San Diego or Bust, August 2017, Part 5 -- The Return

This starts our return trip home.  At this point it is just the three of us, Lyon, Wayne and I.  But not for long.  I count only the travel days.

Sunday—Day 13

Destination:  North Shore Campground, Lake Arrowhead, California

Miles:  222

Words of the Day:  On the Road Again (hum along if you want)

Critter Count:  small herd of deer, coyote

Happy Birthday to me !!  For the first time in I don't know how long I got to spend some of my birthday with most of my family.  We met for breakfast in our hotel. My sister and her family, my brother and his wife, our kids (Becca and Bo) and us. It was great. They can no longer complain that I'm never around for my birthday.  Of course we had to all go to California for it to happen, but it did happen!!

Lyon and Wayne ready to hit the road

We got on the road about 9:30 am.  A little late for us, but we don't have far to go.  We took surface roads out of the south side of town until we got to the Otay Lake Rd.  We took this east until we crossed SR 94, then we took the Honey Springs road.

 We took a right on Lyons Valley Rd.  

We continued north, crossing I-8 on SR 79.  We went through my favorite pie-town, Julian, but didn't stop for pie.  It was Sunday and that place is a zoo on the weekends.  We back-tracked on about 30 miles of our south bound route, but that could not be helped.  

We took county roads into Hemet where we stopped for lunch.  Then it was back on SR 79 and across I-10 at Beaumont.  We took a bunch of county roads to SR 330 which took us up towards Big Bear Lake.  At Running Springs we took a left and went to Lake Arrowhead where we joined up with Bob and Cindy.  They have been visiting family for about a week and we are finally back together!  They have been camped here for 3 or 4 days, visiting family and hanging out waiting for us.  They have a great campsite, and a new jump starter/power pack.  The good news is that it actually charged my computer up enough that I could do a little work on it.  Yipee!  

One of the items that Lyon had bought at Cycle Gear was a new chain.  He tried to put it on today, but they had sold him the wrong length.  And the clerk had come out and got all the numbers and stuff off his bike, and they still got it wrong.  Grrrr.

Monday—Day 14

Destination:  Kern River near Isabella Lake, California

Miles:  259

Word of the Day:  Chaparral Motorsports

Critter Count:  only kamikaze squirrels

After talking about it last night we decided that we all needed a trip to Walmart for supplies and Lyon needed a new chain so a trip to Chapparral was also planned.  This is the biggest motorcycle shop I have ever seen.  They have a helmet room, and it is as big as the first floor of our old Everett house.  Sheese!!  Too many cool things to see!

 This is the San Bernardino Valley from above the clouds.

We did our first stint of Interstate riding as it was the best way to get to Walmart, and then from there to Chapparral.  It was 14 miles, and saved us a bunch of time, but still...it was interstate!  Once we got back on State Routes (SR), we went back up to Crestline and worked our way over to Wrightwood. We followed the ridge road down to the flats and spent sometime working our way across to Rosamond.  We took the back roads to Tehachapi, and then the parallel road as far as we could. We did get on SR 58 but the road we wanted to take to the north was closed for repairs for one day, the day we were there.  Go figure.  The nice flagger guy told us how to take the detour, so we were back on track quickly.  

We took county roads to Lake Isabella, where we stopped for dinner.  Then it was up the Kern River Road to Camp 3, where we took site 3 for the night.

 We are getting really good, putting up our tent

 This place is full of really big rocks

 Wayne found a great place to kick back

 No showers again tonight, but the river was warm enough to wash up in, so all is good.

Tuesday—Day 15

Destination:  Island Park, Pine Flat Reservoir, California

Miles:  215

Word of the Day:  Tourist

Critter Count:  2 lone deer, many raptors, bobcat, herd of deer with large buck, rattle snake!

We had a great night's sleep, despite being warm.  I mean really warm.  We didn't really think about it and we all put our rain flys on our tents for the privacy they provide.  When we went to bed, our tent was like a sauna.  I started off with the tent and fly doors both wide open and sleeping on top of my bag.  It was one of those nights, the sun went down and I was out.  I woke up enough to zip the fly closed when Wayne came to bed.

We were up and on the road before 8.  Pretty standard for this group. We continued north on the Kerns River road. Along the way we got stuck behind a rental camper-van.  Oh brother , this tourist was freaked out on the narrow twisty road, really out of her comfort zone.  We were afraid to pass her, as she looked like she would swerve into us at any moment.  We finally got by and continued up to Mountain Road 50.  We had hoped to camp yesterday at the California Hot Springs, but we got off track and ended up on the Kern River instead.  This turn put us back on track.  The locals call this next section the "Tail of the Lion".  They know that a road back east is called the 'Tail of the Dragon" but they say "We don't need no stinkin' dragon".  Really? Well it is a fun road, Wayne got to the end and exclaimed "That was so much fun!! Are you sure that's legal?"

 Waterfall on the Tail of the Lion

 Kaweah Lake

 Cindy bought new riding clothes, in 'Don't Hit Me' yellow at Chaparral

 The mighty steeds

After a quick snack at the lake we continued onto the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. My timing was good, I qualified for my $10 for life, Senior Access Pass on Sunday, bought it on Tuesday and a week later the price went up to $80 for life.  Still a good deal, but I'm still glad I got mine while I could!

 Some of the big Sequoia trees on the General Highway

 In volume of total wood the giant sequoia is Earth's largest living tree.  They grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, usually between 5,000 and 7,000 feet elevation.  There are about 75 groves in all.

 The General Sherman Tree is 275 feet tall and 103 feet around at ground level.  It is estimated to weigh 1,385 TONS and about 2,200 years old. It's largest branch is almost 7' in diameter.

 After leaving the park on SR 180, we headed to Elwood Road. Wayne's Mom, Shirley Elwood was born on the family ranch along this road.  Wayne has only been here a couple of times when he was young.  His grandmother sold the place when her husband died.  We found the corner of Elwood Dr and Elwood Road.  We are guessing that this is where the original ranch house was.  It is now part of the development of Miracle Ranch.

We turned left when we got to the Piedra Road looking for a market to buy cold drinks at.  Although Shirley's birth certificate lists Piedra aswhere she was born, she was actually born at  home on the ranch.  We then turned around and headed to the Pine Flat Reservoir and the Island Park Corp of Engineers campground.  It was close to 100 degrees and we were under impressed with the open field of campsites.  But we kept looking and found one that was relatively flat and in the shade.

 We decided that privacy is over-rated and opted to not put the rain fly on tonight.  It was soooo hot.

The reservoir wasn't full, but it did have water.  Wayne went for a swim and said it was good.  I was too hot to even walk down and check it out!  While he was swimming, Lyon was again putting a new chain on his bike.  This time it was the right size and went on easily.  Yea Lyon!

We all had showers and tried to keep from sweating too much.  At dusk Cindy went for a walk and startled up a young rattle snake.  She came and got us, but when we got there he was already gone.  Thank goodness!