 large onions chopped
4-6 stalks of celery chopped (optional)
1 28oz. and 1 15oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 or 2 cans red kidney beans (depending on your preference. I usually use 1)
1 can black beans
1 can white beans (great northern or similar)
1 lb. tofu cubed (optional ' if used, then use only 2 lbs. of meat)
1-2 tsp. of chili powder (to start and add more as desired)
?? tsp. chipotle powder (it's hot, so add more or less to your taste. Can substitute another hot chili powder if you can't find this. Cayenne pepper might also work)

Saute a lot of garlic in oil in a large frying pan, and then quickly add onions and saut??. Put in a large stock pot and set aside when tender. Add a little oil, if necessary, and brown meat. Add to stock pot. Saute peppers and celery and add to the stock pot. Then add the tomatoes and beans to the pot and mix well. Then add the tofu and chili powder and bring to a low boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour, and adding more chili powder if necessary. When serving I like to add a few spoonfuls of sour cream, lowfat yogurt or cottage cheese on top.

Emerald Bay
From Nevada Side

Posted by Ed at 7:57 PM | Permalink

It started raining Tuesday night and it was still raining when I got up this morning. In fact, it rained all day Wednesday on the drive over to San Jose from the coast. I started out early but had to cross the coastal mountains so that took a while. Once I got to the central valley the road was much better. I made it to Bullards Bar Reservoir around 3:30. I found our campsite in the rain and we pretty much parked inside the RV the rest of the night. The Gibbons were late (not unlike them) and they ended up camping at the farm where they left Laura's horse. If I didn't mention it already, they came out here because Laura had to do a rating to achieve her next level in the Pony Club. Anyways, they pulled up early the next morning, much to my surprise, and we found 2 new sites that were better than our original choice. And then we ate breakfast. It's the most people I've had in my RV so far at one time, not to mention for a meal.

We had a real nice weekend and had some great meals and after getting a terrible example of soft ice cream, we found a place that served huge helpings of homemade hard ice cream. We got in a little hiking near the Downieville River (I'm sure you've all heard of that). Those are kayakers plotting their descent, in case you're wondering.

We had a great time and as a bonus I got to listen to several of Laura's hilarious stories, which if that wasn't the highlight of the weekend, I don't know what was. Now, I'm at Lake Tahoe and hoping to do some nice hikes. There is still a lot of snow up in the mountains and the crowds are already descending on the place, but I think Abbey and I will find a few good ones. We found a nice place to camp, thanks to Dan G., at Sugar Pine Point State Park. More soon, including my chili recipe which I promised Steve Kupec.

The Gibbons Family

Posted by Ed at 8:57 PM | Permalink

On Sunday I drove up to San Francisco to see Tom Masino, a friend of my brothers' from our old neighborhood, and his family. I hadn't met his family before so it was nice to meet them all. Luckily Steve suggested I borrow his car so I didn't have to drive the RV up the SF hills. Tom and Elaine have a real nice house in the Haight-Ashbury district. They made a real nice dinner and we finished off a bottle of Elaine's merlot, which was very good. Elaine started up a vineyard a few years ago on land that's been in her family quite a while in Sonoma County. So if you see Elaine Maria Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc in the store make sure you try it.

Yesterday I drove back up to San Francisco after saying goodbye to Mimi & Steve and the kids, but this time I just drove through it to go over the Golden Gate bridge. I stopped at Muir Woods National Monument and took an hour or so to walk through. It's a forest of giant redwoods. It's a beautiful place. Everything is so lush and green there. I could have taken 50 pictures and I still wouldn't have done it justice. You just can't capture the beauty of those trees on film - at least not with my camera. Poor Abbey had to wait in the RV cause they don't allow dogs there. Not one of her favorite places! We then drove up a really windy road to the top of Mt. Tamalpais and on a short hike saw a great view of the entire Bay Area. On the way back down I took probably the windiest road yet before reaching Highway 1, which pretty much runs the entire coast of California. We found a nice state park that was in a redwood forest. Abbey loved the smells there and it was really cool since it was so shady. Unfortunately, it looks like California state parks have really increased their rates - $25/nt with no hookups! I guess this is part of Arnold's answer to the budget crisis.

