Trip Report 63 -- Sierra Foothills
November 28, 2000
11/1 The drive from Sacramento to Isleton, California, in the Sacramento River Delta, was only 50 miles, but took us 2 hours, along the scenic route - River Road and SR 160, which follows the Sacramento most of the way. As a bonus, the road is generally on top of the levee, giving us a good view of the river on one side and the broad agricultural areas on the other. This entire region, 50 miles inland from San Francisco Bay, is seven feet below sea level according to Topo USA, our detailed mapping software. Since the canals are just above sea level, and the levee is 10 feet above the canals, the levee roads offer grand views across the delta to Mt. Diablo, sticking up above the smog 40 miles away.
With the campground below sea level, a break in the levee could have dramatic consequences. The steep sides of the levees along the front of the campground near our site are an ever-present reminder. The canals and levees were built by Chinese laborers in the nineteenth century, draining and opening a vast area to agriculture.
Delta Bay Marina and RV Park is a pleasant spot, but is not modem-friendly. A general-use computer in the clubhouse is permanently on-line, apparently networked to an office computer located elsewhere. We can read our mail and surf the web. But the hardware is locked up. We can't get at the floppy disk drive or the I/O ports to transfer files.
11/2 Chores and housecleaning. During a quiet late evening, I heard what seemed to be a pack of coyotes yelping and howling, moving through the cornfields behind the RV Park. The campground is full of ladybugs - swarms of them, landing on us and on our RV's. Dozens find their way inside the RV and truck. We're told that the farmers release the bugs for pest control, and after the fields are harvested the bugs move to wherever they can find shelter, including green areas like the campground.
11/3 A pleasant day trip on twisty roads along the levees to Stockton. Huge clouds of smoke are drifting downwind from rice fields being burned off in preparation for planting. The last of the corn is being harvested, by machines which strip the corn kernels off the cobs, blowing the kernels into huge trucks and leaving everything else in the field. Slow moving farm equipment is an occasional road hazard. The long views are dimmed by the ever-present Central Valley smog.
This very flat central valley seemed an unlikely place for a Japanese Garden, but the Micke Grove Regional Park near Lodi, set in a grove of ancient live oak trees, was beautifully designed and maintained. Donated to the county in the 1960's by people of Japanese ancestry, it is a serene oasis in this bustling agricultural center just along CA-99.
Members of the RV Club have been trickling into Delta Bay for a get-together, and we had a good crowd for a potluck dinner in the evening. The attendees are mostly local people, nearly all part-time RVers who have homes within about 50 miles. Some of the people were familiar from conversations on the club's Email list. Others are silent "lurkers" on the lists, completely unknown to us. But as usual (we've attended several such gatherings around the country), it's an interesting and friendly bunch of people. We're having a good time, talking about RVing and many other topics.
11/4 A nearly deserted levee road made a nice bike ride, except that I had to watch out for potholes on the disintegrating blacktop surface. Rice fields in this area are now being flooded. Everything else is harvested and dormant. A few fields were being plowed. Drainage ditches run through the fields, and each major ditch has a pump feeding a large pipe which runs up and over the levee into the canal. I thought at first that these pumps were for irrigating the fields, but then decided that they are probably the opposite - used for keeping the fields dry.
11/5 While sitting around the dinner table with friends, we were startled to hear the unmistakable sound of a sea lion barking. We're 50 miles up the San Joaquin River, in the Central Valley of California, and we've always thought of sea lions as salt-water ocean animals. There seems to be just the one. Someone speculated that this animal followed the striped bass migration up the channel. Someone else mentioned that the local newspapers have been reporting that a sea lion has set up residence near a marina, somewhere around here - perhaps the same animal?
11/7 The park is quite pleasant, and we stayed around a couple of extra days. Yesterday, we drove into Rio Vista, on the river about 7 miles to the west of the campground, to mail letters, get a few groceries, and most importantly, to download our Email. The library has lots of public computers, but they are networked, with no accessible phone line. A small computer store on Main Street charges $2.00 for an unspecified amount of phone time. While waiting for mail to download, I had an interesting conversation with the owner. He told us that Dish Network was supposed to have announced the Starband two-way satellite Internet system today, but that apparently it's been postponed. Sounds perfect for us - it will connect to any computer with a USB port, unlike the bundled system introduced a few months ago by Radio Shack. Had it been available, we'd have purchased it on the spot. (Since then, we've heard others express doubt as to whether this system will be practical for portable use. We'll be investigating further.)
On another day, we spent a couple of hours driving the levee roads. Many of these large islands have only one access bridge, and only one road, built on top of the levee and circumnavigating the entire island. A few tractor trails leading down off the levee provide access to the interior for farm equipment. The islands are below sea level, and generally have no buildings other than a rare house or pole barn tucked up against the side of the levee. The crops are mostly corn or rice. Trees are rare too - an occasional scraggly specimen growing on the side of the levee.
