Before heading out of Vegas, we got the weld fixed on the trailer. Our dealer, Antler's
RV, helped us to find the right RV repair place and, of course, Northwood
paid for the repair under warranty. While Brian was getting the
trailer fixed and shopping for food, Jacque continued to pamper herself
with a massage at the CircusCircus salon. Around lunchtime, we headed
out of town, west towards California. Unfortunately, the only way to
do this is on Interstate 15.
While traveling down I-15, we passed a small accident on
the other side... but, since it was a Friday afternoon all of the
Los Angelenos who were heading to Las Vegas for the weekend werre caught
up in the backup. As we passed the line of stopped cars, we saw many
people out walking around, having picnics, and generally looking very
frustrated -- it appeared that the backup was almost 20 miles long! We
were glad to be heading in the opposite direction.
We decided to spend Friday night in a KOA outside of the Calico ghost
town near Barstow, CA. This KOA was a lovely little park, with a large area
for the dogs to run free. They were happy to do this, because they were
pretty much cooped up in the trailer the whole time we were in Las Vegas.
The next morning, we got off the interstate as soon as we could and headed
north along Owens Valley, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada.
This drive was incredible. Towards the south, we saw a desert blooming
in purple and yellow flowers. Farther north, we were able to follow
the course of the LA Aqueduct and see first hand the environmental changes
that have been wrought by diverting so much water to Southern California.
(Jacque's personal diatribe: before anyone decides to move to Southern
California, they should be required to visit the Owens Valley to see
these effects first hand.) (Brian's personal addendum to Jacque's personal diatribe: those
people should also read Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner, for the definitive history of Southern California's water politics
and the story of how the Owens Valley was ravaged in order that the Los
Angeles of today could exist.)
The views of the Sierras from the East side were amazing. Note the look of amazement on Jacque's face.
Saturday night, we stopped at Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone
Pine, CA. This town is known for three things: 1) it is at the base
of Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous 48 states; 2)
it is at the northern edge of Owens Lake, the lake that is dry because
all of its inflowing water has been diverted to supply water to Los Angeles;
and 3) it is the site of many movie settings -- apparently a large number
of westerns and other movies have been shot here. The RV park was quite
nice, except that the Elks Club from Lancaster, CA, had rented out all
the spaces for the weekend. So, we ended up in an overflow lot, which
they were just building. At this point, all it had was flat dirt spaces
with hookups. Oh, well, that’s all we needed for the night -- with the
Sierra Nevada to the west and the Inyo Mountains to the east, what more
could you ask for?
We had planned to spend another night or two in the Owens Valley,
then cross the Sierra Nevada. But, in listening to the weather report,
we discovered that there were several coastal storms coming, and if
we didn't cross on Sunday, we might be stuck in the Owens Valley for
a few days. So, we headed north up the Owens Valley towards Tahoe to
cross the mountains. There were a couple of nice viewpoints along the
highway pointing out the peaks, wildlife, etc.
We passed Mono Lake, and it seems that the LA Dept. of Water and Power has been
required to put a little more water back in this lake because the water
level seemed higher than Brian had remembered it. (Mono Lake is another
lake that the LA water authority was slowly drying up by diverting all
the water that normally flows into the lake.) We saw the tufa towers
(salt towers that rise like islands from the water) that are unique to Mono
Lake and provide an isolated nesting habitat for certain birds. As the
lake level descended due to the LA water diversions, these towers were becoming
acessible from the land, allowing coyotes and other predators to reach
the bird nests. With better water management, the lake level has apparently
returned to its historical level.
We decided to take a smaller road, State Rt 89, over the Sierra
Nevada. The signs said it was open and the map showed that the passes
(Monitor Pass and Luther Pass) were lower than the passes that we took
over the mountains in Utah. What the maps did not say was the steepness
of the grade going over these passes. We pushed Chuck the truck, both
transmission on the uphill and the brakes on the downhill, pretty hard
-- probably as hard as we would ever want to push him -- but with a few
rest breaks he performed admirably. And, the views as we went over the
mountains were incredible, even though we hit a number of snow flurries.
Near the top of Monitor Pass we even saw a black bear running through
the snow beside the highway!
