Getting Lucky, Finally Fishing, Family Time, and 100 POSTS!

Some days you just get lucky. We pulled into Indian Creek Reservoir campground, which was our Plan A, around lunchtime on Tuesday, 6/13. The campground is small, only 19 sites in the RV/Tent loop. Few available sites were large enough to accommodate the short bus, so we pulled over to discuss going further down the road to check out Plan B.  Then the occupant of the best spot in the whole campground pulled out. I made a bee-line for the site on foot, grabbed a traffic cone from an off-limits area, plunked it in the middle of the space and ran back to tell Rog we had our spot! Lol. Soooooo excited. 😊  It was one of only two sites with lake views AND no neighbors on our patio side. Total score.

Loved our spot at Indian Creek Reservoir!

We scored a lovely lake view!

We spent the evenings at our campfire watching through the pines as water birds cavorted across the lake, dusk turned the sky purple pink, and the coyotes invited us to join their nightly sing-along. Moments like this you just want to capture with perfect clarity to pull out and enjoy over and over again.

Can you hear the coyotes singing?

We got settled in and did the Summit Lake hike from the campground. Rog struck up a conversation with one of the campers about the fishing, which is apparently very good here. Rog has lugged his fishing gear and a trolling motor for the kayak all the way across the country and back again without using it. His first attempts at fishing at Diamond Lake, OR at the beginning of our trip were interrupted by Callie’s illness and death. Since then it seems we’ve either been on the move or there have been other priorities. 

Summit Lake.

View of Indian Creek Reservoir from the trail.

Finally, he made it back out onto the water, fishing license in hand, and pole at the ready. 😊 He caught four decent sized trout the first day, including one 3 pounder – or so the story goes, he forgot to take a camera. Wink. Wink. Lol. The second day he went out, he wasn’t quite as lucky, but did come home with photographic evidence.  I’m not a huge fan of trout, so generally it’s catch and release. He’s loved to fish since he was a kid, so I’m glad it finally worked out for him. Later in the afternoon, we went out for a paddle around the lake together.

Fishies Beware!!!

Success! And there are pics to prove it. Lol. 

Lovely on the lake and the fishies are safe as long as Rog has a paddle, not his pole. :)

Indian Creek Reservoir.

On Wednesday we made a pilgrimage to Walker, CA for BBQ. Now understand that I have been hearing about the incredible Walker BBQ for close to 20 years. Rog, his partner Bob from the Fire Department, and a bunch of guys used to do an annual motorcycle trip. On one of those trips, they stumbled on this BBQ place in Walker and have been singing its praises ever since. Bob befriended the owner and went back regularly, but we’d never managed to make it there. Hmmmmm… is it worth a 100-mile round trip for awesome BBQ?  Oh yeah. 😊  Gotta say the food was excellent, but I was kicking myself for not bringing along my own Stubbs BBQ sauce. I’m a purist when it comes to the sauce and just cannot abide a sweet sauce (talking to you, Tom – Sweet Baby Rays??! Yuck! Lol.)

It was a scenic 100 miles and good BBQ too! :)

Our buddy, Bob.
The owner's wife did this pastel portrait of him which hangs in the restaurant.
Hey, we know famous folks!  Lol.

It was hard to leave our lovely spot at Indian Creek, but we were eager to see the girls. We had reservations at Beals Point on Folsom Lake about 30 minutes from Rian’s house in Sacramento for 6/16-6/23. Randi is flying in Saturday night, 6/17, and hanging out until 6/21. It’s been about a year since we’ve all been together.

Unfortunately, by the time we had our dates finalized, there were no spots with hookups available. No worries we thought, but that was before they forecast a severe heat wave with temps over a 100°. Every. Single. Day. The average temp for the week was 106°!  Arrrrrrrrrrgh!

We pulled into Beals Point and were happy to find that our spot had decent shade. What it also had was some really low hanging branches, so we had to do some creative pruning just to get the rig in place. As Rog backed in, I scurried up the ladder with my hand pruners and whacked off the offending branches. When we ran into one that was too big for the pruners he wanted to hand up the chainsaw. Me. On a LADDER. With an implement of destruction. Hanging on with one hand and trying to cut limbs above and behind my head. Soooooo not a good idea. I decided it was safer to switch places with Rog and let him do it. Then he dropped the dang limb right on me – next time I’ll stay on the ladder and wield the chainsaw. Lol!

