Our Maiden Voyage in the new MH

Josh,

How was the bridge over the river to reach Coloma Resort? When you get a chance, walk down to the bridge and check it out from below. OTOH if you do that, you might not leave  ;D

I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about Coloma. It's not a high-end resort, but worked out well for us when we had our grandson along.

Day Seven

We departed Burney for Mt Shasta in the morning with dark clouds in the sky for the first time during the trip. The forecast was callig for rain during the day and thunderstorms at night. My wife and I were excited because we would finally get the chance to have some rain and check the integrity of the new MH for any leaks. We started north on Hwy 89 the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway towards Mt Shasta. The tall green trees appeared in every direction we could look. The road condition was excellent and the traffic low to make travel much easier.

We jumped on the I5 North for about a ten minute drive then exited at Mt Shasta. When we arrived at the town of Mt Shasta the weather was just beautiful with low lying clouds all around us threatening to dump some rain on us but still holding back. The temps in town were low 60's so I knew it was going to be cold when we reached the top. We pulled over in a local high school parking lot to use the restroom and grab snacks before begging the long climb. The climb on the mountain road was steep, windy and narrow which made me a little nervous at times when oncoming traffic approached. There were some points on the road that I just wouldn't look at the white line on the edge of the road because it was a sheer dropoff to who knows where it would finally stop. When we arrived at the top (For driving) there was a large open parking lot for us to park in. We had planned to dry camp there for the night then we stepped outside to take some photos and it was absolutely freezing. We still considered staying the night while we ate lunch and I called my dad. ;D A few minutes after speaking with my dad it began to snow, and we are talking massive flakes. My daughter and I went out and played in it about ten minutes then my wife and I noticed it wasn't slowing down and it was beginning to show signs of sticking to the roads. Well, at this point we decided it may be a bad idea to spend the night here because we didn't want to find ourselves stuck on top of the mountain.

Well, needless to say we got back in the MH and drove back down the mountain then started looking for a campground to stay the night. We stopped at a couple campgrounds in the Lake Shasta area that were a little dismal so we moved on. We finally came across the Shasta Lake RV Resort and they had two sites available for one night which was perfect for us. The road to get there was very narrow windy and the sites were tight with some low hanging tree branches. The campground was nice and right on Shasta Lake overlooking the Holiday Harbor Resort and Marina. There was a group of RVers parked next to us from Oregon that had a lot of kids for my daughter to play with and the guys played a game similar to horseshoes by throwing small sandbags at a hole on a wooden box.

One thing to mention for this day was we didn't really have the big rain or thunderstorms that were predicted in the forecast but we did get a little sprinkle that I guess is better than nothing. This was also the first night I had to close the windows and put the comforter on while sleeping at night because it got really cold at night.

Tom said:

Josh,

How was the bridge over the river to reach Coloma Resort? When you get a chance, walk down to the bridge and check it out from below. OTOH if you do that, you might not leave  ;D

I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about Coloma. It's not a high-end resort, but worked out well for us when we had our grandson along.

Click to expand...

Tom,

The bridge was a little tight but in good condition. The staff are really friendly and they guided us to our parking spot then we noticed there wasn't a dump station at our site and he drove me over to the dump station in the golf cart so I would know where it was. We found a large log this morning at our last campground and brought it with us but it is too big to fit in the fire pit so their staff came by with an ax and they even cut it for us so we can burn it in the pit tonight. One thing I was hoping for here was to rent a small boat but they don't offer rentals here. We will get out to the town tomorrow to check it out and see what it has to offer. Our site is about 200 ft from the bridge so we have a good view of the bridge from here.

Day Eight

Started off the day with a nice one mile jog around the marina and resort and through a trail, I didn't realize how steep the hills were until running up them, I'm not the youngster I used to be anymore. :'( Many of the other RVers in the campground were heading to the water for fishing and skiing, these appear to be the two biggest things happening around there. After eating breakfast we pulled out and drove up the road about a mile to the Shasta Lake Caverns store. We arrived at the store just 5 minutes before the boat was pulling out so we purchased our tickets and ran down to the boat. The boat ride was about a ten minute ride across the lake then we took a ten minute ride to the top of the mountain in a bus. The bus ride was on the edge of the mountainside which was quite scary as a passenger. The temperature inside the caverns is always around 58 degrees year round which was just perfect. Each of the rooms the tour took us in was just breathtaking and an adventure that you just have to take if you are in the area to understand. I really can't think of a way to describe it other than amazing beauty. The tour lasts approximately two hours and is worth every minute. I will say this much, if you are weak and can't walk hundreds of steps upward then this tour isn't for you. I was worried that my 4 y/o daughter would tire and I would have to carry her but she walked the entire tour so I was quite impressed.

