27 September 2015

The Rest of the Story...at Upper Rush Creek

OH NO!  The other van is gone.  They must have been up and at 'em rather early.  At least earlier than we cared to be.  They were still there when I took the boys out for a quick potty run, but then we snuggled back under the blankets for a bit.  I should have been bold the previous night.  *sigh*.

The boys gobble their breakfast. I savor mine and linger over another cup of forbidden coffee.  Yeah, the doc wants me to give up the java, too.  I can cut down, but not sure I can quit altogether.  The meat and dairy are a cinch compared to that insult. 

Breakfast, second cups, and a little tidying done we go for a walk.  The boys must have slept well; they are raring to go and we head the way of campsite number 5.  Look at that!  This one has easy access to the creek.  I cut the walk short and we head back to our Vome, and I pack up. We snag number 5 and get settled in.  We again attempt a walk and make it a long one.  The boys are ready for a nap but change their minds once we walk down to the creek and I set up the tie outs.  They have access to the water and begin checking it out.  Charlie likes the water!  I doubt he has ever seen a creek, being a former city street dog.  You don't know the story of my rescue pups, do you?  We'll have to change that this winter. 
 Charlie
 
 Burger
 
Fries (from Small Fry).  Fries just goes so well with Burger, ya know?                           
Fries is curious as to why the other two are so fond of the water.  He's not one to be cold, so he's content to watch.

We do take a short nap after their romp in the creek, then another walk.  The air is scented with the smell of dry--very dry--pine, fir, and cedar.  As we finish our long, leisurely walk and are heading back to camp we hear a vehicle coming up the road.  It's the Forest Service, and I wave as he slows down and passes us.  We catch up to him as he is finishing his inspection of the vault toilet. I comment on the fee being waived for this campground.  He says it's because there is no water, but they are working on getting it repaired.  He tells me they were always running out of water in this campground and found out someone was stealing the camp's water to irrigate their marijuana patch.  And they caught him!  For now they are considering the campground dispersed camping, hence no fee.  We chat a bit more and the nice gentleman heads out.  We head back to our spot by the creek and while away the rest of the afternoon.
Our view from the van

The air quickly turns cool as the sun goes down.  Although there is a fire ring and some firewood someone left, I do not build a fire.  It's just too dry.  I know others do, but I just do not want to risk it.  We live in California, known for it's wildfires, but we are in a four year drought on top of that.  Too risky for me.  We went through the hell of fires threatening our little town of Burney, burning homes in nearby Hat Creek and up on Day Road last year. They should forbid campfires here as they have in Oregon.  Too many careless people.  The devastation is not worth the comfort and ambience of a campfire at this time.  Just my opinion folks.  The boys and I stay out as long as we are halfway comfortable, go for another walks before we lose what light remains, then we head inside.

The evening is spent reading, studying the Benchmark Atlas for future trips, making lists, and watching a movie I downloaded onto the Kindle to view offline.  It's an excellent, but sad, selection.  Rabbithole  if you are interested.

It was colder last night than on Tuesday night.  I had to grab for an extra blanket in the wee hours of the morning and you couldn't get The Chiweenie Brothers out from under their warm, snug lair if you wanted to.  Burger isn't one for  being undercover, thankfully, and he's too big even if he did think it was his right.  He curls up into a ball on top of the covers and snores away.

It's the usual morning routine of coffee, breakfast, and--um--more coffee.  I walked the boys earlier and staked them out so I could get packed up.  Everything is cleaned up and put away.  It didn't take long.  We are ready to go, but I am not ready to leave.  I look over at the boys and Fries is worrying something.  I go take a peek.  A hedgehog!  Fries has a hedgehog!  No, not a real one, a stuffed one.  But he thinks it's real and he is fierce in his determination to subdue this interloper.  Go Fries!   Funny the things you find.

Finally, I can put it off no longer and we must leave.  No real reason to actually have to be home, but there are things I need to get done and I don't want to wait too long and end up being on the road after dark.  I grab the boys, take one last look around, and we are off. 

The scenery is pretty flat once we get back onto Highway 299 and head west toward home.  Lots of big and small farms and ranches in Big Valley;  some gorgeous and well kept, some dumpy but still alive, the effort put into the constant outside work not on the house. 

The leaves are turning!  I stop to take a couple of photos.



Just before we reached this pretty little scene, there were some metal sculptures that I wanted to photograph so I walked back from the only safe spot to park Miss Freedom to get them.  The boys waited patiently in our Vome






Thank you for stopping by Two Dogs.  Hugs, Shawna


 

25 September 2015

Out and About For a Couple of Days

Hello blog Peeps!  The boys and I took off for a couple of days for, possibly, our last run of the season.  Hoping to still get one more in, but it all depends on work, the weather, the moon and the stars.  You get the idea.  If everything aligns we're golden.  Speaking of the moon, the harvest moon is coming up this weekend. The Super Moon here

A dental appointment took up my Tuesday morning, and as I sat in the chair I kept thinking Miss Freedom wants to go somewhere.  Yes, yes she does.  Where would she like to go?  Oh I know, somewhere EAST because that is what comes to mind first.  OK, east it is. 

