August 18, 2001
We should be leaving CA in about 10 days now. Got almost all the "paperwork" done for mom, and with any luck the last step will take place on Monday the 20th. Got an appointment to have the trailer tanks checked out in Medford, OR, on the 29th, and since they're about 300 miles from here, it'll be a straight (more or less) shot up I-5 from here in just one day. Of course, we've said that before and had plans change, haven't we.
Now, we're not being paid by Thousand Trails in any way, but the following few pictures and verbiage will sound like we are. We're in love with this campground called Lake of the Springs. We're here because the place we'd been staying at in Nicolaus was pretty full because of some boat racing on their lake this weekend. Since we'd left Beals Point with tanks 3/4 full and bleach in the fresh water and vinegar in the gray water (time to clean & sanitize), we felt we wanted full hookups so we could flush everything out. Turned out this place didn't have any sites available with full hookups either, but the honey wagon is only $7.50 per site so we're saving $2.50 per dump. We emptied the holding tanks at the dump station when we got here, and will go about a week before needing the honey wagon anyway. But back to the pictures. On the left you can see our little Porta-Boat tied up to one of the piers, and on the right is a picture of the dam that creates the lake. Rather odd shapes for a dam. Kind of scalloped pieces in a typical arc, and about 75 feet tall. We hiked down to the stream leaving the dam the first day we were here. Nice hike if you avoided the poison oak, which we did. Being raised near here helps me spot stuff like that.
Boat house, bait shack, rental building on the left. Fishing permits are $2 per 24 hour period, and because we have our own boat in the water I haven't a clue what the peddle boats, row boats, canoes, party boats, and outboards rent for.
Nice sandy beach on the left that incorporates the entire little cove. Safety line from one side to the other to keep us boaters out. And yes, we wear our helmets even in the campground where the speed limit is 5 MPH. Barb is standing in the parking lot for the marina. The little odometers on the mini-bikes registered .7 of a mile from our campsite to here. Handy little "toys" to have in situations like this. Way too many hills for us old duffers to be pedaling our bicycles on, not to mention trying to walk in upper 90's to 100 degree temperatures.
Yeah, we found some shade. Found so much shade that our satellite dish won't pick up any signal! We elected to live a couple of weeks without TV and watch the wildlife instead (Barb here--he's fibbing; he found a way to get a local station--sans satellite; he goes through withdrawal without access--same with the cell phone). And this weekend there's even some campers to watch. This place is a big draw for the "local" campers with lots of tents mixed in with small trailers and pop-up campers. Lots of kids, bicycles, scooters, and even a few dogs thrown into the mix. I was a little concerned about the noise level because I'm a light sleeper, but we went to bed at 10 or so and heard nothing but the crickets again.
That's right. I'm fishing and it's not even 7 AM yet. Can it get any better than this? Well, it would have been fun if I'd caught a few fish for breakfast, but let's look on the bright side. I didn't have to try to find the fish cleaning station! The mist rising off the water, watching the sun come up, seeing the huge flock of Canadian Geese take off for the day, peeling off layers of shirts as the day warmed up. Saw 3 magnificent Whitetail bucks come out of the woods to drink, and tried to get a picture of them that would be good enough to post, but couldn't get close enough. One had at least 6 points per side, and maybe more. Best looking bucks I'd seen in a long time. About 8:30 or so a dad with his 3 kids came down to the boat ramp to fish. The youngest was about 4 the oldest probably around 9 or 10. He'd rigged them all up, told them to hold still (yeah, right) and wandered off to walk the boat dock. The two older kids were typical. Flailing the water with their fishing rods, jerking the line, and claiming to have just lost a fish and all that. Happy noise, but human noise nonetheless. The youngest stood as still as a statue until all of a sudden he exploded. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he took a wild jerk on the rod, cranked the reel a few times and gave another mighty heave with the rod. And up on the bank was a very respectable bluegill flopping around in the sand. This little guy couldn't say anything he was hollering so much and jumping up and down flapping his arms. His siblings stood in awe as dad came running from the boat dock to admire this kid's first fish. Darn near had as much fun as if I'd caught a big one myself, just watching this little guy get hooked on fishing. Saw the family later in the day, and embarrassed the little guy by congratulating him on his fish. His older brother and sister told the story for him quite as I'd seen it, teasing him because he'd jerked the fish out of the water rather than "playing" it, whatever that might have meant. Great fun.
Main lodge on the left, and the dining room on the right. I went through the dining room about breakfast time today and the smell of the eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes made me almost wish I'd not had breakfast at home. Place was about full of happy people getting acquainted and seeing friends.
These were taken in the main "family" room. I was standing in the door of the dining room looking at the dance floor for the picture on the left, and then went over to the video games in the corner behind the pool tables to take a picture of the fireplace. The upper back deck can be seen through the glass doors in the picture on the left, and the doors in the picture on the right lead to the parking lot in front of the building.
This is the "adult" room, and the rangers enforce the over-18 years-old rule. On the left I'm standing in front of the wood stove you can see in the picture on the right. The doors go out to the deck. The fellow in the picture on the right is getting ready to use the table and hook up to the phone lines that are there for us computer nuts. These pool tables are in much better condition than the ones in the family room - I couldn't find any flaws in the felt at all. Huge 1,000-piece puzzle on the table in the picture on the right, and the night before it had only the border done, but somebody must have stayed up late to finish it. Big screen TV out of sight that the couches face to the right of the wood stove.
The "basement" where the ping-pong tables are and the view out the back of the lodge toward the lake. The whole facility is spotless, freshly painted and maintained as well as any hotel we've been in.
On the left is a shot of the two decks, and on the right is the upper deck outside the dining room.
On the left is the driveway up to the lodge from the main parking lot for the country store peeking behind the hill. The fountain in the pool at the foot of the driveway didn't come out very well in this picture. And on the right is a doe that came wandering tentatively by. She was very wary, but not particularly spooked by us sitting there watching her. In the lower left of that picture are the garbage cans and a wire container for recyclable aluminum and plastic containers. These are all over the park.
This spotted fawn was following its mother through the campgrounds, and was one of a set of twins. Hard to get good pictures because they're pretty skittish. Feeding the deer is illegal, and I've not seen anybody doing it, and from the way the deer act it's easy to believe they're used to people, but not totally comfortable with them like some of the places we've been where the deer are like pets.
So, if we sound like we like this place and are really happy to be here, then that's the message we tried to convey. And we like the fact that the only thing it's costing us is an annual maintenance fee and the $2 fishing permit.