It is moments like I am experiencing right now that make all of the challenges of these trips worthwhile. I am sitting in my tent, with my beloved dog soundly sleeping next to me, sipping a mini bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, listening to La Bohème on my iPad, and reflecting on the day's activities, and tomorrow's too. The weather outside the tent is just perfect - low 40s, clear sky, and millions of stars shining down on us in this grove of evergreen trees that this wonderful camp is said in.
Although I got up early this morning, I got a later start on the road than I had planned, mainly because I wanted to take advantage of my hosts offer of complementary waffles for breakfast. I did set off at 10 o'clock without knowing what my destination for tonight would be. 55 miles down the road when I came to the intersection where I had to decide, I decided. We are heading west, northwest really, to the Pacific ocean in Washington state, instead of south to Elko NV and the South Fork State Park. One of my very favorite campgrounds is there, and I am determined to spend at least one more night there. After that, we will drive down the West Coast, camp just before San Francisco and another of my favorite camps, and then head off east to Donner Memorial Park so I can get a photo of Donner in front of the entrance sign.
My hope was that today we could drive the 400 miles it would take to get to Emigrant Hills State Park in northern Oregon, but I was not counting on it since 400 miles is a lot for us But as the trip progressed and my Garmin indicated that I could make it in time before dark, I put the Defender' new engine to the test and drove on. Garmin, in projecting the estimated time of arrival, does not factor in breaks for dog rests and stopping for gas. When I saw that Garmin was projecting our arrival pretty close to dark, I gave up stopping for gas and decided to rely on my 5 gallon Jerry can if I ran out, which would take me to the nearest gas station.
My hope was to make it by 530, Snd it looked like we could do that. As I got within 12 miles of the campground, Garman project arrival at precisely 5:30. So I stepped on the gas. But as we came within 4 miles of the camp, the right lane was closed and I was afraid we would overshoot our goal. As good luck would have it, we pulled into the camp just as Garman projected 531. To all intents and purposes, I made our goal.
The campsite I am in has got to be one of the best campsites I have stayed in. It is set in a lovely evergreen grove and laid out extremely well. The tenters have their own section, a distance away from any RVs that might run their generators or electric fans during the night. When I arrived, the host told me that there were a lot of tenters here until today, but they cleared out today when the temperature last night hit 29. Ah, poor souls. I was hoping to get site A- 14, which is where Leben, Erde and I spent the night on October 4, 2013 on our way back from Alaska. Since there were no tenters in the camp at all, it was free, but I decided to give Donner his own territory here and selected the site across from it, A-15, which is actually better.
There was more good news today. Donner, as I reported earlier, when he is in his front seat bed, likes to rest his head on my console which is where my iPad also rests. The pressure from his muzzle changes the music selection i have playing, and there's nothing I can do about it. But when he did it today, all of a sudden, of all the songs i have stored, the oldies "I am sticking with you" started playing. Where did that come from, I asked, as I reported earlier, my iPad did not sync all my music. As it turns out, after some investigation, I discovered that it did sync all my music. It's just that this new iPad and the new operating system on it and organize my music differently than before. So, in fact, I do have all my music with me. I hope I do not get into a silly exercise like I went through two years ago, trying to create favorites among certain kinds of people in my past as my memories of them are triggered by the oldies playing on my iPad. As it turns out, The exercise I went through two years ago turned out to be futile for reasons I will keep to my self.
Another thing I discovered tonight is that my self-inflating mattress does not seem to be inflating at all, relegating me to sleep on whatever ground on which I happen to pitch the tent. Putting aside that "self inflating" actually means that you inflate it yourself, I have a feeling that Donner, in his attempt to expropriate my mattress for his own use before i crawl into the tent, might have punctured a small hole in the mattress, giving all the self inflated air an opportunity to escape.
Tomorrow, I would like to try to get to that camp on the Pacific ocean that I want to stay in, but that would mean another long drive tomorrow, some 360 miles. And since it is the favorite of a lot of people, I'm sure the campsites will all be taken on a Saturday night. So, I may just bivouac at some camp short of that that we come across by 4 o'clock or so, and then drive to the Pacific Ocean early on Sunday morning.
After a night or two camping right on a bluff overlooking the beach at that camp, it will be all downhill from there, literally and figuratively. I have probably stayed in a dozen camps along the west coast from Washington state to San Francisco, and I will try to stay in those that appealed to me, especially one just north of San Francisco, which we will have to arrive at on any day but Friday or Saturday, since it is one of the favorites of San Franciscans on weekends. It is set in a redwood grove and when I camped there it felt like I was camping in a cathedral.
What happens after we reach San Francisco is still up in the air except for one thing, the visit to Donner Memorial Park just north of Lake Tahoe. I think I will avoid Lake Tahoe this year at this time, because it was this time of year back in 2014 when I camped there that the defender, parked right next to our tent, was visited by a huge black bear, interested in the same fare that I carry on my roof rack.
It's time to sign off and get some shuteye so I can make some progress on the road tomorrow.
Ed and Don are from cold Oregon State.
