9/09/16
Santa Rosa to Lake Davis
Around 7:50 am Joanne, Dave, Connie and Bruce showed up at our place. We were in the RV ready to go and we got on the road around 7:55.
Not a Bad Drive
We worked our way to I-80 where we headed east toward the Sierra’s. The traffic wasn’t to bad and we made it to Nyack, which is not to far west of Donner Summit, by 11:30. We stopped here so that Dave could top off the gas tank in his truck.
Lunch and a Problem.
Since we were here we all decided to top off the tanks. After getting gas we pulled our rigs across the road to a large truck parking area where we parked and went in to the Burger King there and had lunch.
After lunch we went back to the rigs to continue the trip.
Dave started to pull out of the parking lot as was I but I noticed that Bruce’s engine was sputtering and would not keep running. I called Dave on the walky-talky and told him about the problem so he stopped.
We stood around Bruce’s RV for a while. We popped the hood to see if there was anything we could do but of course there was nothing.
By the symptoms it sounded like the fuel pump had died.
Connie called AAA and they had to be towed home.
Joanne kept in touch with them on her cell phone. It took them until 9:00 to get back to Ukiah where they live.
What a Bummer!!
We Continue on.
We left Bruce and Connie to wait for their tow and continued on
I-80 to the Highway 89 exit and headed north on 89. The highway winds through the mountains.
Then it drops into a broad flat valley
where there are a lot of nice ranches and farms.
We crossed the valley and near the town of Portola, we took a narrow road into the hills that goes to Lake Davis.
We Get to Lake Davis.
The road wound around with lots of curves and some steep climbs. Eventually we got to the campground (Grasshopper Flat Campground) at Lake Davis.
John Was There.
When we arrived at the lake my nephew John was already there and had his camp all setup.
He guided us to our spots and after a bit of shuffling we got moved in.
D&J’s Camp.
Our spot.
John had to leave to go get Cindy.
We hung around Joanne and Dave’s for a while.
About 4:45 I decided to take a little nap.
I woke up from my nap and heard Johns truck pull in around 6:30
We BS’ed with John and Cindy for a little while then we all went to our own camps to fix supper.
Sitting By the Fire.
After we had all eaten our supper we went to John’s camp and had a fire in the fire-pit. We sat around the fire until around 10:00 when Patti and I decided that it was our bed time and went to our RV.
Okay that was the first day of our Lake Davis trip.
To Bad about Bruce and Connie’s rig crapping out.
9/10/16
Coffee at Marty and Patti’s
Around 9:00 I heard a commotion outside; it was John and Cindy coming by for a visit. A little later Joanne and Dave showed up. Dave had a pot of coffee. So we sat around drinking coffee and BS’ing. Pretty soon the coffee ran out so Dave went back to his place and brought back the makings for more coffee.
It turned into a regular coffee clutch.
Around 11:30 Joanne, Dave, Patti and I got in my jeep and went for a ride.
The Ride
The idea was to circumnavigate the lake.
We headed out of the camp and turned south.
A short distance from the campground entrance they have a dump station. We stopped to check it out as we will all need to use it in a few days.
From there we drove south about 1/2 mile and turned right and followed this road across Davis Dam. We stopped here to take a few pictures of the lake.
This is looking north from the dam.
This is the canyon below the dam.
Side Tracked.
We left the dam and continued our ride. We stopped at a small store to see if they had any local maps but were disappointed as they did not have any good maps. We bought a couple of Ice-cream cones and continued on our way.
As we drove along we saw a sign that indicated that there was a turnoff that went to the Smith Peak Lookout. When we got to the turnoff we took it and began climbing into the mountains toward the lookout.
It took us about 30 minutes to get to the end of the trail.
From here we had to walk about 1/4 mile up to the lookout.
The trail wrapped around the mountain top and came up to the lookout on the other side.
The views from up here are pretty cool. The lookout is at 7600 feet elevation.
Lake Davis.
Looking south.
We hung around the lookout for a short time and then walked back to the jeep.
Continue the ride.
On the way up to the lookout we went through a section of logging show. I noticed this tree harvester.
Pretty impressive.
This is the business end of the machine. It grabs the tree, cut’s it off near the ground and then strips all the branches off the tree. This is all done in a couple minutes or less.
Another stop.
When we got back to the main road we continued north for a while and came to another side road that went toward the lake. We took this road to its end and found a shady spot to take a break
There were some of geese hanging around the lake edges.
By the time we got going again it was getting late so we decided to head back to the campground and maybe finish the ‘around the lake’ tour some other day.
Back at Camp.
We spent the rest of the day just hanging out at J&D’s camp.
Deer.
While we were sitting around camp a bunch of deer came running by.
Supper and Cards.
Around 5:30 we went back to our camp to fix supper.
After supper we went back to Joanne and Dave’s to play cards.
We went back home around 11:30.
It was a good day.
9/11/16
Filling freshwater tanks.
Dave had run out of fresh water so we had to come up with some way to fill his fresh water tanks. There are faucets scattered around the camp area and there is one close to our camps. The only problem with the faucets is that they have no hose bibs on them.
What to do?
I have a short hose that I attach to my other hose to fill my tanks with.
I cut the male end off the hose.
Then I shoved the end over the faucet end.
Now we can hook any hose to most campground faucets.
♫ Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon ♫
We spent the day just hanging out around camp.
An old friend of the family, Mason and his wife, Amber, had just recently moved to Sparks, Nevada. They texted Joanne and said that they were going to take a ride on their motorcycle to where we were and have a visit. They pulled up around 11:00.
We all visited with Mason and Amber until about 2:00, then they headed for home.
The rest of the day we just hung out. Played another round of cards after dinner.
