What an absolutely lovely park was that we spent the night last night. On the north fork of the American River. Fortunately, we had no unwanted visitors and the two of us slept like logs. I must make it a point to return here Someday, without the anxieties that I experienced last night.p, of course
We took our time getting on the road today because we only had 48 miles to go to Donner Lake, and my intention was to spend some time there and then search for a national forest campground north of Donner Lake on route 89 that is supposed to be open all the time.
The drive to Donner Lake gave us some spectacular views, but the most spectacular one was when we reached a view point over looking Donner Lake. A gentleman named Thad from San Francisco was kind enough to take the obligatory photo of me and Donner in front of the lake scene
We then drove down to Donner Memorial Park what a wonderful park, despite the closed campground. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and, for Donner's sake, lots of dogs. Upon leaving the park, I was able to get a photo of Donner in front of the park sign. The poor dog had no concept of all of what we were doing, just interested in the dogs in the business cards they left behind.
Unfortunately, when I do not have a specific camp destination in mind and know that it is open and has vacancies, I experience a great deal of anxiety starting at about three o'clock in the afternoon. Again I do not like driving at night, especially on strange roads. And so I really would like to be off the road by 5 o'clock considering that daylight ends shortly after six nowadays. A gentleman at Donner Lake suggested I try Prosser Lake where there was open camping, so I decided to try that first before moving on to the national forest camp to the north. But first I had to re-supply some food stuffs and other things. After I did and got on my way, home I realized that I forgot to get some water. At first I thought, no, don't get it now, there will be plenty of water by the lake. But my better judgment took over and so I drove back into town to stock up on water, and it is good that I did because the camp i am in now has no water and we were pretty low. Score one for following my rules.
On the way up to Prosser Lake we passed a sign for Prosser Dam Road, but it came up too quickly and several vehicles were tailgating me preventing me from stopping, and there were no convenient turnarounds after that.Shortly up the road we came to the national forest campgrounds and so we turned in to them. There are two campgrounds in that area and much to my chagrin, they were both closed. I kept driving up the road until it reached the end, where there was this wonderful day use picnic area with spectacular 180° views of the valley down below. So, that's where I decided to pitch the tent for the night, although we have to park the vehicle about 100 feet away from the tent. Once again, we are alone, and I can't see anyone around. Unfortunately, there's no place to store food or the trash and so I stashed it on top of the Defender, hoping that the Bears in the area don't get wise to where those smells are coming from.
I forgot to mention yesterday that on the drive yesterday my windshield wiper fluid pump is not working. When I checked the level of the fluid and I discovered it was empty, so I guess I have to figure out how to prime the pump to get it working again. The probability that the pump would fail and run out of fluid at the same time is pretty close to zero, so I assume that that's what it is. I need to get the oil changed in the Defender soon and so I think I will wait until then to have them prime the pump. I just replaced the pump two years ago so I'm confident you did not fail.
Now that we have completed the three main goals of the trip, Yellowstone, Donner's photo, and Donner Memorial Park, I think it's time to point the Defender east at this point and head for home. The Grand Canyon and Death Valley will have to wait for OTR-10. We have 2700 miles to go to get home, and if we do 300 miles a day, more if we do not stay in camps, we will be home in nine or so days, making that October 31, which was my plan to begin with. However, just because we are on the return leg of the trip does not mean that the excitement has ended. Unfortunately, or fortunately if you will, the most interesting parts of several of my trips were the return trip home.
Ed and Donner, Who is sound asleep next to me in the tent, from the California wilderness.
