The Adventures of T&A

Horrible night!  In the middle of the night, we woke up with mosquitoes in the truck.  LOTS of mosquitoes!  We thought about what we could do, including finding a hotel (at 2am, outside the park, not a good option).  We decided to turn out fan around and blow air from the back of the truck into the cab.  The bugs were then sucked out of our sleeping area and we finally got back to sleep.  This morning we both felt like crap.  

We have a tough hike planned and we want to get an early start before it gets too hot.  I don’t’ know how, but there are still several patches of snow on the ground, even though it’s in the 90’s during the day.  The highest elevations are cooler, but the lower elevations are hot and buggy.  

We hiked up Mt Scott, the highest peak in the park.  In 2 1/2 miles the trail climbed 1,500 feet.  It was a tough hike, but the views were worth it.  Along the trail and at the top, we had the most incredible views of Crater Lake, along with Mt Shasta, Diamond Peak and Diamond Lake, among others.  We were the first ones on the trail, but one woman passed us near the top.  As we were heading down, we saw lots of people on the way up.  It’s getting hot and we’re really glad we started early!  

We started to drive the Rim Drive around Crater Lake, checking out some of the overlooks and features.  We stopped at an overlook for the Phantom Ship.  The Phantom Ship is rock structure that looks like a ship with sails.  The rock that forms it is far older than Mt Mazama, the mountain we’re standing on now.  This ancient volcanic rock cinder cone had been engulfed by Mt Mazama, but later erosion exposed it within the lake. 

We stopped at another overlook for the Pinnacles.  This is a creek whose volcanic ash canyon walls have been eroded into strange pinnacle formations.  The formations were somewhat like those we saw at Bryce Canyon, but these were all gray in color.

It was at this overlook that we realized that our left front tire was very low.  Andrew pulled out our air compressor and aired up the tire, blowing a fuse in the “Tower of Power” in the process.  We found out we had picked up a nail from somewhere and needed it fixed.  We were a little concerned about how quickly our tire had been leaking, so we went out of the park to find a place to have a tire plugged.  Trying to find a service station to fix a tire in small town America on a Sunday afternoon is impossible!  We went to the first small town outside of Crater Lake and found only a few cows idly grazing, unconcerned with our plight.  

We moved on to the next town, about an hour away, Klamath, OR and didn’t find much there either.  We are now an hour outside of Crater Lake and considering going another two hours to get to a town to get our tire fixed.  This would put us three hours from Crater Lake but within thirty minutes of our next destination.  So, we didn’t get to finish our Rim Drive and we didn’t get the boat tour of Crater Lake.  

The temperature is over 100 degrees and we’d had a miserable night last night because of the heat and bugs.  So we started looking for a hotel with air conditioning in Grant’s Pass, OR. The first hotel we looked at had lost power that day and most of their rooms were very hot.   The Sunset Inn is a very nice place with a wonderful AC system!  As we were gettig our things out of the truck to go into the hotel, I grabbed a bottle of wine that we’ll open after dinner.   Andrew took it and put it with some other things and came back for something.  I heard the sickening POP of a full wine bottle hitting pavement.  And it wasn’t a bottle of Two Buck Chuck that hit the ground!   No, of course not!  This was a more expensive bottle we picked up on sale for $5.00 before we visited Napa.  Drat!  We’ll never know if it was a good wine.

There was a Chinese restaurant next door to the hotel and we ate there.  Our waitress was quite theatrical!  When we mentioned we were from Georgia, she said: “Well, Fiddle dee dee! Gone With The Wind was my favorite movie ever!”  And then she went on about the dresses and the hoop skirts.  We assured her that things have changed a bit since then.  

Later, back at the hotel, we got more photos uploaded with the help of the high speed Wi-Fi connection. 

We took a scenic drive along the UmpquaRiver.  It is a really beautiful river in a deep canyon.  Thisarea is very lush and rainforest-like, similar to North Carolina.  Steephillsides covered in thick forests and ferns.  This is a big fishing area,we saw lots of fishermen out along the banks of the river.  It rained thismorning along our drive and a thick fog hung over the river.  Verydifferent from the deserts in the Southwest.

We got into Crater Lake and begandriving up and up.  Crater Lake is actually a caldera. The volcano MtMazama may have been over 14,000 feet high at one time, but the volcano wasvery active and had several side vents.  When these side vents opened up,drained the magma (lava) out and the whole top of the mountain collapsed. The resulting caldera filled with rain and snowmelt.  Crater lake has noother water source, no streams flow into it and no streams flow out of it, onlysnowmelt and rain. The water is very deep, very blue, very pure.  And very beautiful.

There are a few other features within the lake.  Wizard Island is kindof a volcano within a volcano, within the lake.  It’s a cinder cone thatbegan rising and became dormant.  It’s now covered with trees andfoliage.  Another feature within the lake is the Phantom Ship.  ThePhantom Ship blends into the surrounding steep caldera walls at many angles, disappearinglike a phantom.  They offer a boat tour to get to these features that we’regoing to check out later.