A flock of Oregon Juncos is bustling around our campsite, scratching for seeds in the grass. Their jet-black heads are quite distinctive, and I don't remember having seen this species before.
11/8 We moved 60 miles northeast to Far Horizons 49er Village RV Resort in Plymouth, in the center of the Amador County wine growing area. We were here once before - in May 1998. It's large - several hundred sites, many of them leased seasonally. The park has a meandering stream, large interior grassy areas, lots of trees, and reasonably large sites. It's modem-friendly, and the location is right. But it's the only game in town, so they can charge an outrageous price. High-season rate is $37 plus tax. We're paying $31 - a "mid-season" rate, including Good Sam discount and taxes. They have a large and attractive group meeting room and a very favorable group rate, and generally have one or more large RV groups present.
11/9 Wine tasting - Story and Nine Gables wineries. We were surprised to find that many of their wines were sold out - including nearly all of the more expensive wines. Nine Gables makes their premium wines in small batches, each batch from a small vineyard, perhaps just a few acres growing in unique soil and climate conditions. Dave enjoyed their "Picnic Hill" Zinfandel, from a small patch of 100-year-old vines on the property. But at $27.95, it didn't rank high on the value scale. Some of these old-vine zinfandels are being bottled at 15.5% alcohol, which I would have thought impossible a few years ago. I don't know if this increase is due to different fermentation bugs or higher sugar content in the grapes, or different fermentation techniques. Perhaps I'll be able to ask about this in the next few days.
The Flower Farm we stopped at on the way home had a gorgeous display of mums. Helen walked the rows of cultivated cut flowers and through the display gardens. The heaths are just beginning winter bloom. A huge collection of fountains and wind chimes were operating outside main shop and the gift shop was already crammed full of Christmas items.
11/11 More wine tasting, at Amador Foothills (nice views) and Montevina, which re-confirmed our preference for Montevina Zinfandels, and introduced us to their very nice Barbera. Charles Spiney Winery had an interesting tasting room that is mostly art gallery. We enjoyed the wildlife art, and didn't taste their wines (their current tasting list didn't have much that interested us.)
This rolling wine country is beautiful in autumn. The precisely-spaced but undulating rows of vines makes fascinating patterns as they march over the hills and out of sight, with interspersed groves of live oaks - presumably growing on unplantable slopes and granite outcroppings. The vines, now with most of the grape clusters harvested, are decorated with the delicate yellow-orange-red of frost-nipped grape leaves.
11/15 We drove CA route 49 through the gold country to get to the Escapees Park of the Sierras at Coarsegold. SR 49 is an interesting road through the "49ers country" - the region of the gold strikes in the mid-1800's. The road runs through rolling foothills of the Sierras - climbing steeply up over passes about 3000 feet high and then down through deep valleys with small rivers whose names are famous from gold rush stories. In particular, The 20 miles or so north of Mariposa has numerous steep climbs and descents with sharp switchback turns. There are still signs of old mines, and several of the small towns have hardly changed since then - the main street lined with ancient buildings, many of them tastefully restored and housing restaurants and antique shops.
This RV Park is lovely - 166 acres of rolling terrain, covered with manzanita bushes and live oaks, with occasional digger pines. These strange pine trees have very long grey needles, and dense 10" cones so heavy that you'd be injured if one fell on you from high up. The RV sites are scattered through the hills, well spread out. The park is a co-op, owned by its members, with each site on a long-term lease to a particular individual. Some people live here year-round. Others travel, part of the year, and their sites are available for other Escapees to rent while they are gone. Our site is on a hillside with a nice view out across a valley. We could enjoy staying here a long time, but will leave in time to be at our niece's house in San Jose for Thanksgiving.
11/17 At last - some modern art that we found really interesting. At The Fresno Metropolitan Museum and the Fresno Art Museum. Two pieces by artist Angie Bray: "What": rotating 6' flexible wands sinuously waving about casting shadows; and "Glimpses": hanging strips of mostly transparent plastic reflecting faint architectural lines; A Nancy Youdelmann mixed media, the Baby Series; "Fresno Cougar" by John Battenbeg made of 4' long bronze strips in the courtyard. And a nice pre-Columbian pottery collection.
11/18 We took a long drive to Yosemite National Park. We drove a loop - going up SR-41 through the tunnel into Yosemite Valley, then taking SR 140 out of the valley along the Merced River to Mariposa, then SR-49 back to Oakhurst. The high elevations along SR 41 were snow covered, and in places the road still had some snow on it. The road had been heavily sanded, so with reasonable care driving conditions were quite acceptable. Some drivers apparently had a different notion of "reasonable care". We were stopped twice on the descent into the valley while emergency vehicles came up from the valley. Near the top, a pickup truck had skidded off the road and down a steep mountainside. Fortunately, that spot was heavily forested and the truck was stopped by trees only about 50 feet down the side. Another accident was being cleared, about half way down to the valley.
