Tuesday at Grants Pass

We arrived in Grants Pass and at Henderson's Line-Up on Monday evening. Tuesday was our scheduled Road Performance Assessment (RPA), where one of the technicians at Henderson's went out for a drive in Gracie with us and tried various tasks to see how well Gracie handled. Some of them would be a little more abrupt than we might normally employ, but maneuvers that would possibly be needed in case of a sudden need to avoid a road hazard or to escape from an accident. We were a little concerned about whether we needed to have more things taken off of our countertops for the drive, so we prepared a little before our RPA appointment by putting things away on Tuesday morning.

Eric came to our rig on Tuesday morning and we went for a drive around the area, on both smooth nice roads and on more curvy up-and-down roads. When we got back to Henderson's Eric did some additional analysis, taking a good look at everything under the coach and then provided the recommendations of what needed to be replaced or added to the coach.

While he was finishing the inspection, we went over to the customer lounge where there were sample parts of many of the suspension enhancement tools that Henderson's uses.

Another picture from the display area.

Eric completed his analysis and Rhonda came to give us our estimate. We had known that we wanted to have new shocks put on and Motion Control Units (that help to slow the passing of air between air bags on sharp turns so it isn't so dramatic). Eric also recommended installing a rear sway bar to help stabilize the rear end, replacing the boots on the tie rod ends which were torn, and an alignment to address some abnormal tire wear. There were a couple of additional parts that they were going to have to get, so the work would continue through Tuesday and into Wednesday, and we were okay with that. We ok'd the work and then headed out to see some things around Grants Pass.

Cartwright's Market was a place that I remembered fondly from when Dwayne and I were here in 2017 and 2018...

... so we stopped there to get lunch (sandwiches) at the deli.

We decided to get a "whole" sandwich to share -- this was half of it - it was HUGE! we could have easily shared a half a sandwich...

After lunch, we headed over to the movie theater for our first ever movie date! We had wanted to see "Top Gun: Maverick" and had determined it was playing here in Grants Pass -- so we got to see it! It was quite good, a very good sequel to the original.

After the movie, a visit to another favorite place from when Dwayne and I were in Grants Pass: Yumberry Bowl. Yummy!!!

In the evening, Carl's friends, John and Nancy Black, took us out to Taprock, a very nice restaurant right on the Rogue River -- it was delicious and so nice to get to meed John and Nancy and talk with them. Carl was able to get caught up with them on their children and what had brought them here to Grants Pass (two of their children live in this area and another two in the Bay area).

John also shared one of his projects with us - he is doing intarsia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intarsia) - it is a technique of putting wood together in a mosaic-like pattern but the way that the wood is carved and positioned makes it looks like some of the pieces are overlapping others, but they really are not. He is quite the craftsman!

We'll have one more day in Grants Pass before heading to the coast for a few weeks.

Onwards to Oregon

On Monday, we left our site at Butte Lake Campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park to continue northwards into Oregon.

A short distance from where the gravel road from the campground came out on SR-44, we turned off to visit the Hat Creek Rim Overlook. 

From there, we could see Lassen Peak to the southeast,

... and somewhere up there (hidden by clouds) is Mt Shasta to the north.

There were some interesting sign boards...

Zoomed in:

Following the discovery of gold in 1848, tens of thousands of emigrants were to come to California by various trails in subsequent years. William H. Nobles opened a trail into the northern Sacramento Valley in 1852. The Nobles Trail passed through Lassen Volcanic National Park just to the north of Lassen Peak. An alternate of this route dropped into Hat Creek immediately north of present Highway 44, and was used as a freighting, stage and military road. Lt. E.G. Beckwith, in one of the Pacific Railroad Survey reports, describes this alternate route: "July 10... I therefore divided my party, and directing Mr. Egloffstein to pursue a general western course, by the most favorable route he could discover, to the most western ridge of the mountains. He came upon a precipitous rock descent (Hat Creek Rim), and nowhere presenting a practicable point for the descent of a wagon-road even and much less of a railroad, and it was only after the most persevering efforts, and repeated failures, that he succeeded in effecting the descent with his party -- descending 967 feet at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees, into the large rocky valley of Canoe (Hat) Creek."

Zooming in:

Thelma Honn Morri in Living on Lassen describes Hat Creek the night of May 19, 1915:

"There was a terrifying noise up creek, but what brought us fully awake was the sight of Elmer Sorohan, running toward the house, yelling, 'Get out, get out, there's a flood coming.' And before we could even ask what had happened, we saw. Coming down creek was a wall of mud and dirt, like an ocean wave, white foam on its top, roaring like a windstorm on the ridge. Lava and rocks ran before it. Trees fell in its path and were pushed ahead with the lava. The mountain -- my mountain -- was at our door."

"The mudslide, armed now with uprooted trees, crashed into the chicken yard and swept coops, roosts and all into the kitchen of the house. Mrs. Hall bit her knuckles to see her house lurch sidewise. The flood pushed it up the hillside and filled its foundations with debris. Mud and lava kept comign. We sat helpless on the ledge in the darkness. Daylight came and we saw a valley of desolation below us.