This morning we started off at Point Reyes National Seashore, which is pretty spectacular. We took a couple of short beach walks there. It wasn't quite as enjoyable for me because Abbey found everything from seaweed to dead sand crabs to try and eat. I gave up trying to stop her after a while. I figured if she got sick, it would be her own fault. She also decided that rolling in the sand worked almost as well as in the grass or snow. Luckily, it shook right off of her. Afterwards, we got back to Highway 1 and headed up the coast. The scenery is beautiful here with so many small little beaches to choose from. We found yet another one to walk, but this one was covered with real small stones instead of sand. It almost hurt to walk on, but it was still worth it. I stopped a little earlier than I expected because the windy road (I'm starting to make this a habit) was wearing both of us out. We're staying tonight at Gualala Point Park. There are redwood trees and some other kind of tree that is pretty cool looking and grows in clusters. It feels like we're in the tropics almost. The mosquitoes (first ones of the year) help to give that impression as well. Tonight for dinner I had some artichoke ravioli I got at Trader Joe's with some of my pesto sauce I made the other day. I wasn't as happy with this batch of pesto, but it still wasn't bad for camping out. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of driving. I'm going across the state to Bullards Bar Reservoir near Marysville to meet up with Dan & Bonnie Gibbons, and their kids. They are old friends from Kingston, now living in Colorado. We'll be camping there together for several days.
Golden Gate
Muir Woods
More Muir
Point Reyes - Limantour Beach
Point Reyes
Sonoma Coast

Posted by Ed at 8:37 PM | Permalink

Being around the water here gave me a new idea. So I traded in the RV and bought a sailboat. What do you think? Don't worry, I have a life jacket for Abbey, and she's not allowed to walk too much right now anyways.

It'll change my plans to visit a lot of the national parks and forests , but I'm sure the scenery will still be great.

OK, I probably haven't fooled anyone. The boat is Dennis'. He needed us to hoist him up the mast to make a few repairs.
He bought an old boat at an auction with a partner and they're working on making it seaworthy. Should be ready soon. For our troubles they brought us a great lunch.

Posted by Ed at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I think I've put on 5-10 lbs. this week. For those of you who know the Kupecs and their penchant for good food and drink, this probably won't come as a surprise. I did cook dinner for them one night, which gave Mimi an idea. She said I should post any recipes I find, or use along the way, on the blog. So below is the recipe I made for them. It's one Mary Beth and I used to make. It's given as an appetizer, but I double it(or more) and serve it with rice or pasta. I also made a big pot of chili and froze it so I'd have something in my freezer when I don't have time to cook. Since I was in a cooking mood and Trader Joe's had a good deal on basil, I made 2 batches of pesto - one for me to take with me and one for them. They already ate most of it making appetizers for dinner on Friday night.

Sauteed Scallops in White Wine with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Garlic

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
12 oz. large sea scallops
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons thinly sliced drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (I use the dry ones and rehydrate them in hot water)
1/4 cup whipping cream or 1/2 and 1/2
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 scallions
6 slices bacon

Cook bacon until crisp and set aside. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add scallops and cook until brown and cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Put scallops aside and keep warm. Add garlic, scallions & sun-dried tomatoes to pan and saute til tender. Then add wine and scrape any brown bits from bottom of pan. Add cream and boil until mixture is reduced to sauce consistency, a few minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and whisk until melted. (This can be rich so you can skip the butter if you're worried about fat.) Crumble the bacon and add to the sauce. Serve the scallops over pasta, or on the plate with rice, and spoon the sauce over.

Posted by Ed at 2:32 PM | Permalink

Abbey had another setback this week. I was only walking on a hike/bike path in the neighborhood and she started limping again. I took her to the vets on Thursday. He said he thinks she just strained it so he gave me some anti-inflamatories to give her and said to rest her for a week or 2. So she's been resting and I've been catching up on some shopping, doing tax stuff, getting the oil changed and other fun stuff. I did go down to Santa Cruz on Thursday to see a chiropractor and Abbey and I checked out the beach. Then we met Steve, Mimi and Dennis at the Crow's Nest, a nice restaurant on the beach. Dan Gibbons, a good friend I worked with at IBM in Kingston, was also in town and met us down there as well. Poor Abbey got stuck in the RV for the evening, but I did feed her first. Friday night, William and Nellie Leong and their kids came over for dinner. We all knew them from Austin, but they moved out here several years ago. We had a real nice time catching up with them.

I've also enjoyed their hot tub a few times, but it's almost time to move on. Sunday I'm going to go into San Francisco for the day to see Tom Masino and his family. He's an old friend of my brother's who grew up in our neighborhood. Then we're moving on up the coast north of San Francisco for a few days.

