CAMP HOSTING AT PIT RIVER CAMPGROUND

Turnoff from SR-299 - Burney Mountain in the background:











Pit River Campground is located about halfway between Redding, California and Alturas, California, approximately 5 miles west of Fall River Mills on SR-299. Take the turnoff for Pit 1 Powerhouse Road and follow the signs for the campground, approximately 1 mile.

We had stopped at this campground last fall on our way back to Quartzsite for the winter, and liked it. At the time, the BLM had just finished an extensive restoration project at the campground, putting in new sites with new gravel, tables, fire rings, and pit toilets. There happened to be a BLM employee at the campground when we were there, and we had a chance to talk to him. He told us that they were going to have a camp host for the first time starting the spring of 2005. Later, when we'd made the decision to try volunteering, we thought of this campground. I did some checking on the Internet to find out which BLM office was responsible for this area of California (turned out to be Alturas), emailed them telling them we were interested in camp hosting. It didn't take too long to receive a reply!

This was really a perfect campground for our first hosting experience. It's a small campground -- 7 campsites plus 1 group site. There is also a day area with fishing, a boat ramp and swimming. There are 2 pit toilets which were pretty easy to keep clean since they were brand new. We took great pains to keep everything in the campground clean and garbage picked up. We figured that if we did so, the people who came to camp or use the day area would respect the campground and do their part to keep it clean. For the most part that work, with the exception of a few slobs that are always found in any group.

Our campsite at Pit River Campground:











Besides fishing in the Pit River (Earl got a yearly fishing license), Fall River Mills (a town about 5 miles from the campground) has a 5-star golf course (where Earl golfed every Monday...Seniors day), hospital, grocery store, restaurants, and other shopping. In addition, Burney is only about 15 miles to the west and also has a grocery store, restaurants, and shopping.

The campground is located in a riparian habitat of pine, oak, and ash trees. The campground itself is mostly made up of oak and ash trees with the pine trees, for the most part, at slightly a slightly higher elevation. We had lots of birds at the campground, and of course, they were busy building nests and having young ones during the month of May! We identified 26 different birds in or around the campground (some we saw only in the air flying over the campground):

Bald Eagle
Osprey
Red-Tailed Hawk
Canada Goose
Black-headed Grosbeak
Turkey Vulture
American Dipper
Mourning Dove
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
House Finch
Tree Swallow
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
Northern Mockingbird
California Quail
Yellow Warbler
American White Pelican
Acorn Woodpecker
Nuttall's Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Western Tanager
Anna's Hummingbird
House Wren
American Robin

We started out with 2 hummingbird feeders that we'd brought along with us, but had to end up buying 2 more larger feeders because we had so many Anna's Hummingbirds! They were lots of fun to watch!

Anna's Hummingbirds:












One day I was sitting in the RV and happen to glance up at one of the feeders and noticed several hummingbirds flying around something that was hanging from it. I went outside to see what it was, and it turned out to be a baby hummingbird, which had apparently just left the nest. Guess he didn't know that when another hummingbird came along to chase him away, he was supposed to let go with his feet and fly off...instead, he hung on and turned upside down! I gently pried his little feet from the feeder, and held him in my hand for probably a minute or so before he flew off to a nearby bush.

Baby Hummingbird I rescued:











And then we had a little House Wren who was bound and determined to build a nest on the small ledge on our awning! It must have been a young House Wren that was inexperienced in nest building, because she would just lay twigs up there, but never in any order. After a week or two of trying to build a nest there...and sitting on the awning arm singing her little heart out...she finally gave up.

It rained most of the month of May...so much rain, in fact, that the day area flooded. Although the Saturday that we arrived at the campground was the beginning of the fishing season, the campground was pretty quiet during May because of all the rain.

Pit River at normal level:

Pit River at flood level:











Even with all the trees around our campsite, we were able to find a hole for both the TV satellite dish (used a portable dish on a tripod, not our roof-mounted one), and for the Direcway satellite Internet dish, so we were able to keep in touch with what was happening in the world, and with friends and family while we were at Pit River Campground.

The water pump in our RV went on the fritz...it would pump water, but the motor would continue running even after the water was turned off. We ordered a new pump from Shurflo, and replaced it when it finally got there (took nearly a month to get since it wasn't sent out when it was supposed to be, and then wasn't sent according to my instructions).

