{"id":275,"date":"2012-08-30T07:19:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T07:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jfmac.local\/~jf\/wordpress\/?p=275"},"modified":"2018-01-08T10:01:16","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T10:01:16","slug":"change-of-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.whufu.com\/wpwhu\/?p=275","title":{"rendered":"Unwelcome change of plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday (Aug 25)<\/a><\/h3>
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Edson Creek Campground<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

It was quiet in the\u00a0 morning – the clanging, yelling 13 year old boys next door have gone to the river, or at least gone away somewhere.\u00a0 I soak up some quiet before heading off to find food and wifi to see where I will end up today.\u00a0 Yesterday I mailed friends down the coast about visiting, and hope to hear back this morning, since at least Katie has crazy-quick Facebook response time.<\/p>\n

Generally when I drive a few miles up a road just to get to a campground, the road back in the morning always seems a lot shorter, not to mention more pleasant and relaxed.\u00a0 This is true again today as I backtrack to US 101.\u00a0 A few miles down 101 is\u00a0Port Orford<\/strong>.\u00a0 The coffee and tea place next to the theater is closed, so I backtrack to the shabby little\u00a0Paradise Cafe<\/strong>\u00a0and it’s beckoning “wifi” sign.\u00a0 Breakfast was adequate, the wifi was excellent, and I was charmed by the Obama office across the road and two competing local newsletters – one was the kind of thing you’d expect: local meetings and pictures (the berry farmer dressed up as a giant blueberry was my favorite), but the other was an unhinged paranoid racist right-wing screed (on pink paper!) about our president who just happens to be black.\u00a0 I’ll bet they have lively townhall meetings in Port Orford!<\/p>\n

The friend report is that I will be unable to visit Mandy in\u00a0Crescent City<\/strong>\u00a0because she is on\u00a0Eureka<\/strong>\u00a0helping her sister Katie move.\u00a0 So my adjusted plan for today is to power on through CC and all the way to Eureka, where I can see all the sisters in one place and help Katie pack.<\/p>\n

So, finish breakfast, then finish off my all-too-brief tour of the Oregon coast –\u00a0Humbug Mountain<\/strong>,\u00a0Gold Beach<\/strong>,\u00a0Brookings<\/strong>, then California! This trip was supposed to feature major time on the coast, but because of van-related\u00a0drama –\u00a0the worst of which is yet to come!<\/em>\u00a0–\u00a0I will end up spending only 4 days of a 28 day trip actually on the coast … sigh.<\/p>\n

I take the side road along\u00a0Pelican Bay<\/strong>, where suddenly I am driving right past the maximum security prison!\u00a0 They go out of their way to make it look not-scary from the road, but the idea of the worst criminals in California being 1\/2 mile away is creepy.<\/p>\n

There is a fish place (Fisherman’s Harbor<\/strong>) at the edge of the harbor where I’ve had a good breakfast in CC on a couple of previous visits.\u00a0 It’s too late for breakfast\u00a0today and I’m sad to say that lunch was not a success.\u00a0 Their fish and chips really didn’t sit well the rest of the day.\u00a0 Anyway, onward\u00a0down the\u00a0Redwood Coast<\/strong>, quite beautiful at any time.\u00a0 I stopped to view the Roosevelt Elk at the elk-viewing place, but other than that I just trucked on down the highway, and got to Katie’s in Eureka 7-ish.<\/p>\n

The next new wrinkle in this somewhat benighted vacation reared it’s ugly head tonight.\u00a0 When I opened the sliding door, suddenly\u00a0all my van electronics went dead<\/em>!\u00a0\u00a0 The lights, the fridge, everything.\u00a0 So I lived by headlamp tonight, and slept an annoyed sleep, seeing a 400 mile trip back to Van Specialties in my future.<\/p>\n