Posted by Ed at 10:36 AM | Permalink

I know you're probably wondering after my last post, so I'll let you know right away. Abbey made a miraculous recovery and her leg looks much better today. She's almost back to the way she was a few days ago. We're at the Kupecs now and their house in San Jose. They aren't here, but they left plenty of food and beer, and the pool and hot tub are ready to go so we're in great shape. And Trader Joe's is only a few miles away. What more do we need? We arrived yesterday when Mimi and Steve were still here. An old friend of theirs, Dennis, who also worked in my group at IBM, came over for dinner last night and brought some great locally brewed beer. As usual with the Kupecs, I ate and drank too much. But I didn't have to drive and I'm just hanging out and catching up on some things (like this blog) so it didn't really matter. We'll be hanging out here for a while, getting some stuff done on the RV (yea, I already broke a couple of minor things), restocking and probably taking a few day trips in the Bay area. Sorry, no new pics today. Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Posted by Ed at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well Memorial Day weekend is almost here and the crowds have started to descend on every campground and park. It's getting crowded here and I was thinking of moving on, but the hard part is where. I checked into Yosemite and found that Memorial Day weekend is the busiest weekend of the year. Even if I could find a place I wouldn't want to deal with the crowds. The people at the Sierra National Forest office said that if I didn't have a reservation by now at one of the few campgrounds that are open, then I wouldn't have a prayer. Besides most of the hiking there is in the high country and that is all still snowed in. Remember all those snow storms in the Sierras in the news this winter? I do now. So I've reverted to plan C ' visit the Kupecs in San Jose early. They are leaving Sat. morning for Big Sur, but it will give me a chance to catch up on some things I need to do (yes, I am still not in the mode of total irresponsibility).

Yesterday after driving to a small town library to use the internet to no avail (see above) I took Abbey for a walk up a jeep road in the national forest that was closed to travel. There was a little snow on the road, but not enough to bother us. It got pretty hot, which made it hard to believe that we were walking amid all that snow. Once again, Abbey enjoyed rolling in it. Later on, I drove into Sequoia NP for the first time. The trees in Kings Canyon are real nice, but Sequoia is a whole other story. Especially the Giant Forest. They are incredible. Sequoias aren't all that pretty of a tree. The trunks are huge, but the branches don't stick out that far and are very irregular. They don't have a great shape at all, but they still are amazing. They are just immense. The world's largest living thing, the General Sherman tree, is 275 ft. tall and over 36ft. in diameter at the base. After that, I thought that Sequoia was a better park than Kings Canyon, until today. Today we drove down into the actual canyon. With the snow-covered mountains in the background, it is a beautiful sight. I sure would like to come back here someday and go backpacking in the backcountry. We did try a short, but steep hike in the NF but pretty early on I got a big scare. Abbey started limping and holding her leg up ' the one she had knee surgery on in December. I'm hoping that it's just a temporary setback, but it doesn't look good. The hike wasn't even that tough and she wasn't running around that much. I'm not sure how it even happened. I'll just have to wait and see. This could change a lot of my plans, or at the least force me to leave her in the RV if and when I go hiking. Now that I think of it, it's better that we're just hanging out at the Kupecs for a while and not going somewhere else this weekend.

The General Himself	A General Perspective	Giant Forest
Giant Perspective	Kings River	Roaring River Falls
Grizzly Falls

Posted by Ed at 11:24 PM | Permalink

We stayed one more night at the campground in the Sequoia NF. Yesterday we drove up to the end of the road and took a long hike ' 6 or 7 miles ' to a place called Jerkey Meadows. Don't ask me why the name, but just beyond there, the views of the high Sierras were great. There was snow on the peaks, but unfortunately it was pretty hot where we were. Luckily there were a few streams to cool off in. Abbey was so hot where we stopped for lunch that she just laid down in the stream. Wish I could've done that. By the time we got back to the RV where we both pretty beat. Needless to say when we got back to our campsite we both took a nap. I had a beer first, though. I think I could get used to that afternoon nap thing, especially if it's after a beer. Then I made my first campfire of the trip and barbequed some chicken. In case anyone is wondering, I've been eating real well, though I can't say it's exactly been gourmet. And another nice thing about traveling in an RV is that you have a freezer so you can always bring ice cream along. So much for my sugarless diet. Right before I went to sleep I looked out the window and saw a beautiful full moon. It doesn't get much better.

