Saturday, July 2, 2011

Gandhi or Chief Joseph?

I left Ashland this morning after enjoying a wonderful day off with Nancy and her family and friends. Almost immediately, I was climbing up Dead Indian Memorial Rd. I don't know which dead Indian was being memorialized, but it was a good long climb! When I got to the top there wasn't even a summit sign! I know it was 5200 ft. from my map.

I came down the other side and went past Howard Lake. Shortly after that my map told me to turn left onto FR 37. Basically, it's a forest service road but, it was paved and took me where I needed to go. One cool thing was a horse campground. Each campsite had a corral for the horse!

I turned off at Willow Lake Rd. as I was camping at Willow Lake County Park (at the base of Mt. McGloughlin). I was a bit nervous because it is 4th of July weekend. I figured the campground would be full, I just hoped there would be someplace for me.

I rode into the campground and looked for a space. Sure enough, there was nothing (there are a lot of people here--they practically seemed to be stacked on top of each other!). I went to the camp host to ask if there was someplace I could stay. Mike, the manager here, said no problem, I could camp down by his place. These are lakeside campsites that they don't use. I told them this campground is on the Sierra Cascades route. They are talking about putting in some hiker/biker sites. Anyway, I have a nice site by the lake complete with picnic table and water that is not too far away. The restrooms are a bit of a walk, but that's okay. Oh yeah, I went to take a shower (where the restrooms are) and forgot to take my towel. I just used my jersey to dry off.

Tonight they are showing "Finding Nemo" in the Day Use Area. Might check it out for awhile...

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