Mas Dias Bonitas: Clearing Campground

December 2-9, 2012

2^nd:   We ended up spending a second night at the RV campground.   Rainy/windy weather made us reluctant to pack up to move, and then unpack and re-settle in the elements.    Missy went and got the cable box we’d refused when we thought we’d only be one night.    Not much good programming on Sundays, though.   I made use of the extra time in range and greatly enjoyed extra sessions of Draw Something with MMG!

3^rd:  We divided and conquered chores.   Missy did laundry and I went to the grocery store.    I called Millenicom with the intent of ordering the Verizon wifi (to be shipped to general delivery), but the employee was skeptical that we’d get coverage where we were camped.   So we nixed that.    

We got on the road around 1 pm.    Nice, sunny weather for moving.  Unfortunately, we had some troubles getting back into our spot.    Despite taking on the steep learning curve (pun intended) of driving the RV, we still always manage to be in for nasty surprises.  This time in the form of a heretofore unnoticed rock coming out of the mountain side, which forced me to go off the course I had so carefully plotted.    But, we muddled through.   I also managed to scrape the sides of the rig pretty badly going down the driveway.   Blech.

4^th: I biked with Cassie to an officially signed junction of the Rincon Trail.    Missy had done a bit of this previously, having to turn back earlier than hoped for due to hot weather and not enough water.    Luckily, I had partially cloudy skies with a nice breeze.   I still planned ahead and brought plenty of water for myself and Cassie.   This hike is tough!   Steep grades with gravelly surfaces made for a slippery hike   But the scenery was fantastic.  On one of my breaks, I was happy to see some deer bounding across a gulch.  I even got some pictures of a buck as it stopped partially up a facing hillside to stare at me.   About 10 seconds later, I heard the sound of pounding hooves…and 2 baby deer came booking down the trail.   It seemed like they didn’t see me at all.    I kinda let out a little squeak of surprise as they got within 20 feet of me.   Then they changed course and took off down the gulch.    Just after that, Cassie came trotting down the trail.   Thanks to Cassie, for scaring me up some wildlife!

5th-6^th: Lazy days, spent enjoying reading and relaxing in the sun.    Also enjoying the usual air show.   I love those jets!  Also, we had some scavenged wood campfires.

7^th: Missy wanted to take a drive to check out some of the drops on the Kern River.    There’s a cool picture of some teacup drops in our book.   However, after she wasn’t certain she’d be able to find the put-in exactly, we changed our plans.    Instead, we drove up river to Brush Creek.    This is described in the book as the quintessential California creeking run: smooth granite slides with 10-15 footers into pool drops.    What made it a good hike for us is that there is great parking access and a trail.  (Apparently most of the good CA runs require some heinous hike-ins).   It was bittersweet taking this hike.   On the one hand, it was great to see some whitewater (although low).   We could just imagine how challenging and exhilarating this run would be.    On the other hand…it made me really miss kayaking.   Some days it feels like we’ll never be paddlers again.    Sniff.

Around 4 pm, we got busted by the po-po.    A sheriff deputy knocked on the rig door.    Neither dog managed to bark at the vehicle’s approach.   Nice guard dogs.   Sheesh.    He wanted to advise us of the 14 day limit.   I said I was a little curious that they’d enforce that when clearly there is no demand.   He said that it was partially so people wouldn’t dump their tanks into the creeks just so they could stay longer.    Gross.   Anyway…from what we gathered…the actual authority on enforcing the limit is the National Forest rangers.   So if a ranger comes by, we might have to leave.    Otherwise, we’ll just keep on keepin on here at Clearing Creek.     Oh, the Sheriff warned us about not leaving our genny out.  He said genny thefts are common, and said bolt cutters could make easy work of our genny lock.   Great.   He also said this area is known for hooliganism.   He seemed surprised that we hadn’t come back to camp sometime to discover someone had shot up our camper.    Odd.   We haven’t seen anything toward like that at all.    Of course, this little exchange was enough to fuel many of my anxieties.    Grrr.   I liked it better before knowing these unsavory facts.

8th-9^th:  Lazy days.  We tried to do some discussion of future plans, but it’s hard to do with only an atlas and no internet.   I’ll have to do some research on tomorrow’s trip to the internet café.

