Fun in the Sun Days 1-6

We’re now on day six of our “fun in the sun” road trip which started on Feb 13. This is the first wintertime camping trip we’ve taken and so far, we’re very impressed with our ability to find sun. Most of the entire trip so far has been sunny and relatively nice weather … not what we expected or planned for.

The first night was spent at Maryhill State Park (WA) which is near the Dalles on the Columbia River. The campground itself is nestled along the Columbia river between mountains. It is a sprawling, park-like campground right on the river with lots of room….that’s the good news. The bad news is the steep downhill grade of WA 14 with truck/trailers coming down all night with the compression bakes on, with the added bonus of having railroad tracks on two sides. We rate this campground an overall 4 (out of 10).

Night two was spent at Carl G Washburne Memorial State Park which is near Florence, OR on the coast. This was a typically nice Oregon State Park that was very wooded. The bad news is that the showers were luke warm. We rated this campground an overall 7.

Going south from Washburne, we stopped in Florence to see the Old Town section, with lots of shops and cafes along a river. Deb was hoping to find a new whirligig like the one we lost in Florida a couple years ago, but the kite shop was closed. We also drove through Bandon which is a great seaside village.

Night three was spent at Harris Beach State Park, way south on the Oregon coast near Brookings near the California border. This was an excellent park and extremely popular… perhaps because it was a Saturday night and a sunny weekend, or …just because. The bathrooms here were first rate and the campground had trailed that went down to the beach. We rated this campground a 9 and would definitely plan to come here again.

After leaving Harris Beach, we stopped at the “Trees of Mystery”. Certainly this is the highlight of the first 10^th of our trip, so we talked about just going home, thinking it couldn’t get any better than the Trees of Mystery. Actually it was pretty cool. Kyle walked the 1 mile loop and we took the “sky trail” gondola up into the trees.

Night four was spent at Patrick’s Point State Park, near Klamath, CA. A nice setting right on a point overlooking the pacific, but the campground is strewn with branches and storm debris, and the bathroom and shower facilities were poor.  All in all, a pretty run down park for $35/night and poor compared with Oregon parks. We rate this campground a 6, just because of the nice views.

Going further south down US-101 “the redwoods hwy”, we took the scenic bypass through the “Avenue of the Giants”. This world-famous scenic drive is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101, which parallels Freeway 101 with its 51,222 acres of redwood groves. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the entire 500 mile redwood belt and is accessible to all with convenient services provided along the way.

 

 

The Avenue of the Giants is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world.

We spent the night in the middle of this beautiful area at Burlington Camp. This is a great example of what CA ST Parks used to be and should be, even thought $35 is still too mush for a dry campground in winter. We took a nice nature trail and enjoyed the trees. I even played my new ukulele that night at the campfire.

That night we got our first taste of winter since we left. In the middle of the night it started raining and in the morning we were surrounded by ponds of water. I guess redwoods like rain…

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Fun in the Sun 2013

This winter/spring, the Nashinator and it's crew will head south to see how we like winter camping in the warmth of the southwest. Although we love the beauty and quiet of these snowing winter days, we're also chomping at the bit to play a little golf ( Deb wants to try out her new Adams clubs) and get some warm sunshine on our bones. Our estimated flight time is mid-February.

The trip, estimated to consume 4000 miles, will take us about 37 days to complete. We start by heading down the gorge then over to the Oregon coast for a couple nights in Newport, followed by a couple more nights at the Redwoods in N. California.  As we head further south down US101, we'll stop in Morgan Hill  to visit Deb's sister, then on down for a couple nights in Ventura, CA at Hobson Beach Co Park. From there, we plan to see brother/sister Dan Diane during an overnight in  Riverside, then on to the desert areas of Anza Borrego State Park for several nights.

From there, we hop over to Arizona for about 2 weeks hopping around the areas of Quartzsite, Tubac, Bisbee, Huachuca City and Tuscon.  We'll visit some artsy-crafty towns, some ghost towns, and see whatever sites that come up, as well as play a little golf. We also hope to meet up with good friend Jim and Mary Bagby while they are also vacationing in the sun.

By mid-March we'll start heading north. After a quick stopover in Vegas to visit a stone form company, we head up to Watchman Campground at Zion NP for several days.  From there we head back home via the Salt Lake City route, with overnight stays in Levan, UT, Shelley, ID, and Missoula, MT.

So, how do you pack for the warmth of the southwest, when you're departing a winter climate with highs in the 20's. Be flexible I guess.

Gazeboblog - Episode 8: Rock, Cupola and Bling

In the past two weeks we have been able to complete nearly all of the work on the gazebo, including addition of the cupola and completion of the rock work. We even added lighting today using 300 LED lights.








As discussed earlier, the cupola adds style and is supposed to be a vent for fire pit smoke. In reality, 99.99% of the smoke drifts sideways 99.99% of the time, so my vent idea was unnecessary. Oh well, we still like the cupola. The spindle in the center of the cupola is made on my lathe from a 4" round hunk of tamarack log, similar to cedar.

Deb, the master stone mason, tirelessly finished the rock work today, having slathered and shoved mortar and stone onto the 6th and final pillar. Now we just need to apply a bit of mortar in between each rock and we'll be be done.

