Summer Travel Map

Thursday, May 31, 2012

May 25-31: Yreka, California, including a return visit to Mount Shasta


May 31, 2012
Yreka RV Park, Yreka, CA
Wow; staying in one place a whole week!  What a deal.  I selected Yreka and this specific RV park based on working backward on the calendar, then the map.  One of the few pre-planned dates on our schedule this summer is a stop at North Bend, Oregon, for a Rally starting June 19th.  Working backwards in time and along our route, this seemed like a good place to “drop anchor” for a week.  I was hoping to get far enough north and up in elevation to get some cooler weather, plus see if we could check out to Mount Shasta area.  It pretty much worked out as planned.

Yreka (rhymes with Eureka, with a “why” instead of “you”), like many towns in this part of the country, was founded on gold mining, built up quickly, and went bust just as fast.  How it managed to hang on is anyone’s guess, although proximity to “Historic Route 99” and now I-5 probably has a lot to do with it.  There’s not a lot to do and that fit our travel plan perfectly.  I used the time to catch up on a few maintenance projects, Geri did some laundry, and I caught up on finances.  We had good TV reception and, although the Park’s free Wi-Fi service was only operational some of the time, we were able to supplement it with our Verizon portable hotspot so all was good.

We did take a ride out to the south and east to get closer to Mount Shasta, and ended up finding a nice picnic spot along Lake Shastina (a community reservoir, similar to Brite Lake we’d found in Tehachapi a few weeks ago) as a bonus.  We’ve been through this area several times on I-5 over the past decade but haven’t stopped as we’ve always been on the way to somewhere else.  We did stop here years ago, on our second “RV Rental Vacation”, which I’m guessing was 1994.  We flew into Portland and picked up the rental, then traveled south before cutting inland near Mount Shasta, picking up US-97 back north to Crater Lake.  We both remember that, because the snow drifts were still taller than the rental RV even though it was some time in June.  But, I digress...


We picked a very nice day for a drive, heading east from Yreka and using back roads to  head down toward the mountain.  At 14,162 feet in elevation, it’s ranked 49th in the US, just behind Mount Rainier (which we’ll see later in June when we’re up in the Seattle area).  In addition to the mountain, we made a short stop at Grass Lake, which is essentially a very large marsh, before finding our lunch spot.  All in all, it was a nice side trip.


Although the weather was generally nice, we did have a couple of days that required use of the air conditioning but nothing severe.  It was also pretty breezy the whole week, which made awning use hit-or-miss and did cause some issues for the barbecue grill.  In spite of that, we were able to spend most afternoons outside; I put out the pens for the pups to join us.  We did use the grill several times, doing a nice “steak & bake” with grilled ears of corn, and making a marinated tri-tip roast that came out very tasty.  As always, we continue to eat well while on the road.

While we were in Yreka I was able to keep up my walking regimen, trekking down the hill from the RV park and walking along the “main drag” in town to get the right distance.  I was able to put in 3.5 to 5.5 mile walks, even using one jaunt to go to the Post Office to pick up our General Delivery mail.  Always on the lookout, I was able to spot one of “Albertville’s finest” along the historic downtown street.  I also made a quick stop at the Chinese Cemetery (it was right on my walking route)...
















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