After that, we climbed... and at some points, very steep. We had seen the warning signs at the beginning of the road, so we knew there were going to be lots of curves and steep grades. But I don't think Sherman has ever had to climb a long 10% grade before. Probably a few short ones, but never one that goes for two miles! He had to summon all of his horses for that!
Here's the video of us going through the stand of big trees...
It looks like we are driving fast, but we really aren't!
A little smokey from California forest fires.
We had about 4 miles of road construction as well as a 30 minute delay.
More road construction.
But after that we had a long stretch of fresh pavement!
Scenery along the way.
More scenery.
We climbed from sea level to over 4,000 ft before coming back down a little.
We had planned on staying at a National Forest campground, but we got there and it was closed for the season! Can't for the life of me figure why they don't just leave it open. This place was in the middle of nowhere and maybe 10 or 12 sites and a couple of outhouses. No reason it couldn't be left open for those who want to use it. Anyhow, we ended up parking at the side of the forest road and didn't hear a thing until a couple of vehicles passed at about 6:30am this morning.
Oh, wait.. we did hear something!
At some point in the evening, we heard a loud screeching noise. Really hard to describe, and we both looked at each other and said "What the heck was that??" It was dark as can be outside, and no wind at all. Totally calm.
I opened the door to hear it a little better. Wow, what an eerie noise! Looking it up later, one of the descriptions we found was it sounded like a woman being murdered! Ruth guessed (correctly) that it was a cougar (mountain lion).
Turn up your volume to hear what we heard!
Yesterday's drive, 97 miles (155 kms).
You can zoom in on the map to see how curvy the road was!
We woke up this morning... cold! All cuddled up trying to stay warm. We got up at 6:30am to start driving right away. The temperature inside the motorhome was 36F (2.3C) when we got up. No wonder we were freezing! We were at 2,700 ft altitude, so we were figuring it would get a little chillier, but I wasn't expecting that!
Change of plans... we had been heading south east around Sacramento, but the big fire at Paradise has closed the highway that we were wanting to take. So we're heading due east towards Reno, Nevada instead. And so... back into the mountains today
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Nice price drop on this Caravan Sports Zero Gravity ChairAnd in Canada...
Aukey Dash Cam
I wondered if you would be anywhere near that fire. What a catastrophe!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is terrible what happened, our hearts go out to these people and all that they have lost. :-(
DeleteI think you meant due EAST towards Reno.
ReplyDeleteHa... corrected, thanks Gene. :-)
DeleteWe're never cold. Our electric blanket works great off of the solar and inverter.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we won't be in the cold weather long enough to ever need to buy an electric blanket. Usually it is only a few really cold nights every so often. The worst part is getting up out of a nice warm bed into the very cold air in the motorhome because we don't sleep with the heat on.
DeleteThat mountain lion screaming gave me chills!!
ReplyDeleteIt gave us the chills! We were very glad not to be sleeping in a tent, it sounded really close.
DeleteSo close and no side trip to Ruth, lol.
ReplyDeleteLol, we thought of it but it was a fair bit off the main road and it was on gravel road and we have had enough gravel roads for a while! ;-)
DeleteIt makes no sense to close many of the Campgrounds when the rug-ratz go back to school..
ReplyDeleteI can remember the days before our campgrounds were given at no cost to Thousands..Trails etc.
The gov closed the water systems and the dumpsters, but left it up to us responsible campers to take our trash out.
Not now...TT..etc. have put up gates and locked us out....
Anyways, enough of me complaining, I don't see it getting any better with more of us getting to try and enjoy our later..earned years...
Upriver
We totally agree, unfortunately not everyone out there is as responsible as we are when it comes to keeping the area clean by not dumping garbage or black and grey water. It is so frustrating though to see these nice little spots and then not be able to use them. :-(
DeleteHeard a cougar in Beg Bend Natl Park... eerie indeed!
ReplyDeleteYep, very eerie!
DeleteBeautiful but rugged country:) We are enjoying some cooler weather in FL...feels good to wear a jacket for awhile.
ReplyDeleteIt is beautiful country out here.
DeleteGlad you are enjoying some cooler weather, we just hope that it doesn't get too cold for you. You can never tell from one winter to the next what kind of weather you will get in Florida. No matter what, it will definitely be much better than the weather much further north. :-)
36 inside? No thanks -- that's too cold. For those cold nights, we keep our catalytic propane heater on low, which keeps the inside temp at least into the manageable 50's. I've never heard a cougar before -- yikes!
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit too cold for us as well. While we are in bed we are nice and cozy but getting out is a definite wake up call. We have a Mr. Buddy Heater propane heater that we use but we turn it off when we are sleeping. We will soon be in warmer nighttime temperatures.
DeleteWe had never heard a cougar scream/cry before either and it is very eerie sounding, sends chills up your spine.