Gazeboblog - Episode 7 ... A Roof

Our goal was to have the roof winter-ready ... before winter ... and we did that. The main part of the roof is completed, and now I am working on the cupola, which will not only give the gazebo some snazz, but will also serve as a covered vent for campfire smoke.

Since my last post, I added more logs as supports to the roof structure, so that the span for the roof deck is no more than 4'. I used 2x6 fir for the roof deck, pre-staining everything before putting them up.

The roofing is Owens Corning Oakridge which has a "lifetime limited" warranty. We'll see how well it lasts. It should last through mine and Deb's lifetimes, afterwhich it will be Ben and Jason's to worry about.

As you can see, Deb is making great progress on the rock work, now having completed 4 of the 6 pillars. Although we have enough now, we continue to make more river rock so she has more shapes and colors to choose from (see episode #4 for rock making).

Gazeboblog - Episode 6 ... Traftors

Hey, man ... it's like hovering in mid air or something, man....far out!  Today I set up the log rafters ... or trusses...or traftors. I'm not sure what they are called, but I put them up anyway. The rafters are 6"x6" D-logs like the ones we used to build the shop. I first had to plane off the tongues and grooves one every frigging 11' log. That "king post" in the middle is hexagon-shaped and is 11" thick. The whole mess is screwed together using 8' log screws. 

I will be adding some additional log rafters to fit in between these, so that my span will not exceed 48". The roof decking will be 2x6's. I am also going to have openings at the peak, so campfire smoke can escape. There will be a cupola covering the openings. 

Deb is doing her usually superb job rocking the pillars. As you may recall, these "river rocks" are the ones we are making using the rubber molds and concrete and coloring powder. It is quite an art form trying to make rocks look like rocks. We're getting better... and the price is right!

Gazeboblog Episode 5 - Taking Shape

 Taking time away from golf, fishing and camping trips, we took some time to make more progress on the gazebo. After mortaring down the caps, I notched the tops of each post and set them on top of the pillars.

The header beams were then notched to fit the posts and then delicately set on the posts using the tractor. I then made the knee braces and attached them using log screws.

We have also made good progress making our river rock to cover the concrete pillars. It is interesting experimenting with the various colors. I am intentionally not showing you the "reject" pile for a good reason :)

Camping the California Loop

Collier State Park, Chiloquin, OR

We just returned from a grand 3-week trip exploring the backroads (i.e., avoiding the freeways) through Oregon and California. The highlight of the trip was seeing Uncle Burton and Aunt Helen for their 70th wedding anniversary in Palm Desert... or perhaps it was visiting brother/sis in law Dan and Diane at their mountain retreat in Sky Forest, CA ... or perhaps it was Disneyland. Nevertheless, is was a great and trouble-free trip in the Nashinator. 


After a stopover in Monroe to check out the house, we headed south and cut over to I-97 through Oregon, stopping at Collier State Park, in Chiloquin, OR and visited Crater Lake. Most of the loop road was still closed due to snow, but we did see the gorgeous lake and visitor center. Collier was an excellent campground with miles of hiking trails and a cool logging museum. 

Crater Lake

Crater Lake Lodge

Heading further south into California, we stopped at Eagle Lake and camped with good friends Wayne and Nan Miller. We had a good opportunity to test the soalr panel as the site was dry camping and it managed to keep up with demand just fine. Unfortunately, Wayne scared off the fish when they saw his legs in the water, but otherwise we had a great 4-night stay.

Logging Museum Collier SP, Chiloquin, OR

Logging Museum Collier SP, Chiloquin, OR

We headed on down 395 stopping overnight in Bishop before landing at D&D's place at Lake Arrowhead. As usual, we had a great time there, including attending Burt and Helen's 70th wedding anniversary. It was cool seeing our cousins Craig, Larry and Ron for the first time in at least 20+ years. We also visited Disneyland and it was as magical as ever. 

Dan, Dana and Kyle at Dland

Magical Disneyland

Camp site at Eagle Lake

Disneyland

Camping Eagle Lk

Camping Eagle Lk

Beach Eagle Lk

70th anniversary - Cousin Craig Reed on Left

70th anniversary - Dan with cousin Larry 

Empire Mine Site

Empire Mine Site

Empire Mine Blacksmithy

Empire Mine shaft

Empire Mine shaft

Park at Empire Mine SP

We had originally planned on heading home via Zion NP and Salt Lake, but upon Dan and Diane's suggestion, decided to go home though the California gold country...Hwy 49. It was a fun and worthwhile trip even though D&D failed to tell us about the hills and switchbacks in a couple of areas. It is also a much more interesting route than I-5 or even 99 through most of California.

As we headed north, we first visited the historic towns of Jamestown and visitied the living museum town of Columbia State Historic Park. En route we stopped at the Marshall Gold Discovery SHP, the site of Sutters Mill. Northeast of Sacramento, we stopped near Grass Valley and walked the town oif Nevada City. We also saw the Empire Mine State Park, which is a tour of an old hard rock gold mine. I highly recommend seeing this place. 

Columbia State Historic Park

Columbia State Historic Park

Columbia State Historic Park

49er Campground Columbia, CA

Sutters Mill

We then headed north and scooted up Oregon 97 to Washington 395, then home.