Overland Camping Roadtrip Blog
Travel Day 48:
Total km driven to date: 9073km
Total km walked to date: 365.40km
Lassen Nat Forest – Shasta-Trinity Nat Forest
197km drive
6.07km on foot
Today our journey took us out of the mountains, across the central valley and back into the mountains. We are heading west towards the ocean and followed Hwy 44 until it turned into Hwy 299 at Redding. We had a quick stop for supplies in Redding and it was hot, 40* today so we got out of there as quick as we could. Shortly after leaving Shasta we saw the beautiful Whiskeytown Lake/Recreation area so we stopped for a swim, the water was warm, the air was even warmer it was a gorgeous spot for a quick dip to cool off. Then it was climbing up into the mountains of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, we got stuck waiting for road work for about 1/2hr and then had to drive through a 20mile stretch of them widening the road as it wound up into the mountains. The result of that was instead of a nice leisurely drive once we passed the road work we were in a huge mess of cars that all went through at the same time. Not too fun but as the road climbed up to about 3000ft it cooled off a bit. There was firefighters everywhere since there was lightening last night that started a bunch of forest fires and more lightening forecast for tonight. Hwy 299 follows along the Trinity River for miles and we eventually found a turn off near Big Bar (population 28) and a little campground in the woods on a small creek that was so basic there was no fee, only 3 spots here it was about 3pm at the time and 35* so we set up on the creek and went and sat in the water since it was nice and cool. This if forest that reminds me a lot of home, there is even Arbutus trees growing here, including maple and pine and fir so aside from the heat its much like camping at home. Gone are the sequoias on this side of the central valley. We took a long hike up the creek which is actually quite enjoyable since unlike at home there is no green slime on all the rocks so they aren’t slippery at all which makes walking easy with an expensive camera in your hand. We also walked down the creek to the Trinity River and it is much warmer but larger and faster flowing, Axel doesn’t have much experience with current so it was funny watching him try to figure out why his stick kept taking off on him. Tomorrow we might push all the way to the coast which is about 100km away, but I might move further east and stay in the mountains for one more night before we go check out Redwood National Park.
