Nevada

Hi Alice,

We left Tahoe at noon to drive the 580 miles across Nevada and into Utah.  After many miles of alkali flats, sage brush,  and a straight road through the desert, it was Austin's turn at the wheel.  As luck would have it, he was entering the foothills of the Humbolt Mountains.  As he gained altitude, passing the trucks at the 75 mph posted limit, the sky darkened ominously.  As he reached the summit it began to rain furiously--a rare local downburst in the desert.  As the twisting interstate descended, the rain worsened, then turned to dime sized hail.  The sound of hail hitting our two aluminum canoes was deafening.  Inside the two more experienced drivers added to the din, urging our new driver to "slow down!".  At the valley floor the area was white with accumulated hail, the rain stopped, and a large rainbow spread before us.  Of course, in all the chaos not a picture was taken!

Love,

Dad

 

Lake Tahoe

Dear Alice,

As we drove into the area, we stopped near Donner Lake for a picnic.  Fired up the Coleman stove and reheated a pot of chili.  Then we read the historical markers across the parking lot.  The Donner party were 86 pioneers that were trapped in the mountains by early winter snows.   We were finishing lunch when the irony hit us...most of the Donners starved to death...the others resorted to cannibalism...and we're at the Donner Memorial Picnic Area!

Here is the Truckee River, the only stream that flows out of Lake Tahoe.  It is beautiful, and has an awesome paved bike trail running along it.  We rode along it into Tahoe City, then north and south along the lake shore.  It was only 16 miles, but tiring at 7,000 feet.

We're going to put the canoes on the Lake this morning, then drive, drive, drive across Nevada.  We're hoping to spend our last couple days fishing the Green River in Utah or in south-central Colorado.  See you soon.

Love,

Dad

Northern California Pics

Dear Alice,

Here are some pictures from sunny California.  Mount Shasta is a beautiful mountain and it has a large National Forest.  Our first area was too busy, but 5 miles of dirt road lead to "No Name Lake", which we enjoyed by ourselves.  

Once we left there we drove through Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has 4 types of volcanoes, bubbling mud, and an ice cave.  The main attraction - Bumpus Hell was closed though - as there is still too much ice and snow on the trail.

Part way to Lake Tahoe we liked the scenery so much we stopped at a dive motel and the next day fished the legendary Feather River (home of Feather Lite canoe paddles).  There is one trout with a sore mouth, but we later learned that was good luck on a tough river.

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is the 2nd deepest lake in the country (remember Crater Lake is the 1st?).  The water is clear enough to see 74 feet to the bottom.  There were a lot of people here on Sunday afternoon, so after mountain biking along the shore we decided to head east.  Twenty miles along the shore we found Squaw Valley, which was so nice we stopped for the night.  So it goes!

Miss you!

xxxooo

MOM

California

Dear Blog Followers,
This could be the last post for the "Following Louis & Clark" blogsite, but not likely, due to some technical difficulties. If nothing else, we will have to post without pictures for the remainder of the trip. Austin's computer is having some "errors" so we may go visit an Apple retail store and see if we can resolve the problem.

In the mean time, we've spent 3 days at Mt. Shasta. We were camping by a beautiful lake all to ourselves, filled with thousands of tadpoles. Yesterday, we visited Lassen Volcanic National Park, where we saw bubbling mud and steaming sulfur. It was a lot like Yellowstone. Today and tomorrow we are staying at beautiful Lake Tahoe. Today we went biking, fishing, and exploring some beautiful beaches.
-Austin

Beautiful Crater Lake, California Coast & The Redwood Forest N.P.

Dear Alice,
Oh, my goodness!   I have so much to tell you about-  we have had some wonderful adventures the last few days!

Our house is in the country, sitting on 89 acres on the Rogue River-  lots of turkey, jack rabbits, deer, horses, cows and Ethan spotted a rattlesnake on his way down to the river one morning!   Yikes!
We are also in wine and cheese country.
We visited a bleu cheese factory and sampled the best I have ever tasted!  Yum!

We are surrounded by rolling hills of vineyards-  lots of wineries and micro breweries-  great local wine and beer-   Needless to say, we are enjoying our vacation!

We have really enjoyed our time on the Rogue River.  Dad, PaPa and Uncle Chip have had so much fun catching lots of trout, and we have enjoyed having fresh fish for dinner!   We have had a blast rafting the rapids-  especially MiMi!   She was having so much fun she did a back flip-  on the first rapids we encountered!  We all laughed long and hard-  during our run on the Rogue!
We made our way to Crater Lake NP in Central Oregon-  the most beautiful deep blue, cobalt blue lake,  the deepest lake in the US, and maybe the prettiest lake in the world!!

We also visited the scenic CA coast, and the beautiful giants in the Redwood Forest!  The tallest tree we saw was a whopping 370 feet tall!   Awesome!

I will write again soon.   Miss you!
Hugs and Kisses!
Love,
Mom

PS:  Check out our fun stop at  "Bears on Bikes"!

Rogue River, Oregon

Dear Alice,

We're in Trail, OR where the climate is desert-like--cool in the morning and evenings--but an oven hot 100 mid-day.  Our first day we stopped by the local fishing shop and set up a trip, and then opted to immediately go rafting.  

