Solo Full-Time RV Life - Crescent City to Redding, California

Drinking old fashioneds with my sister

Parked at Lighthouse Cove RV Park

The clear and calm weather forecast when I arrived in Crescent City turned out to be quite optimistic and, instead, the week I spent visiting with my sister ended up being quite rainy. This area can have ferocious winds and, luckily, they held off for 6 days and I was able to enjoy very nice, although wet, outings with my sister. She recently moved into a newly built home which was fun to see. We took a 3 mile hike through an old growth redwood forest on the Trail of Titans. Taking my truck was a good call because the 6 mile road in from Hwy 199 was very muddy from all the rain with huge potholes that would have had a car bottoming out. There were lots of rushing streams, babbling creeks and the trail went along the tranquil Smith River as well. Redwood forests are very quiet, still and peaceful. They have an ancient, mystical feel with deep colors and a rich, earthy nourishing smell. Gorgeous. There is nothing like walking through the majestic redwoods. (I've washed my truck 3 times since driving through the redwoods and there is still mud visible, oy.) We also took many coastal walks with our cameras along beaches and marshes. Unfortunately, there was far too much rain to get the trike out again.

Good morning, Crescent City. View from the RV window.

Overlook at Requa outing

Beach and surf

I checked-in and paid for a week at the Lighthouse Cove RV park. The forecast turned stormy for my last day and warned of at least 50 mph winds overnight starting at midnight. This RV park is right on Crescent Harbor which has no protection from the wind. Usually, I try to park into the wind to blunt the worst effects. Unfortunately, the winds in Crescent City always shift 180 degrees during storms and this method of parking is futile. I talked to a couple in the next site who have a trailer similar to mine asking if they knew of the impending storm. They didn't know about the winds, thanked me for the info but were not at all concerned. The only precaution they would take is to make sure their slide was in.  Not only were the winds going to be 50 mph my last night but the next day, when I planned to move on, the winds were going to be 30-40 mph. I wasn't thrilled about either prospect of trying to sleep through 50 mph winds or driving in 30-40 mph winds while towing a trailer. I decided to forego my last night and pulled up stakes a day early. 

Fishing baskets - not sure what kind though

Crescent beach panorama at low tide

Trail of Titans

Fragile moss in the rain

Mushrooms growing on a redwood log

Titan's trail

Video of Trail of Titans hike

My friend Bev's sister, Sue, recently moved to Eureka and I plotted a route south to take Hwy 299 over to Redding. We made plans to meet for coffee at the junction with Hwy 101 where I would turn eastward. In the morning, as I was packing to leave, I noticed my neighbor on the other side was also hitching up. He and his wife were leaving because of the impending winds. He was driving to Redding and was concerned that he had to take Hwy 199 instead of Hwy 299. He said a section of Hwy 299 is closed for wildfire repairs and there is a 4 hour detour around this closure. Oh boy and if I hadn't talked to him I wouldn't have known about the closure on Hwy 299 until making the turn which is a 1.5 hour drive south. Hwy 199 starts just north of Crescent City and this meant I couldn't meet up with Sue. Bummer and we'll definitely have to do it the next time I come through the area.

Good night, Crescent City

I've taken Hwy 199 numerous times. This is the quickest road to go from Crescent City to Portland. The first 15 miles are treacherous through the Jedediah Smith redwood national park. There are often deadly crashes on this road. Personally, I think the posted speed limit is too high. There are places I've driven in my sister's Mini Cooper that I couldn't keep up with the speed limit. Imagine towing a trailer or driving a logging truck? I know this road well enough to keep my speed only as fast as I feel comfortable. I expected there would be more cars and trucks because of the Hwy 299 closure but, luckily, traffic was light. I pulled over anytime it was safe so faster driver's could pass. Once through the redwoods the road straightens out just before crossing into Oregon. Hwy 199 does a loop into Oregon before joining I-5 at Grant's Pass. It's important to be very aware of the weather conditions on I-5. The pass over the Siskiyou mountains can get buried in snow and chains will be required. Today, it was windy and overcast but, thankfully, I didn't need to worry about snow too. In Medford, I stopped at Costco to fill up saving more than $1/gallon before crossing back into California. 

