Wednesday (Apr 19)
Late start today. I am still getting over having respiratory problems for the last two weeks. I am clearly not on my game, because if I was I would not have eaten at IHop on the way out of town. I know better than that, and like to think that I would never do that in my right mind. The meal left me bloated and gave me heartburn for two days, AND the waiter tried to overcharge me. F–k IHop!
Pure driving after that. My aim was to get to Colusa Wildlife Refuge a little before dark to do the Auto Tour at sunset. I barely made it, and it weren’t no big deal anyway.
WHUFU page for: Colusa NWR
Warm, clear fall day. Mostly pintails, with a sprinkling of shovellers and American wigeons. Some snowy egrets and one great heron.
There was a large flock of snow geese in their southeast corner. The tolerated me until I was about halfway past, but then somebody spooked and they took to the air by the thousands.
The night heron posse was at their usual hangout on the east side of the creek on the way out.
I got a good long l;ook at some kind of raptor. I'm guessing red tailed, but maybe a Cooper's hawk - it was more gray-ish than reddish ...
tonight:
Pretty much off-season here. The pond at the viewing platform was drained. No flocks of migratory birds. Even the little neighborhood of Night Herons along the creek right before the end of the loop was gone. Never (not) seen that before!
Only interesting thing was a few Ring-necked Pheasants, which are quite attractive. Large and pretty colors and look like they would be tasty!
After the refuge it’s a short (nine miles) drive to Granzella’s. It was nice enough, but so average it’s not really worth a database entry. Got my usual parking spot, went inside and got my usual beer (IPA), ordered my usual meal (linguisa sandwich with the very hearty house salad), and watched a Warriors game. As I have mentioned many times before, regular season W’s games are not on local cable because we are in Kings country, but since this is the playoffs all the games are on national networks, so WOO!
Thursday
Back inside for my usual Granzella’s morning. Got my usual coffee and goodie and ordered my usual sandwich (roast beef or italian). Shoulda orderd real breakfast this time, I was very hungry by the time I got to Tin Roof mid afternoon. Anyway, off I go to the next Wildlife Refuge:
WHUFU page for: Sacramento Unit
Conveniently located next to Interstate 5, which somehow adds to the experience. You can see the semis rocketing along less than a mile away, but you're in another world. There's a nice hike through the marshes and along a tiny creek, and a very nice auto tour with a viewing platform stop in the middle.
Sometimes I do the drive then the hike, sometimes the hike then the drive.
Sunset looking back across the marshes from the viewing platform can be spectacular.
tonight:
Pretty slow here bird-wise. The main thing I wanted to do was to check out the spring wildflower scene at their vernal pool. Not spectacular, but very pretty in the distance.
A lot of jackrabbits, and some wading birds. I am not good with naming the wading birds.
Flood conditions have subsided in this part of the Valley, so I can take the route past Llano Seco. I park there and hang out for a while, but the bird scene isn’t very exciting here either. And I still have no energy.
Thence to Chico and to good ole Tin Roof for a sandwich and a little bit of that Chico “we’re all so cool here” atmosphere. Thence to Red Bluff for tonight.
I kinda want to spend the night at Perry Riffle, but since the Red Bluff Recreation Area comes first and it’s early I do a drive-by to check out Sycamore Grove CG. It’s quite surprisingly busy and crowded, which does not change my mind about staying elsewhere. I press on to Perry Riffle … which was very, very nice.
I would love to take back roads all the way, but one must get back on I-5 for a couple of exits. Then as soon as you get off, it’s a really nice drive. Beautiful green (this year!) countryside to the bridge over the Sacramento River. The drive through the town of Bend and thereafter is winding with lots of speed bumps, but super scenic and kind of restful if you’re not in a hurry. As described below, Perry Riffle is the end of the road.
WHUFU page for: Perry Riffle
It pays to call the ranger! I called about spring flowers on these riverside trails (not yet he said), and as long as I was there asked about staying overnight. He said the all the other parking areas were day use only, but the one at the end of the road - Perry Riffle (cool name!) - allows it. So here I am, feeling very pleased about life.
tonight:
Place was just awesome again!
The Sacramento River is running high, so the flatlands where I walked last time were flooded.