"Amazingly, the flood receded. The newsmen had pictures, and they showed the mountain to be a changed spectacle. The two last eruptions had altered the whole contour of the summit. All its forests were gone, and down the northeast side ran a track of black mud."

Original telegram

Gracie and the Jee-rage in the parking area of the Hat Creek Rim Overlook

We couldn't see Mt Shasta from the overlook, but we were hopeful that clouds might clear and there might be views on our drive north...

... and there were! It might be hard to distinguish from the clouds, but Mt Shasta is up there right ahead of us...

Another view with the top peeking out from the clouds.

We stopped at a rest area in Northern California to change drivers and were driving alongside Klamath River for a short distance before getting back on I-5.

We finally got into Oregon! (The people in the picture were just random people who were at the sign when we drove by!) If you are a careful observer, you may have noticed the "States Visited" picture on the right side of the blog now has an additional state!

We stopped for fuel after getting into Oregon (thus avoiding paying California diesel prices this time through) and also stopped at a Costco to stock up on a few items. We arrived at Henderson's Line-Up just before they closed on Monday evening and got directions on where to park and hook up for the night (electricity). We had a Road Performance Assessment scheduled for Tuesday morning and were all ready for it and to get some maintenance done on Gracie to improve her already good ride!

Hiking out around Butte Lake Campground

Sunday was predicted to have showers, so we anticipated another grey day, but we woke up to nice blue skies with a few puffy clouds! We decided to extend our stay another night at Butte Lake Campground, and, instead of driving back over to the main part of Lassen, we decided to do a hike closer to the campground.

We had noticed on Saturday when we drove to the day-use area near Butte Lake that there were signs for trails, so we started there... Butte Lake is low, so the boat ramp is not usable, but folks can carry kayaks or canoes down to the lake if they want.

A picture in the campground - beautiful trees and sky!

Does this tree make me look short?

We decided to take the Cinder Cone Nature Trail. Part of the trail followed the Nobles' Emigrant Trail: "Pioneered by William Nobles, this trail linked the Applegate Trail in Nevada to the Northern Sacramento Valley. During the 1850s and 60s, several thousand emigrants used this trail in their migration from the eastern United States." It is interesting to again join up with an emigrant trail (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/05/thursday-to-elko-and-california-trails.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/05/visiting-some-sites-near-wells-nevada.html).

The trail... it was a path on cinders - so almost like hiking in relatively deep sand in places. The forest in this area is very open - I don't know whether that is due to the wildfire that burned through last year or clearing having been done by the park service -- it was hard to know where the trail was in places because the ground was so clear.

We passed alongside the Fantastic Lava Beds. "Several eruptions of the adjacent Cinder Cone produced the Fantastic Lava Beds. The glassy fragments of quartz crystals were formed as the lava cooled. More slowly cooling lava permits the formation of more numerous and larger crystals."

Carl in front of the Fantastic Lava Beds. Wouldn't the emigrants have wondered at the sight of these mounds of black rock? The estimates are that the eruption that created these lava beds happened somewhere around 1650 -- that doesn't seem very long ago!

A recently cut tree -- there were a number of trees along the trail that had been damaged more severely than ones in the campground, so we think they had been cut to avoid them falling and causing injury.

We saw a lot of pieces of this mossy growth on the ground - we could see it growing on limbs up high - this was a limb that had fallen with the mossy growth on it.

Carl showing one of the large pine cones -- and behind it you can see some of the trees that have no green pine tags on them. It has been 10 months since the Dixie fire went through, we're thinking that these trees may not come back from the damage they suffered.

Cinder Cone - we planned to hike up to the top...

There is a trail and the park service asks that you stay on the trail. The camp host had encouraged us to take this trail. "Just take it slow," he said, "you can do it."

Starting up the trail...

A view back toward Butte Lake.

It may not look really steep, but the slope is at an angle of 30-35 degrees, as steep as possible without cinders rolling off the sides. The cone rises 750 feet above its base.

"Just take it slow."

"When you can see Lassen Peak, you're more than halfway up."

As we were hiking up, people coming down kept on telling us, "It is worth it, keep on going, but it is really windy at the top!"

At the top, view back toward Butte Lake.

Selfie at the top with Butte Lake behind...

... another selfie at the top with the caldera behind.

It definitely was windy; Carl didn't want me walking too close to the edge so I wouldn't fall off. We figured that some strategically placed windmills up there would power most of California! (just kidding!)

Southwest across the caldera to Lassen Peak

South across the caldera to Snag Lake -- those white patches are snow that is still up there just inside the caldera.

Another view of Butte Lake

Painted Dunes and the Fantastic Lava Beds

Looking down into the caldera - there was a trail down into the bottom with a spiral path outlined by rocks in the bottom. Another lady who was there at the same time we were highly recommended going down, but we decided we'd best not -- after all, it would require a climb back out again!

We sat for a little while under the rim of the caldera where the wind was not so strong.

Eventually we started down again...

It was a LOT easier going down!

A last look at Lassen Peak

Does this pine cone make my hand look small?

We were VERY glad to get back to Gracie... we were wishing for a hot tub to soak in, but settled for a warm kitty who was glad to have us back!