We found a few good restaurants to eat at in both Fall River Mills and Burney. In Fall River Mills, we had lunch many times at Hal and Cathy's Cookhouse, a B&B with a small restaurant attached. Excellent soup and sandwiches! The best pizza in FRM was at Slam Dunk Pizza next to the laundromat, and for Mexican food, we found La Cocinita to have very good food. In Burney, we enjoyed the Main Street Cafe for breakfast. On Earl's birthday, we had dinner at the Pit River Lodge located next to the campground...excellent food, although on the pricey side!

We did make a couple of trips to Redding while camp hosting to do shopping at Costco. Each time, we'd go into Redding on SR-299 and come back on SR-44/SR-89 which goes by Lassen Volcanic National Park...beautiful drive!

Speaking of trips, we did take a few day trips while we were in the area. The first one was the Cassel-Fall River Road from Fall River Mills south and west to Cassel and then north back to SR-299. Then we took another loop road to check out a couple of campgrounds listed in Don Wright's Guide to Free Campgrounds. Again, we started out at Fall River Mills and drove a portion of the Cassel-Fall River Road. We turned east, though, on Cinder Cone Road, north on CR-111 (Pittville Road), through Pittville, and back out to SR-299. Our third day trip again started at Fall River Mills, this time on Dana Road (CR-A20) north and west through Glenburn and Dana to SR-89. On this trip, we also drove the road which goes around Lake Britton and stopped at Burney Falls State Park to view the Falls.

Mt. Lassen:

Burney Falls:















We did discover mice under the hood while the Lazy Daze was parked at the campground! We probably never would have known except for the fact that Maxx was sniffing intently around a tire, underneath, and around the front. So I lifted the hood and saw 2 mice! We quickly bought a few traps and kept one under the hood with peanut butter on it. I don't know exactly how many mice we caught while we were there, but it was probably around 10 or so. Fortunately, they didn't eat through any wires or hoses!

In July, Pit River Lodge had a car show with probably around 130 old cars. We went over, had lunch, and walked around looking at all the old cars. This is, apparently, an annual doing here.

We had a couple from Germany stay at the campground while we were there. They had shipped their Class A over from Germany, and were spending a year touring Canada, the USA, and Mexico. Their Class A was quite different looking than what US Class A's look like.

We also had visits from several Lazy Dazers...most of them stopping only for a while to visit while passing through the area: Joe Hamm came by in May for a short visit; Art & Barbara Berggreen, and Bob & Di Filler stopped by on their way to Alaska; Steve S also stopped by for a brief visit; and, last, but certainly not least, Lorna Dunham stopped by and spent several days at the campground, and we had a great time visiting!

Finally, the time came to leave. The Friday before we left, Claude Singleton, the Recreation Planner at the Alturas BLM office (and our supervisor), David McKirahan (the civil engineering technician and the head guy for the reconstruction/restoration of the campground), plus two other BLM employees took us out to lunch as Hal & Cathy's and presented us with a plaque.

APRIL 2005

While at the LaDeze get together, I woke up one morning with a spot in my right eye. When I returned home, I made an appointment with the eye doctor to have it checked out. He checked to make sure I didn't have a detached retina (I didn't), and told me that spots often happen to people as they age (getting old is a bummer, but I guess it's better than the alternative).

We took the Lazy Daze in to RV Lifestyles to have an Extend-A-Stay put on, and bought a 30-pound propane tank. The Extend-A-Stay will allow us to use this extra propane tank while we are camp hosting instead of the on-board tank. This way, when the extra tank is empty, we can take it to be filled instead of having to drive the Lazy Daze to the propane station (the propane tank in a motorhome is not detachable like it is in a fifth wheel or travel trailer).

Rich Lechner, the Lazy Daze owner who we'd visited last year in Greybull, Wyoming, came by for a brief visit one day. His wife's parents live just a couple of blocks from us, and he had come down to take them back to Wyoming for the summer.