It is at the dead end of the paved road into this BLM area, so every car and truck that comes through ends up doing a u-ey in my camping area.
Not that many people come through, but the lack of privacy wears you down after a while, and both times I've stayed here I've left relatively early in the morning.
I still don’t feel awesome, but I do a little walk around the parking area. I check out the flooding on one side of my lot and the explosion of pretty meadow flowers on the other. Beautiful place. I hear (but do not see) turkeys gobbling!
Friday – Saturday
No problems at all, but in bed, parked at the turnaround I get a little jolt of stress every time somebody comes and turns around (or stays). Since my lot is the end of the road, that’s pretty much everybody who drives out here.
So even though it’s a completely delightful spot, I get out of bed and get going relatively early (again). The drive out in the morning is even more pleasant that the drive in last night. After winding my way through Bend back to the bridge I turn right (north) to follow the eastern edge of the river for the bumpy scenic route to Redding. It’s super bucolic and un-busy until the crossing back to the west side of the river, where over a few miles I find myself slowly re-entering suburban traffic hell again. I thought it would be fun to come into Redding by the back way, but it actually kinda sucked.
I will be meeting up with the family later to spend the night in a nice hotel on other Grandpa’s dime so we can all enjoy Tyler’s basketball games tomorrow. So I have 3-4 hours to kill in Redding.
I dine at Corbett’s again, then explore a part of Redding I’ve never even thought of before, that is everything north of 299. I cross the river on an older bridge in the north part of town and drive up the hill to the Keswick Dam Trailhead. The theory was to walk all the way back down the hill to the river, but I am much too low energy for that. It’s a humid 90-ish, so all I’m good for is a few hundred yards. But that’s better than nothing and makes me feel a little better about myself. Then back down the hill where I kill a half hour or so at the city park along the river until it’s time to head towards my rendezvous.
Everybody else is later than I thought. Yelp tells me there are bars on the next street over, so … happy hour! There are two places, right next to each other with an alley between. Other than the fact that they both serve beer they could not be more different.
The Alehouse Pub is small with a snooty, bordering on rude bartender, no happy hour and expensive beer. On the upside they do have a very nice back patio. After than $8 experience I decided to try Bleacher’s, a big shambling sports bar kind of place. Their beer was just as good, with happy hour prices and served by a cheerful person without the pretention.
Halfway through that beer I got the call that everyone had arrived at the hotel, so I walked back around the block to meet up with the San Rafael grandparents and Chad and the boys. Martha and Tula are sitting this one out, so me and Chad and Ry have the extra room to ourselves.
Saturday
Hang out with my boys. Start the day with hotel breakfast (pretty good!), then a little chain restaurant pizza, then the first game at a middle school not too far away across the river. Win pretty easily! Tyler is maybe the third/fourth best player. Wyatt is their stud. Doesn’t look very imposing, but he’s a little bigger than most of the others and seems to do whatever he wants pretty easily. Ty’s the second point guard. They’ve got a good coach, and they listen to him and play hard, so they’re pretty good at their level.
Back to hotel where everybody naps. Then off to a different school for game 2. This is a big place on the hill. It’s on 299 heading west to Eureka, so everybody has driven past it. It’s so big it hasa multiple gyms. We are in the Wrestling Gym, a funky place with very steep bleachers and large pillars fucking up the sight lines. Other grandpa points out the lack of shearing braces to note the place would probably collapse in a medium earthquake. No earthquake, but we did lose :<
The refs have all been good and fair, but these two were obsessed with traveling calls. Fifth graders rarely get their feet perfectly set, so they travel a little bit on almost every play. No big deal, but it was called 6-8 times today. That was not why we lost. The other team’s center was a gigantic hispanic kid who will make a great offensive lineman for someone someday. He was completely immovable, and had pretty good hands once he got the ball, which was all the time.
Me and the boys go out to get tacos for everybody for dinner. I put it on my card, so I got to contribute at least something to the weekend’s cost.
Sunday
The final game of the weekend is Sunday morning at 10 am. I choose breakfast over making it on time. In fact I miss the whole thing, shame on me. But I do arrive at the gym before the other grandparents have left. Talking to them I get the great idea to camp with Martha tonight!
