For the remainder of this summer O and I will venture out on a series of smaller trips than in the past. We continue to be careful during this pandemic, especially since we spend our Fridays watching A while S and K are both working. We are also testing O’s left knee. He’s been noting some instability there. An orthopedist diagnosed pretty severe arthritis, but a course of physical therapy has led to significant improvement. Our first solo adventure will to be a brief foray to Yosemite. Three years ago, in 2018, we were smoked out of Tuolumne Meadows after the first week of what was to have been a two week stay. Forest fires closed Yosemite Valley that year and drove us from the mountains. This year we have resolved to see Yosemite Valley in the spring, when fires are less likely and the waterfalls are at their best. We take our time driving to Yosemite, leaving home on May 12. We could have made the drive from Bellevue to the valley in two days, but why rush? We stop near Corvallis, Oregon our first night out to visit with my cousin, camping that night at Alsea Falls Recreation Site, which is run by the BLM. It’s only about a 35 minute drive south of Corvallis. We spend the next day exploring the recreation area and then drive on to Bailey Cove on Shasta Lake in California.
California is hot! And dry! And Shasta Lake is really low – we are told it’s at about 42% of its capacity. O and I drive over to Holiday Harbor, just down the road from our campsite. It used to be right on the lake shore. Now there are lots of cars and pick-up trucks parked near water’s edge far below the campground, on land that should have been well underwater. O comments that he didn’t realize there were so many cars on the bottom of the lake! He also notes that they’re in really good shape for having been underwater! I shake my head. . . (interestingly, after our return home, S makes the same comment after viewing the photo below! Like father, like son!) We return to camp and prepare for bed, noting rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning in the distance. Shortly after we retire a rip-roaring thunderstorm rolls through.
The next morning, Saturday, May 15, O is greeted by the campground host who asks if we need anything. O asks for a map of the area which our host provides after making his rounds of the small campground in his golf cart. He informs us that the Shasta Lake Caverns are well worth seeing. Apparently they are renowned for having almost every type of cave decoration known. O and I drive over and sign up for the 2 pm tour. We are told to be back at the gift shop by 1:30.
Meanwhile, we return to camp to “freshen up” since we will have no access to real showers for 12 days. We wash hair with our mint soap in our dishwashing basin and fill our Nemo portable shower which is pressurized via a foot pump. We had been planning to use this to shower, but instead opt for a combination of personal wipes, a foaming no-rinse cleanser and just plain water for rinsing hands and washcloths. We both feel pretty refreshed after our efforts. The foot pump “shower” seems to work pretty well. Maybe we’ll try an actual soap and water shower when we are not pressed for time.
We return to the caverns at 1:30 as directed. From the gift shop we and the other tour participants hike down to the current water level where a ferry waits to carry us across the lake. On the opposite shore we board a bus which drives us up a road to the cavern entrance, 800 feet above the current lake level. The tour is pretty good, though not quite as informative and entertaining as past National Park cave tours have been. (This cave is privately owned.)The caves themselves are beautiful.
We return to camp and have dinner, after which I attempt to practice fiddle (I began teaching myself to play about a year ago) while O does some knee exercises. Alas, I cannot play for long. My fiddle seems to be attracting mosquitoes, and we seem to have misplaced our Thermacell mosquito repellent.