We left the Shasta Lake area a little later in the afternoon and I found a campground at Beale AFB. This was a FAMCAMP so we called and they had availabilities so we began our drive. I setup my GPS but unfortunately once we got close it sent me to the north end of the base and sent me in the middle of an empty field with no entrance to the base. We finally called the campground and the lady gave me directions and said that GPS is jammed in the area and that everyone that has come there had to call her for directions because there GPS sends them to the empty field on the north end of the base. We drove about twenty minutes on the base before we arrived at the campground but when we arrived we were depressed about the setting. The base is really spread out and the campground is in the middle of an empty field next to a small pond, which is also located between a GPS jammer and the airfield. Nedeless to say, all we did was walk around the campground, to the pond then back to the MH and played family games together. Well, we can't complain totally it did only cost us $15 for the night. 

Day Nine

We all woke up late, ate breakfast then quickly departed the campground, filled up the gas tank then off to the town of Yuba City to hit up the local Wal-Mart to replenish supplies. Before leaving Yuba City we stopped at Home Town Buffet and loaded our bellies before our long one hour drive to our next campground. The one good thing that did come out of our brief visit to Beale AFB was that we were informed about Camp Far West Lake just to the southeast of Beale AFB. The day use area was filled with all sorts of water sports extraorinaires with their nice boats, jet skis and whatever else you could possibly think of in the water. The water was a little cold but my daughter and I still spent some time swimming. I noticed she was shivering after we were in the water about 15 minutes so I asked if she was cold and and she answered no daddy I'm not cold while the goosebumps are forming and the teeth are grinding. There were only four campsites being used for the all night stay so the evening was quiet and pleasant. We went out looking for wood to build a campfire just before it got dark so this turned out to be an adventure in itself, I believe we walked over the entire campground before we finally gathered enough firewood. We were finally able to have our first own campfire at our site together and it was so much fun. My daughter had a blast burning the marshmallows then handing them out to my wife and I because she didn't like the taste of them after they were cooked. Me on the otherhand, well I know I ate at least five S'Mores then I stopped counting after that.  ;D

Looked at your blog but it hasn't been updated since the first day of your trip????

Day Ten

We spent the morning at the Camp Far West Lake campground hiking around the site and spending time feeding the squirrels. The weather was so beautiful with a nice cool breeze coming in off the lake. The lake was nearly empty compared to yesterday, I guess that has to do something with most of the population having to work today. There were a handful of people using the day use area so this made the walk through the area peaceful.

We finally left around 2pm today for Coloma. We only drove about 50 miles but it took an hour and a half due to all the curves in the road and some steep inclines along the way. The drive from Auburn to Coloma was quite interesting with some really tight turns in which some were nearly 180 degree turns making turning a 30ft MH a little more challenging. I found myselft pulling over several times to allow traffic behind me to go by since it was taking me a while to get up the inclines and it appeared that many of the cars getting stuck behind me were from the area and flew by and were gone quickly around the next corner. We finally arrived at the Coloma Resort and had to drive across a single lane narrow bridge and the UPS truck at the other end of the bridge pulled over and allowed us to pass first.

The staff at the Resort were really nice and helpful. The first thing we noticed after we parked was that there wasn't a dump station at our site, the staff employee said they have a central dump station so we had to drive back over there to dump our tanks. After we returned to our site we pulled out a large log we picked up this morning at the last campground and our ax broke so we couldn't cut it to make it fit in the fire pit. The staff came by and provided an ax and the staff member even chopped the log for us. The back end of our MH is parked about 50 ft from the river which is really nice and relaxing to hear the water running. The campground also provides small canopies to add some additional shade next to the RV's. We do have a lot of kids around us and rafting and fishing are the big things to do here.

Well, I believe I have finally caught up on our journal so I will lock up the computer and get out and take a walk to check out the local area with the family. 

ruthandken CDN said:

Looked at your blog but it hasn't been updated since the first day of your trip????

