Trip Date: August 6, 2020
Find this SpotTwo previous trips to the property had been scuttled do to virus concerns and then because of the Gold Fire. I thought I had a good chance of getting Kristen up there until both the fire and Haley getting sick and not able to watch Beth while we were gone, doomed the effort. However, my sweet darling daughter Haley Lynne got together with my son Jordan to arrange for them and their significant others to come up to the property for a family weekend as a birthday gift. This was the chosen weekend.
Haley and I agreed on some meal planning and division of who’s bringing what, and to 1 day of work for 1 day of play. I felt I got the short end of this agreement, as usual, in negotiations with my daughter, but we literally have not taken a fun day since we have had the property, so one was long overdue. I was super excited to get Kristen up there (only her second time in 2 years!!!) and for the kids to be up there and Mikey, and to get some work done and…oh yea, to have some fun.
Come Wednesday we were still unclear about Jordan’s plan, but Mike was leaving early, K had to work in the morning, and Haley a little later into the early afternoon, but we would all be up there before dark. K and I arrived with a massive load of lumber, paint supplies, pumps, hoses, and 75 gallons of water. As usual, it was a stressful drive and a great relief to finally arrive. Mikey had just sat down after unloading and getting things settled. It was great to be up here again.
After a celebratory beverage, we unloaded, organized and set up the tent. We grazed a little on chips and snacks, but mostly just relaxed after a huge day to get here and waited for Haley and Brett. They arrived about 7:00 and quickly got to work setting up their tent and unloading. We showed them all the improvements that have been made since their last trip up and they were duly impressed. After a few more cocktails, the stars came out and they were spectacular. The Milky Way was screaming. The stupid moon was bright as hell too, but it didn’t come up until late, allowing for plenty of great star gazing.
As is almost always the case, the night and morning were super calm. We had a great morning with coffee, Haley’s eggy biscuits, fruit, and more coffee. The Western Edition proved itself immensely valuable, providing fantastic morning shade. We slowly transitioned to work mode, with Mike and Haley painting the trailer, and K and Brett helping me hang the new braces on the front and rear of the RV cover. It didn’t take long to learn we didn’t quite have the best tools.
Brett and I drilled and drilled until our arms were numb. We could just as well have been using a wooden drill. We just weren’t making very good progress. We got one arm up and the pilot holes drilled for the second, but that was all she wrote. We needed to move to another job, so the 3 of us went down to the shitter to put up the shingles on the West side. This was a job I had been fretting over for months now, so it felt good to have help and to finally make myself do it.
We moved the second water tank as the rain water collection system didn’t allow it to fill up. With it out of the way, K and Brett went at the shingles with great haste. I began just feeding them good shingles and away we went. In between, I hung a fly strip and picked up to splintered shingles lying around from previous efforts. Having started a little later in the morning, we were getting more sun on us than I had hoped, but they cranked and had most of the wall done before we broke for lunch.
We all gathered in the shade of the kitchen for outrageous sandwiches, beers, waters, fruit, chips, and Ibuprofen. Mike and Haley had done a great job on the ends of the trailer, but I really wanted to eliminate the red stripes and phony decals on it to help the whole thing just kind of blend in more, instead of looking like something that should be on a massive concrete used RV lot. They did another coat of the “Sage” color and then got to primering over all the color and decals.
Back at the shitter, K and Brett finished the shingles with the exception of the very top row of angles ones up against the heavy steel roof line. With the entire area cleaned up, they came up top to the trailer. We quickly got to decorating and “camouflaging” the North side of the trailer, facing the kitchen. It was great fun to just go for it and make some doodles that transformed into other drawings, which turned into newly shaped creations. Haley reluctantly went for it and soon covered a huge area with her unique brand of sketches. Brett was slow to accept the motivation of Haley’s creation, but soon he had made a huge contribution of creative artwork. K too was ultimately pressured into powering a roller and she quickly found her groove. Before long, we had something that we knew was very cool and the perfect affect we had wanted. It was a blast to be silly and free to draw and decorate and it really turned out great. What fun! K and I finished up with a few touches, painted the stabilizing arms to be mounted later, and then finally knocked off about 3:30.
We had accomplished a great deal of work fairly easily, in a very reasonable amount of time, and everybody still had all their parts and pieces. It was a great day.
After a celebratory beverage, K and I took the first shower ever in the trailer. It was awesome. Great water pressure, shower head, fan, no dust from being outside; it was just like being in a house. The shower stall was a little smaller than I would have liked, and the water leaked around the shower door, but all in all, it was sweet, and being clean felt great. We heard the propane water heater kick on to refill the hot water. The gray water was draining out the hose we connected. It all seemed to be functioning properly.