9/12/16
Finish the Tour.
John and Cindy were leaving today.
We hung around their camp until around 10:30.
We decided to finish the ‘Around Lake Davis tour’.
We said good bye to John and Cindy and got in the jeep. When we left the campground this time we turned to the left and followed the paved road toward the north.
Some clouds were building in the north.
We stopped at a couple fishing access places.
This one looked kind of nice.
We continued around the north end of the lake and then drove south along the west side of the lake.
Geese, Coots and Pelicans.
As usual we took every turnoff that looked like it went to the lakeshore.
We stopped for a lunch break at one spot where there were some geese,
a bunch of Coots
and a couple of White Pelicans.
After Lunch.
After lunch we continued south along the lake until we came to Highway 89 where we tuned right and drove down into Sierra Valley. At Portola we turned right and went to the little town of Graeagle.
Gold Lake.
We drove through Graeagle and took the turnoff for Gold Lake.
Gold Lake is very nice but it was pretty windy and cold today.
We headed back toward Portola to see what kind of restaurant’s were available; there was a Foster Freeze and Lena’s Cantina, Mexican food.
It was around 4:30 so we decided to try Lena’s. The food was very good, the service was friendly and the prices were reasonable.
Back at Camp.
We got back to camp around 6:00. On the way as we were crossing the dam, we could see dark clouds in the north.
We were hoping for a good thunder storm but it never developed.
Around 7:00 we went to Joanne and Dave’s to play cards until around 10:00.
Another good day.
9/13/16
Cold weather and a little fishing.
Early in the morning it got very cold. I even got up around 5:30 to turn on the heater. It remained cold and windy for the whole day.
Gone Fishing.
After lunch we decided to try fishing.
Joanne, Dave and I got in their truck and drove to Mallard Point to try a little fishing. Mallard Point is just up the road from our camp spot.
When we got there, there were two other guys trying their luck.
This guy actually caught a fish while we were there. It wasn’t a large fish but a fish none the less.
Bait Fishing.
They were fishing with bait. They would cast out as far as they could and then set their poles in a pole holder and sit in their chair and wait for some thing to happen.
Not my favorite kind of fishing.
I decided to just watch and see what happened.
The wind was pretty strong and everyone was having problems with their gear.
After about an hour J&D gave up and started putting their gear away.
Just before we left we were visited by a couple of White Pelicans.
They were having better fishing that the human's.
Back at Camp.
About an hour after we got back to camp we went to J&D’s and started a game of ‘Jokers Rummy’.
Visitors From Home.
We were about half way through the game when Joanne and Dave’s friends from Windsor, Dana and Jeff pulled up.
After greeting them, we left them to set up their camp while we finished the game.
Once the game was finished it was time for supper so Patti and I went back to the RV to fix something to eat.
After supper we ALL went back to J&D’s and played another game of rummy.
Another good day.
9/14/16
A little fishing.
After breakfast Joanne, Dave, Jeff, Patti and I walked down to the lake. Joanne, Dave and Jeff were going to try fishing again.
Patti and I just went to sit in the sun for a while as it was a very cold morning.
They fished for a couple of hours but didn’t get any thing so we packed up and went back to the RV’s to have lunch.
Another Ride.
After lunch Joanne, Dave, Jeff and Dana got in Jeff’s Jeep Cherokee. Patti and I got in our Jeep and we all took off for another ride/tour.
Views of the River and Train Trestle.
We stopped to get a view of the Feather River.
Here is one view of a long train trestle that crosses the river.
We drove down to the bottom of the canyon and turned onto a road that crosses the river
and goes under the trestle
A Small Mining Museum.
The next stop was at an old mining site that has been turned into a museum.
There were a few old buildings, including a pretty nice blacksmith shop.
This is a good example of a stamp mill.
Visit to a Brewery.
After leaving the museum we drove to the Brewers Lair.
This is a micro brewery near Graeagle.
They brew only IPA’s. The beers run from very dark to pretty light. I normally like dark beers but these were way to bitter for me.
Here is a group photo at the brewery.
From the brewery we headed back to the campground.
Nice fish.
Jeff decided to do a little fishing after we got back to camp.
After a couple hours he came back with a couple respectable Trout.
Good job Jeff.
After dinner we sat around the fire for a while.
Moon rise between the trees.
The end of another good day.
9/15/16
Just Hanging Out.
We pretty much just hung around camp today.
We planned to go out to dinner around 5:00.
Dead Generator.
I started the generator in the morning and it was running good when Patti and I decided to take walk to the lake. We hung out at the lake for an hour or more. When we got back the generator wasn’t running.
I thought that the problem might have been the fuel pump but when I pulled the fuel line off and pushed the starter button fuel came out of the line; so that’s not the problem.
After a little more investigating I found that as long s I keep the start button depressed the generator runs. As soon as I let go of the start button the generator stops. I suspect that there is a problem with the ignition controller. I’ll have to check it out once I get home.
Big Fish.
Around 4:45 Jeff came back from the lake carrying two very nice Trout, both were over 19 inches long.
Around 5:30 we left to go to dinner at the Coyote Grill in Graeagle.
The food was very good but it was a lot more expensive than Lena’s Cantina.
Patti tried to get some pictures of the full moon on the way home. This is the only one that came out.
Back at camp we hung out for a little while but around 8:30 we went back to our rig and chilled for the rest of the evening.
9/16/16
Leave For Home.
We got up early and started getting ready to leave for home.
We had to stop at the dump station to clear our waste tanks. We were on the road by 9:00.
We stopped at Nyack to top off the fuel tanks and get something to eat.
We got on I-80 around 11:00 and were home by 2:45.
It was a fun week.