Sunday<\/a><\/h3>\n

Hang out with the sisters – Aimee at her psychedelic house, then joined Katie and Mandie in wandering around the disaster of her soon-to-be-former house looking for things to usefully organize.\u00a0 The funnest thing we did was spend an hour or so packing this gigantic stove in the garage to get picked up by Fedex(!).\u00a0 She had bought this 2-oven monster back in her money days, but that new kitchen never quite happened.\u00a0 A number of people around the country offered more money for it, but a guy in Sacto has a bulk shipping deal with Fedex, so his total price was lowest.\u00a0 We padded, we taped, we went around and around with stretchwrap, then we stretchwrapped some more.\u00a0 Then we ratchet-strapped, and now we hope for the best.\u00a0 Fedex will wrap things, but you have to bring them to the office, haha.<\/p>\n

My electrical system is still weird.\u00a0 It came back to life when I started the engine this morning, but slowly degraded throughout the day.\u00a0 It’s dead-ish tonight – the fridge is running but making sad little “I’m dying” cricket noises, the LED lights are flickering.\u00a0 Oh yes, the van place is closed on Mondays.<\/p>\n

Monday<\/a><\/h3>\n

Wifi at\u00a0Old Town Coffee<\/strong>\u00a0till 2-ish then bye-bye Eureka, and hello 700 miles of extra driving back up to Tualatin! GRRRR…<\/p>\n

I repeat my tour of the always-scenic Redwood Coast going the other direction. A life skill that I try to cultivate is that you just do what you gotta do.\u00a0 Once you conclude that you gotta do it, then just do it and don’t waste any more energy stressing about the unfairness of it all, and you might as well be as cheerful as you can manage.\u00a0 Easy to say, sometimes hard to do, but I tend towards the cheerful anyway.\u00a0 Would I have been more successful in life if I was less good at being happy where I am?? who knows.\u00a0 That’s my digressive of saying that although I am deeply annoyed to have to be doing this, I’m still on the road\u00a0spending time in\u00a0cool places and I intend to have a good time doing it.<\/p>\n

But, back to the narrative.\u00a0 Dinner time at Crescent City.\u00a0 The memory of the Fisherman’s Harbor fish ‘n chips makes me\u00a0pass them\u00a0by this time, but then I made the even more questionable decision to go to Denny’s.\u00a0 I was under the incorrect impression that\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0Denny’s have wifi.\u00a0 Not true! This particular dead zone boasted no wifi, poor service from a spacey 17 year old, a creepy guy sitting by the cash register talking to himself, and food that sucked even\u00a0by\u00a0the low expectations\u00a0one has for\u00a0Denny’s. I think Mandy\u00a0has the right idea when she says that the answer to “Where’s a good place to eat in Crescent City?<\/em>” is “Nowhere!<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

  Patrick Creek Campground<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>
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WHUFU page for: Patrick Creek Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p>

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Small campground on the busy road from Crescent City to Grants Pass. Quaint lodge a few hundred yards away with breakfast and even a bar!<\/p>\n<\/p>

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<\/a>
Patrick Creek meets Smith River<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
Patrick Creek path under the road<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

North of CC I take 199 to cut over to\u00a0Grants Pass<\/strong>, a route I’ve never, ever been on (see! a reason to be cheerful already!). I drive 50 very pretty miles along the\u00a0Middle Fork of the\u00a0Smith River<\/strong>\u00a0to stop at\u00a0Patrick Creek CG<\/strong>, a really interesting place.\u00a0 An info sign explains that this is one of the\u00a0very few flat places<\/em>\u00a0along this wild and scenic (official designation!) river, so there have been structures here for about as long as there have been people here.\u00a0 It was a hive of\u00a0CCC-era construction<\/em>.\u00a0 The CCC laid out the campground and a bunch of half-destroyed outbuildings.\u00a0 The descriptions sound really cool, but it was all wiped out by the Great Christmas Flood of 1964, leaving the mossy ruins I see tonight.\u00a0 A bathhouse and campfire area, little cabins.\u00a0 There is a lodge on the other side of the road from that era also.\u00a0 A funky old-timey place inside, with a fine looking proprietress, and a restaurant that serves breakfast.\u00a0 Sadly I did not discover this until after the 11AM cut-off time for eating.<\/p>\n