Foiled Plans

November 27-December 1, 2012

Tuesday:  We’ve been having some discussions lately about upgrading our current technology situation.   Originally, the dealio was supposed to be that we’d make do with just using the Sprint phone/tether and supplement that with trips to libraries.    But since California is anti-library-wifi, we’ve been thrown for a loop.   So we waiver between looking into getting a cell phone booster, or getting satellite internet.    The latter is muy expensive, and slow, and has data limits.   But… you can get it anywhere.   That kind of coverage is sort of key for the kind of places we like to camp.  For some reason, today we were gung ho on getting satellite service toute suite.   Missy had read recently that DISH just launched satellite internet service, so that’s what we set out to buy.

We stopped at a local satellite installer in Lake Isabella.    The woman there was nice, but clearly had not heard of someone wanting satellite internet for an RV only (not a home).   So we went to McDonald’s to use their wifi.    Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t find any working links on DISH’s website with info on the new service.   So I gave them a call.   I got referred around to 3 different numbers before one guy finally told me that the satellite internet was for stationary use only.   Great.   Our backup plan was to look into ordering a dish from Camping World (thinking we’d have to order to pick up later, in Bakersfield).   But, there wasn’t any good info on their site either.    After some more research on the major cons for sat. internet, we decided not to pursue it anymore.    It’s a crying shame that you can’t impulse buy satellite internet in this part of the country.

After our pointless morning, we did some grocery shopping ($5.30 for a pound of butter!!!!!  Missy says I’m not allowed to bemoan the cost of food here anymore).  

Wed-Thursday-  We had a nice scavenged wood campfire for a couple of hours in the morning.    I went for a bike ride with Cassie (got that video of the jets) and got back home just as the rain showers moved in.   We had rain off and on for about 24 hours.    We had another campfire on Thursday afternoon.    We spent some time discussing getting a cell booster.    It was decided that I would go do nets the next day.  There, I would order the antenna and amplifier at Walmart.com for site-to-store delivery.   This way, we could easily try it out and return it if it didn’t work for us.    Also, I would try to order some White Cheddar Cheeto Puffs, which heretofore have been unfindable in ALL of California.

Friday- I went to do nets as planned.   When I tried to look up what amplifier other boondockers use, I discovered that it might not work with Sprint.   Frickinfrack.   I spent a lot of time researching other options, including the newly released 4g cradle…but it just didn’t seem like it would work for us.   I was thoroughly discouraged.    We need an IT department.    Sigh.  Oh, and even worse: Cheetos are not eligible for ship-to-store-delivery at Walmart.   Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.   Anyone want to ship me some from  MN?

Saturday- Well, guess we’re not making it until Monday.    We’d hoped we’d get 3 full weeks before needing to tend to our tanks.   But the black tank filled up this morning.   I talked Missy into just going to a pay campground for a night.   There, we could get a stress-free pull-thru, have long showers and take on water.    What was not stress-free, as it turned out, was the drive out of the campsite.

I’d been worried about how we would get the RV out of the driveway without major scraping.   And this time, I was right to worry.    No matter how we backed up and re-straightened, we could not get on the road without burying the front of the fitty in the sand.   Oofda.   We’re no strangers to scraping, but usually it’s in the back, on the hitch, which can take it.  This is the first time we scraped the front, where the plumbing and propane lines are.    Cross your fingers for us that we didn’t do permanent damage.   Later, after further reflection, I said we probably should have taken a left out of the driveway, going up the hill to another turnaround.   I think that would have given us the inch or 2 of clearance that we needed.     Lesson learned the hard way.   Just because you can get into a spot, doesn’t mean you can get out.    This won’t stop us from going back: it’s just too perfect.    After dumping tanks and getting water, we’re heading right back to Clearing Campsite.

Videos

I'm in town at the internet cafe.  I don't have any blog post ready...so I took the time to upload a couple of videos.    One is of the military jets, and the other is of Cassie swimming with a beaver.    Enjoy!

