Road-trip through Oregon to California (to the Fun-E Farm) and on to Colorado

 10/25

After an insanely stressful last couple of weeks due to the East Troublesome Fire threatening Estes Park, we woke up to the news that they had received 20" of snow. This gave me much relief and allowed me to quickly pack for our planned road trip to visit Elisha's grandma Dorothy. Because of covid-19, we wanted to do a bit of quarantining before visiting Grandma D. We had been quite careful in Heron, hardly going anywhere or seeing anyone, so we felt pretty comfortable, but still we had close contact with the "neighbors" (Elisha's brother's family), of which we had little control over what they did and who they were with, so we wanted to make sure we really protected Uncle Steve and Grandma Dorothy. So in order to quarantining, we went on a car-camping road trip through Oregon and Northern California

We drove to Bend, Oregon. Because we were arriving very late (and in the dark) and most of the public campgrounds were closed due to the lateness of the season, we opted for staying in a budget hotel. On the drive to Bend, we witnessed a beautiful sunset with views of many volcanoes, including Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.

10/26

I had an interview with Beaver Creek' shuttle department, and I was hired. I did the interview in the car at a park in Sisters, Oregon. Sisters is a cute little town. We then drove McKenzie Hwy and Pass, which was very beautiful amongst the lava fields and volcanoes. We hiked up to a little viewpoint with nice views of the volcanoes, including the sisters volcanoes. We camped along the Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway. It was very cold and well below freezing.

10/27

Drove the cascades lake scenic byway. Very beautiful! We did a couple short hikes to lakes. At Todd Lake, I got a call and an interview for the Aspen transfer driver position. Hilariously, I did the interview at this lake, and was hired. We drove by Mt. Bachelor. Beautiful lake and volcano views along the way. 

We then drove to Crater Lake National Park. We hiked up  a little peak for great views and then drove the loop around the crater, stopping at various view points. We camped on BLM land in Keno, Oregon, outside Klamath Falls. Well below freezing again

10/28

We drove to Mount Shasta National Forest. We stopped at a cool viewpoint along the way to see the glaciers of Mt. Shasta. We set up our tent on the slopes of Shasta, and then we did a hike to Castle Crags. Definitely a very cool hike. The crags are a bunch of huge granite monoliths. At sunset we drove up as high as was open on the Mt. Shasta road for views of the glow on Mt Shasta, the sunset across the Coastal Range, and the nearly full moon rising. Near our campsite was a spring that we filled our water jugs with that supposedly had great Shasta "energy". Several other campers had told us about this

10/29

Drove to Redding, CA where Elisha showed me her college, Simpson College. We then drove to the "Fun-E Farm" (Uncle Steve and Dorothy's house and farm). They grow olives, grapes, and pomegranates. It's definitely an interesting place. Steve showed me his hart studio, complete with paintings, climbing wall, random collections, and the musings of a "tortured quantum physics genius".

10/30

Hung around the house. Went to Orland. Filled out a bunch of wildlife job applications

10/31

Happy Halloween! We dressed up as the main characters from the movie Eurovision (Sigrit Ericksdóttir-Rachel McAdams and Lars Ericksson--Will Ferrel) and fittingly went to Lassen Volcano National Park--not Iceland, but volcanoes and geothermal. We drove the scenic road, which as nice volcano views and lakes and alpine scenery. While everyone else picnicked, I climbed to the summit of Mt. Lassen, which had nice views. I also checked out the crater and walked on the touch of snow left

11/1

Steve showed us his wine making process, and I applied for more jobs

11/3

Election day. Of course we knew beforehand we wouldn't know the winner tonight since the pandemic had resulted in many people voting by mail, which would take longer to count since several states had rules that mail in votes couldn't be counted until polls had been completely closed. We played some fun games at night

11/4

Last day at the Fun-E farm. We then drove to Redding to meet Melody (Elisha's friend). After hanging out with her, we camped at an old CCC camp along the Sacramento River

11/5

Did a little adventure exploring the Pluto's caves, which are rather huge lava tubes. We then drove back to Mount Shasta and met with Elisha's friend Charity for a backyard lunch and then hiked along Castle Lake. After the hike, we drove to Talent, Oregon where we met Elisha's friend Kim (and her partner Charles, aka "he's a keeper") for a taco dinner in their barn of the cool property that they rent. Both of them are very into politics, so lots of political chatting

11/6

Visited Kim's law office and drove through the crazy destruction of Talent from the fire this year. We then drove all the way to Heron, often in snow, including a detour along the Mt. Hood Highway.

11/7

Learned that Joe Biden won the presidency!

11/9 

Sold 7 gallons of huckleberries for $400. Picked up the U-haul trailer

11/12

Drove with the trailer to Pocatello where Sari and Lucas made a nice dinner for us

11/13

Drove to Estes. Crazy high winds between Rawlins and Laramie. We were a bit nervous with our trailer as there were quite a bit of tractor trailers rolled over. By the time we got to Laramie, I-80 had been closed.

11/18

Hike up to Eagle Cliff mountain where we could see the extent of the East Troublesome Fire and how close it go to the Park entrance and my parents' house. Outdoor happy hour with mom and dad

11/19

Hiked around Lily Lake and saw 3 muskrats