Inland

Day 9. Wednesday, April 29.


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We decided to explore Sunset Bay a bit more as it was so beautiful and this was our only night on the Oregon Coast. We went back down to the beach and found a trail head to two more parts, Shore Acres and Cap Arago, to the south. We never made it either as the trail dumped us into an empty cove and never started up again. That we could find at least. We still enjoyed ourselves and saw some cool, Oregonian stuff.






We departed Sunset Bay in the late morning and had about five hours of driving ahead of us. The weather was a little rough at times, but not as bad as the previous day. We stopped for lunch in Newport, which means...



This place dioesn't even compare to the Sierra Nevada brewery, but they had some great kobe burgers and they specialize in delicious ales, so I ain't complainin'. Plus we got this goin' on now:



After that we drove up the coast a bit more and eventually cut inland toward the Wilamette Valley. We eventually landed in our campground right on the Wilamette River at Champoeg State Park (pronounced Champ-oeg). However you pronounce it, Oregon gets a big fat 'A' for their state parks. They're clean, well maintained, spacious, and they have a great volunteer system. They also have cabins and yurts to rent at a lot of their parks. Plus they don't allow smoking in the showers. I can't say I've ever been in a shower that has a no-smoking sign in it until now. Kudos, Oregon!

At dusk, Pops and I took a stoll around the park while Casey blogged. The Wilamette Valley is wine country so the scenery changed from rocks and pines to rolling hills and meadows.




Day 10 will hopefully take us to some wineries and finally into Portland.

Rocks n' Rain

Day 8. Tuesday, April 28.


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The morning of Day 8 we awoke to the sound of rain on the RV. I immediately scratched my plans for a morning walk and fishing in Oregon in favor of laying in bed and listening to the rain. We eventually packed up the RV and shipped out for our next destination. Very quickly after leaving the trip odometer passed 1,000 miles and a couple minuted later we crossed out of California for the last time, surely a bittersweet moment.

The goal for the day was to drive the Oregon Coast, taking our time of it, and perhaps fishing in a couple rivers along the way. However, as it rained and was in the 50s for most of the drive, there was no fishing to be done and I instead look forward to the chili I would make at our next destination.

The drive was beautiful and our destination, Sunset Bay State Park, was exactly what you picture in the Oregon Coast: rugged, weathered, intimidating. The rain certainly helped this image.




The campsites were great - we basically had our own little yard surrounded by fences and hedges. After we set up camp be all bundled in our rain gear and walked down to the beach. Yes, even the dogs. Niko was the star of the show, defending us from the evil seagulls. He would always be thwarted by this inability to fly or swim, but that didn't stop him from trying. By the time we were finished, there were a few onlookers enjoying his antics.





The rain cleared up enough in the evening where we could have a campfire and cooked up some pizzas pockets over the flames. We we went in for round two, apple pies this time, the skies opened up on us telling us we had our fun for the day.

"If you've seen one Redwood Tree, you've seen them all."

Days 6 and 7. April 26 and 27.


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Well, I think all on this trip can now definitively say that good old Ronald was off his meds when he came up with that line.

We started the day in Ashland with two airport stops on the agenda. Unfortunately we were saying goodbye to Jake in Medford. We had a great time with him biking through Napa, beer tasting, relaxing in Mt. Shasta, and seeing some Shake-a-spear. As always, Jake took some incredible pictures with his excellent, but slightly inferior, Nikon D-40. We were so happy to start our trip with you, Jake.

But it's time to move on and Pops (Eric's dad) had already begun his journey across country to join us. From McNamara Terminal in Detroit to McNamara Field in Crescent City, CA, Pops was well on his way when we drove Harvey back across the California border.

After picking up Pops from the tiniest airport ever on the coast, we traveled the few miles back into the Redwoods National and State Parks. We had the most ridiculous campsite which gave us a front row seat to the Smith River. The water was so clear and we had our very own rocky beach area, which Niko quickly claimed as his own and Riley, well Riley was just her happy little noodle self!







Once we had set up camp we quickly grabbed our chairs and set out to find a nice spot to read on our newly claimed beach. Having recently done some research on the Redwood Natl. and State Parks for a paper, I was now aware that bears as well as puma (who knew?) were residents of the area. So, after sharing this with Eric and Pops, we quickly made it a point to warn each other to watch for bear being chased by a puma (or vice versa). I was sure we would look out our window one morning and see this game of chase, but I was proven wrong....

The next day we roamed around the almost deserted park looking for trails to explore. We were able to get some awesome shots of the river and some of the magnificent trees, but the trails proved overgrown as the rangers had not made it out this early in the year to clear them yet. Oh well, we still had our beach!

A Little Culture

Day 5. Saturday, April 25.


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We awoke in at our campground on Lake Siskiyou to clear blue skies so that meant on last stroll down to the shore for a look at Shasta. It was magnificent.



