Day 62 -Ashland Oregon

It is day 62 – Monday 18th March and we are at Ashland, Oregon

We have slowed down because we managed to get tickets for “My Fair Lady” and “The Taming of the Shrew” at the Ashland Shakespeare festival for to-morrow and Wednesday. 

Last evening after trying to find another Forest Service campsite near Mount Shasta without success (it was still snowed in) we moved on and camped at an excellent pubic RV site with full hookups beside a reservoir called the Emigrant recreational just six miles south of Ashland.

The day before thanks to a splendid map obtained from AAA called “Public Lands Campgrounds”, Northern California we found a campsite called Dusty beside Lake Britton just north of Burney, California. We could have stayed at a nearby California State Park. However California State Parks are surprisingly expensive to stay in (unlike Arizona and New Mexico) and this Dusty campsite seems to be free.  In addition there is no one here – it is like being at a remote anchorage!

After our last posting from Topaz Lake we stopped at Gardnerville before heading up to Lake Tahoe.  We did not expect that there is a 7,334 ft pass on the way! Lake Tahoe is remarkable for its history and for the clarity of the water – visibility down to 70 foot depth. We proceeded around the east side, stopping for a stroll down to the lake and then on to Truckee (in California) over another summit of 7,179 ft.  Truckee is an historic railroad town with a main street of tourist type of Boutique shops.

That night we dry camped again at Boca Lake (a reservoir) – at about 5,500 ft. There was ice on the RV in the morning. It was another isolated campsite with only one other camper nearby – the sort of place we really enjoy.  An added advantage of these type of sites is that Lucy can be let free to run whereas commercial and state parks have all sorts of restrictive pet rules such as being on the lead all the time.

From Boca Lake we took Interstate 80 and passed through Reno and onto Highway 395 heading north again.

At Susanville it was time for another RV park, shopping and laundry but the WiFi (usually another reason for stopping at an RV park) was intermittent.

We  had two days travelling the “National Scenic Byway” through Lassen Forest. Very little traffic, excellent road surface, and much more enjoyable than most of the Interstate highways.  It is clearly a managed forest with selective logging having been carried out regularly, from the appearance of the tree stumps.

That evening we found a National Forest Service campsite called Hoon just south of Hat Creek. We were beside the gurgling creek and were the only campers in the site. Very pleasant and relaxing!