Mikey got the BBQ going, Haley and Bretsky came up after their naps, and we began the dinner portion of the evening. K brought a massive amount of Costco boneless skinless thighs and breasts and we had squash and tiny taters to cook in the cast iron. Mikey thought he might melt away if he didn’t have a steak at every dinner we had on the property, so despite having 4 pounds of chicken cooking, we added a massive steak. Meat is good!
We moved the BBQ on the East side of the kitchen and everyone gathered around in the shade and up on the Annex. We had a delicious dinner and finished up just before dark. The stars came out and suggested we try a practice run for the S’mores, not wanting to blow it when we had the whole gang together. So with the very last little embers from the fire, we heated up the Graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows into a treat fit for the gods. They were stunningly good.
Having planned his arrival for after the work day, Jordan called on his way up about 9:00 to say he was stopped in a long line of cars outside of Chester. He was contemplating taking an alternative route, not knowing why they were stopped nor for how long. I suggested they just stay put as it was probably just a construction site, and that any alternative route would take much longer than just waiting it out. Still being some 2 hours away, despite the concern about his car not being able to drive up the hill, I could not wait up for him.
Stuffed with food and drink, and exhausted from a great day, we headed off to bed. We heard the car doors opening and closing at some point in the night and assumed Jordan had captained his way up the rough road. We were very relived and turned off the phone. Sleep came easy and deep; although the stupid moon came on like a street light late at night. It was a perfect sleeping temperature and we took great advantage of it.
The morning was again calm and cool; just a beautiful beginning to another day on the Hill. Haley was already up and we greeted each other as only father and daughter can. We got coffee going and soon the others ambled in one at a time. There was great interest in the outhouse as our systems began working in earnest. Eventually Jordan rounded the corner onto the shady Western addition and we all hugged and celebrated his arrival. Mikey had decided to leave this morning so he was darting in and out gathering his things for an early departure.
Then, we got down to charting the day. We had decided on going up to Mill Creek Fall campground for a picnic, hike, and swim. We gathered food and drink, ice chests, picnic supplies, and gear and apparel for our adventure. We stopped at the Likely store for ice and to wonder through one of the last wooden floored buildings dating back to the late 1800’s. I was happy everyone went in to check it out, even though we had to wear masks and that made it a little weird.
On the way out of the parking lot, I was sure a guy I saw was our old friend Otis, but he was probably 20 years younger than Otis would have been. I hadn’t gotten that old, so how could he have? I chatted up a local that drove up on a 1977 Honda 250 with huge knobby tires and a shovel across his handle bars. He wore jeans, a plaid shirt, baseball cap, and high black rubber boots. He bought a single beer and enjoyed it in the shade of the front porch of the store.
I honked at Brett as he was backing out of the parking lot and we all got a good laugh. It got the attention of the 2 dudes sitting in the shade of the salon next door. One guy was a huge dude, wearing a tie-dyed shirt with massive black hair and massive black beard. He was strumming a banjo periodically and waving to all passersby. He was selling eggs from the back of a red flatbed pickup.
Next to him on the bench was Tom McDonald, the owner of the saloon. He came out to the truck to see if I wanted him to give Brett a citation. I noticed the door to the saloon was open so we struck up a conversation. He was remaining closed until he got a clear and consistent message from all parties involved in determining whether businesses should be open or not, or at least his bar. He was a super nice guy and chastised me for trying to shake his end instead of offering my fist or elbow, in the latest greeting tradition.
As we headed up County Road 64 along the South Fork of the Pitt River, I was excited as hell to be getting back up into this country. Jess Valley is beautiful and I brought my folks to Mill Creek Falls when they visited me in the Modoc in 1981. Bob and I had come alongside the South side of Jess Valley coming back from Blue Lake when we camped there way back on one of our property exploration jaunts. But the Falls are on the North side of the valley, and I had pretty specific memories of being there.
We had picked up Jenny’s daughter Eliana at the store, so she was chatting our heads off about her trip back East, and cows, and her cousin, and fishing, and family, and people, and school, and her cats, and friends, and…It was really fun to talk with her and have a child’s take on things. It made the drive to the campground pas especially quickly. We pulled into a site and broke out the grub and beverages. We had a great lunch, despite Kristen flirting endlessly with the forest service guy. Geesh. Hello, I’m right here!
With directions from the hunky firefighter to the trailhead that was literally across the road with a huge clearly marked sign where every person we saw went to that literally was within sight of where we were eating lunch, (but thank god we got directions), we ambled on up the trail. In 10 minutes it was already farther and steeper than I wanted it to be, but the guy I spoke with assured me it was a very easy trek. Sure enough, within a few minutes, we came to the fork in the trail out to the falls overlook.