We took our time in the morning, Casey made some apple pancakes, and we left around noon for our next destination. This meant that finally, after over 850 miles of driving...



Of course the next day we will be heading right back into California. Regardless we reached Ashland before 2pm. Our campground... um... wasn't exactly what we were going for. It's tough to judge the places by the website, and while the facility was clean and well maintained the clientele... isn't. We knew this immediately when we pulled in to register and the first campers we saw were lifting weights outside of their RV like they were in a prison yard. I wanted Jake to take a photo, but we were pretty close and he didn't want to die.

But the campground wasn't why we were in Ashland. We were there for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and we had tickets for Macbeth at 8pm. We caught a cab into town and had dinner at the Standing Rock Brewery (great food and IPA). Ashland is a cool town surrounded by beautiful hills with a definite college feel as it's home to Southern Oregon University. The Shakespeare festival is right downtown and has and equal influence on life there. For good reason, too; we saw an incredible show. The set, cast, and direction was fantastic, costumes a little strange (everyone one wore 20th century military uniforms), but the actors who played Macbeth and Lay Macbeth were sensational. Of course we weren't allow to take photos of the show, but I pulled some off of the website.







We completed the night with some cocktails and live music (and amazing french fries) at a bar called Alex's nearby and took a cab back to Harvey.

The next day we drop Jake off and head back into California to meet up with Pops in the redwood forest.

Snow, Deer, & Rest

Day 4

So we were a little worried when we got to Mt. Shasta that access to the trails head was closed or limited because there was a lot of snow still on the mountain. And then we awoke to this:




It was a easy decision after that to not take the RV out to any trail heads and just relax at the campsite. After the snow turned into rain and let up in the late morning, we went back down to the lake shore for some snowy photos.





In the afternoon we went out for a walk, and the sky had cleared enough where we could see that we had a direct view of Mt. Shasta past the hills across Lake Siskiyou, but there were still a few large clouds lingering around the mountain. We walked a bit more in the area around the camp ground when we had a unexpected encounter...

... the Deer Whisperer.


Okay, this was pretty crazy for being so far out into the wilderness. I spotted a couple of deer in the clearing ahead, but I had the dogs and didn't want to scare them so Jake went on ahead to try to get a better shot. And he vanishes into the woods. Casey and I waited for a while before stared heading in Jake's direction. We eventually saw him about 10 feet from some deer who didn't seem to mind at all. At one point we saw a couple deer walking, then Jake following them, then a couple more deer following Jake! He was practically frolicking with the stupid deer!

Anyway, he got some great pictures. Here are a few:






After that we just relaxed/read/napped back at the campsite. In the evening we went back out to try get better photos of Shasta, which had cleared up a bit, but not completely.



And Niko and Riley used that as an opportunity to blow off some steam from being cooped up in the RV all day.




Day 5 will take us into Oregon (for one day). Ashland is only about a 90 minute drive away, where the hold a Shakespeare Festival. We have tickets for MacBeth at 8pm.

Mecca

Day 3


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This was a good day.

We stared it by heading back out into the Napa Valley in Harvey. We wanted to go back to HaGafen to buy some wine. Since it was the first stop on our bike trip the previous day, we didn't buy any to avoid carrying the bottles the whole ride, by the time we passed it on the way back it was closed. We also wanted to taste more wine (naturally) and had a tasting of their reserves (all under the "Prix" label), which were all quite good. They were very proud of their reserve chardonnay, which they were quick to point out was recently served at the White House for the Obamas' Easter dinner. Another interesting fact was that HaGafen is hebrew for "the vine" and all of their wines are kosher - the only one of its kind in Northern California.



We then said goodbye to Lisa as she went off to explore more of Napa before heading home and the rest of us hopped in Harvey for our next destination: Chico, California and...


Yesssssssssss! Not a whole lot going on in Chico, but the brewery did not disappoint. We arrived for a late lunch at their restaurant where Jake and I sampled all 16 of their beers and Casey sampled enough to finding the Torpedo Extra IPA to be her favorite.





And the food! Fillet fettuccine gorgonzola, Sierra Nevada beer battered fish & chips, buffalo wings and garlic fries with their house ranch. It took a while, but we left there grinning like fools.



We hit up the gift shop, bought a few souvenirs and two cases of Torpies and headed north to Mt. Shasta. This was a beautiful drive up the Five and Mt. Shasta itself is a completely imposing figure in the skyline. You think you're diving through mountains... and then you see Shasta. Still mostly covered with snow, and gorgeous.



We arrived at our beautiful campground on Lake Siskiyou near the base of Shasta around sunset to find only one other camper there. Our site as about fifty yards from the shore and it's so peaceful it's almost eerie.

Tomorrow we will try a hike on the side of Mt. Shasta if there's access, but that was a lot of snow...