Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

07 April 2008

Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area is a striking oasis just a few miles away from the interstate. Because it’s run as an environmental park, it’s a rich wonderland of woodland, river and meadow habitats with a lovely clear-cut nature trail.

I pretty much filled my hard drive up on this trip, and picked out several pictures to share in a photo essay. This is a wonderful time of year to be there–spring in full force, wildflowers everywhere, and no hint of the coming summer heat.

I stumbled upon the trail when I checked out the restrooms–the ones near the group camping.

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We also swung by the Eagle Pass area but it was a fee area and so we didn’t stay. After that it was pretty much a case of making our way slowly home. We stopped a lot and took breaks and dawdled, arriving sometime around ten in the evening. There isn’t much to report, really. (more…)

This morning I went for a walk on a trail that I’d seen when we were driving around, checking out the campground. The one thing lacking at these campgrounds is any sign with an idea of how long the trails are and where they go. It was a lovely walk which curved its way around multiple headlands like a snake, through grassy meadows speckled with wildflowers.

From time to time there were benches where one could enjoy the view and the sound of the wind blowing the grasses. It was definitely a very peaceful spot and the path was beautifully maintained and easy to see. (more…)

We hadn’t been able to enjoy much of it last night, so it was fun to discover a lovely view from our rig over Black Butte lake this morning. As with most Corps of Engineers property, this is a reservoir, but the man-madeness of this didn’t stop us from enjoying the bright blue water and distant mountains with their sugary snowy caps.

Our neighbors were interesting…one of them announced at the top of his voice that he’d gotten up at seven to take a shee-y-at. I’m still amazed that he managed to fit three whole syllables into the word. (more…)

So we spent an interesting hour looking around Rancho Tehama. There are dozens of plots of land for sale, some with houses and some without. It looks as though the place is expanding hugely or some statute of limitations ran out for not selling land. Either way, there are plots of land that would potentially work for what we want, but not without finding out more about the region, planning permissions, and other hidden costs. (more…)

Right now it’s 5pm and I’m in Rancho Tehama, which seems to be for sale. We’re in the parking lot of a closed real estate office which has, at a guess, about a hundred listings here. The one we are looking at is on the far side of town, and is cheap probably because it’s way out of the way. On the other hand, that’s pretty much what we want. (more…)

Don picked up Silver and took her outside. In the campground back in Lodi, she really seems to hate that and yowls so ardently that we bring her back in immediately lest we be accused of cat torture. Here, she perked up, made a few half-hearted complaints, then started looking at stuff. So, I put her in the harness and of her own accord she took me for a walk around the neighborhood. After two circuits of the rig, though she decided that enough was enough. (more…)

Don picked up Silver and took her outside. In the campground back in Lodi, she really seems to hate that and yowls so ardently that we bring her back in immediately lest we be accused of cat torture. Here, she perked up, made a few half-hearted complaints, then started looking at stuff. So, I put her in the harness and of her own accord she took me for a walk around the neighborhood. After two circuits of the rig, though she decided that enough was enough. (more…)

We’re at the Dunnigan Rest Area on I-5, somewhere in Yolo County. This is definitely the central valley, with fields and rivers as far as the eye can see–or at least, until the eye bumps into the distant foothills.

I was up at 7:30 this morning and everything pretty much went swimmingly until I ran out of gas. Typically I’m up before Don, allowing me to work, drink coffee and generally wake up. (more…)

It was past 4 when we finally left the exciting travel plaza parking lot, and headed down the rather pretty and scenic South Road which seemed to have at least three campgrounds all in a cluster. The one we wanted, though, was the Sacramento River State Wildlife Reserve, an “environmental” preserve and state park with natural grasses and no dump station and generally designed to be as close to its original state as possible. (more…)