I asked DH to leave the highway so that I could try and find a state historic landmark that was supposed to be in the area. We went the way I thought it was, I couldn’t see it, and things looked dangerously tight. So we turned around, and went the other way instead, down a pretty lane called Sims Road.

We found Sims. What a lovely surprise!

The road wound down through woodland to a USFS campground, Sims Flat; we’d had no idea it existed. It was right beside the river and, for that matter, I-5, though you’d never know it from down there. It was very peaceful, as though the trees and water simply reflected the hurry-hurry bustle of the road back at itself.

An old steel bridge stretched across the Sacramento river. I noticed right away that it seemed to have a plaque, and was delighted to find that it was the first major project of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a 160-foot suspension bridge built in 1933. There used to be a trading post and stage stop here, owned and operated by one Simeon Southern. It was also stop one on a little walking tour that circled the nearby Sims Campground.

The CCC was set up in the Great Depression to give unemployed young men something worthwhile to do.

I left DH to go play on the trail. It skirted the river for a while, and the beautiful sunny day made the Sacramento River gleam.

An osprey flew right overhead. My first osprey sightings were in Boat of Garten in Scotland, where the birds were incredibly rare. Here, they seem to have a healthy population, or maybe it’s just the places we go. ;)

They are magnificent.

The next stop on the trail was a rusted old water tank that used to supply the local lumber mill.

The trail led down to the river, and I sat in this silent and peaceful spot for some time, looking at the glassy water and breathing in great big lungfuls of the green, mossy aroma.

The lumber mill was a jumbled pile of masonry, taken over by ferns, bramble and moss. It was still possible to make out a couple of rooms, but it was a very small operation!

Next up? The intriguing Camp Sims. From 1934 to 1939, it used to be a camp for the CCC workers. Now, all that remains are a couple of flights of uneven stairs, edged in stone; the marker says that some of the original stone-lined paths are still there, but I couldn’t find any.

And then…pop! Out I came into the sunlight, back to DH and Harvey the RV. A train trundled by and I, along with some kids, rushed up to see it pass, and pass, and pass. It was rather long!

Don had not been idle! I found him with the satellite dish set up in the parking lot. This meant that for an amusing hour we were able to surf the web, and I was able to look up where the original marker I’d sought was (on the other side of the freeway, so we’d been going in the right direction to begin with). It was alongside old highway 99, now more of a frontage road to I-5, which is going the same way as route 66 only without the preservation and fuss.

I was very glad we got lost. :)

Tags: 200807_roadtrip, bridges, campgrounds, civilian-conservation-corps, I-5, Landmark-Hunting, shasta-county-ca, shasta-trinity-national-forest, sims-ca, usfs-campgrounds, walks

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