We finally got settled in and Rian showed up with Floyd, my grandpuppy, and Ralph, her roommate's furbaby and Floyd’s best buddy. We walked down to the lake and were treated to a lovely sunset.

Rian, Floyd, and Ralph.

Sunset over Beals Lake.

Saturday, Rian and I hit the garage sales while Rog did some maintenance on the coach. The biggest issue with the heat is our refrigerator. Rog installed a fan to help circulate the cold air and it’s helping, but it just can’t handle these extreme temps.

Randi got in late Saturday evening, so Sunday we hung out at the lake, took the girls to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (blessed air-conditioned theater!), and then out for sushi.   When we made it back to the coach the inside temp was about 96°. We thought that was bad, but worse was yet to come!

Log rolling champions at Beals Lake.

These guys were a menace! The first time he nibbled on me, I nearly levitated out of the water.
Amused the heck out of the kid fishing nearby. :)

Monday, we left early and went to visit Rog’s Grandma Ardys in Saint Helena, CA. Gr. Ardys is 93 and still lives on her own, drives, and is sharp as a tack. The gal is scary good at crossword puzzles too. Lol. We had a lovely visit, just catching up and telling stories and then went to Gillwoods Café for lunch, where Grandma is well-known and treated like family. 

When we made it back to the coach around 9pm, the interior temp was 101° and the refrigerator was struggling – ok, maybe it had given up the struggle - it was up to 66°! Rog went out for a block of dry ice to help the refrigerator, but we had to toss the milk and some other stuff. Rog looked at the owner’s manual and basically it said not to expect much if the temps were over 90°, which it most definitely is. Lol.  

We noticed that after the weekend a lot of the campsites were empty and there were plenty of no-shows too. Apparently smart folks know enough not to camp in this heat! Anyhow, we did a little recon and saw that there was a space in the RV loop with hookups that was now open until our departure date. We paid the difference, switched sites, and were thrilled to be able to run the air conditioners again. Yeah! It didn’t solve the problem with the fridge, but keeping the inside of the coach cooler is helping. We’ve probably spent more on ice than the food is worth, but it’s all part of the adventure right?? Lol.

Our game plan is to spend Friday night, 6/23, in Danville, CA with Rog’s sister, Nancy, and her family. Then we go back to St. Helena and moochdock with Gr. Ardys for a few days and then up to Redding to abuse his Mom’s hospitality. Hopefully we’ll come up with something blog-worthy to do during our family time. We certainly enjoy just hanging out, but it isn’t very interesting to read about. Lol.

That's a whole lot of trouble piled in one place! Lol.

Speaking of reading, raise your hand if you’ve managed to get through ALL 100 POSTS so far!  Smack!! Consider yourself high-fived!  Seeing as you are such a glutton for punishment, let me know in the comments and I’ll invite you over to see all 100,000 pictures I’ve taken. Just Joking!!!  We will have a BBQ, but I promise no mandatory vacation slide shows or home movies (dating myself here, I know). Lol. 

Oldest Lake, Youngest Mountains and a Ghost Town

We arrived at the Mono Lake Scenic Area Visitor’s Center around noon on Friday, 6/9. (Happy Birthday, Rian!!!)  We talked to the staff about camping options, then unhitched the mule and went exploring. Unfortunately, the BLM boondocking spots we wanted were already occupied so we opted for the Lower Lee Vining National Forest Campground. The campground is just a few miles out of town on Hwy 120, situated under the pines on the banks of Lee Vining Creek. Not a bad Plan B. We also drove the scenic June Lake loop, where there are several more campgrounds and fantastic views of the mountains.

Fantastic mountain views at the campground.

The melting snow pack is creating some awesome waterfalls.

Beautiful drive along the June Lake loop.

Fields full of wild iris.

Rog was familiar with this area from his motorcycling days, but I’d never heard of Mono Lake and had no clue what “tufa” was. Do you?  Mona Lake is one of the oldest lakes in North America, over 760,000 years old. It has no outlet, so for thousands of years streams have carried minerals into the lake and, as the water evaporated, the salinity increased. Mono Lake is twice as salty as the ocean! No fish live in the alkaline waters, but it’s far from dead. Trillions of tiny brine shrimp and alkali files are an all-you-can-eat buffet for migratory birds.

So back to the tufa. Freshwater springs containing calcium pump water into the carbonate-rich lake water. Calcium carbonate forms, which is the limestone deposit that makes up the tufa. Weird formations, spires and knobs of limestone, are formed under water and then as the lake levels dip, they are exposed. They look a lot like cave formations without the cave! Very cool.