Route on Hwy 199. You can see the closure on Hwy 299 and detour

I had made a reservation at a Harvest Hosts golf course in Redding, Gold Hill. Harvest Hosts is a web based subscription service for RVers. The idea is that properties offer a safe place to spend the night in exchange for members supporting the business. There are 3 levels of membership. The basic level is for most of the properties all over the US with even more in Canada and Mexico. The next level up includes golf courses. Harvest Hosts recently merged with Boondockers Welcome and there is a membership that includes all the properties available. This is the membership I have. Membership for all properties is $130/year and includes wineries, breweries, museums, farms, boondocking in people's driveways and golf courses. There are thousands of locations. Rarely are there hook-ups or services available and you are expected to be self-contained. Usually you can only stay for one night but there are exceptions especially with the Boondockers Welcome properties.

 

Even though I don't play golf, I love staying at the courses. They are quiet, have large parking lots that are level and easy to turn around in, beautiful scenery for walking and golf courses are also well known for good food and drinks. I typically will eat a meal or have a cocktail enjoying the scenery. This was the 1st time I stayed at a property that didn't have a requirement to buy something. The woman who responded to my request to stay even invited me to come into the club house in the morning for complimentary coffee. I parked by the practice course and had a view of a beautiful grove of oak trees.

Nice and quiet place to park for the night

Parked at Gold Hills golf course

The next day I moved to another Harvest Host golf course just 4 miles away, Tierra Oaks. This course felt more upscale than Gold Hill. Again, the scenery was fantastic with level parking. Tierra Oaks is in a gated community and the gates are actually closed and locked over night from 10pm until 6am. I never go anywhere that late so I had no problem with it. I spent a very quiet and restful evening there. In the morning I saw a flock of 50 wild turkeys and followed them to see what they were up to and watched them fly over a fence into the trees. That was cool. There were lots of birds flying all around my trailer. At both golf courses I couldn't spend any money because the weather was too poor. Without golfers, they didn't open the restaurant or bar. No one seemed to mind and I had a terrific stay at both courses. For anyone RVing regularly, I highly recommend Harvest Hosts. It's a heck of a bargain and you get to stay at beautiful and interesting properties that are off the beaten track.

Wild turkeys at Tierra Oaks

Beautiful golf course to stay at

Parked at Gold Hills

The 3rd morning in Redding, I went up to Shasta Dam with my trailer. There was lots of rain as I drove. I wanted to check out some boondocking spots. The real reason I was hanging around Redding was to, hopefully, ride my trike on the Sacramento River trail. I had been here a year ago and really enjoyed this trail. It is truly spectacular. As I was driving, I saw some road pull-outs that were noted on the boondocking phone apps but I wanted to find a place to stay for a few days.  I ended up at the Shasta Dam visitor's center and pulled in. They have a nice exhibit with an informative 20 minute video describing the construction of the dam. This dam is really an engineering marvel. Lots of complicated pieces of equipment needed to be invented just to make the construction possible. Shasta dam is directly responsible for turning the central valley into the agricultural powerhouse that fueled much of California's growth to becoming the 5th largest economy in the world. I also talked to a security guard who told me I could extend my trike ride from the end of the bike trail and take a road up to the top of Shasta dam and actually ride over the top. From the visitor's center you could see the road that goes from the trail to the top. Pretty cool!

Lake Shasta

I wasn't finding boondocking spots that would be comfortable to stay for a few days and drove back into Redding. I pulled into a RV park that I stayed at last year - Marina RV Park. The reason I wanted to stay here is I can ride from the park to the Sundial Bridge and the start of the bike trail. Even though the park is in a beautiful location right on the Sacramento River, it's not a great park. Everyone is crammed together parked inches apart on asphalt. I got really lucky because they only had one spot available for a smaller RV and mine fit. This is probably the least expensive park in the area. They charge $35.60 per night for full hook-ups. A lot of the parked RV's are old and run-down. The monthly and yearly rates are probably quite cheap. The last few summers, this area has seen brutal wildfires that burned through entire communities. I'm guessing some of people living here are wildfire refugees who lost everything. I felt perfectly safe and was grateful my neighbors didn't have yappy dogs. The park is under new management and the wifi worked well for this visit. The front office people were very nice and helpful too.

Parked at the crammed Marina RV Park

The weather was still rainy but looked to clear in a couple of days. I checked in for 3 nights so I could do the ride on the Sacramento River Trail to the top of Shasta dam. I was very excited to see how extending the ride would be. The road up to the dam looked to be quite steep. To be able to ride my trike across the top of a dam was something I couldn't pass up.