Click to expand...

I know, I just got Internet connectivity this afternoon when we arrived here so I haven't had the chance to update it as of yet. I have some new photos I need to add to it as well. I don' really plan to spend all my time on a computer while on this trip anyway, I live on the computer everyday at work so this trip is kind of an eye relaxing vacation. I'll let you know when I update the blog.

Josh

Day Eleven

This was our first full day in Coloma. This was probably the most relaxing day of the trip for me because I didn't drive the MH anywhere today for the first time. I really do understand why so many of you recommend having a tow vehicle for your trips now, this trip has been quite tiring for me due to driving so much. I enjoy driving the MH but setting up hookups one day then disconnecting the next day to drive through windy narrow roads nearly 100 miles for the day to see the things we want to see then return to the campground to hookup again is really getting old.

We did find some nice trails to hike next to the Coloma Resort so we walked one just before crossing the bridge. We stopped about a half mile down and dipped our feet in the cool American River water, watched several raft boats and fed and petseveral some ducks and geese, my wife got some good photos of my my daughter and I feeding and petting them. Later we walked across the Coloma Bridge built in 1915 from the Resort to the small historic town of Coloma. We visited the museum for a while and learned more about the Gold discovery that sparked the well-known Gold Rush days.

We didn't pay to take a gold panning class but we did discover the method of gold panning from some of the other campers here on site and one even allowed us to use his pan. I couldn't believe how much gold there really is still in the river, when I got to the water I just looked in and you could see the gold sparkle in the sunlight. I did quickly discover that it isn't very easy to just pick up what you see though. We panned for a couple hours and picked up several flakes before my daughter got bored and wanted to go swimming at the swimming pool. My wife stayed in the river while I took my daughter to the swimming pool. The water in the pool was cold and my daughter jumped in and came out after five minutes freezing so we went to the playground where she met several other girls to play with for a while.

We BBQ on the grill for the first time on this trip with charcoal so we cooked up some tasty chicken and pork and I burned my finger lighting the fire. :'( After dinner we started up the campfire and we couldn't have asked for a better setting for a womderful family campfire. The sky was completely clear and the moon was the giant flashlight in the sky with the comfortable temperatures. We just sat by the campfire the rest of the evening roasting marshmallows and enjoying family time and eating the S'Mores. 

Great updates Josh. It sounds like your daughter is getting some excellent life-long memories started. That's how I got the RV bug... from my parents. My wife and I then passed it along to our daughter (now married with a daughter of her own), and now she and her husband have just bought their first tent. I'm sure an RV will follow.

Keep the updates comin'. Ahhh camping/RVing...  great family endeavor indeed!

Kev

Josh,
Your excitement is contagious.  I  wanted to go make  S'Mores the  minute I  pictured your family out there!

It just doesn't get any better does it?

Betty

Josh:
  We've enjoyed reading about your travels.  Especially about all the things you are doing withy your daughter.  After raising 2 kids who are now 22 and 24, they will tell you the best memories from their childhood are all the times we went camping.  The have both acquired tents and camping gear of their own and have been camping on their own now as adults.  It really makes you feel good to know that they had such great experiences and they do eventually thank you for all of those memories.  But of course, that's after the "teenage years" are over.  Try to remember this when the are wild and crazy tennagers!

Steve

Glad you're enjoying Coloma Josh. My wife wants to go back there again with the grandkids. I'm just a little worried about that bridge; it's a long way down to the river if it gives way 

Steve N Dee said:

Josh:
  We've enjoyed reading about your travels.  Especially about all the things you are doing withy your daughter.  After raising 2 kids who are now 22 and 24, they will tell you the best memories from their childhood are all the times we went camping.  The have both acquired tents and camping gear of their own and have been camping on their own now as adults.  It really makes you feel good to know that they had such great experiences and they do eventually thank you for all of those memories.  But of course, that's after the "teenage years" are over.  Try to remember this when the are wild and crazy tennagers!

Steve

Click to expand...

My daughter has had a total blast on this trip and I really do hope she remembers these moments. We just returned home a couple hours ago and when we got in town my daughter asked where are we going? So I replied "home", she instantly replied I want to go camping! ;D We may go to Lake Isabella tomorrow and dry camp on the lake to watch the fireworks extravaganza tomorrow night then return home Sunday.