Tufa formations at Mono Lake's South Beach.

This formation is the nesting spot for a pair of ospreys. There are 30 breeding pairs at Mono Lake, since there are no fish in the lake, they chow down on the trout from the freshwater steams. 

Hard to imagine this was all under water when the tufa was formed.

There is a second variety called “sand tufa” that is formed when the spring water percolates through the sandy lake bottom and incorporates the sand into the formation. Again, as the lake receded the formations were exposed. It looks like rows and rows of intricate sand castles make of solid rock. I’d never heard of tufa before, so it was fun to learn about it and the history of the lake on a ranger-led tour.

Sand castles made of stone.

A close up of the innards. :)

I thought the sand tufa was super cool!

These formations really look like they belong in a cave. Lol. 

Even though this ecosystem has survived for millennia, it was nearly wiped out in the span of just one human lifetime. Los Angeles acquired the water rights to the streams and diverted the fresh water that fed into the lake. Evaporation didn’t slow down however, and as the lake levels lowered, the salts levels rose so that everything would have died. College students, conservationists, and others banded together and waged a decades long court battle to get LA to allow some fresh water back into the lake. They were successful, and while there is still a long way to go, the situation is improving. This year’s record snow pack will certainly help.

In addition to the oldest lake in North America, this area boasts the youngest mountains! The Mona craters are a series of new(er) volcanic mountains, with Panum Crater only 650 years old. An infant in mountain time. 😊 There is a hike around and then down into the crater. There were huge boulders of obsidian, pumice, and other volcanic rock. Fun fact – pumice is formed by an explosive eruption of frothy, molten glass. It cools rapidly, trapping air inside. Obsidian is chemically identical to pumice (I did not know that!), but it oozes out slowly and all the air escapes before it hardens into glassy black rock.

The trail around Panum Crater.

Huge boulders of obsidian.

Volcanic rock plugs in the crater.

The views were great hiking around the crater. Then we followed a trail down into the crater which just sort of disappeared into a huge rubble field. We ended up blazing our own trail over the rocks. Lol. 

Into the crater!

Do you see the trail? Neither did we. Over the rocks it is. Lol. 

On Sunday, we braved the cold front moving in to visit the historic mining ghost town of Bodie. In the late 1800’s the town was a booming gold mining district with a population of 7-8,000, 30 different mines, and 9 processing mills. Mining continued until 1942. The last major landowner hired caretakers to protect the remains of the town from looters and vandals. Then in 1962 it became a state park. Over the years, a series of fires destroyed most of the town and all but one of the mills, but the remaining buildings are being preserved in a state of “arrested decay.”  Exteriors are repaired as needed, but improvements aren’t made and the interiors are left as is.

The ghost town of Bodie.

Lots of old mining equipment litter the town.

All that was left of the bank after a fire was the brick vault.

Rog outside the Firehouse, with this equipment no wonder most of the town burned down!

The 1940's Shell Station. :)

We were most intrigued by the amount of personal property that was left in the buildings. A ranger explained that the roads leading out of town were toll roads and the wagons leaving had to pay by weight, so a lot of possessions were just abandoned. It was very interesting, and would have been a lot more pleasant if the wind hadn’t kicked up while the temperature dropped below freezing and it spit snow at us. I guess that is somewhat fitting, as W.S. Bodey, after whom the town is named, died in a blizzard just months after discovering gold here.  Brrrrrrrr!

The assayers office.

Ragged curtains still hang in the windows of this kitchen.

The old Schoolhouse. At one time there were over 600 children enrolled!
Although the ranger pointed out that most did not attend regularly.

Interior of the old General Store. I'd like to go shopping! :)

The telephone switchboard and an antique typewriter. 

Our plan to take Hwy 120 into Yosemite had to be scrapped, the pass was closed and estimates were that it would remain that way for a couple more weeks. The area had 200% of normal snow pack so many roads and campgrounds are still closed. We hiked along Lee Vining Creek for a few miles, it was beautiful but the stream was running very fast and high.

Lee Vining Creek.

It was so cold the spray froze into icicles!

We walked a couple miles past the spot where they had Hwy 20 closed. No snow down here.

Pretty mountain meadows. 

We each claimed a tree! Lol. 

