CAMPING WITH DAVE & JULIE, JULY 2008 - A PICTURE STORY
CAMPING WITH DAVE & JULIE, JULY 2008 - A PICTURE STORY
- CONTINUED -
But soon enough, we were all falling asleep so it was off to bed! Dave had set up their tent on a gorgeous little tent site, and they even had some super warm, heavy sleeping bags for us. Dave even went in there and zipped the two into one. Oh! And an air mattress too! Talk about comfy sleeping! If only Justin hadn't been snoring so damn loud, heheh.
I slept very well, way better than I had expected! I even brought some Nyquil with me in case I couldn't sleep, but there was no need for it. When we awoke, this was the view I had through the tent top and the tent flap.
Unfortunately, the view we had of each other wasn't quite as lovely... but you know, it wasn't so bad either.
Julie and Dave were already up and about with their coffee!
Justin hadn't gotten coffee yet, so he was still waking up. Joe was there to help him.
I took some pictures around camp as the sun was rising with an eerie orange glow from all the smoke in the air. I love the pine trees that are in Northern California... they're so much taller than the ones in the midwest. Very majestic.
These are some shots down stream.
The path to the mining area.
These are the garbage bags, hanging on the clothes line. You can see a cowbell between them. That's there to warn them if a bear is in camp and feeling hungry. When I had gone to bed the night before, I kept the camera and flashlight handy... there was a part of me that was hoping to wake up hearing that cowbell, but we never did. In all the years Julie's been going to the claim, I think she said they've only seen a bear once. But they keep their campsite very clean and neat, so there's not much threat of critters hanging around.
Julie started to cook some breakfast (and again, refused any help! Not that two of us could comfortably cook in that little trailer, heheh.) Bacon, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, toast. Delicious!
While she was doing the cooking, Dave and Justin had walked to the mining area and started a little work, so I walked over there to take them some treats and get some pictures.
These are just some shots up-river. It was so beautiful there. A nice little slice of heaven.
After that awesome and filling breakfast, and a little chatting while it settled, we all headed over to do some gold mining! Dave took a break from digging to show me how the mining machine worked.
Then he let me give it a shot!
I needed a little more guidance, but then I got it!
A shot of the hole they were working. Julie's father, and her grandfather before him, mined this very same property.
After several bucket-fulls, it was time to stop and see what there was to find.
Dave started looking through the little slots where the water sloshed through after the dirt and rocks were sorted out of it.
He showed Justin what to look for.
The puppies played in the water or cooled off in the shade while they watched their people work. Lola seemed perfectly content to watch.
Dave pulled out the rubber mats from where everything got caught in the machine and Justin took a few pictures of the pieces of gold that were stuck in them.
After that, it was time to pan! I was looking forward to this part, so I rolled up my pant legs and I headed into the river! I love being in water and this was my chance to plop on in!
Dave very patiently sat down on the dam with Justin and me and showed us the proper technique for panning. It's really not as easy as it looked. Like I told Justin on the drive home... it was just a few simple steps, there was no way to dumb down the instructions it was so simple, and yet I felt like the biggest dork for not being able to do it. It's clearly something that takes a "knack" and needs more than an hour of practice, but it was a lot of fun just the same!
Here's Justin, finding flecks of gold in his pan. Cinnamon and gravy! We were a-minin'!
Julie had tweezers and was helping me to remove the gold from my pan (that Dave had to do most the panning on because I couldn't seem to get the technique down right.) And yet they were sweet enough to send us home with the gold anyway! Right now it's in a plastic aspirin bottle, so it's hard to photograph. We're going to buy a little clear tube to put it in, and I'll get photos of that!
Alas, the afternoon was wearing on and we had to break for lunch (sandwiches and chips). Justin and I had wanted to leave between 2:00 and 3:00 so we could get back home in time to wind down a little, grab some dinner, and clean up before it was back to the work week for us. So after lunch we piled all of our gear into the back of the truck and we all headed back up the little hill to where we had parked our car. As I approached the car, I saw a print in the dust on the window! I looked at it, and initially thought a hand print, until I saw the weird downward angle it was at... as if something had been on the roof of our car.
I called out to everyone else, and the boys hurried over to look at it. Julie hollered for Dave to let her out of the back of the pickup, and she hurried over with us. Justin ooh'd and ahh'd much like I did until Dave goes, "That's just a human print." Boy, did I feel silly. It was only then that I remembered Justin had gone back up to the car the evening before to remove any food items from our vehicle so bears wouldn't get nosy. Duh. Heheh!
We all hugged and thanked each other. I told Dave and Julie that I would be more than happy to come back and camp with them. I didn't even get a single bug bite... and everyone else did! (I was also doused in Off.) Then it was into the car and back out on the road.
We thought it was going to be less smoky today because the camp didn't seem as smoky as the day before. Justin had started the drive, but like the day before when we were coming in, his leg started to cramp, so I took over. It was only shortly after I took over driving that we came to the fires on the hillside.
We had seen a lot of smoke the day before, but no actual fires. Today, there were fires.
Groups of firefighters were scattered on every little turn out that was alongside of the road, looking at maps, making game plans, pointing up at the hills.
I had wanted to stop on the way home at a huge fire camp we had passed the day before, so that I could get pictures of all the tents that were up, the little make-shift town that had been created for the hundreds of firefighters. When we reached that area, there were so many men around that looked dirty, tired, and very busy, that I decided it was better not to stop and take photos of them as if they were a side show. I didn't want to interrupt their work.
All in all, we had an amazing time! Our only regret was that we couldn't have made it a longer trip. We didn't even get to go into the swimming hole! What we'd really like is to be able to get more time off of work (which is nearly impossible for either of us) and spend several days out there with them.
