Thanksgiving dawned sunny and warm. Which was wonderful, they had predicted cloudy.
View when I got up. John relaxing outside while smoking the Thanksgiving turkey breast.
Sue slaving on a new basket. 4 and a half inches tall and 6 wide. It won’t get bigger, I am just going to finish decorating the top.
Blue, blue sky and yellow sycamore leaves. John out riding so he can eat more at dinner.
Riding with the big oaks and sunset.
We went south of Red Bluff and toured the olive oil, wine country. This whole area is orchards, primarily walnuts, plums, almonds and olives.
We went to Lucero Olive oil in Corning . These are some of the varieties of olives grown. They are big, they look almost like grapes. Lucero is only one of the area’s oil companies.
The Lucero olive oil tasting bar. they also have balsamic vinegar tasting too, but they do not make the vinegar, they import if from Italy. I had no idea there were so many kinds. The olives are delivered here. They are crushed pits and all in the blue thing below the sign, then put in the big silver tanks below and centrifuged. Some go through another step called polishing to remove more impurities, then they go into the big vats in the cold storage room to the right. They sit there for about 3 weeks to let the sediments settle out, then they are bottled.
This is where they are bottled. Here is an olive orchard. The trees will continue to produce good olives for up to 100 years.
We found this giant olive in front of one of the orchards. After the olives we went to The Abbey of New Clairvaux vineyard in Vina, Calif. It is a Trappist Cistercian monastery. They grow plums, walnuts and grapes. They are half owners of the winery. The winery was first owned by Leland Stanford in 1881. When he owned it , it was the largest winery in the world. He started Stanford University, and on his death the vineyard when to the university. The Trappists bought it in 1955.
Sue and John in the tasting room. Out front is the Chapter house they are are rebuilding. It was built in Spain between 1190-1220 at a Cistercian monastery . William Randolph Hurst bought it in 1931 , disassembled it and shipped it on 11 ships to San Francisco. He was going to rebuild it at one of his properties, but never got around to it, so he donated it to the city of San Francisco to put up in Candlestick park. They never got around to it, and the monks here spent the last 40 years trying to obtain the stones. They are now reconstructing. When complete it will include a reception room, display area and archival library. It will be protected from the elements by an outer building. They call it the Sacred Stones. This is the front of it.
A window inside the protecting building with the vineyards behind it. The inside is these fabulous arches.
This is the outside building over it. The vineyards.
Back at camp there were some really cool clouds right before sunset, but they kind of dissipated at sunset. The Nutalls woodpecker decided she liked our bus today, she was flying at it and pecking on the windows.
We reserved the Thanksgiving week at Sycamore Grove Campground, Red Bluff recreation area.
Our campsite among the sycamores. There is a nice long bike path there. I lived in the California bay area till I was 12 among the oaks and golden grass like this. I love this climate.
Sycamores of Sycamore Grove at sunset. Grand old oak backlit on the bike path.
The temperatures are in the high 60’s, low 70’s. Sunny, no wind. It is wonderful after the coast. I soaked up sun and started another basket. I seem to have lost all vestiges of my tan on the northwest beach. Canada geese flying over head, digger pine cones, sycamore leaves and fruit. This little ruby crowned kinglet has been swooping at the bus all day, pecking the window. We also had a white breasted nuthatch doing the same thing, they must see their reflections in the windows. The birds here are nice enough to sit still long enough so I can look them up and identify them.
This diversion dam is behind us on the Sacramento River. In the summer they lower the cement things and it makes Red Bluff Lake behind us. They have a fish ladder for the salmon and trout and they have underwater TV cameras so you can watch them. But now the lake is gone, the fish ladder and cameras closed. Sunset on the Sacramento River.
Woke up to sunshine again. In the afternoon when it reached 71 degrees we hiked to Brandy Creek Falls.
On the road to the trail head we found this fire. They had done a prescribed burn and a couple hot spots were left, this one was weird because it was a hole with smoke coming out of it, looked like a fumarole in Yellowstone. John called it in and they were aware of it. So we headed up and started hiking. 1.5 miles each way, straight up 500 feet, then back.
The lower falls. Then more up along a very steep, narrow canyon.
First bridge. Then one fall after another with autumn leaves.
More falls and the canyon got tighter. Falls bigger.
Until we reached the upper falls. Wow.
Falling water with bright leaves.
On the way back we saw another bear. This one was coming up the trail. It glared at us, it didn’t want to go around. John yelled at it and it took off running uphill, then watched us go by. These two small black tailed deer were in the campground when we got back. We still have the campground to ourselves. Very nice.
We left the coast today and headed east over the coastal mountains past the Trinity Alps wilderness to the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation area. We were as high as 3300 feet. The high peaks here are 6000-8000 feet. Mt Shasta is just north of here at 14,162 feet. It is just west of Redding, Ca at the head of the the central valley. 120 miles, a long day for us.
Willow Creek. Seemed to be a Bigfoot area. There was a Bigfoot museum, but it was not open, Bigfoot Motel, Bigfoot café, etc. The mountains through the windshield. There were some behind them that had snow on the top. We figured the snow covered ones were the Trinity Alps.
Digger pines. Their needles are at least 10 inches long. May have to gather a few. Weaverville is an old mining town with historic looking downtown. This whole area was part of the gold rush.
Whiskeytown Lake is a reservoir just west of Redding. A tree in the visitors center parking lot with red berries on it.
The road went over the dam. We think this may be the first time we drove the bus over a dam. The bus at the Brandy Creek RV campground. The campground is on asphalt , no restrooms, tables , hook ups or fire grates. It has a dump station and a water source, but they are turned off for the winter. With winter rates and our senior discount it is $3.50 a day. There are bears here, so you have to keep your food inside and no tent camping. We are the only campers here. Very nice. We saw a bear this afternoon. A very big, very healthy looking cinnamon black bear who ran when he saw us.
The bus at the campground. You can see the lake just below the bus in the last photo. The oaks have some fall color to them. It was 70 degrees today, and sunny all day. We have left the dark side and fog of the coast.
Brandy Creek. John sitting in the life guard chair at the beach.
Whiskeytown Lake. I put the basket in the oak leaves to photograph, but it just blended in.
Don’t these acorns just look like the peanut blossom Christmas cookies with the chocolate kiss in the middle. They are huge acorns of the canyon live oak.