We busied ourselves with preparations for leaving Quartzsite for the summer: filled out a mail forwarding form at the Post Office (not much to forward, as most of our mail goes to our South Dakota address); contacted both the newspaper and the electric company to cancel service; and, stopped by the police station to fill out a vacation card (they come by to check the house, doing a walk around the house and property). On the day that we leave, we put up solid insulation in all of the windows, fill several large containers with water and set them around the inside of the house, close all the drains -- and for those we can't close, like the shower drain -- we fill a large freezer bag with water and put it over the drain. We also put plastic wrap over the toilet bowl and tank. We then turn off the propane tank, the water to the house, and the electric at the box. After locking up the shed, house, and the big drive-in gate, we're ready to take off.

We left Quartzsite on Monday, April 18, and headed toward Phoenix where we did shopping at both Sam's Club and Costco. We stopped by the Barnes & Nobles in Litchfield to pick up the last two books of Peter F. Hamilton's sci-fi series: The Naked God, Part I: Flight, and The Naked God, Part II: Faith. We then walked over to the El Paso Barbecue for lunch with Mom.

After lunch, we headed north on US-60, picking up US-93 in Wickenburg. We spent the night at the Burro Creek BLM Recreation Site south of Wikieup. This is a very nice campground, one we'll probably come back to in the future. The camp host pointed out Blue Herons across Burro Creek that were nesting in the cliffs, which surprised us, as we would have thought they'd nest on the ground. We saw a total of three Blue Herons...according to the camp host, one was a breeding pair, the other one was a daughter "in training" from a previous hatching.

















The next day, we continued north on US-93, stopping in Kingman to fill up the Lazy Daze with gas. Before getting to Hoover Dam, there is an inspection station where all vehicles must stop to be inspected prior to crossing the dam. There is a new bridge being built over the Colorado river just downstream from the dam which, when finished, will alleviate the need for this inspection stop.

Since we were planning on spending the night at the Las Vegas Bay Campground in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, instead of going into Las Vegas, we turned off onto Lakeshore Scenic Drive just shortly after crossing the dam. This road goes north along the western side of Lake Mead, and avoids the traffic in Henderson and Las Vegas.











The next morning, we got up early and headed to the Camping World in Henderson where we had a Steer Safe Stabilizer put on the front axle.

We also had the oil changed -- BIG mistake. We'd misread the sign that had prices for oil changes, and instead of the $30-something we though it was (for a pickup), we ended up paying over $82! Camping World charged us as a motorhome despite the fact that the Lazy Daze E-450 chassis doesn't take any more oil than a Ford pickup...for which we would have paid the lower $30+ figure (the larger Class A motorhomes *do* take more oil) What ripoff...particularly considering the most we'd paid for an oil change previously, was just around $32! Well, we've learned our lesson -- no more oil changes at Camping World!

After getting through at Camping World, we headed back east on Lake Mead Parkway, and then northeast on Northshore Scenic Drive to the place where we were planning on spending a couple of days so that we could tour Valley of Fire State Park: a free BLM area on either side of SR-169 about two miles north of the junction of the road that goes into the state park. This area is on a plateau, and has a great view of the surrounding countryside.













The next day, we toured the Valley of Fire State Park, stopping to see The Cabins, the Seven Sisters, and taking the scenic drive up to the White Domes.
































































The Valley of Fire derives its name from the red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs, 150 million years ago. The uplifting and faulting of the region, followed by extensive erosion, have created the present landscape. Prehistoric users of the Valley of Fire included the Basket Maker people and, later, the Anasazi from the nearby Moapa Valley. The valley was occupied from about 300 B.C. to 1150 A.D.

On Friday, April 22, we continued north on SR-169, picking up SR-168 at Moapa where we stopped to fill up the Lazy Daze with gas. When we got to the junction of SR-168 and US-93, we headed north on US-93 until we got to SR-375, the Extraterrestrial Highway, where we headed northwest to Rachel. We stayed at the Little A'Le'Inn (get it...A'Le'Inn, as in "alien" on the Extraterrestrial Highway). This is a restaurant, bar, motel, and RV park whose claim to fame is their location near the infamous Area 51...the walls were covered with pictures of UFOs that people from around the country had taken. RV parking is $12 per night -- full hookups, although when we were there (4/22), the septic system was on the fritz so it was just water and electric. You can have an "Alien Burger" in the restaurant with their "special alien sauce" (don't bother...it's just a hamburger on a French roll and the "special" sauce is 1000 Island dressing...it was OK, but Earl's chili size looked better!) The proprietress of the inn was very friendly...she was probably the most interesting part of the place. It was a fun one-time experience, but if you're into aliens, go to Roswell, New Mexico and take a tour of their UFO museum instead.