When I arrive home on this perfectly lovely, kind-of-on-the-hot-side late morning I grab my California Benchmark Atlas and choose Upper Rush Creek Campground just outside of the tiny little town of Adin, population 230 something.  I throw some things together, load up the waiting Miss Freedom and off we go.

The campground is a few miles east of Adin and two miles off Highway 299.  Once you get back there it's heavily wooded with pines and cedars and true to its name Rush Creek tumbles and gurgles along one side of the loop of 10 campsites, 'rushing' to it's unknown--to me--destination.

We choose site number 3 on the creek side, and I set up camp.  This consists of pulling out the backpacker stove, my anti-gravity chair, and the tie outs for the boys.  A pig-headed wire hair fox terrier and two rambunctious minds-of-their-own chiweenies can't be trusted to stick around.  Oh they would come back, I am sure, but I am not into the stress and worry so they must stay prisoners of the camp.  Poor things.


I notice vault toilets and water spigots.  Glad to see they have water, but I am kind of a water snob and used to drinking the best dang water ever out of my own tap at home so I brought some.  The boys aren't quite that discerning so they get creek water, and I take their bowl over to fill it up.  No water.  What the heck?  Well, it is getting on in the year, perhaps they have already shut it off for winter.  Glad I brought a couple of gallons; I'll have to share my treasure with Burger, Fries, and Charlie. 

We are the only ones in this campground!  How nice!

The boys and I take a fast paced walk consisting of them pulling me along as fast as they possibly can; have to sniff and hike and pee on everything they possibly can.  It might disappear, you know! And we take a short siesta.  Short because I hear something skittering around outside the back side window.  The boys are sound asleep which is a good thing, because I want to see what it is.  Something catches my eye on the small pine just outside the window and I wait.  Just a few seconds later a sweet little furry face peeks around the tree staring at the van as if to say what the heck are YOU doing here?  It's a Douglas squirrel, also known as the pine squirrel or chickaree, and he keeps circling the tree, hesitating every few inches on his way down the trunk until he reaches the ground.  When he gets there he just stares at the tire for a time and cautiously digs around on the ground before leaping about two feet up and onto the trunk and he is gone.  These are gorgeous little creatures with darker fur than a grey squirrel and smaller by half, and rusty red-to-orange fur on their bellies. 

I read several chapters in my book, the second in a three-book historical fiction series by Jane Kirkpatrick.  Excellent reads if you like that kind of novel. 

It's time for dinner and I gather some twigs and pine needles and build a tiny fire in the backpacker stove to cook a veggie burger (doctor's orders, no more meat.  Dang!) .
 It's pretty darn good, actually, and I like that I can eat all the starches I want.  Starch, veggies, and fruit and this girl is already losing weight.  :) 
The view from our table
 
The boys and I enjoy the rest of the dying light in our little slice of heaven by taking another walk.  It's the last one of the day beside a quick before-bed pee run, then prepare to head inside our Vome where we settle in for the evening.  And guess what shows up?  Another van!  They park two spaces up in camp number 5.  It's white, a cargo type vehicle, and has a pop up top!  Nice.  There's a bicycle attached to the back bumper.  I am going to go say hi and be nosy in the morning.  I'd love to know if they are living in it, or just on vacation.  Something tells me this is their lifestyle. 

Goodnight all.  Hope you sleep as well as I know we will.  See you tomorrow with "the rest of the story". 

Thanks for stopping by! If you enjoy my blog, please follow and comment below by clicking on the little comment  link that is below every post.  Email addresses are never published, nor are they ever shared.  Hugs, Shawna

 

20 September 2015

Just a Few More Days and

it will officially be autumn.  The leaves are beginning to turn, and there's a nip in the morning air. So hard to say goodbye to summer, but boy is it worth it when fall sneaks in.

Hello blog Peeps!  Thanks for stopping by.

It's been awhile since I posted--life happens--but I have been super busy getting my health back and working on prepping for the colder months.  And...a little twisted ankle that resulted in a fall set me back a little, but it's all good.  Could have broken something and I didn't so I am very grateful!

There's been minimal work done on Miss Freedom but there are PLANS being made.  Solar is going to happen before autumn bids us adieu so looking forward to that. Maybe one last trip before winter sets in.  I have a lead on a part-time job.  YIPPEEE.  Praying this works out; just going with the flow folks and taking life as it comes.

One thing that I want to make part of the blog is a little feature on astronomy.  When the boys and I "get out there" living the life I anticipate many evenings gazing at the sky.  I have always wanted to know more about the stars and planets and learn the constellations so let's learn together.  What do you think?

To start it off here's a little article  I found about why we have seasons and a lovely photograph by Manish Mamtani Photgraphy for you to enjoy.   It's the same photo on the site, but that one is bigger and pretty darn spectacular along with other beautiful shots.  Enjoy!

 
 

 If you are an early riser, check out Venus in the east about an hour before sunrise tomorrow.  She will be her brightest.