TR: Northern Cali Gems

anu,
Fine travelog here. It's always instructive to see places we've been to through a pair fresh eyes. Wonderful pix, too. We've been to every locale you visited except the lake near Mammoth. No. Cal. is our hood, so we've taken advantage during the decade we've lived here.
We camped at Patrick's Point in May and were surprised at how pristine it was. Only a small section was open so it seemed like a little group campground with very friendly people. Truly a gem.
regards, as always, jefe

I lived in Eureka during the eighties and I probably camped at or at least visited every beach north of Fort Bragg. Gold Bluff is one of my favorites but I go back to Patrick's Point every summer. I have been to every place you've listed. What a great trip!

joeshmoe wrote:
what happened to the A/C?

oh, and we tried to book a spot at that place near malibu you recommended. couldn't get anything, so we ended up at rincon parkway.

nice pics btw. thanks.

LOL, that is an old pic of Wolfy 1, didn't have time to get the A/C installed because I bought it in October and in flew out of my truck in December!

Yeah it is virtually impossible to get reservations during the summer, you pretty much have to plan 6 months in advance which is a something we don't do. My wife literally clicked refresh for 4 straight hours every 15 minutes to get Yosemite for 4 nights!

what happened to the A/C?

oh, and we tried to book a spot at that place near malibu you recommended. couldn't get anything, so we ended up at rincon parkway.

nice pics btw. thanks.

Beautiful trip, I've been to a few of those places, linking them together is Epic!

Lovely pictures. Thanks for the report.

Steve.

Thanks for the description and pictures of how you transport bikes on the front of your truck. You gave me some ideas and I may try it.

Ah Patricks Point, Trinidad Head and Redwoods State Park were my favorite haund in the early 80s when I was a student at Humboldt State. I climbed Mt Shasta from the McCloud side and did the Fall River Mills century ride while staying at the McCloud Hotel. You hit most of my frequent places to go on your trip. I grew up in Socal hitting Josh and Anza Borego and the east side of the Sierras then I moved north in 78 and stayed. I love that fact that once you get out of LA and SF California is for the most part empty of people and beautiful if you look.

Extremely jealous...will add your Lake trip to my bucket list. How cold does it get in Nov?

thanks for all the replies, here are some answers to your questions

getpower1:

"Oh yeah! The inflatable Kayaks...how do you like those things? My girlfriend and I were thinking about picking a couple up a few weeks ago, but decided against it for now. We are kind of afraid of the quality and that they will literally be rubbery like an inflatable boat, and flex an awful lot when you move around in them. Not to mention fishing from them may be advised against. Does the material seem to be thin like I described, or do they get pretty firm when inflated?"

I was very apprehensive about getting them because I have had plastic as well as fiberglass nice touring kayaks that we sold. I bought 2 of these clicky and 1 of these clicky all three of the kayaks fit in my low pro Yakima roof carrier. These boats seemed to get the best reviews for the $$$. The single INTEX kayaks are great, and do get stiff when you blow them up. For $70 these are a great deal and worked very well for our trip. I definitely would recommend them. One of the pains with them is trying to get the water out of the boat when you are finished kayaking.

wgriswold:

"I have a question related to your truck and bicycles. I want to take bicycles on our trips and am interested in how you load them on the front of your truck."

we have some pretty expensive bikes and I tried to use a regular bike rack on the front but the bikes blocked my vision while driving so I used my cargo tray and screwed a fork mount to the side and used a rocky mount bike tray, which I cut in half + a zip strap. take a look at the pics.







It works out well with 1 bike and I should probably put a second bike on there but I have been using a rear bike rack with a swing away. The only thing on the rear bike rack is the rocking movement as you hit bumps on the road.

This is how I resolved the rack from bouncing up and down on all the potholes

I use my Torklift wobble stopper. Torklift may have a new arena to sell their products as this virtually eliminates the bike rack from any movement while driving.




mellow:

"My kids about the same ages and are driving me nuts fighting over sleeping space in my current camper, do you have the optional bunk in yours? How does that work out?"

Yes, the optional bunk is a must. In our family everyone needs there own sleeping space. Brett who is 8 has the top bunk, and Brenna on the bottom.



bka0721:

"what was your daughter reading? It is so wonderful that she is reading discovering the world around her too, through books."

Yeah she is beginning to turn into a book work for sure. On our trip she was reading through the Harry Potter Series. She is also starting to write a book for kids on camping :)