The next morning, we had breakfast at the Inn, and then continued northwest on the Extraterrestrial Highway until it's junction with US-6 (which is where it ends) where we headed west to Miller's Rest Area about 10 miles west of Tonopah. This rest area has a large, flat area where RVs can spend the night...18 hours, I think is the stay limit. It has a dump, fresh water, and a great view of the White Mountains.

On Sunday, we headed back into Tonopah to get gas for the Lazy Daze and do grocery shopping. We then headed north on SR-376 to US-50 and Austin, and continued north on SR-305. We spent the night just south of Battle Mountain at a BLM campground called Mill Creek Recreation Area. This is a nice campground which we'd probably come back to in the future...IF it's not raining. As it was, it HAD been raining, and the roads were muddy, so by the time we came back out the next morning, we were filthy...mud was caked on the Honda several inches thick! We stopped in Battle Mountain to put gas in the Lazy Daze and have breakfast. We were going to wash both vehicles there, but Battle Mountain didn't have any place to wash them, so we drove on to Winnemucca. All we really did at Winnemucca was to wash the worst of the mud off...we didn't take the time, or the money, to do a thorough wash job.

After washing both vehicles, we stopped by Wal-Mart to do shopping, and then went on to Winnemucca RV Park, where we spent the night. We did laundry while there, and had dinner at the Model T Coffee Shop.

The next day, we left Winnemucca, heading north on US-95 until we got to SR-140 where we headed northwest to the Virgin Valley Campground in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge.

Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge protects over 900 square miles of wildlife habitat in the northwestern corner of Nevada. It is home to large herds of Pronghorn, California Bighorn sheep, wild horses, and burros (none of which we saw while there). Although established for the protection of wildlife and habitat, the refuge encompasses the remains of old homesteads and ranches, fire opal mines, and geothermal warm springs...which are piped into a pool at the Virgin Valley Campground. While this area is dry now, ten thousand years ago, lakes, marshes, creeks and large springs were abundant, providing ideal sites for native villages. Forests also grew here, as evidenced by petrified logs found on the refuge. The Kidutokado band from Surprise Valley and the Tsoso'odo Tuviwarai band from Oregon both used the area.

The refuge was established in 1931 when the Audubon Society and the Boone & Crockett Club purchased over 34,000 acres of the Last Chance Ranch and was designated a National Antelope Refuge. In 1936, over 540,000 adjacent acres were set aside and the two areas were combined into one National Wildlife Refuge. Two years later, resident Franklin D. Roosevelt started the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to curb Depression-era unemployment. Over three million young men enrolled during the CCC's nine years in operation. Over one thousand of these men served at Camp Sheldon between 1936 and 1942. These young men graded roads, erected fences and telephone lines, built cabins, dug ponds, and essentially created the infrastructure that still serves the refuge today. In fact, at the Virgin Valley Campground where we stayed, you could still see evidence of the cabins that once existed at the site.

When we first arrived at the campground, the camp host told us about a drive we could take to view the Thousand Creek Gorge. While the road may not technically be a 4-wheel drive road, it would take a vehicle with high ground clearance. The view of the gorge was really fantastic, and well worth the drive!













After spending two days at the refuge, we left on Thursday, April 28, and headed for Alturas where we would spend the night at Sully's RV Park. First, though, we stopped in Lakeview, Oregon to get gas for the Lazy Daze and have lunch at the Happy Horse where we had great soups and sandwiches!

Once we got set up at Sully's RV Park (which was listed in the Escapees Discount Directory as offering 15% off to Escapees members...NOT!), we went to the BLM office and met Claude Singleton, the BLM Recreation Planner, and the person who had hired us. We also met the Ranger, Carman Prisco, who will be our main contact at the campground. We were given some supplies, including the hats and T-shirts we will wear.

