Jun 22, 2015

Have had a quieter paced today which was welcome and have found it hard to take in the abundance of water and luxuriant growth after spending so much time over recent days in very dry and arid conditions where anything struggles to grow. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

　

A view of Mt Shasta across Upper Klamath Lake. Mt Shasta was out to our left as we approached Klamath Falls yesterday. Sorry about the power lines, couldn't avoid them without sliding on my butt down to the rail line and no way back after that.

The Logging Museum in the Collier Memorial State Park was a treat and apparently a lot of the machines were operating yesterday for Fathers Day, shame we didn't find that out earlier. We did a lot of daydreaming at the museum and felt very old. By the way family, Dad says you can put the chocolate in the pantry for his USA fathers Day so it's there when he gets home....Good luck with that I'd say.

　

This monster did a mammoth job before the days of hydraulics.

　

And an interesting shoe Sharen and Ken .. shoe? I thought it would be classed as a boot.

　

And a cute little bridge at the museum over a crystal clear fast flowing stream. Beautiful.

　

We visited the Fort Klamath Museum which was a bit of a disappointment really. This was a fort charged with keeping the peace between the new western settlers who came out on the Oregon Trail (which we followed on last years trip) with the resident Indians so a big job. It was once a fort of 2,000 men complete with a 100 acre vegetable garden and 50 buildings. It is now a large grassy paddock with a gaurd house (interesting but small museum) a jail (which isnt listed on the building list) and the little red post office (from Klamath Agency a settlment down the road a bit). Oh and a steep entry with a deep layer of large stones designed to tip people off their bikes which thankfully didn't happen. The poor little village of Fort Klamath was in a very poorly state also. Very sad. This is a view over the fence of the Fort Museum to Mt Shasta at which point Norm was ready to go.

　

Norm just out of jail. Ha ha,

　

We came back a different way in fact on the 'Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway' and this is a view from Norm's bike of the lush growth on the way to the Wildlife Refuge.

　

And through some of the National Forest which was beautiful.

A view back to Upper Lake Klamath as we headed back to the hotel.

And then on the shore as we continued.

Then we headed out the same way we had in the morning to gain a bit of height to take a shot of the lake and this is a contrast of some of the intensive farming with irrigation and the lake looking back towards Klamath Falls.

　

And a lava flow, one of many, on the hillside we had ridden up.

 

And a look out to Klamath Lake.

　

One of many eagles circling around the hillside.

Coming down from the eagles lair.

　

Another one bites the dust, literally and no Norm didn't drop it when he was taking a shot. My camera holder broke a strap on the bottom and it tipped upside down. I felt something brush my foot (my notepad) and looked down to see the holder upside down so pulled over and did a U turn and rode back until I saw the notepad on the edge of the road, the torquoise aluminium cover was a help so picked that up and walked back further and found the poor old camera right in the wheel rut. By that time Norm was back and we checked for the camera card and needless to say it was gone so walked back further again and found that in the middle of the road. Phew. Thankfully we had turned off the main road looking for a windy ride back to the town so we were literally the only traffic on the road. The joke is that when we replaced Norm's broken camera in Moab it only cost $130.00 and we joked later that we should have bought 2. Today we did buy 2, for $53.00 each! Probably helped that the shop was closing down. Exactly the same model as Norm's so no bragging about who has the better camera now.

Bits and Bobs:

Two signs I missed getting a shot of today which appealed to me were both in Klamath Falls, and then another quote from the shop in Truckee.

The first:

A credit Union called 'Rogue Credit'. Really? Wouldn't want my money in there!

The second:

On the city limits on the highway 'Unmuffled engine brakes not to be used within town limits'. Yes, finally a differentiation so responsible operators still have access to engine brakes.

Truckee Quote from one of the shops:

Every parent should have this tattooed on their forehead! Love it.