We got info on the park and made our plans for the next couple of days. We hiked Annie Creek Canyon.  We had trouble finding the trailheadinitially, it starts in the campground.  We aren’t staying at thecampground.  We started hiking down into the canyon and swatting hundredsof mosquitoes.  As we hiked down into the canyon, we saw the beautifullittle creek, Annie Creek, and it’s wet, marshy shores.  Prime breeding’skeeter breedin’ areas.  We were hiking fast and swatting skeeters evenfaster!   I stopped to take a photo on occasion and feel like I lostblood each time.  We finally survived the 1.7 mile loop hike, but weprobably gave up a pint of blood each.  

We got back to Mazama Village where we parked and bought a couple of showers,75 cents for four minutes of water.  We drove just outside the park andfound a road on National Forest land (Your Public Land) and camped out for thenight.

We started off with a breakfast of fresh chicken eggs and bacon Marthaprovided.  Chris had to leave early this morning.  He’s on a scheduleand meeting others down the road.  Andrew and I stayed around to helpMartha with the chickens and rabbits.

We are closing on our land today.  Around 10:10am we got a call from ourrealtor.  The closing went off without any problems and we are now the newowners of a lot in Spruce Basin, Cotopaxi, Colorado!

It’s hot here, over 100 degrees, but in the shade it doesn’t feel sobad.  The air is much drier here than in the east.  When it cooled offa little, we took off and headed south towards Crater Lake.  We found aforest service road along the way for the night.

We’re on the road again, heading north into Oregon.  We made it toLebanon, OR and met Chris on his friend Martha’s 50 acre ranch.  She hasseveral rhea(a small ostrich), sheep, rabbits and chickens.  And two kids.  Shehas her hands full.  She purchased this ranch as an established ranch witha few other people, but things didn’t work out.  She is now running thingswith her two kids, Kyle and Keegan, and her friend Leslie.  The place hasgreat potential!  Martha told us of an elderly lady who dubbed her the"Duchess of Neverdone", so we were jokingly referred to her ranch asthe Neverdone Ranch.

When we got there, we began a tour of the place, but Martha had to run intotown for errands, so Chris continued the tour.  We took the ATV out tocheck out the large grass field and wooded acreage that’s all part of theproperty.  Chris is having way too much fun on the ATV.  All three ofus on the ATV was slowing it down quite a bit.  We noticed the warning labelsto always wear helmets (we didn’t) and to never carry passengers (well, therewere three of us).  The grass is about 5 feet high, hiding all the bumpsand holes.  Fun ride!  We were all covered in grass seedsafterwards.  

Andrew, Chris and I opened up a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and Leslie came outto join us.  Martha was still out running errands, but she doesn’tdrink.  When she did come in, we offered her a lovely cranberry juice,vintage Tuesday.

We did a little grocery shopping in Mt Shasta, CA and then found a libraryfor some air conditioned computer work.  We stayed there for much of theday.  The library had a huge book sale going on and although our space islimited, we picked up a few books for reading on the trip.  

We had planned to hike around Mt Shasta along the Pacific Coast Trail, butour plans have changed.  Our friend Chris, formerly from San Francisco, butnow a fellow nomad (or TECH-nomad) is visiting with friends a few hours north ofhere.  Tomorrow we’ll head north to met up with him.

We found a better campsite in the National Forest for the night.

We started off the day with another wine tasting at 10am.  Please note: TASTING wine, not DRINKING wine.  (Our Napa experience has shown us we’re clearly not alcoholics.)  We started off with a free tasting at the Frank Family Vineyard, another suggestion from Ricardo.  This winery also had sparkling wines.  The tasting experience was somewhere in between yesterday’s tasting and so were the wines.  They had a showroom tasting bar, but it was a bit less rigid and scripted than Beringer’s.  The wines were good, better than Beringer’s by far, but still not up with Conn Valley.

Our next stop was Chateau Montelena.  This is a beautiful estate with an interesting history.  It was initially established as a winery, but during Prohibition, it move into orchards and farming.  In the 1950’s it was owned by an Oriental couple who didn’t care about farming, but created a beautiful lake and gardens.  In the 1980’s, it was under new ownership and turned back into a winery with a beautiful lake and gardens.  We split a $10.00 tasting of 5 wines.  When I first saw tree white wines on the list of five, I thought “Ugh, we really don’t care much for white wines”, but these were not the typical white wines we’ve had before.  The Riesling was tasty and clean and the two Chardonnays were crisp and fruity, not the heavy, buttery Chardonnays I’ve had before.  We also sampled two Cabernet Sauvignons which were wonderful.  These wines came closer to the quality of Conn Valley’s wines.  After the tasting, we walked around the beautiful Jade Lake and fed the swan, ducks, turtles and fish.  

It’s lunchtime and Ricardo recommended Taylor’s Refresher.  This place is a walk up/ outdoor dining type of place with good gourmet food.  We both had tacos, I had fish tacos and Andrew had the shrimp tacos.  Both were wonderful, but a little pricey for outdoor dining. 