The next day, before heading out to the campground where we will camp host for the next three months, we had breakfast at the Black Bear Diner, stopped to get Maxx dry dog food at the farm supply store in Alturas, got gas for the Lazy Daze and did grocery shopping. We arrived at Pit River Campground early in the afternoon and settled in.

On Saturday, we cleaned the bathrooms (which had been opened up earlier), and Carman came by to bring more supplies, including a Honda 3000 generator. Even though we do have an on-board generator, using the Honda will mean that we won't have to use the gas out of the Lazy Daze's gas tank...which would mean that we'd have to occasionally break camp to drive the rig to fill up the gas tank.

MARCH 2005

On the 4th, Lazy Daze owners, Tom and Yaeko Johnston spent the night at our place on their way to Mexico. We had met Tom and Yaeko last year at the Northwest Lazy Daze group's get together when we parked right next to them at the RV park in Sisters, Oregon. They also have a red and white Twin/King model like ours. We all went out to dinner at Taco Mio.

We took the Honda in to the Ford dealer over in Blythe for an oil change and tire rotation. We also had a filter change done in the Lazy Daze that was part of a recall.

One of our neighbors, Joyce, was thinning out the cactus in her yard, and offered us some. We planted them, and hope they make it through the summer...they won't have a chance to get as well established at the other cactus we planted shortly after returning to Quartzsite.

I had my eyes checked and ordered new glasses. They ordered the progressive bifocals (the kind where you can't see the line) that I hated! I tried them for a couple of weeks and could never get used to them, so they ordered regular bifocal lenses for me.

On the 16th, we left Quartzsite early and headed for the Lazy Daze Caravan Club's get together being held at the Stagecoach Trails RV Park in the Anza Borrego Desert. We stopped in Brawley for lunch and did grocery shopping at Von's before arriving at the RV park. This was the first Caravan Club get together we've attended, and we had a lot of fun. There are people who go to every single one, but we probably won't go to more than one or two per year.

While at the get together, we took a trip into Julian where I bought a purple T-shirt with a picture of a red hat on it to go with the red hat I'd purchased previously. This in preparation for the LaDeze (women Lazy Daze owners) get together at LaPaz County Park north of Parker.

On Sunday, we left the Lazy Daze get together, and headed for the Escapees Spring Escapade being held at the Imperial Valley Expo Grounds in Imperial, California. While there, we did shopping at Costco and had dinner at Applebee's. We also had dinner at Lucky Chinese Restaurant with Ken and Debbie Toth, George Bruzenak, and Lloyd Triechel. We had a King Dome satellite dish installed, bought a Grill Guard (which Earl really likes...well worth the money), and joined Passport America. We also saw friends we haven't seen for quite a while: Ron & Anita Wilson, and John & Barbara Ragland (all New Horizons owners).

The Monday after returning from the Escapade, I took off for Parker and the LaDeze get together. As I mentioned earlier, the LaDeze is only for women Lazy Daze owners...no men allowed! The first night, we had a wine tasting and Lorna provided dinner. We had several presentations throughout the get together: tires, how to change the side mirrors, traveling to Mexico, an art lesson, gadgets, etc. I gave a presentation on traveling to Alaska. We also had dinners every night...from Lorna's dinner on the first night, to a potluck one night, and a brunch another day.

FEBRUARY 2005

We put our name back on the list for a lot at the Escapee park in Sutherlin, Oregon. We'd had our name on the list before, but had taken it off when we bought the lot in Quartzsite. But we've decided (for now, at least) that we probably won't want to stay in Quartzsite year round when the time comes that we either don't want to travel, or can't. Although it does get cool and rainy in Sutherlin during the winter, it doesn't get really, really cold and it's comfortable in the summer. It's also close to the Interstate making it easy to get to the places we like to travel the most. It will probably be six years before our name makes it to the top of the list.

We received a call from Claude Singleton from the Alturas, California BLM office to confirm that we will, indeed, be hosting at Pit River Campground near Fall River Mills. We were originally going to camp host during the months of August, September, and October, but Claude said he'd probably need us for the months of May, June, and July instead.