Tuesday<\/a><\/h3>\n

This is going to be a big driving day – yuck.\u00a0\u00a0 The fact that diesel jumped up about $.30\/gal this week makes it even more annoying to drive 700 extra miles when I should be chillin’ at a campsite instead of driving.<\/p>\n

I arrive in\u00a0Grants Pass<\/strong>\u00a0lusting for wifi. I’ve identified a likely coffee place, but on the way to it I luck into a really nice place to eat – the Lookout, right on the Rogue River.\u00a0 It’s huge and fancy looking, and all the old folks are going in in droves – usually a bad sign for me, but I park and go in and check out the menu.\u00a0 $9 burgers is about the norm nowadays for any place that aspires to quality, so I’m in.\u00a0 They are right in the middle of where the Rogue River jet boats pick up \/ let off so it’s a busy, scenic, and interesting place.<\/p>\n

After lunch I call the van folks – it’s finally Tuesday so they’re at work, woo hoo.\u00a0 Their phone diagnosis is a loose grounding wire, so I crawl under the van and wiggle the wires.\u00a0 The seem solid to me, so it’s back to Van Specialties for me.\u00a0 [this was indeed the problem it turns out – I didn’t wiggle hard enough<\/em>].<\/p>\n

Enter I-5 at exit 53 in Grants Pass, heading north for exit 286 south of Tualatin. So that’s 233 miles of the dance of the big rigs for me today. I’ve loaded up my iPad with sports talk and politics talk, so I’m ready to chew up some miles. I did exactly this stretch of road 10 days ago (oh where did the time go?).\u00a0 I am now confirmed in my dislike of it.\u00a0 It’s got a lot of trucks, a lot of ups and downs and curves and again, is only two lanes wide.\u00a0 The countryside is quite pretty, but I don’t see that much of it because I’m usually staring at the ass-end of one semi passing another semi, because again, there are only two lanes..<\/p>\n

I do dawdle enough to not get to Tualatin till about dark.\u00a0 Back again sleeping outside the van place.\u00a0 I am a little depressed that this is what my vacation is.<\/p>\n

Wednesday<\/a><\/h3>\n

It’s a little too familiar here this time.\u00a0 Everybody usually makes some kind of effort to be jolly and friendly for our once a year visit, but we used all that up last week.\u00a0 I go to my corner and wait.\u00a0 The kid has it all taken care of by 11:30.\u00a0 Sure enough, improperly grounded – it had felt solid to me on Grants Pass, but apparently you gotta really tug on it.\u00a0 I’m glad to leave and I think they’re glad to see me go. I am not happy to be back and they know they fucked up, so it’s all a little tense.<\/p>\n

After some dithering about\u00a0what next<\/em>\u00a0I decide to treat myself to another night at Edgefield!\u00a0 The deciding factor is that it’s still early in the day, so I can have a pretty long relaxation experience for my one night stay.\u00a0 Again, I relax\u00a0hard<\/em>, perhaps too hard.<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/a><\/h3>\n

Another quality time, although … I should have not had that last 11PM beer, I can feel it this morning.\u00a0\u00a0 I hang around fooling with Google maps programming (something I can\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0do at a campsite) till about 3 and head for the hills.\u00a0 I shoulda left about a half hour earlier, because after dieseling and food shopping I find myself deep in Portland suburban rush hour.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
stairs from Santiam river to campsites<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
recycling at Elkhorn Valley<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

Most of the interesting woodsy camping in Oregon is between I-5 and US 97 – between Eugene and Bend if you will.\u00a0 There are basically four major roads that go from one side to the other.\u00a0 The one with the best NW-SE angle for returning to Reno is SR 36 through the hillbilly town of Oakridge. Giant electrical signs on I-5 have been warning me for two weeks about serious road construction on this route, so I ain’t going that way.\u00a0 As I’m picking my way along windy little roads in the Portland burbs I realize I don’t want to drive any more today.\u00a0 Apparently all that hard relaxing wore me out!\u00a0 So I turn on a closer east-west road, Rte 20, with the plan of returning to\u00a0Elkhorn Campground<\/strong>, where I stayed two years ago<\/p>\n