Today’s not as hot as yesterday, but it’s still quite warm.  It’s time to head north, out of Napa Valley and towards Mt Shasta.  The weather is still quite hot, in the 90’s, in Mt Shasta.  We found a campsite for the night, not great, but it will do for tonight.

We’ve got a lot to do today.  We have to find a place to mail our property papers, among other things.  Our first stop was laundry and then shipping.  We found a place to print out some things and got all our errands done by lunchtime.  We found a brewery for lunch.  The Silverado Brewery and Restaurant.  Of course, we would go to a brewery in the heart of wine country!  They have a saying here, “It takes a lot of great beer to make a good wine”.  It seems that’s referring to the vineyard workers drink beer after a day in the fields.  Considering the beer we found, I think they all drink Budweiser.  We did find any great beers here, in our opinion.  The food was good, but the beer was a bit weak.  

We got our errands done, we’ve had lunch, now it’s time to find a winery tour!

Our friend Ricardo, from Long Beach, is quite a wine aficionado.  We asked him for some tips on Napa and he sent us an email with some wonderful suggestions!  We went just north of the city of Napa, CA to the Calistoga and St Helena area.  We found a wonderful place by appointment only, Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards.  Their office was more of a work office rather than a showroom.  We walked up to the “caves” they had built a few years earlier for our free tasting.  Outside, the temperature was over 100 degrees, but inside the caves, the temperature is maybe 57 degrees with 95% humidity.  We tasted perhaps 7 wines from bottles and then we tasted several more wines straight from the barrels to compare the younger wines.  We were talking and tasting wine for about 2 hours.  They had some of the most magnificent wines!  They had a crisp Chardonnay that they served AFTER the red wines, showing that it can stand up to the reds.  They were right!  

Our introduction to Napa set a pretty high standard, maybe too high for the others to compare.  Our next winery tour was one of the larger wineries, Beringer’s.  Beringer’s is a large commercial tour charging $15.00 each.  Their tour went thru the history of the vineyard, the longest running wine producer.  Beringer’s was able to produce wine thru Prohibition for “Medicinal and Sacramental Purposes Only”.  Uh huh.  We went into their tasting bar and tried three different wines.  Next to Conn Valley’s wine, Beringer’s wine just didn’t compare, but the historical aspect was pretty interesting.  

It’s time for a break from the heat before heading back to the campground, so we stopped at the second brewery we saw, Calistoga Brewery.  Again, the beer was weaker than we liked.  We chatted briefly with a local guy originally from Germany.  He said it’s always hot here in the summer, the grapes like it.  It’s all about the grapes, you know.

It’s cooled off a bit, so we went back to our campground for dinner and a shower.

The flies are back this morning, so we decided to head up to a picnic area for breakfast.  

We went into Sequoia National Park and hiked out to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world.  It’s not the tallest (Coastal Redwoods), it’s not the widest (somewhere in Mexico), but it’s the largest by volume.  We took a hike thru the Grove of Giants on the Congress Trail, where we saw trees named McKinley, The President, and a grove called The House.  All giant sequoias, of course.  These trees are enormous!  We walked thru trees and saw trees you could drive a car thru.  

After our hike we headed out of the park and moved on towards Napa Valley.  We called several hotel, because it’s terribly hot and camping is not fun in this kind of heat.  One outdoor thermometer read 104 degrees! But the hotels in Napa Valley were in the $300.00 range, although we did finally find one for $80.00, we still opted for a campsite.  Late in the day, the temperature dropped into the 60’s.  

Our papers came in yesterday, but we realized sending them now they will not be processed until Monday anyway.  So we went into King’s Canyon /Sequoia National Park and we’ll deal with the papers Monday, when we are back in civilization.  

We began in King’s Canyon in the General Grant Grove.  It seems when this park was first established in the 1800’s, it was common to “name” trees, especially the giant sequoias.  So we hiked 1 1/2 miles around the North Grove and then a .3 mile hike thru the Grant Grove.  We saw huge trees named Tennessee, Oregon, Robert E. Lee (the Civil War was still current events when these trees were named).  

We caught a ranger lead talk thru this area after our hike.  We were able to ask a few questions: “The large pine cones we’ve seen are not from sequoias?”  No, they are Sugar Pine cones, also growing in the same area.  “The cabin built in the middle of the sequoia grove, this wood is different from the wood type you passed around as sequoia wood?”  The cabin was also made from sugar pines.  Sequoia wood is very light, like balsa wood.  

And the giant trees could not be felled easily, they tended to shatter when they hit the ground.  Sequoias, therefore, were used in the 1800’s and early 1900’s for roof shingles, pencils and toothpicks!  Too much cost in labor felling these majestic giants actually saved them.  They were not cost effective!  (We learned the same with happened to Joshua trees).   

We finished our tour of King’s Canyon and went to find a campsite for the night.  There is plenty of public land, either BLM or National Forest, between King’s Canyon and Sequoia, so we found a spot to call home for the night.  The flies are quite annoying, but they should go away after dark.