Mc Arthur Burney Falls to Mount Shasta

Nov. 3
Stop at Burney for gas and saw the far west Lions club






Overnight with RV and next day a longwalk in the Falls State Park
A Volcanic area and therefore the water comes not only over the top, but also at different heights out of the Rock. From time to time the rocks above collapse and the whole fall is moving backwards through the centuries.

Volcanic rocks

Nov. 4 On the road towards Mt. Shasta, a Volcanic mountain 4322 m

And here on a downhill the bad FORD engineering struck us.
the engine suddenly quit and an emergency braking got me just on the side of the road. 911 call and a nice policeman pushed my RV on the other side (left) of the road where it was safer.
Towing to Mount Shasta city and night in Hotel.
To make the whole story short, I suspected it was the fuel pump and was right. But towing to two repair shops that couldn't or wouldn't help, made us a bit desperate. Eventually we decided to find a competent Ford dealer. Same story, in order to take the fuel tank out from underneath, they had either no equipment or were too busy. So we had the RV towed 150 km to Medford Oregon and found a very good light truck and RV repair shop who did it in half a day.
After this adventure we hurried home .
Nov. 7
From Medford to North of Portland . Very nice RV "Park Columbia River Front RV Park"
Nov. 8 Vancouver - Ferry at 15:00 and home in North Saanich by 17:30
Distance traveled 4060 km

In the Gold country

On October 30 we wanted to drive eastwards to over the Tioga Pass to Mono Lake and then to Death Valley. Tough luck the Pass was closed as it snowed the day before, so we decided to go northwestwards and found :

From Sonora to Eldorado and North of Sacramento. A nice 3 day drive in the sun and temperatures around 25 C

Hello Europe ---- They found Gold !

All started here, when Sutter and Marshall found Gold, building a sawmill on the American River in 1848





Once the news spread, it started a huge
flow of up to 300.000 people from all over the world and San Francisco went from a tiny settlement to a city with 25000 in 1850. Those interested read in the Internet on Wikipedia : California Gold Rush


Place where Sutters sawmill
was built in Coloma

Todays school classes come and try to find some gold, where there is now a State park along the American River





We found beautiful places for our RV

at the American River

and on the banks of the Sacramento River

but : No gold !

Yosemite State Park

Arriving Oct. 28.

Yosemite is wonderful, particularly in fall with the beautiful colors. Unbelievable that the mountain El Capitan is just one block of granite. One of the largest in the world and one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.






Oct. 29 Hiking to Vernal and Nevada Falls in Yosemite Park (7 hours) from 1220 to 1830 m with thunderstorm on top of Nevada falls. Hiding under a big rock, waiting that the hail and rain stopped and made it back to the RV just about sunset.























Met the Imberts from Toulouse, very nice people and hope to see them in France.

To Monterey and Carmel (part 2)

Oct. 26 to Oct. 27 We visited Monterey where John Steinbeck lived and wrote his books like the cannery row, the street where the sardine canneries where and which was named after him in 1958.We saw the aquarium and the story about the city. Between 1930 and 1940 Monterey became the worlds sardine capital processing as much as 250 000 tons of sardines in the peak season. Then suddenly the sardines vanished in the mid 1950 and in 1964 the last cannery closed.




" Economic devastation settled in on Monterey's fishing and canning industries, ending it forever as Montereys major economic engine. Years of decline, disintegration, fire and collapse set in on a street that had no other immediate usefulness to a fish canning industry without fish. But the curious came. To see Cannery Row and experience its funky, ghostlike revival as a tourist attraction--due largely to the magic of the fame Steinbeck's fiction bestowed upon it. Today Cannery Row enjoys a commercial, historical and literary Renaissance as the major tourism destination in Monterey."






Unfortunately Linda lost her camera and there are no pictures from the nice city and beaches of Carmel. But we were lucky as we remembered having been in a Café in Monterey.
So we drove back and the camera was there as we left it hanging on a chair !

to Monterey and Carmel (part 1)

Oct. 25. On the way south we stopped at Woodside, about 40km from SF. Eric and Debbie lived here when we met them 30 years ago. We went into a very curious Café, full with all kinds of pictures and funny objects.

San Francisco

Oct. 23 visited Sausalito and went then over the Golden Gate bridge to SF.





























In SF until Oct. 24 with Eric and Deborah Stratmann which we haven't seen for 30 years !
They live in a house on top of Buena Vista Park with a beautiful view over SF

























new and old buildings together




University of SF


the town Hall

Linda and the monster pumpkin of 1200 lbs (600kg)


and the cable cars of course !

From the Coast eastwards to the wine county of Sonoma

Oct. 21 From Mendocino on Hwy 128 to Windsor CA






after a beautiful scenery through the wine country ----

We met our friends Nancy and Charles Richard in their beautiful house in Windsor, California.
Charles used to manage and work in his vineyard and still regrets that he had to sell it. He knows a lot about Californian (and other wines) and so we bought an impressing collection. And --wonder-- we got it through Canadian customs without a problem --

We also visited Healdsburg which is a very nice town and had a wonderful dinner in Santa Rosa.
Thank you Charles and Nancy !

The Avenue of the Giants to Fort Bragg

Oct 20. We continue on Hwy 101 to Weott, California through the Avenue of the Giants

After Leggett a very tiring driving with beautiful views through the forest with endless very tight curbs and ups and down in the mountains on California Hwy #1 we arrive at the coast.
Stay in Fort Bragg with an evening shopping adventure, bringing a lot of bottles with Californian wine in our backpack in a late night walk.
Tired but happy !
















beautiful coast

The Giants

Oct 18 Overnight in Mystic Forest RV Park. Nice Park, friendly people and met Bob McCray, a fishing guide, who offered us right away fresh and smoked salmon and Peter fixed his Internet connection.


This is the stump of a tree or what's left.














Apparently this tree has been cut with the chainsaw hanging over my head. It is huge !













and here is the tree phone



















A long walk (4 hours)through the Redwood forest and
the giant trees (we got almost lost !)














The highest tree is 112 m !













And there are more trees to come

from Umpqua State Park to Cape Blanco to the Avenue of the Giants

Oct. 17 ( on Hwy 101) Stop and hike on the Dunes at Horsfall. the Dunes are huge, see our small RV down right.

















The night a storm with up to 70 miles (110 km) was shaking our RV and the next morning we went to see the huge waves on the coast. The the wind and the road warnings about fallen trees did not allow us to leave before the afternoon.









Another lighthouse on Cape Blanco and a beautiful State park (space for the RV) nice walk down the cliffs to the beach.