California, Bass Lake Oct 17 - 26

Bass Lake Recreational Resort, California is located near the south end of Yosemite National Park. The park is located near the little town of Oakhurst which is a fair size town.  We drove up to the Yosemite Valley, but it was so dry none of the waterfalls were running.  I don't think I will go back up there at this time of the year.  We were here many years ago in the spring and it was much nicer.  We also met up with some of the Colorado people we meet At Klamath CA.

 Bass Lake, California

 View of the country side as we drove to Yosemite National Park

This is the famous mountain called El Capitan.  A lot of people have climbed up this rock wall.

The Yosemite River was nice, but not enough water to kayak.

Another view up the valley.

This little deer was laying under a tree along side the path to the visitor center.  It did not seem to be bothered by any of the people that walked by.

We stopped to eat our lunch at a park in the valley, these two crows were waiting for us to drop something so they could have a meal also.

Some of the rock walls along the valley.

The mountians were very pretty here.

The valley floor was so dry.  I don't think they had any rain for a long time.

Kay looking for some flowers.  Guess she did not find any.

She did fine this nice looking fern in its golden fall colors.

This tree was just behind our camper in the campground.

This is the road a few days after Kay and I were driving down when the truck stopped and refused to start. I knew it was the fuel filter, and I always carry a new one in the truck.  So in the rain I started to change it.  First off, it took a long time to get the old one off.  By this time, it was raining fairly good.  As I was laying on the ground under the truck the water coming down the hill was going right up my back.  After getting it off, I tried for two hours to get the new one on.  In the process, I broke the two wires that fit on the water sensor on the bottom of the filter.  Kay finally made me call Good Sam's Road service and had them come and get the truck and haul it back to Oakhurst.  While all this was going on, a local man named Jim had stopped to see if he could help.  After trying for a long time, he offered to take Kay and the dogs back to the camper for me.  What a sweet man.  He than came back to the truck and waited until the tow truck picked up my truck.  He then followed us to the garage where we dropped off the truck.  He then gave me a ride back to the camper.  He would not take anything for doing all this for us, so I gave him some of our home made blackberry jam.  We will never forget that man.

This is what is left of Bass Lake.  They are working on the dam so that is why the water is so low.

Our friends from Colorado.  John - Boss - Bunny

The four of us and our dogs.

Bunny

John, who does most of the cooking in their house made jalapeno poppers for supper along with the ribs pictured below.

Some of the best ribs I have ever eaten.  He can cook for me anytime.

California, Stockton Oct 14 - 17

Riverpoint Landing Resort, Stockton, California.  This is the second time we have stopped at this resort.  Kay's Uncle Tony lives here in Stockton and it will be his 87 Birthday.  The camper is backed up to the San Joaquin River.  We are almost in the same site we were in the last time we were here to visit Uncle Tony.  It was nice that his home was about three miles from the campground.

Stockton, California

Kay's Uncle Tony.  This picture of him was taken last year.  For some reason we just didn't get any new photos of Uncle Tony.

Great White Egret looking for fish.  It was standing on a floating bunch of green stuff in the river.

Kay and the dogs sitting along side of the camper, enjoying the river.

One of the many boats that came up the river.

It was very strange seeing these big ships coming up the river to the port of Stockton.  You would not think the river was deep enough for them.

Sunset looking out the back window of the camper.

California, Cloverdale Oct 10 - 14

Russian River RV Resort, Cloverdale California.  This is the second time we have stayed at this campground.  The Russian river borders the campground, but there was not enough water to kayak.  We did do a lot of touring the wine country while we were here.  There was also a local casino that we visited a couple times.

Cloverdale, California

View of the Russian River from the campground.

Another view of the Russian River at the campground.

The countryside near Geyserville, CA

This is a view of one of the vineyards in the Alexander Valley in Sonoma County.

Looks almost good enough to eat.  I think they are pinot noir grapes.

Typical Alexander Valley landscape.  Sure was beautiful.

We stopped at one of the local wine tasting vineyards.

There are a lot of rolling hills in this area.

We love driving through the back country roads and looking at all the vineyards.

All I can say is just beautiful.

California, Fort Bragg Oct 4 - 9

Pomo RV Park and Campground, Fort Bragg, California.  Kay and I have been waiting a long time to get back to this part of California.  We will be meeting up with Bob Noble who we met kayaking the Russian River back in 2010.  I want to thank Bob for some of the pictures we used in this blog.

