Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Nov 11-13

On my travels from my home base in Washington State to see brothers and cousins in Southern California, I made a stop to explore Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. It is just west of Redding, CA.

Whiskeytown Lake (near Visitor Center). The line of rope with buoys at this
end of the lake hold up a length of long curtain that works to keep the colder
water toward the bottom of the lake in order to support the survival of salmon.

Good thing that Redding has a Toyota Dealership because my check-engine light came on about 85 miles north. Come to find out it was a sensor that either could be replaced or cleaned. I opted for the less expensive cleaning option and that fixed the problem. Yeah! I'm so thankful that it wasn't anything any worse.

From an informational kiosk at the Visitor Center which illustrate the curtains
that keep the cold water from mixing with the sun-warmed water at the top.

After leaving the dealer I arrived at the Whiskeytown Visitor Center just before closing to get a camp site. It was in the Peltier Bridge Campground on the Clear Creek. If you like more primitive camping where you have to carry your own water, then I highly recommend this place. The ground was carpeted with fallen leaves, large oaks towered above the picnic tables and gravel road, and the night sounds came out just as I was ready to climb into bed.

The "Glory Hole" spillway. Instead of a spillway through the dam itself, this
one takes the water down the middle, through some pipes and into a creek.
(Also, just beyond, is another rope with buoys holding the other curtain.)

When I'm camping, I go to bed with the sun and wake up with the sun. Very much unlike when I'm in the company of electrified lighting.

Morning light on the road through Peltier Bridge Campground.

With the sunrise came the sounds of a distant flock of turkeys, the chilled morning air, and shafts of light filtering through the oaks. I love the quiet mixed with the sounds of water and those small woodland animals scurrying and chirping while making their way in the woods.

View of Whiskeytown Lake from a rise on the South Shore Road.

I stayed at that same campsite two nights in a row.

Camden House. Built in mid 1800's gold rush (out of nearby Clear Creek).

The centerpiece of this National Recreation Area is the Whiskeytown Lake created by a Dam. I've never seen a spillway such as they have at this dam. It's called the Glory Hole. It's literally a gigantic cement hole that, which when the lake level reaches the top, water spills into this big hole and down into large pipes destined for Clear Creek (up the creek from where I was camped).

One view of the trail that loops around the old farmstead.

Also, they've added curtains that hang down into the water, hundreds of feet, on both the inlet and outlet sides of the lake to force the colder water to the bottom. These curtains keep the colder water from mixing with the sun-warmed water at the top. This is all to support the salmon population which require the colder water temperatures to survive -- a clever solution.

View from the trail into the old farmstead pasture and orchard.

On the north side of the lake is a nice 4-lane highway. But, I enjoyed the maintained gravel road on the south side of the lake. The slower pace highlighted the wonderful vistas, autumn colors that matched the golds and reds of the surrounding rocks and dirt. A true highlight of this trip.

At the graveyard on the farmstead.

In addition to the natural wonders, Whiskeytown NRA has also preserved some human history surrounding the areas gold rush. I went on the Camden Water Ditch hike that loops around a gold-rush-era farmstead, complete with house, barn, tenat's home, and graveyard. Although I was told of black bear in the area, I saw none. But, I did see plenty of sign ... scat with apples seeds from the old orchard.

At the end of the hike, bridge over
Clear Creek.

I hope to go back to Whiskeytown again!

originally posted 11/16/2011

Close, But A World Away

Saturday was National Public Lands Day and the entrance into the National Parks was free.  So, I decided to take advantage.  Then I found out that there was an organized volunteer effort at the campground I'd plan to stay at in Mount Rainier National Park.

Peek-a-boo view of Mount Rainier behind the White River on the road to the campground.
The river still shows scaring from the November 2006 flooding.

So, leaving early Friday morning I drove the hour and a half and enjoyed a beautiful secluded campsite for the day.  I took the afternoon and just sat there to take in the wonder and beauty.  It did my soul good.

View of the sky from my campsite.  Spruce covered with old man's beard, fir, pine and
cedar too.  Gray and Steller's jays were extra friendly, looking for handouts. 
Ground squirrels made a few appearances too.

 On Saturday I joined 60 other volunteers on a mile hike to a back country meadow that needed re-vegetation.  This meadow use to be a campground, the asphalt roads have been removed, but much of the meadow remains bare.  While there, we saw many dust devils fed by that bare earth.

Close up view of some of the wildflowers on the hike up to the re-vegetation
project.  With the cold-wet-cold-wet-cold summer, these blooms are very
late.  They usually look like this in early summer, not early fall!

Before signing up for this project I didn't know that re-vegetation is a fairly painstaking effort.  Each flat of 49 seedlings takes about an hour to plant --. first you take a pickax to breakup the soil, then carefully plant in prescribed clusters of 7, then go about 4" away and plant another cluster -- about a square yard for the 7 clusters in one flat.  Oh, my aching knees and back!

View from where I was planting seedlings.  Once the re-vegetation work is
completed, the foreground of the meadow will look like the background.
Cutting across the far ridge, if you look closely, is one of the park's hiking trails.

 Although I'm nursing some aches and pains, I'm glad to have done that volunteer work and plan to do it again.  Mount Rainier National Park is a cherished place.  So, be careful where you walk ... those little meadow plants are precious!

Rubber Tramp Rendezvous for 2012

Gathering around the campfire at sunset, 2011 RTR.

Next January 10th - 24th will be the second Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR) in Quartzsite, AZ.  It's a chance for those of us who love being on the road to get together with other like-minded travellers.  It's also an opportunity for folks to check out the mobile lifestyle.  For more information on this get together, go to:  http://www.cheapgreenrvliving.com/Rendezvous.html.

Bob Wells, the person who organizes the RTR, makes everyone feel very welcome.  There will be workshops on things like -- solar power, staying on BLM land, work-kamping, medical/dental in Mexico, women travellers, etc.  Also, Quartzsite's huge RV show is at the same time as the RTR -- offering anything and everything that a traveller could want.  Quartzsite is a major snowbird hangout in the winter.  At the RTR, we dry camp; that is, everyone brings their own water, food, bathroom, firewood, etc. ... yet, attendees shared freely last year ... and town is only 4 miles away.

I went to the first RTR this past January and really enjoyed myself.  I talk a bit about my experience in a January blog post.

Rubber Tramp: "A person who travels and lives out of their vehicle (normally an RV, van, bus, etc.). They stop and stay wherever they choose for however long they want, but eventually, so as long as there’s a way to put gas in their tank, move on." (Urban Dictionary)

If you are a rubber tramp (full- or part-time), or are thinking about becoming one, consider yourself invited.