She has been in Marin this weekend doing her garage sale and Goodwill thing. US 101 is closed due to that giant mudslide near Leggett. It is not detoured or traffic-delayed, it is flat-out closed to all traffic till further notice! So to get home she will be driving up I-5, anyway, more or less past exactly where we are right now.
She and I do a bit of back-and-forthing via text, and decide on a plan to meet at Sycamore Grove tonight. It worked out quite nicely!
WHUFU page for: Sycamore Grove Campground
A lonely outpost of Mendocino National Forest - a little chunk of federal land next to the diversion dam. The parking lots are huge, making it seem like it was full of action back when the dam was being used create the diversionary lake. Emptying the dam a couple of decades ago was sad for the boaters of Red Bluff, but great for the salmon, who were being killed off by the salmon ladder.
This beautiful campground suffers from being too close to the town of Red Bluff. The bathroom has a security code to prevent random weirdos from moving in.
tonight:
Definitely the word is out on this handy place. It was full-ish when I did a drive-by on Thursday, and it's still pretty busy ere at 4pm on Sunday.
I still scored a nice spot. Site 7 is private but not private: It's in fully view of every car that drives past, but it's a nice distance from all the neighbors.
The bathroom has a security code and there was no camp host that I could find. Not good, but another camper had the code.
This place is getting weird. The camp host spot was not a camp host, it was a cranky couple from Florida who weren’t thrilled with me barging in on them. But we got along great after everyone calmed down.
Martha and baby Tula arrive 6-ish. We mill around for a short while, then all hop in her minivan to find dinner. Place #1 (Thai) was closed on Sunday night, so we tried place #2 across the highway. Good choice!
It was an old-school Mexican restaurant – Carlita’s – fake stucco, red tile floor, sombreros on the wall and margaritas in thick glass goblets, the whole works! And it turns out this is the last day of the annual Red Bluff Rodeo, so it is chock full of hard-bellied cowboys wearin’ their cowboy hats indoors and getting kind of loudly drunk with their country ladies. We had a great time. Since M was driving I had two margs … which was one too many. Live and (not) learn …
Monday – Friday
The three of us slept pretty well in the van. Martha had a headache for a few hours in the morning, which was pretty upsetting at the time. We decided that she would stay quiet with the baby and wait for it to pass and I would go out to breakfast in her minivan. I went back to Carlita’s for Mexican breakfast. She is all good by noon and heads back to Redding/Eureka in here minivan. I left about an hour later.
I drove straight through Redding and Weavertown, but treated myself to a coffee stop at the Strawhouse. Turns out the birds are kind of spectacular this time of year on their patio. The goldfinches were mobbing the bird feeders.
We both got to Eureka well before dark.
Tuesday
I did my usual Eureka things. First stop is Because Coffee to support Katie, then drive about eight blocks to the Library to copy more of my missing Sudokos. I have finally copied all twelve or so that I missed on my big road trip last summer, and almost all of the Sundays I have missed since then. Each Sunday entails making five copies – the answer page, two crosswords, the Jumble/Cryptogram page, and finally the big one – the Giant Sudoku/Quote Acrostic page, which happily both fit on a single 8×11 page! $.10/copy ==> one dollar fed into the copier allows me to copy two Sunday’s worth.
I’m feeling leisurely today, so I hung out an hour or so reading actual physical magazines with the homeless dudes. I enjoyed the old-school pleasure of it!
Took Ty to bball practice. 5-7 as it turns out, a pretty long time. I even shot around for a while and worked up a little sweat – good for me!
Wednesday
Because Coffee again. I am rewarded because Haven is working.
No errands today, straight home to hang out. In the late afternoon, Went for a cold, wet walk with Rylan that thoroughly annoyed me and chilled me to the bone. I headed out in tee shirt and flip-flops because I thought it would be short, but he kept wanting to go farther. We eventually ended up at the Coast Guard housing, where he played with a older CG kid at the playground while I froze my ass off. Actually, the older kid just did his thing then Rylan would mimic exactly what he did – the older kid was way too cool to really interact much.
Thursday
Ramone’s Bakery today, because that’s my new thing.