Tom said:

Glad you're enjoying Coloma Josh. My wife wants to go back there again with the grandkids. I'm just a little worried about that bridge; it's a long way down to the river if it gives way 

Click to expand...

We did enjoy Coloma and we left there early yesterday morning to begin our return home which I will add my summary report to this later. You don't need to worry about the bridge, I watch 4 big Class A's, a couple Clsss C's (including mine), a dump truck, a garbage truck, and several smaller cars and trucks cross it with no problem. We walked across it a couple times to visit the museum and do some gold panning on the other side as well.

BTW, I now know what you meant by the water really rushes in quite quickly when they open the dam. The area below our campsite was all dried up yesterday morning when we got up and I took a 20 minute walk then returned with about a foot of rushing water flowing through. It was amazing how quickly it rushes in and fills up. The staff said there is no set times as to when they open the dam, it all depends on what the farmers request or if the lake above is overfilling.

Thanks for the follow up Josh, much appreciated.

Your class C is probably significantly lighter than our 38' class A, but I understand what you're saying. Do you recall what the max weight rating on the bridge is? IIRC it was posted on the highway side of the bridge, but I don't recall what it was.

Sounds like the river is quite a bit lower than when we were there. I carefully waded out to some high ground in the center of the river behind our campsite in my chest waders. When I tried to cross back some time later, I had a tough time finding somewhere to cross where the water wouldn't come up to my chin. Thanks also for the comment that the dam release doesn't happen at a set time; Something for me to remember next time we're there.

Tom said:

Thanks for the follow up Josh, much appreciated.

Your class C is probably significantly lighter than our 38' class A, but I understand what you're saying. Do you recall what the max weight rating on the bridge is? IIRC it was posted on the highway side of the bridge, but I don't recall what it was.

Sounds like the river is quite a bit lower than when we were there. I carefully waded out to some high ground in the center of the river behind our campsite in my chest waders. When I tried to cross back some time later, I had a tough time finding somewhere to cross where the water wouldn't come up to my chin. Thanks also for the comment that the dam release doesn't happen at a set time; Something for me to remember next time we're there.

Click to expand...

The sign I took a photo of showed the following weight limits:
14 tons
21 tons
27 tons

Now, let's see if my photo comes through as an attachment.

Day Twelve

The entire family started the day by waking up around 10am, I don't remember the last time I slept in that late but it was refreshing. My daughter saw a couple of the raft boats the day before so she asked me if she could ride one today so we called a couple of the companies in the area but she is just a little too young yet. She was sad when I told her the news but it didn't last too long when a little girl from one of our neighbors stopped by to ask if she would like to play.

In the afternoon we took another walk across the bridge and checked out a few other historical buildings in the area. My wife really enjoyed watching the blacksmiths working and was quite entrigued at how it was done. I think she spoke with them about 30 minutes or so. We enjoyed a peanut & butter picnic in the picnic ground that was big and spread out which also provided plenty of room for my daughter to run of some energy. Once we finished lunch we walked down to Sutters Mill and followed the trail about a half mile then walked in the river on the return where along the way we came in contact with the ducks and geese again. We fed them the little bit of bread we still had remaining then they left. We started gold panning again and pulled in another chunk of flakes and we were beginning to feel good. When we returned to our campsite we had some new neighbors which was an older couple that had been coming to this area once a year for gold panning and relaxing. He went with us down to the river and showed us the proper method for panning for gold and he looked at the flakes we had and said it was all fools gold.  :'(

Later in the afternoon we had a group of young girls appeared to be around 10 y/o having a camping birthday party just a couple sites down from us. These girls were just running all over the place, but they were really nice and polite. In the early evening one of them was dressed up in a really pretty dress and she began playing the Harp and this was so soothing to hear. She was amazing with the music she played and within the next 20 minutes there were about 20 other people that were not associated with the birthday party including us standing around their site listening to this girls music. The evening was very comfortable and the moon was shining bright through the trees. Once again we started up the campfire but this was going to be our last night for campfires and we had plenty of logs so we had a campfire with our neighbors right next to us until 1am just chatting and roasting S'Mores again.