 

More Days in Paradise; Sequoia National Forest

November 19-26, 2012

Monday:  We arrived at the internet café around 8:30 am…but sadly they were just closing up for the day.   Some kind of emergency coupled with a lack of back-up staff, I guess.   It kind of put a damper on our careful plans.   We decided to just go ahead with our shopping plans in Lake Isabella, and return to the café the next day.   We did stop at McDonalds to use their weak wifi for a little bit.   Then we filled a propane tank and got a new camp chair at True Value.   There, I was told that our propane tank was too old and past it’s inspection validity date.   The guy still filled it, but we’ll have to do a tank swap next time it’s empty.    After that stop, we went to the grocery store.  It was insanely busy.   I’m not sure if it’s because it was lunch time or if it was related to being Thanksgiving week, but we were glad to get out of that crush.    Since we got home earlier than expected, we went on a bike ride to explore the ends of the forest service road.

Tuesday: Luckily, the café was open today.   (BTW…this word processing program is autocorrecting to put the accent on the word café.   I would never be so presumptuous.  I would, however, be so lazy as to not undo it).  We spent about 6 hours again and got a lot accomplished.    Still wish there was good wifi at a library, though.  We’re spending guilt money on coffee and snacks to justify our time in the café.  Got back to the RV and discovered that Cassie had daredeviled herself access to a shelf she had previously left unmolested on ALL prior trips left home alone.   She and Buddy helped themselves to all of Missy’s mini-cinammon-coffee-cakes.   I was fairly annoyed at the dogs, but found it funny how sad Missy was at the loss of her snacks.    Lesson learned by humans.   From now on, we’ll put all the food away.  Even if it seems out of reach.   Sheesh.   Had a campfire after the sun went behind the mountain.

Wednesday: WINDY…that’s the word for the day.   Holy mackerel!   With no protection on our awesome bluff, the winds really buffeted us and the RV.   No matter how tightly we tried to close the windows, we still had howling in unseen cracks.    I hope this is the only windy day we’ll have to endure.   Apparently the military doesn’t practice flights on windy days, or else they’ve taken an early Thanksgiving holiday.   No air show today.  Bummer.

Thursday:  Happy Thanksgiving!   Missy snuck into town to see if she could sit in the parking lot of the (closed) café and get some more shows.   Turned out to work!  So she was gone most of the day.   I went on a walk with the dogs.   I got 2 loads of wood from a recently (but not too recently) downed tree by the main dirt road.  I’d say it’s about 100 yards from the clearing.    The wood is fantastically dry and makes for great fires.   I pretty much cleared it of what could be carried or dragged.   Now we’ll have to see if Missy gets around to using her chainsaw on the big trunk pieces. 

The weather today was perfection!   Sunny and upper 70s.  Perfect day to lie out in the lounger under the sun umbrella.   And we’re still lucky with the overnight temps.   Usually they end up in the upper 30s/lower 40s.  We haven’t had to use the furnace overnight for a good bit now.   (We do run it 10-15 minutes in the morning to warm up the rig when we get up).

Friday:  Well, it was tough to do, but we found a flaw with this campground.   Since it’s in the National Forest, people get to hunt here.   Suck.   Last weekend we heard shotguns a long ways off.   But today, there was a lot of activity close to home.   I saw hunters just across a gulch when I was out with Cassie.  I guess we’ll have to use our orange vests on future walks.   Twood suck if one of us got shot.  I don’t even get what they’re hunting.   Until yesterday, we hadn’t even seen any deer.   Actually, on that point, we didn’t actually hear any shots fired near us today.  So perhaps the hunters will figure out the “no deer” situation and move on.   Other than the increased “traffic” near us (defined as more than 2 cars), it was a great day.    We had a morning bonfire, helped out by Mother Nature doing the fanning.  Once the campfire was done, the wind died down and the weather was perfect.  

Saturday/Sunday:  Busy days for hunters.   We kept a low profile and hung around camp all day.   Still having great weather…sunny and warm/hot.  

Monday:  We left camp early to get water at a nearby Nat. Forest campground.   It was completely deserted.   Strange.   Today was shower day.   We’ve finally figured out the right recipe for our hair (with the no champoo technique).   Everybody has different needs with regards to strengths of the baking soda and vinegar rinse.   You’ve just got to be patient and mess around until you find what works for you.   The trouble for us is, we’re on restricted water use.  So each time we get it wrong, we have to wait until the next shower day to try again.   However, that’s the good thing about having a twin.  Double the experiments!   Each time, we’d both do something different.   So that made it easier to nail down what works.    Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Pictures of the Military Jets!

These suckers are hard to document!

