OK, Michigan fans, calm down. We haven’t made a detour to Ann Arbor. We left Redding a little late on Monday, having been waylaid by a true geezer with wild-man, shoulder-length white hair, mustache flying in all directions, wispy beard, low-rent tats on both arms, cracked bags under both eyes and the telltale corpuscled nose of a man who likes his drink. However, he was surprisingly articulate. He was interested in our scooter rack setup as he has a softtail Harley that he wanted to carry on his Class A with a lift mechanism. Can’t help him there, as we use a ramp. He also wanted to tow his brand-new Caddie CTX at the same time. Gosh, where’s the boat, dude? He had just purchased his new 40’ Winnebago in a blitzkrieg visit to the dealer in Tucson, handing over a bank draft for the full amount, and zooming off the lot without any instructions from the staff, nor any owner’s manual. He confessed he doesn’t have a clue as to how things work or what all those buttons are for. I guess we can safely say he’s got mucho buckos (he owns some business in Tucson), lacks any common sense, and has an ego problem that requires many visible toys. But, he was a friendly soul. He said he’s considering converting his Harley into a trike since his wife won’t ride with him any more (really?) since his balance is somewhat shaky after two bypass operations and one stroke. Egad! This man’s loose on the road in a ten ton RV? Oh, this wasn’t his first RV. His first was twenty years ago. On his second day of ownership, it caught fire, exploded the propane and gas tanks, burned to the pavement, incinerating the brand-new diamond ring he had purchased for his wife. I don’t make this stuff up, folks. We just meet them on the RV highway. To my credit, I kept a straight face throughout this recital. We bade him farewell, leaving him sitting on the picnic table, contemplating his rig. Probably trying to figure out how to get a helicopter on the roof. Or, maybe he was just trying to gauge what he could get for it if he can’t figure out out to dump his holding tanks.
On the road, destination Big Blue, aka Crater Lake. We took I-5 (actually a pretty route up this way) to the prosaic Weed, then angled off on US95. This was a good choice as we had ever-increasing “definitive” views, as camera-wielding Loni was calling each one, of Mount Shasta. After culling the ones with billboards, hillsides, power lines, and other detritus in them, these were the best shots as we approached and then circled to the north side (with the most snow).
Pretty impressive hill. This road is in beautiful country, alternating between Cascade Range hills and dales and high-country “valleys” with cattle and crops. Straight out of the Ponderosa. (Cue theme music) We crossed into Oregon just before Klamath Falls, followed the huge Upper Klamath Lake for about 25 miles, and made our final climb to Crater Lake National Park on OR62. There, the geezer pass worked its magic and we got free entry. Better yet, when we got to the only RV campground in the Park, Mazama, we got half-price on the fees (resulting in $13.50/night). It’s good to be old. Sometimes. Although there are over 200 sites, only 15 have electricity, the rest are dry camping for the same price. Hmmm. Those were already snapped up, but the place was only 40% full, so we could cruise around and select our site. You just put your entry ticket on the post and you’re done. Good system. I wish all national parks would do this. We took a stroll around the loops, checked out the Edison area, and found three parties were scheduled to leave tomorrow. Hmmm again, maybe we can do a switcheroo in the morning. Since it was only 4:30, we decided to do the Annie Creek Canyon Trail hike. It’s adjacent to the campground, and descends 200 feet into a very nice gorge. Loni’s at the top:
The trail is about 1.75 miles, and after descending from the rim follows the meandering Annie Creek through the steep canyon walls.
Not all the bridges were in good shape. Hope the creek don’t rise.
It was a peaceful place, and we virtually had it to ourselves.
We had Thai stir-fry for dinner, with tons of veggies. No ice cream. During dinner a light rain began to fall, and we spent a very laid-back night reading books, listening to the rain on the roof, gazing at the tent folk pulling on their rain tarps, and turned in early for the big ride tomorrow.
Tuesday dawned crisp (49 degrees in the rig). We pulled out our new Wave 3 catalytic heater for its first real-world use. Thanks again to Larry W for installing the piping and outlet for the propane supply. We haven’t been gassed to death yet! It works fine, but isn’t a true air heater, more like a propane-powered radiant heater. It warms whatever happens to be in front of it. That’s us! It does the trick. We point it in the bathroom for ablutions and then towards us as we eat breakfast. Very nice.