It was pretty impressive. A good sized falls that dropped into a narrow rocky gorge some 100 feet below. We stopped for a good time while everyone posed for pictures in various groups. Although there may have been a route along the creek above the Falls, we headed back to the main trail and climbed a grueling 1/4 mile to Clear Lake that feeds the Falls and Mill Creek. Fortunately, we all made it; even Elle, who was losing steam with each step, until we saw the water. It was a sweet lake with a lot more shore than I expected. It allowed the many folks to spread out and not feel like we are on top of each other, especially since some folks were fishing, some swimming, some just splashing about throwing sticks for dogs. Truly a multi-use lake.
We found a great spot in the shade with a gentle rocky slope into the lake so there was minimal muck and sludge as you descended into the water. The temp was perfect; both air and water. I floated with beverage in hand out to a huge log that was partially submerged. Soon the whole gang had joined me and we had a great time just hanging out; the poo and spiders notwithstanding. Poor Brett got bitten by the spiders and the girls didn’t want poo on them, so I was left alone to explore the far end of the log and nearly impale myself on an ancient sun baked branch.
Brett took a few short swims demonstrating a sweet stroke my mom would be proud of, Elle squawked and squealed about this and that. We took turns soaking and sharing a beverage, even though I was the only one to bring beers. I mean really?#@!## Have I taught you nothing!!!??? The gang was ready to go a tad sooner than I had hoped, but it was time. We had another little snack and refreshment at the campsite. Brett was coercing people into throwing the football, and tossing his disk Frisbees around, and then finally a group “keep-away” session. It was super fun. With no more fire guys for my wife to flirt with, there was nothing left to do but leave.
We stopped at the Likely Store to grab another bag of ice and headed back to the Hill. Everyone was feeling good with the days events thus far, and it just sort of carried us into one of the best nights of my life. The bar was open and business was brisk. Jordan and Brett were pouring concoctions. The grill was going, the tunes were great, we were all together. It was just perfect. The steaks and the potato/vege brew were perfect, and we did our best to devour our maximums. Somehow, there was still some open space for S’mores.
This time we got to it sooner so there were great coals left. I just got out of the way as the looks on their faces and the gleam in their eyes, and the activity level around the grill was more than I could handle. The boys kept me hydrated and the girls kept me in S’mores. Brett dialed up Modest Mouse for the feeding frenzy and then The War on Drugs for a little mellower evening cruise into the Milky Way. Both were perfect choices, setting, or perhaps matching the tone of the times. I texted Mike to ask him about the blazing Jupiter and Saturn in the Southern skies.
The orange glow on the Western horizon was most impressive. The kids were out taking pictures at the cocktail lounge and the rocky ledges below and Elle was helping as only she could. It was just a special feeling up on the property with everyone in a great groove. Soon the entire sky was alight with twinkling stars. Everyone saw shooting stars and satellites, and oohed and awwed at our glorious solar system. I wanted the night (or really me) to last as long as possible, so I built a little fire in the corral and everyone gathered around and mingled in and out of the circle.
I was so stuffed with food, drink, and love, I couldn’t standz no more, so it was off to bed for us. I wish I could have stayed up longer as Georgy called out from putting Ellie to bed as we were heading off, but I was done. As bummed as I was that everyone would be leaving in the morning, I was overjoyed at what a great day and night we had had.
The night was super warm and temperature regulation was complicated by the skyrocketing alcohol content. Although other people’s drinks had somehow fallen into my hands and may have been added to other peoples drinks that had fallen into my hands, and some of those drinks may have been of differing types of booze, I did not feel the effects I could have. Coffee, water, eggy biscuits, fruit, and the reality that Haley and Brett were heading out soon, got me right as rain. Tim and Cindy came up for a brief visit and it was great to have them meet everyone. Cindy gave us some home grown zucchini.
Jordan helped me haul the cabin pieces up to the build site and Jenny helped Kristen clean up and pack everything that was going back with us. It was a huge help. They probably headed down the road in the little Civic about 12:30. K and I just about immediately got naked and cleaned up in the wam water from the jugs sitting out in the sun. It was glorious to be clean and in clean clothes. We probably headed out about 1:30. We cruised Susanville to the far end to hit Maccadonado’s and then head West. We got stopped in the traffic control outside Chester that Jordan and Jenny experienced, but otherwise had an uneventful air conditioned ride home.
Thank you children. What a great gift! I hope we have many more great time up on the Hill.
Hart Hill, A Child’s Gift Photo Gallery