Not too bad a shot

Um...this is a complete miss, and shaky to boot

If you like "Where's Waldo", you'll love this example of "Where's the jet in the tree?"

Here's the zoomed out shot...

Here's the zoomed in shot.  :-)

No jet here.  Just wanted to get the rainbow picture into the blog.   This is LITERALLY the view from our living room

Pictures

Our New Home!   See the tiny white RV in the center?

Zoomed in shot

Tina and Cassie on a Rock, with Buddy nearby

Just another stunning view on our walk

Re-creating the shot from before...the rig is the small white thing in the center

Zoomed in shot.   See how totally private this spot is?

Another zoomed out shot of the RV

Missy and Dogs on the walk; Tina represented in Shadow-Mode

I made Cassie pose here because I thought it would be a neat shot

New Kickstand Works Great!

Cassie likes it when I give her "drinks"



From my hike on the Rincon Trail, right off the back of our new home

Clearing Campsite

November 14-18, 2012

This campsite is amazing!   Truly one of a kind.    We’ve never had such sweeping all around views, coupled with perfect privacy.   We are so lucky to have found this spot and to have been able to get into it.  The only downside is that we don’t have any phone signal.   But that’s just a minor ding.   I was curious about how this clearing came into existence.   There doesn’t seem to be any need for this giant circle clearing, from a forest service perspective.    Missy finally came up with a possible answer: it’s probably an old helipad.   There are actually a couple of marked helipads along the highway, so maybe this one was decommissioned because it’s a little harder to get to.

There really isn’t much I can say about how fantastic our campsite is.    I’ll put up pictures, so hopefully you’ll get a sense of the lovely scenery we are treated to all day long.   Even when we had 2 days of rain, it wasn’t a downer because we still had amazing views out the windows.   Speaking to that, it was really cool and kind of creepy having the cloud ceiling lower so much that we were almost in the clouds.   The back, higher set of mountains disappeared from view.     And, a couple of times some sun broke through, and we had gorgeous valley-wide rainbows that were pretty much at eye-level.    So neat!

Since we’re tucked away off a dead-end forest service road, we have free rein for walking the dogs, biking and hiking.    (A few times we’ll get a jeep or pickup driving by, but not too often).   With the solitude, we get to enjoy the benefits of having the dogs off leash all the time too.    I love that!   So far the weather has been great.   The overnight lows rarely get to a point where the furnace is needed.    I’m not sure that the average temps are for this area at this time of the year, but I’m hopeful it will stay nice enough to allow us to stay here a long time.

Perhaps one of the best perks of this campsite: daily (weekday) private airshows!   Anywhere from 4 to 8 jets a day.   It’s strange;  no matter how many times we watch the military jets streak by, it’s still fun to watch.  They have some usual time ranges during the day that they fly by, but once or twice a day we’ll get some outside of those ranges.    It’s an art, learning how to enjoy the jets.   Because they are soooo much faster than the speed of sound, you really need to be watching the horizon for the approach.   If you hear the jet first, then you know that it’s already hundreds of feet past you.    The best action comes about 1 in 4 jets.    These are the low-fliers.   Amazing!   They are so low, it really feels like you could touch them with a broom from the top of the RV.   I like to call these guys “Nap Killers”, because the sonic boom and vibration from the low jets is 50 times more powerful than the usual jets.    And they always pull some kind of Top Gun maneuver to weave around and next to the mountainsides.  We’ve tried a couple times to get it on video, but it’s hard.   The low fliers MUST be spotted first, or you’ll miss them if you hear them first.    One time, a couple of weeks ago, one flew over us as we were getting in the truck with the dogs after a hike.    Buddy caught sight of it and was incensed!   He started chasing after it, which led him right onto the highway.   Luckily, there were no cars, because there was no way we could yell louder than the jet to call him back.

Tomorrow we’re planning on a trip into town.   We’ll spend some time at the internet café, where I can get these posts up.   Then we need to get some groceries and fill a propane tank.  Then it will be back to our paradise for another week.   So Happy Thanksgiving in advance!    I know we’ll be continually grateful for our lovely Clearing Campsite.

Edited: The café was unexpectedly closed.   I am posting this using McDs wifi.  Sadly, I can’t get pictures uploaded with this connection.  We’ll try the café again tomorrow.