One of our satellite receivers bit the dust, so we went by the local satellite dealer to purchase a new one plus a wireless router for our satellite Internet system. I later ended up returning the router, because in trying to install it, the program asked me some questions I didn't know the answer to, and I couldn't find anyone who could give me the information...the people at Satellite Advantage, where we bought it, were of no help whatsoever!

Ron and Donna Monroe came by for a visit on the 13th, and the next day we went out to visit them where they were parked out on BLM land.

Earl went to the doctor in Blythe to get a renewal of this prescription for Pravachol. The doctor had a whole bunch of Pravachol that he gave Earl for free...enough to last almost a year!

We took our Averatec and our Toshiba laptops into Sue Sites in Blythe for repair. There's not much they can do for the Averatec since it's the screen that's going bad, and to have that repaired would cost more than it's worth. We took a trip to Yuma to purchase a new laptop since we can't rely on the Averatec to last much longer...and I like to have two laptops available to have one as backup. We were originally going to buy another Averatec at Sam's Club, but they were completely out of stock. So, after doing some shopping there, we stopped at the Staples to get an Ethernet PC card that we could put in an older HP laptop we have. It turned out that Staples was having a sale on a brand new HP Pavilion laptop for less than $600, so we ended up with it!

We were planning on going to the Lazy Daze Caravan Club's get together at the LaPaz County Park north of Parker. But, the day it started, we had a real doozy of a thunder and lightening storm, so we decided not to go.

JANUARY 2005

Earl took me to Silly Al's for pizza on my birthday. Pizza is not on my diet, but it was my birthday after all!

On the 7th, Frank Hall, a new Lazy Daze owner from Wichita, Kansas, spent the night at our place. We all had dinner at Taco Mio.

We took a trip into Phoenix on the 10th to do shopping at Sam's Club, and had lunch with Mom at Chili's.

On the 13th, we went to our first -- and last -- Q Mountain Homeowner's Association meeting. It was a total farce! First of all, it was very disorganized. One of the purposes for the meeting was to elect new officers, but instead of sending out a list prior to the meeting of all the people running, with a short bio of each listing their qualifications, they asked for nominations from the floor! We had absolutely NO idea who anyone was. The meeting was so mishandled, that I doubt we will ever go to another one!

George Bruzenak came by one day for a visit. George is a New Horizons owner who we meet a few years ago at a New Horizons Owners Rally. One day we went out to where George was parked with the LOWS (a singles RV group) to visit him and, on our way back, we stopped to visit Jo Jones, a Lazy Daze owner, who was parked with the WINS (another singles RV group). We had never met Jo, but she had just recently picked up her new Lazy Daze (her second), and had posted to the Lazy Daze Yahoo Group that she would be in the area. We had a nice visit with her.

On the 15th, we loaded up the Lazy Daze and drove out to the BLM land east of town where the Boomer's Boomerang was being held. The Boomers are an Escapees Birds of a Feather group, and the Boomerang is an annual event usually held around the same time as the big RV show here. We had a good time out at the Boomerang...Gisela and Bill Pollock had us to their rig for dinner one night (friends with whom we traveled to Alaska in 2001), and we got to see many other old friends and meet new ones.














We spent a week hanging out with the Boomers before returning home. One day, Ron & Donna Monroe, and Richard & Sarah Shong came over to our place, and we all walked over to the RV Show, walking around to see all the "stuff" for sale, and having lunch at one of the vendors.

One night, we had Ron and Donna over to our place for dinner, and the next night we had Richard and Sarah over for dinner. We could have had them all over for dinner at the same time, but our table only has space for four people, so we had to spread it out. We had a really nice visit with both couples.

Ken and Debbie Toth (the couple who bought our New Horizons and Freightliner), came over one day for a visit, and we went out to lunch with them at Taco Mio.

On the 29th, Alex and Brenda Rutchka, new Lazy Daze owners from Charlotte, North Carolina, spent the night at our place in their new motorhome. We were going to take them to our regular haunt, Taco Mio, but it was really crowded, so we ended up having dinner at the Snowbird Cafe. It's the first time Earl and I had ever eaten there, but we had the best fish and chips we've found so far in Quartzsite. In the morning, Alex and Brenda treated us to breakfast at Taco Mio. Later that afternoon, Lazy Daze owners Sarah Blackwood and her husband Pete, stopped by for a brief visit.