No need to try to describe Yosemite Valley again - we tried in chapter 18 of our trip report, and there are many books about Yosemite which say it much better. Today, we just drove the loop, stopping to enjoy the views from the car or take short hikes to other viewpoints. The waterfalls and the river are nearly dry at this time of year - quite a contrast to our previous spring visit when the flows were near maximum.
11/19 The Park Sierra property straddles a portion of the old stage coach road which provided the original access to Yosemite. Today, we walked a portion of this trail which is outside the developed portion of the park, enjoying the sense of history and the quiet ambience of the undeveloped foothills.
11/20 A flock of gregarious, noisy acorn woodpeckers keeps life interesting around the trailer. I watched them stuffing acorns into a small gap under the eaves in a shed. Two of them have been hammering in tandem on another shed. We occasionally see large pale-grey squirrels.
11/21 Hitched up the trailer and did SR-49 again in the opposite direction, heading back north. A low pressure system passed over central California in early afternoon, with an abrupt transition to heavy black clouds, and then rain for a couple of hours. The Hershey chocolate factory in Oakdale has an interesting tour. We watched 4000 pounds of Hershey kisses per hour flowing down a conveyer belt below our catwalk, and on another assembly line, uncountable Reeses Peanut Butter Cups were being poured into their little molds. Several gift shops across the road from the Hershey Plant interested Helen a while. The pumpkin fudge from one of these shops was good.
By the time we left Oakdale, it was getting dark and foggy, so we stopped at the nearest campground - six miles north to Woodward Reservoir County Park. It has large pull-through sites with full hookups, at $10/night senior off-season rate. A few sites have views of the water. Signs warn us that duck hunting is underway, and to stay away from duck blinds on the reservoir. We heard no shooting.
11/22 Our first stop this morning was at Oakdale Cheese, just a few miles from the campground. They make only Gouda cheese - many varieties, differing only in the additions of herbs or other flavorings. The small manufacturing area is visible through large glass panels in the store, but there is no tour or explanation of the process and the gift shop staff is not very knowledgeable about cheese. The small store also had a variety of cheeses from other local manufacturers and some free samples for tasting.
Continuing west, we followed SR 120 into gradually lightening cloud cover, traveling through an interesting cross-section of Central Valley agricultural country. Initially we saw mostly cattle and hay, then orchards, then a broad range of market crops and many freshly plowed fields. Irrigation canals are frequent. As we reached the foothills on the west side of the valley, cattle ranches become dominant. A little higher in the hills, the ridges are lined with wind turbines, hundreds of them, all sitting idle on this calm day.
Near Livermore, the traffic became very heavy, and continued heavy all the way to our destination in the southwest corner of San Jose. Sixty miles of dense, almost bumper-to-bumper, urban expressway traffic is a rather unpleasant experience. We managed to be in the correct lanes for each of the many transitions among expressways (requiring some guesswork, since in these traffic conditions we had to choose a lane well before signs were visible.) Street Atlas is getting better at indicating the details of interchange ramps, but this feature is not yet consistently accurate.
The fog and smog is getting depressing. It seems to be endemic in both the Central Valley and in the San Francisco Bay basin.
11/25 We've spent the past three nights "urban boondocking" - parked in San Jose at the curb in front of the home of Helen's niece Linda and her husband Brian. It's a quiet residential neighborhood, a very pleasant spot. We were a bit nervous concerning possible city laws about parking RV's on the street. But in driving around the neighborhood, we saw a couple of other RV's, and a large boat or two parked on the street, so we quit worrying. An extension cord to an outdoor power outlet at the house gave us most of our usual comforts.
Thanksgiving Day, Linda and Brian prepared a full Thanksgiving dinner, including a 20-pound turkey, which the 4 of us barely dented. Helen baked a couple of pies to contribute to the feast. That evening, we enjoyed a show of Brian's high-quality slides, taken during the days they traveled with us in Alaska this past summer. It was a first showing for them as well as us - they've been too busy settling in to a new house to have looked at the slides. It was particularly nice to re-live the little adventures we had together.
The next couple of days were spent casually visiting, running a few errands, and relaxing. Helen, Linda and Brian went out to visit Winchester Mystery House - a quirky mansion of almost uncountably many rooms, built over a period of many years by a really nutty woman. The landscaped grounds and meticulously painted Victorian architectural trimmings were delightful.
11/26 In early afternoon, we packed up, hitched up, and drove up Interstate 280 to San Francisco. Traffic was surprisingly light, allowing us to enjoy the views along one of the prettiest suburban expressways in the country. We'll be spending about three weeks in the San Francisco area, making up for the lack of live choral music in our life during the past year by attending several concerts each weekend.