Basketball practice was cancelled, so there ws no excuse not to go, we all went to Manila for Lili’s talent show. I thought it was pretty cool and wanted to stay, but Rylan was pretty had to manage, and Ty was teenager-bored, so we left about when it started.
Friday
Los Bagels for breakfast – yum
I babysit, so the parents can have a date afternoon. She of course takes 6-month old, but Tyler and I are able to tag team the 3-year pretty well for those two hours. A success! Tyler even gets him to take his nap. Not sure that would’ve been in my skill set.
Chad and I get bake at home pizza from Babe’s for tonight’s dinner.
Saturday
Tyler is marching in the Memorial Day parade this morning as part of the Freshwater Elementary Beginning Band! So I pile into the minivan with everybody but Tyler and we head off to Henderson Center to see them march by. Fun!
Me and Martha take a quickie sunset beach trip. Chad cooks yummy chicken.
Sunday
What a busy day as it turns out! We started an excellent lox and bagel breakfast, then all headed to what we thought was going to be Moonstone Beach. I am still planning on going home today, so we took both vehicles. As always, they took off first and I dawdled … because that’s what I do.
I exited 101 at Trinidad and stopped at the gas station to try to could score a Sunday Chronicle – success! Then I got a text from Martha -Moonstone parking is full, so the new plan is an obscure locals beach north of town, at the very bottom edge of Patrick’s Point State Park. Since Moonstone is south of town, they’ll have to come right past me, so I wait.
As these family outings often do, it started getting complicated – Martha wanted to eat at the Trinidad hamburger place, I didn’t. Since we’re in two cars, easy solution! I head on to the beach parking on the bluffs, find a shady spot and read my Sunday paper while they eat.
They eventually show up, we all trundle off down the trail to the steps to the beach. I hang out with everybody for a half hour then trundle back up the steps to the parking lot to head home. My lung capacity is still pretty pathetic so it takes me quite a few stops to get up the 90 or so steps, but it felt pretty good and was I am sure good for me.
Cut through McKinleyville to pick up a sandwich at a deli that Yelp told me was open on Sunday. Picked up 299 east on the other side the got diesel in Blue Lake. After than, just put inthe three-ish hours it takes to get to Redding. No stops, although I did as always admire the Trinity River canyon as best I could with both hands on the steering wheel and both eyes on the road.
Dinner is the iconic double burger with fries at the Redding In n Out. I was kinda burnt out going iin, but pretty relaxed going out. It was a pretty, relaxing hour drive to:
WHUFU page for: Cave Campground
Smack on the way from Reno to Eureka, where CA 44 meets CA 89.
A geologically interesting valley. A giant, recent lava flow that feels like the recovering disaster area it is. The Lava Cave is a short walk across the highway.
The Forest Service keeps one campground open all winter, and it is this one.
A deep blanket of pine needles makes it quiet except for the occasional truck on 89.
tonight:
To my surprise, the summer season has started on Hat Creek! Hat Creek CG and all of Cave CG are open for business. To my even greater surprise, the best campsite in the two campgrounds, good ole #4 was unoccupied!
Hat Creek really is the most beautiful thing ever.
JJ's Cafe, 1/2 mile down the road the road is also open, so I started my drive to Reno with a good breakfast.
Got here a half hour before dark. As noted above the best site in the campground was inexplicably vacant, so I drove straight to it and staked my claim. I spent the remaining evening’s daylight and most of the morning there just staring at the amazing rapids from the little footbridge at the back of my campsite.
Monday
JJ’s Cafe is a diner in the nondescript brown building next to the gas station, and it’s open! … And pretty good! … and has wifi!! They close at 2 pm, so it has always been shuttered when I have explored the neighborhood in the evening on previous trips. But it is the perfect answer when I am camping here and driving towards home in the morning. It’s a long hour or to the next coffee possibility in Susanville, and I don’t much like the options there anyway, so this is a great way to start the day!
I stop in S-ville anyway just to break up the drive, with a hot fudge sundae at McD’s. Get home early enough to unpack comfortably, decide to NOT go out to Monday all-day happy hour, so stay home and get ready for the rest of my life!