On our way (slowly) home

On Sept 5th, we decided to leave The Dalles a day early. There were wildfires in northern California that lay squarely on our route, and their containment was proceeding quite slowly. We plotted a route to Klamath Falls, then to Susanville CA and thence to Vacaville CA. That route swings quite wide and east around the fires.

We visited the Newberry volcanic monument in mid Oregon. This is a cinder cone surrounded by a huge lava flow, all quite cold right now. We didn’t stay long, just had a quick look. It’s worth a stop if you are in mid Oregon. Next time we will take the shuttle bus to the top of the cinder cone. An interesting aspect is that no vegetation grows on the south side of the cone due to sun and wind drying things out. There are many trees on the north side.

We got to Klamath Falls and stayed the night at the county fairgrounds, quite a nice RV stop. No scent of previous animals (see Oregon Wine Experience), even though there was straw and horse manure on the ground.

The next day we checked the fire forecast and found our route (US 97 from Klamath Falls to Weed CA) had reopened. Also, one of the people we encountered at the fairgrounds had friends who had just come up that way and said there was no trouble on the route. We called the campground in Vacaville where we were scheduled to stay and added on a day at the front end. We went down US97, through the CA agricultural check point, past Weed and down I-5 through the Trinity Mountains and past Mt Shasta. Beautiful scenery, but a very twisty interstate with a lot of up and down.

The ag checkpoint was interesting. We’d been alerted to its existence by a friend, so we dumped all remaining fruit and veg before leaving Klamath Falls. However, the inspector was quite interested in our origin point: NC. They inspected their list for Chatham County and decided we were not a gypsy moth threat. Once in Vacaville, we restocked fresh fruit and veg.

Passing through Weed was sobering. We were used to seeing burnt forests, having seen them in various places in the West and in Australia. However, the Mill Fire burned through neighborhoods in Weed, leaving nothing but char and ashes.

After that, we drove through the Sacramento valley past millions of fruit and nut trees. The lines of trees in the fields were literally miles long. This, folks, is one of the bread baskets of our huge country.

The heat in the west has been stunning. We were driving through temps of 116 F (46 C), planning to get around our stay in Vacaville by motorcycle. We re-thunk that idea! Rented a car at the Sacramento airport (SMF) and convoyed to the RV park We are in a shady spot, but temps remain hot. Only 110 F today! We stayed in air conditioning.