14 September 2017, Thursday

On to North Eagle Lake Campground about 30 mi north of Susanville, Ca

Once more we are on the road around 9 am after enjoying our Bellevue pastries for breakfast. As we drive southwest we pass through some thick haze and smoke from forest fires. We enter California southeast of Klamath Falls OR. It is still smoky here, but less so. By 3 pm, after driving through a few rain showers, we arrive at North Eagle Lake BLM campground. The only other people here are a camper in a black pick up truck and the hosts in their RV. We pay the “exorbitant” $4.00 fee and settle in. The rain showers have done an excellent job of clearing the smoky haze from the air.

As we prepare dinner a flock of raucous blue birds passes through. I look them up in Sibleys. They are most likely pinyon jays, infrequently seen, travelling in flocks and frequenting juniper and pinyon forests interspersed with sage.

Juniper trees – check

sage – check

Pinyon pines – no, 

but we look up the pine trees surrounding us and decide they must be Jeffrey pines. After dinner we drive along the lakeshore a bit and then return to camp for brownies and journalling.