Outside, things are somewhat colder, but sunny, and things warmed up quickly. We offloaded the scoot, and loaded it up with rain ponchos, extra sweaters, etc., in case the 20% rain chance materialized. We needn’t have worried; we roasted all day long. We’re going to do the rim drive, 33 miles around, with numerous spurs to viewpoints and excursions. We go through the usual routine of locking and unlocking the coach multiple times to retrieve forgotten items, then we’re off. Mazana campground is at 6,000 feet, the Lake surface is 6173, but some of the overlooks we will climb to are as high as 7,960 feet. Than goodness for fuel injection.
We hit the rim road and our first view of the Lake, on what turned out to be a perfect weather day:
That’s Wizard Island in the left center. Crater Lake is about five miles across, almost a perfect circle. It was formed 7,700 years ago from the collapse of the 12,000 foot volcanic peak, Mount Mazama. Since then, four smaller volcanoes erupted within the caldera, but only the one that formed Wizard managed to stay above the surface level. We headed clockwise to circumnavigate. First stop was Watchman Peak overlook, 8013 feet high, with a fire lookout station on top. It provides a 360 degree view for about 100 miles. It requires a hike up from the road level, so off we went. The lookout station is the little nub to the right of the center roundtop.
On the way up, we saw perhaps twenty younger guys doing trail maintenance, clearing out rocks, making runoff blocks, etc. One of them was telling another hiker that this work was all they could get as there were no other jobs available in the area. Appears our stimulus funds are at work. Shades of the CCC, and from what I was hearing the work was mighty welcome. They could pay their basic bills. Screw the kneejerk right and their partisan b.s. When we got to the top, the views were as advertised: spectacular. Here’s looking down at the parking area. See the scoot? No?
Wizard Island from the Quidditch point of view. Note its own mini-caldera on top.
We continued our ride. This is a great drive for two-wheelers. Nice and curvy, with good banking, and utterly gorgeous views at every turn:
Next stop was Cleetwood Cove, the only place on the lake with legal access to the shoreline. The trail descends 700 feet from the rim in only 1.1 miles. i calculate that to be about a 16% gradient. We started down, switchbacking over and over, with good lake views at every step. We saw some mighty heavy, out-of-shape souls making the descent, having to rest on the downhill leg! I can’t imagine how they would ever make it back up. I hope not on a stretcher. At the bottom there is a wharf where the dory-like cruise boats wait to take folk on a tour of the lake.
We didn’t opt for this, but they had steady business despite the difficulty in getting down there. Loni did jump the rope and stood on the dock next to a waiting boat. It’s a BIG dory, or a tiny wife.
Actually our surprise photo op was a toilet. No, not this thing (don’t ask me):
Rather, this, ah, beauty:
OK, stop scratching your heads. This is a Phoenix Composting Toilet, and is located about 100 yards from the wharf, just above lake level. The, er, stuff goes in at the top, and becomes compost at the bottom. Why is this so neat? Because it was built and installed by Glenn Nelson, husband of Liz, my good friend from high school. OK, we were an item for a short while about 50 years ago. Anyway, there was a plaque on the door that told what it was, giving their home (and business) address in Montana. Small world. Cool.
Speaking of cool, the lake temperature, as you can imagine, is cooooold. That didn’t stop a crazy Irishman from taking a leap as we watched:
Oh, how he yelled (in full brogue) when he surfaced. He tried to walk on water, got out as fast as he could, then assured everyone it “wasn’t that bad.” Right. The best Loni could do was to dip her fingers.
We ate lunch, and trekked back to the rim, thus again giving our blood supplies competing demands. We’ll never learn. Our next destination was the Pinnacles, a formation on a spur road that ran 7 miles off the Rim. We scooted down and found them to be a modest version of the Hoodoos at Bryce, without the same weirdness. These looked like giant termite mounds. For scale, note the person standing to the right of center.
The final feature we saw was the Ghost Ship, an island that, from the right angles, looks like a sailing ship.
We thought we might eat out, but the only place open for 50 miles was the National Park Rim Lodge dining room. The lodge was built back in the 20’s, but isn’t nearly as nice inside as others like Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, etc.
There’s no grand entry hall, and everything seems a little shabby. They have a high opinion of themselves, however. The menu prices for entrees started at $27, with most in the mid-to-high 30’s. Still, it’s the only game in town. Unfortunately, we should have stopped by when we started our ride this morning. They were completely booked from 5:00 to 9:00. We couldn’t wait that long, so wandered over to the rim and got a passerby to snap our photo. Awww.
Before we left, I tried a panorama shot of virtually the whole lake. It came out ok, but mighty slim:
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