We leave Tuesday, 6/13, for Markleeville, CA. There are a couple of BLM and National Forest campgrounds in the area, so we’ll figure it out when we get there. See, I’m getting better at this jello planning. 😊 Instead of reservations we have Plan A, Plan B, and sometimes C and D. Lol.

A Hit, a Miss, and Hot Tub Bliss

We took Hwy 50, “The Loneliest Road,” out of Great Basin and our first stop was a small BLM campground on the Illipah Reservoir. Arriving in the early afternoon on Monday, 6/5, we had our pick of spots and chose one on the hill overlooking the small lake. For a free campground, this place was deluxe! The sites were huge, well separated, and each had a covered picnic table, firepit, and fence wind screen. There were several pit toilets and garbage service. Plus the views were lovely and it was a kick watching the trout leaping out of the water. A total HIT!

Oh yeah, you can call this one a hit! :) 

Our view of the peaceful Illipah Reservoir and surrounding hills.

Rog and I hiked around the reservoir, even though there wasn’t an official trail. We had to do a little bit of scrambling over rocks on the far side, but after some of the trails we’ve tackled, it was a piece of cake. Lol. We stayed just one night and headed out the next morning for a National Forest Campground where Rog was looking forward to doing some mountain biking.

Hiking around the reservoir.

Deserted at dusk.

We arrived at the Bob Scott Campground around lunchtime on Tuesday and found it totally empty. That turned out to be a good thing, as there were only 10 sites and most of them were way too small and/or sloped for us to use. We spent some time picking a site and then getting level. The campground wasn’t horrible, but it was clear that it hadn’t seen even a passing nod at maintenance in quite a while. The restroom was dirty and unkept, the guy’s side was padlocked shut, all of the water spigots were damaged and only a few worked at all, there was garbage laying around and the cans were overflowing. Even so, by evening the campground was almost full, so we were glad we’d arrived early.

Hwy 50, "The Loneliest Road" - from the hill above Bob Scott Campground.

The main attraction was the mountain bike trail which was right across the road. Rog took off early the next morning with plans to ride about 30 miles. The trail turned out to be all double track (old 4x4 road) with none of his beloved single track at all. It was also a whole lot of steep up, up, up and then steep down, down, down. About 3pm Rog called asking for a pick-up in the town of Austin, about 10 miles away. “Oh, and bring the Neosporin.”  I couldn’t believe the crazy elevation gain/loss on the road to Austin. Add in a new set of rock rash and no wonder he was beat! Between the so-so campground and less than stellar mountain bike trail, we’d have to call this one a MISS. 😊

Cahill Valley Loop Trail

Mountain biking on 4x4 roads, not Rog's favorite.

At least the climb was rewarded with a lovely view.

The "trail" climbed up and across these hills before descending to the town of Austin.

Stokes Castle.
Built in 1897 by a eastern financier with mining interests in the Austin area.
It was modeled on a family painting of a Roman watchtower.

Our original plan had been to boondock another night in Nevada, and then head for Mona Lake across the California border on Friday. Then Rog saw some reviews of a campground in the little town of Benton, CA that had hot tubs at each campsite. Oh, we were all in for that. We called and they had just one spot still open for Thursday. Whoohoo, consider yourselves booked full! 

We arrived at 2pm and got set up. There were no hookups, but each site had a hot tub fed with 130° water from the local hot springs. To adjust the temp you just turned up or down the feed from the hot spring. Heaven! We positioned the rig for privacy and spent the rest of the day, part of the night, and the next morning until check out rotating in and out of the tub to soak our old and abused bones. It was pricey, but I definitely think we got our money’s worth! Lol. BLISS!

Now, this is the life! Lol. 

Enjoying the view while we soak our old bones. 

Soaking under a full moon. Ahhhhhhh.

We did manage to drag ourselves out of the water long enough to walk around the tiny town and up to the historic cemetery. The hot springs have been a draw for over 150 years and the town is full of old buildings and antique farming equipment. Very cool.

Most of the town was historic buildings that were no longer in use.

1875 Benton Jail. In case we get too rowdy in the hot tub. Lol.

A Red River Special Separator and old flat bed wagon with tree limbs for wheel spokes. Fun!

Historic Benton Cemetery.

Aged 39 years, 11 mos and 8 days..... but, who's counting. :) 

Our next stop is the Mono Lake area near Lee Vining, CA. We don’t have reservations, but there are a couple boondocking spots and several Inyo National Forest campgrounds in the area, so we’re confident we’ll find a spot to land.