Fort Bragg, California

THE BIG RIVER KAYAK RUN OUT OF MENDOCINO, CA
This will be the third time we kayaked the Big River.  The first time was when we had a 2 man rubber kayak, that was back about 10 years ago.  The second time was about 1 1/2 years ago on out trip to California.  This time we did it with our friend Bob Noble.

This is where the Big River goes into the ocean.

A bay just north of the Big river.

Bob got this Gull eating a crab.

On our way up the Big River.  Riding the tide up.

Another section of the river.  sure was a gentle ride up the river.

Thanks Bob for the picture of the happy kayakers.

Timber production is the primary land use in the area. The California Lumber Company built the first sawmill on the Mendocino County coast at the mouth of the river in 1852. By 1873, the name had changed to Mendocino Lumber Company and the mill was the most important in Mendocino County. A railway line extended 9 miles (14 km) up the Big River to bring logs to the mill. The mill operated until 1931, and was briefly reopened in 1938 to mill logs salvaged when a log raft broke up off the coast. The North Fork Big River was logged by the Caspar Lumber Company.  The old wooden columns along the side of the river was from a railroad track that loggers used.  They would load logs onto the train and haul them to a drop off point and load them on to barges.

This is one of the barge loading points on the river.

Here Kay and I taking pictures of a couple of seals on a log in the river.

You can see how close we  can get to them in the kayaks.

They sure are beautiful animals.

This is the furthest point we made it up the river.  I guessed it was about 6 miles.  We were on the river for 6.5 hours.

THE NOYO RIVER RUN OUT OF FORT BRAGG, CA

It looked like a lot of permanent campers along this part of the river.

A couple of fishing boats.

We saw this seal just after we left the drop off point on the river.

This is the first time we kayaked this river.  We also are riding the tide as it goes up stream.
This trip on the river was only about 3.5 hours.  That was a lot of kayaking in two days.

There were not many turtles on this river.  Not like down south where there were hundreds of them.

It was a very peaceful run up this river.  It was not as wide as Big River we did the day before.

This is the first bridge we went under.  This one was a car bridge.

Kay trying to catch up with me and Bob.

This is our  friend and fellow kayaker Bob Noble.

Another shot up the river.

This is the second bridge we went under.  This one is for trains.  We crossed this one when we did the Skunk Train ride later in the week.

Kay waiting for me to get back from my run up the river as far as I could go.  Which was about another /14 mile, where I ran aground.  Would not have gotten this far except for high tide.

Pampas grass growing along side of the river.  sure was pretty.

Of course we had to get a picture of a Blue Heron.

Kay always has to have at least one flower picture.  Some day I am going to get a book on flowers so I can tell all the readers of this blog what they are.

We did fine these Common Merganser on the river.

RIDE THE SKUNK TRAIN OUT OF FORT BRAG TO NORTHSPUR, CA
If you want to learn more about the train log onto this web site.  http://www.skunktrain.com/aboutus-history.html

Getting ready to board

Engine # 65 and the engineer.

I wish I could drive this one.

This is why they call it the skunk train.  Lots of diesel smoke.

View of #1 tunnel from the back of the train.

Crossing the Noyo River.  We kayaked under this bridge.

Noyo river as seen from the train.

Ain't they sweet.

Our conductor was very musical.  He could play many different instruments.

This is a view of Northspur as we pulled in.

This is what Kay had for lunch.  Not bad, and she said it tasted very good.

Our conductor entertaining us as we ate lunch.

Kay waiting to board the train for the trip back to Fort Bragg.

The Engineer, Main Conductor, and Marty

Looking back on the track as we were going back to Fort Bragg.

Looking at Pudding Creek

This is what the train signal looks like from the train view.

I do not know who this was waiting for the train to pass, but it looked like the dog had a good ride.

A WALK ON THE BEACH AT MACKERRICHER SP NORTH OF FORT BRAGG
We will surly miss the northern California coast.  We and the dogs have enjoyed it so much.

Looking south on the beach.

Looking north on the beach.

Some of the old logs along the beach.

Zoe and Max love going after the gulls on the beach.

If Zoe finds a log, she has to see what is under it.

I have no idea what all the stakes are sticking up in the sand.

Kay's flowers.  A must have for each blog.

I have no idea what these are.  Some kind of succulent that is growing on the sand dunes.