  Elkhorn Valley Campground<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>
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WHUFU page for: Elkhorn Valley Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p>

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pretty far off the highway. Deluxe as BLM CGs go. North Santiam River is pleasant to swim in. Little red recycling boxes everywhere.\r<\/p>\n

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<\/p><\/div>There was road construction here too (I guess the crews have to make the best of the short Oregon season!), the campground was much farther down the access road than I remembered, but when I got there it was a great place again!\u00a0 I snagged either the same spot or the one next to what I had last time.\u00a0 The distinctive thing I now recall from last time are these little\u00a0red recycling boxes<\/em>\u00a0everywhere.\u00a0 Each campsite has a trashcan and a red box.\u00a0 There’s a red box next to each bathroom, next to the registration kiosks, there’s even one next to the foot of each path to the creek.\u00a0 Somebody here cares about recycling!<\/p>\n

My evening was uneventful.\u00a0 I swam in the North Fork of the\u00a0Santiam River<\/strong>, which washed the driving stress away and cooled me to the core.\u00a0 I fell asleep before 10, which means I was tired.<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/a><\/h3>\n

Not much relaxing this morning.\u00a0 This is the Friday before Labor Day, and this place is a little bit crazy.\u00a0\u00a0 For whatever reason, campsites here don’t have the usual post with the campsite number and a clip to attach your registration receipt or a reserved sign, so there’s no official way to show a site is reserved.\u00a0 So folks have to get creative to show that a site is taken.\u00a0 I notice that the two sites west of me each have a camp chair plunked on their picnic tables.\u00a0 I realize nobody was at the site east of me all night, even though there are two tents on it.\u00a0 As I’m bumbling around the van a kid comes up and wants my site for tonight and wants to put their tent on it.\u00a0 I say ok, and suddenly it’s there, preassembled somewhere else. Then as I’m touring the river one more time this relentless old lady starts in on me about finding a campsite, like I know anything or can do anything. It’s pretty clear that my usual morning quiet time isn’t going to happen here, so I pack up and go.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
soupbowl cut for this hill above Mill City OR<\/div><\/div>\n

Next stop Detroit!\u00a0\u00a0Detroit Lake<\/strong>\u00a0that is. Happily I had read my previous trip notes, which reminded me that the hunter’s lodge looking restaurant in the resort town of Detroit Lake has wifi!\u00a0 It does.\u00a0 It also has a bar.\u00a0 Not for me this day, but there were some folks pretty excited to head on back there and get their Labor Day on at 11:30am of Friday.<\/p>\n

Traffic is starting to suck.\u00a0 There is a big backup to get through\u00a0Sisters<\/strong>\u00a0… as if there were anything to stop for in Sisters.\u00a0 I do for some reason want to stop in\u00a0Bend<\/strong>\u00a0– just to hang out and see how the cool people are living for a few minutes.\u00a0 I am ambivalent towards Bend.\u00a0 It’s right on that very pretty river, the downtown is just my kind of place – three coffee bars in two blocks!\u00a0 Tons of bars and restaurants, but somehow it bothers me.\u00a0 It looks like a college town but there’s no college to speak of.\u00a0 It’s a 30’s and 40’s yuppie town.\u00a0\u00a0 Anyway, I had a very nice afternoon interlude, everyone was pleasant and smiling, so maybe I should shut up already!<\/p>\n

Traffic is indeed very heavy, but US 97 is straight and wide so it’s no big deal.\u00a0 My goal is a $12($6) USFS campground two miles from the $20 state campground at\u00a0Chiloquin<\/strong>.\u00a0 It is a long boring drive to get there.\u00a0 There just ain’t much going on in this part of Oregon.<\/p>\n

  Williamson River Campground<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>
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WHUFU page for: Williamson River Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p>

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1.6 miles of unpleasant washboardy gravel road. The same turnoff as Collier State Park - cheaper, and you get what you pay for! Flat, featureless, 3' tall undergrowth and 60' tall ponderosa pines scattered about. There is a trail to the Williamson River about 1\/3 mile away.<\/p>\n<\/p>

<\/p>tonight<\/b>:

