Saturday, September 13, 2025 Another Fine Predicament

Saturday, September 13, 2025 Another Predicament

I really like it here.  There is so much to sniff.  I can eat things and throw up.  I can roll.  There are little critters.  This is the best!

Brrr, it was cold this morning.  Spouse slept in some, and I didn’t rush a walk.  It was warm and toasty inside… no need to hurry.  Eventually, we did get moving.  This is a rustic area, very woodsy.  We found a trail to the Williamson River.  Pretty.  We found a trail that would take us to the Collier campground.  So off we went.  It is a woodsy trail that follows the river.  We see lots of deer hoof prints, but we don’t see the deer.  Could be something about hunting season… or not!  There is hardly anybody around.  It is evident that a forest fire swept through the area.  That is why the neighboring Collier state park is closed for the 2025 season.  We notice that we don’t hear any birds, or see any small critter life.  It’s kind of ‘twilight zone-ish!’.

We took our time.  We got back, made breakfast and we didn’t get ready to leave till about 11:30, which is pretty late for us.  We headed south on hwy 97.  Of course… we fueled up before we left Oregon.  Spouse was elated to refill our 10 gallon propane tank for under $20. 

As we cross into California, forest fire devastation is everywhere.  Actually, I shouldn’t call it devastation as fires actually help the forest regenerate.  But for now… a bunch of black sticks are coming out of the ground.

We head to Mt. Shasta.  Spouse heard of a campground here… Well, maybe it was here.  He is not sure which city, what the name of the park might be, or if it is an RV park or campground or anything else for that matter.  I guess he thinks I am going to whip it up out my butt…   Checking our GPS, she shows an RV resort.  We are always leary of RV resorts, as they are usually pricey, with services we don’t use.  Yup, this one fit the bill, so we saw something the Crystal Lake campground.  Hmmm…. Let’s check this one out.  What could go wrong…

We head up the road, and turn, then up, then down. 8 miles through the mountains.  We finally get to the entrance to the campground, and naw…  Don’t EVEN think of turning down that road!  I told Spouse I would walk down the road to see if it was safe to turn down.  It was a narrow, bumpy road, and the campground was small, suitable for tents, but not for RV’s of any size.  This means we need to turn around.  This is a predicament…   Let’s head up the road. Surely there is a place to turnaround…  Or not…  The road ends at Crystal Lake, which is beautiful… but there is nowhere for us to turn around with all the cars that are parked.  Really?  As we contemplate our predicament, two cars that were parked left the area.  That means there was an opening that if we back up just right, we can turn.  We had to be careful going off the pavement as there was a significant dip.  Spouse drove, I directed.  Both of us are totally stressed, but we had just enough clearance to not ruin our bike rack, or any pieces of the rig.  Rudy yawned.   Usually, we find a gem of a campground by just winging it like this.  But this was a huge pain in the behind adventure! 

You know… let’s just head to the Elks in Redding.  It’s a great location and we can do a bike ride tomorrow.  And we will have electricity, which means air conditioning.  Yes… right decision.