Cals Crew 2022 Kayaking

 The first morning of our family reunion Calvin and I went for a morning kayak and discovered that we weren't the first ones on the lake

We left the smaller boys in the shallow area and headed along the shore. On our way back we met the SUP contingent

Who found a good place to jump

And then we met the rest of the grankid flotilla enjoying the morning

The kayaks were in use all week until the last night, when they sadly were put away.

Bike and drive to Crater Lake days 3, 4 and 5

The best bike ride of the trip was from Mt. Shasta to the Oregon border.  The ride was on a safe road with rolling hills type scenery.  I spotted Calvin an hour lead and made it to the rendezvous spot at almost exactly the same time. A good bike ride road is not necessarily a fast driving road. We then drove to Medford for lunch and because we had a little time to spare we took a hike to the top of Upper Table Rock. It is billed as a 3.2 mile loop but it climbs 720 feet which made it seem a lot longer on the way up.  

This picture is looking east from the mesa. Mt McLaughlin is in the distance and somewhere in the rolling hills in mid left of the picture is where my 3rd great grandparents, Jacob and Hannah Myers finally settled in 1867 and secured a homestead after several decades wandering around the midwest.

 We spent Wednesday night in Medford and decided to move our visit to Crater Lake up a day to Thursday because snow was expected in Crater Lake on Friday. On the drive to Crater Lake we took a walk along the Rogue River Gorge which was spectacular.

This is a living tree stump.  The tree was cut down, but shared roots with a neighboring tree, so the stump grew new bark and is still alive.

There is really cool spot on the Rogue River where it actually falls into a lava tube and comes out a few yards downstream.  The water was high this time of year, so the river didn't actually completely disappear, but this is where it spews out of the lava taube

It wasn't snowing at Crater Lake, but there was plenty of snow on the ground and it was cold, so the bike stayed in the car.

We spent the night in a very nice B&B in Prospect, Oregon, which is really the only place to eat or spend the night in Prospect. 

The promised snow in Crater Lake arrived as rain on the next segment on the bike ride.  Calvin started out riding in the rain and rode about 15 miles on another very nice bike road, but I think he was happy to get off the bike when I caught up with him.

We stopped in Butte Falls to visit the falls.  I visited the falls on Calvin's last bike trip, but he rode another direction so he didn't see it.

From Butte Falls we followed the Volcanic Scenic Highway and made a short stop at Ft. Klamath Historic Site and on to Klamath Falls to spend the night. We made one last stop on our way home at Lava Beds National Monument to wander through a few caves.

These are not heavily visited caves and they warn you to take two light sources in the caves because they are really dark.  We saw the Ice Cave

Hiked a couple of miles to some less impressive caves with petroglyphs

And finished the day with a through hike of Labyrinth Cave.

Bike and drive to Crater Lake 2022 Day 1&2

 A few years ago Calvin did a bike tour of southern Oregon, but the road into Crater Lake was closed by snow, so he decided to try again. Last time he started in Bend, Oregon but this time he started in Reno. He left from our house and rode about 60 miles to the Nakoma resort where I met him and we spent the night.

Nakoma is a 1923 Frank Lloyd Wright design that was never built.  The resort developers decided it would be perfect for their Lost Sierra Resort and the original design was used to build the clubhouse in 2001. In the morning while Calvin rode to Quincey, I enjoyed a walk around the resort.

I met him at noon in Quincy, CA and we began the "drive" part of the trip.  There isn't really a safe biking road between Quincy and Mt. Shasta.  On our way west we saw a lot of burned forests.

We were close to Lassen Volcanic National Park, so we took a drive through to see some of the sights. Parts of the park were closed beacuse of fire damage from the 2021 Dixie fire, but many areas were untouched.

We were still in spring season in the park so the mudpots at the Sulfur works were still bubbling.

We stopped at Summit Lake for a short hike around the Lake, which had a green side and a burned side.

A huge crop of tiny dragon flies was just hatching as we were there. The shores of the lake were just sparkling with their silver wings.

Calvin stopped to count the rings on a tree stump.  He counted about 250.

Our stop for the night was in the town of Mt. Shasta. We have been here before but I am still amazed at how huge volcano Mt. Shasta looks from the town. Pictures just don't give the same impression.

New Mexico Road Trip Days 6,7 and 8

 We spent 2 nights in Santa Fe and then drove 65 miles to Albuquerque for our final night.  While we were in Santa Fe we took a local history tour and then wandered around the City Plaza for a while on our own. Santa Fe is steeped in history and art, so it is a fun place to visit.

San Miguel Chapel or Mission is the oldest church in the United States

The Palace of Governors is the oldest continually used seat of Government in the US. Native venders line the sidewalk there. A unique barred window used old gun barrels for the bars.

Loretto Church has a miraculous spiral staiway built without structural support

Settlement statue recognizing the contributions of the European settlers

St Francis Cathedral with its statue to the first Native American Saint 

Kateri Terkakwitha, a Mohawk dressed here in local fashion.

The Museum of Art

We arrived in Albuquerque in the afternoon and took a stroll along the Rio Grande and a drive along Rt 66 ending with dinner in an old diner on the route.

 

Our flight was not until 2 pm, so we made one last stop on the trip at 

the National Atomic Energy Museum

It was sobering to see how prepared the US has been during our lifetime to launch nuclear weapons