Driving through the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range never disappoints. It is such a beautiful and varied landscape with mountains, creeks, rivers, lakes and valleys. If it wasn’t October and getting cold, we could spend months out here and just scratch the surface of all the beautiful places. It is getting colder, and we do not want to be here when the snow starts. We will be making our way south very soon!
We made it to Logger Campground just north of Truckee, CA and just 30 or so miles west of Reno, Nevada. There were very few people there when we arrived, but there were a lot of squirrels! Murphy loved being able to run free and chase them all over the place.
One night during our stay Aaron decided he wanted a glass of milk. When he took the milk out of the refrigerator a dozen eggs came out with it. Of course they broke all over the rug we have down. So, we cleaned it the best we could and went to bed. The next day I took the carpet outside and put it on the picnic table to make it easier to scrub. I put the dog on his runner (if one of us is outside he wants to be out there as well), and got to work. Murphy started barking and growling. I did not look up I just told him “Leave it!” as that is the command we are training him with to get him to not bark at every person or dog that walks by. He would not stop. I finally looked around. There was a pretty big black bear walking about 50 yards away. Luckily, he was ambling away from us. Of course I did not have my phone on me or my camera. Aaron came out of the trailer in time to see it ramble away, but by that time is was too far away for us to get a picture.
It was time to do laundry and grocery shopping, so we decided to check out Reno, Nevada. It was very close and neither Aaron or I had ever been there. We took the dog, so no casinos (this time). We did drive around and sight see and have lunch while we were there. It was Saturday, and Saturday should never be a chores only day!
We found a dog friendly Pub that had a food truck serving brunch. We also realized that gas was cheaper in Nevada. We paid over six dollars a gallon in CA. It is crazy when $5.15 a gallon seems like a deal. But that a small price to pay for our journey and experiences.
We were a bit alarmed when we got back to the national forest and saw the smoke behind our campground. Luckily, it was a prescribed fire (a controlled burn) and it was not going to affect our last night at Logger. The campground was closing for the season Monday. The campground host invited us to stay Sunday night, but we had a reservation in Emigrant Pass, just an hour south, for the next week. It was time to pack it up and start our slow move south.
We were very close to where the Donner Party was trapped for the winter. If you aren’t familiar with the Donner Party, they were on The Oregon Trail and got stuck for the winter. They turned to cannibalism to survive. Usually they consumed pioneers in their party who had died of natural causes, but they did kill two Native American guides for food as well. We will probably be back to actually explore Donner Lake and learn more of that story.
We made it to our new destination, which happens to be close to Crystal Lake (Friday the 13th is coming up). I wonder if we will run into Jason…hopefully not!
I also wonder where we will end up for Halloween! Hopefully not with Michael Myers…Happy October!
Wandering Cindi 