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I took the trail, and when I got to the river I wished I'd brought my swimming trunks, because the water was very inviting.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

<\/a>
mossy but dry, Williamson River Campground<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
Williamson River Campground is boring<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

The campground is pretty boring, but hey, boring means no Labor Day crunch!\u00a0 It’s the standard landscape of a whole huge interior area from Bend to the California border: scruffy 2′ tall ground cover, with widely spaced Ponderosa pines jutting up 60-80′, and that’s pretty much it.\u00a0 There is a little trail over to the\u00a0Williamson River<\/strong>.\u00a0 The river looks inviting but the access isn’t good.\u00a0 I think about walking back in swimming togs but never quite do it.<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/a><\/h3>\n

Back down the 1.5 miles of very dusty gravel road.\u00a0 I check out the state campground and it’s definitely where the Labor Day crowd is – glad I missed it.\u00a0 I am very much looking forward to the\u00a0Daily Bagel<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0Klamath Falls<\/strong>. Many trips ago a cute ranger at Lava Beds told me about it, and it’s now my\u00a0must stop<\/em>\u00a0place when passing through this area.\u00a0 I treat myself to a bagel with lox and cream cheese and onions and capers, and what the heck a blueberry danish for dessert since they look so good!<\/p>\n

<\/a>
CCC era observation cabin, Tule Lake NWR<\/div><\/div>
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CCC era observation cabin, Tule Lake NWR<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

I could just power on the 250-ish miles home to Reno today, but I want to spend another night out.\u00a0 So I have great afternoon at the\u00a0Tule Lake NWR<\/strong>.\u00a0 There’s a little hike behind the Visitors Center I’ve never taken, with the lovely name of\u00a0Sheepy Ridge Trail<\/strong>.\u00a0 Short but straight up, takes you to a little CCC-built cabin on the ridge.\u00a0 Then I did the beloved auto tour.\u00a0\u00a0 There not the massive quantities of migratory birds there are later in the fall, but it was still excellent.\u00a0 Coots and Buffleheads and Clarks Grebes were the predominant theme.\u00a0 Some cormorants also, and I recognized a couple of redheads, now that I know what they are.\u00a0 A really striking raptor over in the grassy area.\u00a0\u00a0 The last bit of the road leaves the straight line of the levees and wanders through the grasslands for a couple of miles.\u00a0 It’s very cool because you get another habitat, but it road was horribly washboardy, and frazzled my brain and scrambled my van and now my sliding door sounds horrible because of the dirt in the tracks.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
interesting rock, Tule Lake<\/div><\/div>\n

Drove through\u00a0Lava Beds<\/strong>. I did such a good job of dawdling that it’s after 5!\u00a0 I could just stay right here at the National Park Campground.\u00a0 But that would mean a long drive tomorrow, and I want a short drive tomorrow.\u00a0 Past\u00a0Howards Gulch<\/strong>, which I like a lot, through\u00a0Canby<\/strong>, almost through\u00a0Adin<\/strong>, but there’s a crowd at the little ice cream place, Oney’s.\u00a0 The sign for pecan milkshakes is what hooked me, but they had the barbecue going so I ended up getting a tri-tip dinner to go.\u00a0 My cute little campground is only another 12 miles down the road, so I get there a little before dark and have something other than a sandwich or cold chicken for a change.<\/p>\n

  Willow Creek Campground<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/div>
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WHUFU page for: Willow Creek Campground<\/a><\/b><\/p>

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Small but very handy campground 50 mile north of Susanville. Very near the road, but the road is not heavily traveled. The stream is very small but pretty<\/p>\n<\/p>

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Sunday<\/a><\/h3>\n

Easy drive to Susanville, get a Sunday Chronicle so I can indulge my Suduko addiction,\u00a0 I discover to my horror that the local Black Bear is closed (kitchen fire).\u00a0 This causes me to find another place and I discover a pretty good diner (can’t remmeber the name).<\/p>\n

Easy drive to Reno, home be 3-ish.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

So…\u00a0 27 nights on the road – Monday to Saturday:<\/p>\n