California Coast to Nevada

Here’s what’s new!  We left off around Eureka, Ca traveling down the west coast.

We did a dump and diesel fill at the Shell station in Fortuna, then headed on south on the 101.  Since the weather on the Oregon coast had prevented much enjoyment of coastal scenery, we headed back out to the California coast at Westport, leaving the 101 at Leggett.  It’s a very narrow winding road, but good pavement and we were in no hurry. Meeting loaded logging trucks on blind corners keeps your attention focussed on driving.

A homeless-looking van was parked in my preferred ocean view spot, but snugged up against a guardrail nearby proved to be an adequate alternate.

The view out the door wasn’t too shabby!There’s nothing like sleeping to the sounds of pounding surf!

It was such a nice spot, we spent two nights here before deciding to move on.

Had a bit of an issue getting going as the worn-out truck batteries wouldn’t start the truck. Conveniently, my heavy duty 40 amp battery charger also refused to work.  I knew I should never have left home without at least two battery chargers!  So the generator charged up the house batteries, which eventually charged the truck enough to start as well.  We certainly wouldn’t want to be stuck in such a gorgeous spot now would we!

After passing through Fort Bragg, a turn inland brought us out to the 101 at Willits.  Continuing on southward we filled up with diesel ($3.81) and propane ($2.19) at the Coyote Valley Casino and station before continuing eastward on Hwy 20 into central California.  After a bite to eat in Williams we continued on to Colusa for the night.  We found a decent quiet spot right along the Sacramento river to spend the night. Unconventional, but better than Walmart!  Haven’t had to resort to Wally world for a year or so now!

We stayed on 20 through Yuba City, Grass Valley, Nevada City, and picked up I-80 for it’s run eastbound over Donner pass.

At Truckee we got off the interstate again.  Adding our 10 gallons of spare fuel, we had enough range to make it to the cheaper fuel in Nevada!   I didn’t recall ever traveling on the east side of Lake Tahoe, so that’s the way we headed, eventually coming out into Nevada at Carson City.  There were some minor construction delays on that route, but I kind of like that . 

After going through a single lane pilot car section, I let everyone else go past, and then I can mosey along as slow as I like with no traffic behind.  That gave us a chance to stop along the side of Tahoe for some photos.

Joining the 395 in Carson City, Nv, we went southbound, and filled up the tank and spare cans in Gardnerville ($3.29/g diesel), the last chance before returning to higher California prices.

There was evidence of recent wildfires in the area, and I thought it odd to see the red patches beside each burnt area.  Then I realized that the red stripes were all fire retardant drops from the aircraft fighting the fires.

The next stop was in Bridgeport to enjoy the Travertine and Buckeye hot springs for a few days.  Check out the fuel prices in Bridgeport!  That’s why I filled up in Nevada!

Next we spent a few days camped on some BLM or NF land, about a half mile from the springs.

Headed down the Left Coast

When we left off a week ago, we had just arrived at the John Day dam on the Columbia river, on the boundary between Washington and Oregon. Having just arrived, there were no photos added, so here are some now!  Ms Hailey was glad to be outside doing some hunting among the rocks along the shore.  No snowbanks here!

There are often barges going up or downriver through the locks at the dam, but this time there was only one transiting down river, and it was so stealthy I didn’t get out in time for a decent photo.

There are numerous native fishing platforms along the river banks here, but none being used at present.

We crossed the Columbia at Biggs Junction, after taking on a little water at Maryhill park, and continued on to The Dalles where a fuel fill was in order.  Leaving there we took a winding, scenic ‘long-cut’ on highway 30, leading to a nice view of the river valley at Rowena Crest viewpoint.

And that was about the last sun we saw as well .  Traffic wasn’t too bad passing through Portland, but there was some stop and go in places.  After a quick visit at the Frys Electronics store just south in Wilsonville, the night was spent in our usual spot at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Or.  There was a ‘new’ 747 parked out on the front lawn, as well as one at the water park nearby, but the built in safety restrictions for my UAV would not even permit a takeoff.  Safety first!  It also made me pass a UAV knowledge exam before flying the next time as well.  So no photos here.

We made it to the beautiful Oregon coast, but didn’t get to see much of anything.  It was mostly rain and fog and rain and fog, if you get the drift.

The forecast showed much of the same for most of the next week or two, so reluctantly we just kept motoring south into California, where the weather was predicted to be quite a bit nicer.

In southern Oregon, we topped off the diesel at $3.46/g before the higher prices in California.  ‘California Fruit Customs’ was closed when we got there, so my strawberries were safe!

Someone was in ‘my’ spot along an old section of highway near Orick, but we found an even better place down the road.  All was peaceful and quiet, save the distant roar of the surf below, that is until 0712 in the morning when I guess duck season opened.  After that it was non-stop shooting.

We pulled in to Trinidad, hoping for maybe a little hike up the hill overlooking the harbor, but parking was at a premium, so we opted to look at the area ‘remotely’.

Outside Eureka, my regular overnight spot was sporting a shiny new ‘No Camping’ sign of all things, so we had to be a bit more ‘innovative’ in finding a spot.  It was a challenging evening, as I was forced to watch both my Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Maple Leafs online at the exact same time.  Managed to pull off two wins though!  Hailey was unimpressed.

Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we moved just a few miles to a spot we had scoped out a couple years back.  That was an eventful time that resulted in us having to back up the rig for well over a half mile on two separate dead-end roads!  You can read about it <HERE>!  But this time, we knew where NOT to go.  Plus, we had the secret aerial reconnaissance weapon at our disposal.

There is a very narrow one-lane bridge over the Eel river.  Hint: check the video at the end of this post!

Here’s the key!  Turn around, while you still can!!

Okay, so here’s a short video clip of some of the spots in this blog post – enjoy!

https://youtu.be/BT3h-0mbW2s

And, here’s a bonus map for y’all!

Till next time …