We picked up US-50 south of Tahoe and continued over Echo Summit
and into the Sierra Nevada foothills. On this side of the mountain
range, there was much more snow on the ground and forests of large evergreen
trees.
The weather report said the snow elevation should be at 5500 feet, so
we chose a campground at Sly Park Recreation Area on Jenkinson Lake in Pollock
Pines, CA, at an elevation of 3500 feet. What a beautiful campground
and park -- we wish we knew how to find more of these. Jenkinson Lake
is a large reservoir that provides water to Pollock Pines. Forests of
tall evergreens surround it. The lake was a number of small campgrounds
and day use areas on the north side. When we were there, the park was
almost deserted, except for some fishermen, so we had a spot on the lake
and the campground and lake mostly to ourselves. Both we and the dogs loved
it!
As expected, it began to rain on Sunday evening. When Brian got up in
the middle of the night to let Barney out, he discovered that the rain
had turned to snow! The next morning, the skies were blue and there
were several inches of snow on the ground. The evergreens were covered
with snow, but it was rapidly melting, so it was a mini-drizzle under
many of the larger trees. Jacque and Kasie went for a long walk and enjoyed
the melting snow.
After breakfast, we decided to stay another night. 
Both the ranger and the weather forecasters on the radio told
us another storm was coming through, so we decided to stay put. That
afternoon, we walked around the entire lake -- a wonderful hiking trail.
We saw many kinds of water birds, including common loons, Canada geese,
mallards, and common mergansers -- plus some we couldn’t identify. We
also saw a bald eagle hunting above the lake, and we almost stepped on
a salamander on the trail. By the end of the walk, the second storm had
arrived with rain and wind, so we settled into the trailer to eat dinner.
After hiking in the rain and snow, and letting the dogs swim in the
lake, we had lots of wet stuff to get dried.
The next morning, we packed up and headed west, across California's central
valley to Napa Valley. The drive through Davis, CA, and the coastal mountains
was very pretty. We stayed four nights at the Napa County Fairgrounds, which has a small RV park. This park was nothing spectacular, except that it was really the only
place to park an RV in the Napa Valley. Its only redeeming feature was
that it was located in Calistoga, so we got to take advantage of the restaurants
and shops in that town.
On Thursday, the truck needed an oil change and new brakes, so while it
was getting fixed, we biked about 22 miles on the Silverado Trail through
the wine country. 
Seeing the wineries, vineyards and cellars from bicycles was an interesting
experience -- quite different from seeing it in a car. We stopped at a small
wildlife refuge and ate lunch (bread, cheese, and nuts from this great little
store called Cal-Mart) along the creek. We saw lots of interesting birds,
including the hard-to-find pileated woodpecker -- Brian decided that he needed
to climb into a big ol' tree to get a better view of the birds. On the bike
ride back to the Chevrolet dealer, we stopped at Heitz Cellars winery for a nice
tasting of their wine.
After such a long bike ride, we decided to pamper ourselves on Friday.
We went to a spa and got a mud bath, a mineral bath and a massage -- very
relaxing, but it makes you not want to do much the rest of the day! That
night, we drove to the town of Napa and met Brian's sister, Kelly, for a
very nice dinner.
Saturday, David, Nancy, and James (Brian's brother, sister-in-law, and
nephew) drove up to Calistoga to visit. We spent a great day eating and
shopping in Calistoga.
May 4, 2003On Sunday, we headed towards the Russian River Valley. One winery that
we wanted to visit is the J Winery in Healdsburg -- we had tasted the J pinot
noir with Brian and Katherine Hoffman at Rapongi's Restaurant in San Diego
some time back, and Jacque wanted to see the place in person. The tasting
room in this winery was very interestingly decorated, and they served appetizers
with the wine. We tasted pinot noirs (pinots noir?), and a sparkling wine. We bought a
case of pinot noir and sparkling wine (including one very special bottle),
and Jacque had to get a cap and sweatshirt with the "J" logo on the front.
This was definitely a stop worth making!
We continued our drive up to Cloverdale and stayed at the Cloverdale KOA. We
spent the night in a lovely campsite overlooking a valley of trees and vineyards.
It was far from the freeway, so it was very quiet, except for the farm animals
nearby making occasional moos, snorts, grunts, and cock-a-doodle-doos.