Each person was issued their own water cannon, which provided lots of fun.  Especially when an occasional stranger or fisherman would shoot you! 

The Rogue River is a famous fly-fishing river--except in July.  Then it's so hot you fish with worms on bottom, occasionally catching a sea-run rainbow trout or even a King Salmon.  Our guide was a western fishing bum with a few books to his credit--lots of fun & stories.  One can catch 50 trout per day per person - releasing almost all.  Chip caught a 20# King, but on 8# test line it broke off after a 40 min battle.

Hope you're keeping cool,

DAD

Coastal Oregon

Dear Alice,

 Adding to Austin's post...The Columbia River gorge was something I'd never heard of before.  Imagine massive waterfalls on both sides of an immense valley...

Chip & Becky have joined us for a week, with my nieces Kaki & Allie.

When the Columbia River meets the Pacific, we've completed the journey that Lewis and Clark did too.  Except they didn't have this cool fish & chips stand to visit like we did!

Astoria, OR

Oregon is big - very big - when driving from place to place.  We still have "travel days" that span 300 - 400 miles and up to 16 hours w/ a few stops. Once we headed down the coastal highway we couldn't stop stopping the car.

Sisters

We passed through Tillamook, but the cheese factory was too touristy.  A few miles south of town we came across an old WWII  blimp hangar - all wood construction, 197' tall, and full of vintage aircraft.

  

After a "travel day" we've come to enjoy two nights in a single place - camping or otherwise.  This week we've rented a small house in south-central OR from which to explore, so it will be a luxury to have the same bed, dishes, and not need coins for a laundromat.  

Looking forward to trading a tail-wag for a scratch behind your ears!

Dad

On to the Finish

Dear Alice,


We've made it past Mt. Hood, where we stayed in the Timberline Lodge. The Timberline Lodge was great- and none of us went insane (Timberline is where the movie "The Shining" was filmed in 1980.) It was here we met up with our family, who will be joining us on our journey for a week or so in celebration of Mimi and Papa's 52nd anniversary.

We had a great time toboggan riding/bobsledding (one of the two are correct) on the lower slopes of Mt. Hood. All was well until my toboggan/bobsled had some difficulty going down the track, as one of the wheels had conveniently fallen off on a sharp curve. I had to push my way to the finish while traffic accumulated behind me.

We had a wonderful evening at the Timberline Lodge celebrating Mimi and Papa's anniversary.

We stayed  in Astoria, OR after seeing Mt. Hood. We had a great time eating fish & chips. We moved on and saw the beautiful Cannon Beach, which happens to be the end point of Louis and Clark's expedition, and a huge landmark. More about that later.

--Austin Pretsch

Hood River, Oregon -- The Windiest City

Dear Alice,
We have now switched from camping to.. um... hoteling? I'm not entirely sure what word to use. But anyway we have made it to the Colombia River Gorge, the windy border between Washington and Oregon. We've had a great experience--and been lucky all along.  Last night we stayed at the Columbia Gorge Hotel.  It is a historic hotel overlooking the Columbia River from a 208' high cliff.  A stream winds through their gardens and over the cliff to the river below.

I didn't know that the gorge is a giant wind funnel, with 35 mph winds daily as cool Pacific Ocean air is sucked into the Oregon desert via this gap in the mountains.  There are lots of kite boarders and wind surfers on the river.  One kite boarder jumped about 30' in the air - over a ski boat!

One rule this trip is that we stop anytime anyone wishes.  Once we checked out, we visited a nearby lavender farm.    Then we stopped by Alice's Orchard and bought a 10# box of cherries.

Two miles down the road there was a vineyard and winery - so M&D had a late morning tasting - boring.  We hadn't traveled more than 10 miles by noon and then Mom wanted to pet some alpacas.  We learned that alpacas are the small wool bearing animals of the Andes.  Their cousins, the llamas, are much bigger and used for pack transport and guarding the smaller alpacas from coyotes and wolves.  I think they copied their fashion from your cute doo!

On we go to Mt. Hood!

-- Austin

Selway River

Dear Alice,

After leaving the Lochsa River, we moved 60 miles to the Selway River, reputed to be even more beautiful.  It was different - like chipmunks and squirrels - mostly because of the white sand beaches.  This river travels 60 miles through the wilderness (no access at all) and is restricted to a single float trip per day.

We've had some beautiful camp sites right on the rivers...

This is our camp on Meadow Creek with dinner in hand!

After leaving the Selway, we followed the Clearwater to the Snake to the Columbia - all day in the car. :-(  We're short time so we took a short cut through SE Washington and the town of Walla Walla and many miles of wheat fields.  Here we are eating lunch at the Monarcha #2 taco bus!



Chase some squirrels for us.

Love,
Dad

Gone Fishing - Lochsa River, Idaho

Dear Alice,

The past 4 days we've been in Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area of Idaho.   A local guy recommended we visit the Lochsa Lodge before going into the wilderness.  We liked it enough to stay 2 nights in one of their little roadside cabins.

From this convenient base we took a 20 mile dirt road to the continental divide, fishing in an alpine area - Hoodoo Lake.  This is the same area that Lewis & Clark ran out of food for 2 weeks, and Colt Killed Creek marks the spot of one of their meals!

Austin fishing the Lochsa River.

Hope all is well in MEM.

Dad