This morning we took off early ' 7:30am to be exact which is pretty good for me. Unfortunately, a lot of the roads are still closed due to snow so we had to go way south, and then cut over on State Hwy 155 before going north towards the national parks. That was the windiest, steepest state highway I've ever seen. Switchbacks and S-curves for 20 miles and 11% grades over much of that. If it was a bumpy road I would've said it was worse than the Road to Hana. If there were crazy Yugoslavians passing on blind curves than it would have been worse than the roads leading from the Plitvice Lakes. One lane roads in Scotland were easier to drive than this one, even with the sheep. When I finally got in the valley and could go straight for more than 100 feet I made good time until I hit State Highway 245. On the map it looked fairly straight. Yea right. At least it wasn't as steep as 155 was, but let's just say that we were both happy to get to Kings Canyon and off those roads. I can safely say that the handling of my RV is nowhere near a BMW, or even a Ford minivan for that matter.

We're going to spend 2 nights camping in Kings Canyon National Park. Sequoia NP is right next door so we'll get to see both. After circling around the campground several times I finally decided on one that was fairly flat and had lots of room. I pulled in, got out and immediately 2 little chihuahuas started yapping away from a nearby RV. So much for that spot. So I took another that was less level, but seemed quieter at least. Little did I know. We took a drive down to a place called Hume Lake to get some gas (where we paid $2.75!!) and Abbey revived herself with a swim in the lake. After finding a dead fish she went crazy looking for any other disgusting smelling things she could find along the shore. At least we got a good walk in after all the driving. Unfortunately they don't allow dogs on the trails in the national parks, but luckily the national forest is adjacent to the 2 parks so we'll still get some hiking in. There's also a lot of snow around so Abbey gets to roll in it ' one of her favorite joys in life. If only life were that simple for me. When we got back to our camp and started making dinner, I found that the chihuahuas may have been the lesser of 2 evils. This little bratty kid next door was screaming and crying about something for what seemed an eternity. I know it's easy to say since I don't have kids, but if he was mine I would've killed one of us. Thankfully, I think his mother locked him in the car when even she couldn't stand it any longer. The joys of camping in our national parks, and it's not even summer yet. Well, I think I've managed to ramble on well past my limit tonight. More in a few days??..
View from Jerkey Meadows
Hume Lake
Kings Canyon
A faroff view

Posted by Ed at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last Friday I spent most of the day trying to get other things I needed since I was still in a decent sized city. Diana took off Friday for a business trip and Michael had class all weekend, so I headed out early Saturday morning. I had planned on going to Zion National Park next, but when I saw the weather was going to be in the mid-90's I decided to skip it for now and go back in the spring. So I drove all the way to Sequoia National Forest in CA instead. I got there at a decent time, but it took me a while to find a campsite that was suitable for the RV. I ended up parking in an open area after trying to squeeze in between some bushes and trees and scraping the side of the RV pretty good. I also had a hard time getting it level, but finally managed to find a decent spot overlooking the river, which was running really high. The campgrounds were all pretty full of people who had come up to run the river. I also managed to tear off one of my mudflaps backing over a big rock, but I somehow managed to not get too frustrated. After dinner and a beer, I fell asleep early after the long day's drive.

This morning I decided to try and bushwack up the hill across from our campsite. It looked like it would have a nice view. Well, that didn't turn out to be such a great idea. We found a road that started us out, but when we started to head uphill, things got much tougher. The scrub and bushes were much bigger than they looked from a distance. And there were a lot more ravines than I noticed initially. After getting only part way up, it was starting to get pretty hot and Abbey was getting pretty wiped out from the heat. So I decided to make my way across to where it looked to be a lot easier and then make our way down. Well, the brush wasn't as high, but the rock underneath the brush and grass was real loose. We finally made it back down after getting full of burrs and scratches. Gotta work on my bushwacking and route-finding skills.

I decided to take a drive back up along the river passed where we camped to the end of the road. It was a pretty windy and steep road but the views were worth it. We stopped to see the President George Bush (the first ' not W) giant sequoia tree near the top of the road. There was a short hike which supposedly went by the tree. Well the path wasn't well-marked and neither was the tree. I passed a pretty large sequoia so I assumed that was it. Meanwhile, Abbey didn't care so much about the tree. She was deeply preoccupied with going in the creeks and chasing lizards. We stopped to check out the views on the way back down and then found a real nice campground in a grove of evergreens pretty high up. It was more like I was hoping for up here, though I did break my string of 7 nights without having to pay for staying the night. Oh well, the site is worth it.
Kern River Campsite
Yucca on the Bushwack
Bushwacked
View Beyond the Canyon

Posted by Ed at 10:28 PM | Permalink