A Little Fall Color

We love the Sierra’s, both the eastern side and the west side. We love all seasons but a favorite is fall, we love the fall colors. So when we planned our trip, we thought we’d come down the 395 and see about shooting some fall foliage.

We got a late start on Tues and after a stop at Schat’s we consulted with the Forest Service. We took their advice and started north.

We’ve never been to Convict Lake so made that our first stop. It was nice but there were no groves of Aspen trees to walk into. The trees were mostly lining the road with a drop-off. Next, we went to Rock Creek Canyon. After the lake, the Aspens had already peaked. At the lake, the Aspens were in color, but there were not so many.

We decided to go to North Lake, a place we have been before. I’d read that above 9,000’ the color has peaked already and this was largely the case. There were trees lining the road up to North Lake in full color, but groves were difficult to get to. At North Lake some areas had color while many trees were bare.

The Road to North Lake

We did shoot some fun photos. We decided that it would be fun to take photos of us hugging each other within the grove. I got my running in using the camera timer.

This morning we went to South Lake, a place we have used as a launch for backpack trips. The drive was absolutely stunning. Trees in reds yellows. and greens lined the road up. We did find an area to shoot what we are calling selfies, with my big camera. Lots of hug and kisses selfies. I had other ideas for photos but it was way too cold!

Now to go thru all of these photos, not to mention 100’s of others and see what to post on Flicker and maybe even for stock!

Of course, I got a call to see if we are ready to go to work the hurricane. Projects may have to wait for another few months while we are off making money but we will see if there is work.

So we are headed home. We want to have the house in order and an idea of what we need to pack up in order to leave, either to work or more play.

Weekend in Fort Bidwell

We made it to Fort Bidwell in time for dinner, but it was dark out. We joined the kids in the “cabin” that Nate is building for the family. It is basically a large kitchen with a loft. The plan is to add a bedroom on the back side and have kids sleeping in the loft. Once he has the roof on and windows in, the room should be lots cozier for winter.

Friday was busy for all of us.

Nate and Bekki have 3 Icelandic sheep, unfortunately, with coats all matted up. Another friend has several sheep and she arranged for a sheep shearer to shear all of the coats.

The shearer, his wife and 4 kids came from Ukiah to do the shearing. I didn’t realize this, but shearing is the man’s profession. He shears for about 6 months of the year then has 6 months off. And of interest to me, the whole family is Gluten Free. So the sheep were sheared and then we all had a meal together.

On Saturday the local Northern Paiute tribe were celebrating Mount Bidwell Days. The tribe refers to the community as Mt. Bidwell, which is the Mountain behind Nate and Bekki’s land. This year’s celebration was to honor the “Survivors of the Indian School”.

The Indian School

Like many areas in the U.S., the Native American children were removed from their families and put into schools, in order to make them more like the western person. This is, however, a subject that is not for this blog.

The celebration started with a parade. The parade included 4 vehicles, a truck with an elder, a car protesting the North Dakota pipeline, a flatbed truck with drummers and singers and a car with a Native American movie star. There was a small group of dancers both adult and a young girl and 3 children followed the truck with the drummers. The parade wasn’t large and there were few people to watch, mostly Native American from the reservation.

The reservation has a community center, which held the POW WOW and festivities.

We went in the afternoon and watched some singing and dancing. Unfortunately, we missed the recognition of the Survivors. I would have love to have seen that.

Snow is falling on the mountains

A storm was coming in and it was freezing out, it was time for us to clear out. Our RV tanks were full, water and batteries empty. Time to find a warm RV park with hookups.