Wed & Thur., Aug 1 and 2

Wed., Aug. 1:
I left home at 8:30 and arrived at the North Fork (of the American River) CG in 2 hours, stopping once to get ice. It’s a Forest Service CG that is about 6 miles off I-80. I myself wouldn’t want to bring an RV over the very narrow and winding road, but the back of the loop is filled with an extended family with tents and trailers of all sorts. I’m in the first site from the entrance with the river running alongside my site.

In the west this can be called a river, but in the east it’s a creek (or sometimes more properly a “crick”). I can hear the water rushing over the rocks and it reminds me of many campsites in the Smoky Mtns.

This is water in the way I love it! Oceans are beautiful, and I lived within spitting distance of the Atlantic in Ireland. Big wide rivers are gorgeous – the Hudson, Ohio, Mississippi, and the Snake Rivers come to mind. Lakes are also ok, but give me a rushing creek and that is perfection! Warning signs tell me that there are rattlesnakes in the area. Always something to beware of.

I’ve paid for 5 nights of camping which will bring me through Sunday night. I have another drive in mind leading to a new area for me, so stay tuned.

Thurs., August 2:
I woke up to a very cold morning and hated to get out of the sleeping bag, but my need for a hot cup of coffee and something to eat over rode the comfort of sleeping in. I brought my sleeping bag outside and got into it on my nice lounge chair, with my coffee mug on the little table next to me.

I need to rearrange my tent and I think my head was downhill slightly last night. I am going to try the bed alongside the back of the tent which will make it much easier to get in and out of. I have so much room I don’t know what to do with it all. It’s missing a dog!

This morning I decided to drive up the road a couple of miles. I walked a few hundred feet earlier, but since my first time at Lassen I can’t pass up sticks and twigs for firewood. I usually don’t get very far and have to bring it back without dropping it. So when I drove I was on the lookout for firewood, and found a couple of spots that had some beautiful wood that were good lengths for the fire pit.

It is easier I’ll have to admit to just go buy cut firewood at a convenience store, and then you don’t have to be constantly adding to the fire. But I guess this is where the German in me comes out – I cannot see paying for wood when I’m in the middle of a forest with it all around me. I feel like I’m doing my small part to reduce the tinder from the ground.

There is something so satisfying in gathering wood for the fire, and I can relate to the millennia of women before me, and even now in some countries, where women have always been the gatherers.

I’ve been wondering where to get water to have on hand for putting out the embers of the fire when I go to bed at night. The road down to the creek is too steep and I hate to try it since I’m having enough trouble walking around my campsite without tripping. It came to me that I could use the water from the melted ice in my coolers! I’m brilliant this morning and on a roll for sure. I collected the melted ice water into a pan and then poured it into an empty gallon jug, and voila! I even had the bright idea to tear off part of the label so that I wouldn’t get that jug mixed up with two others that are my drinking and cooking water.

Will get this posted now while I have the chance. I drove about 15 miles to get ice, and the Burger King here has wifi. I will post pictures next time around.