Day Thirteen

We left Coloma Resort late morning to begin our trip home. The road out of Coloma south to Hwy 50 was short, narrow and windy. We turned east on Hwy 50 at Placerville and began the long climb in the mountains headed for Lake Tahoe. The drive was beautiful with some tremendous views which we pulled off to take in some of the views and take photos. There was a stretch of the road that was narrow and right on the edge of a cliff in which I dropped to lower gears and didn't get over 45 because I was scared what would happen if I were to lose control.

We pulled into a Visitors Center when we arrive at South Lake Tahoe and ate some lunch before beginning the next stretch of road. We took hwy 89 from here and let me tell you, if you plan to take this drive be prepared for some tight spots and some really tight hairpin turns along this route and much of it you won't get up to any speed. The climbs along this road are quite steep and I had several times that it sounds like my Ford 450 V10 engine was jus gasping for air to help it get up the incline. Once you get to the top it is time to come back down the mountain on similar roads with really large boulders which appear to be hanging on the cliff above you by a thin string.  When you leave the Hennan Lake is where the downhill begins and it gets quite steep. I had to drive in lower gears the entire drive down with some sharp hairpin turns again but holding the brakes down rather than the gas this time. The views coming down this road are absolutely breath taking but don't get caught up with the views too much if you are the driver, this is a long stretch of road and dangerous. We finally met Hwy 395 just south of Lake Topaz which is only about two miles west of the Nevada stateline.

A long portion of the 395 here is through the canyons with many great places to stop and get out to stretch out the ole legs. The only thing I had planned for this day was to drive and enjoy the scenery and find a place to park for the night. I was shooting for June Lake which we discovered once we got there that we needed gas since we were planning to drycamp the night and we may need to run the generator at night. Each location we found for drycamping around the lake was all taken up by fisherman and or other RVers and we couldn't find enough room to park so we decided to go for Mammoth. This just happens to be the week of a really large motorcross bike racing event that occurs every year in late June so there was nowhere to really park. Eventually we decided to drive down the mountain and stopped at the Paiute Casino for $5 with no hookups and security. We met some other RVers that happened to stop here on their way back home as well so it turned out to be a good spot to stop.

Summary

Well, our maiden voyage in our new MH has come to an end this afternoon.

Miles covered:
1643
Expenses
$1736
Campgrounds
Bakersfield RV Resort, Bakersfield, CA
49er RV Ranch, Columbia, CA
Burney Falls Trailer Resort, Burney, CA
Shasta Lake Campground, Lake Shasta, CA
Beale AFB Famcamp, Marysville, CA
Camp Far West, Camp Far West Reservoir, CA
Coloma Resort, Coloma, CA
Paiute Casino, Bishop, CA
Campground Rank
1. Bakersfield RV Resort, Bakersfield, CA
    Positives: This resort is in a beautiful setting, swimming pool, putting green, bar & restaurant, full hookups, friendly staff, clean park and near CampingWorld.
    Negatives: I couldn't find any in the one day we were there
2. Shasta Lake Campground, Lake Shasta, CA 
    Positives: This is a remote campground right on the water, great forboating, skiing, fishing and the sites are spread out. The campground is on a penisula and the views are nice. The boatramp is right next to the campground so easy access to dropoff and pickup your water toys.
    Negatives: The roads to get there are tight and narrow with some sharp turns and the sites are cramped. If you have a rig bigger than 30ft you may want to look elsewhere, it was tight for me to get there with my 30ft.
3. Camp Far West, Camp Far West Reservoir, CA 
    Positives: This is a remote campground right on the water, great forboating, skiing, fishing and the sites are spread out. The campground is on a penisula and the views are nice. The boatramp is right next to the campground so easy access to dropoff and pickup your water toys.
    Negatives: The roads to get there are tight and narrow with some sharp turns.
4. Coloma Resort, Coloma, CA 
    Positives: Beautiful setting right on the American River. You back in to your site with the river literally about 30 feet behind you a little below your parking spot. They already have canopies setup at each site. The staff are very friendly and willing to assist with just about anything. The spaces are quite spacy with plenty of room.
    Negatives: Central dump station only, I wasn't told this upon registration so we were taken to our site then told there is only one dump station which we had to drive to.
5. 49er RV Ranch, Columbia, CA 
    Positives: Quiet and lots of deer roaming through the park.
    Negatives: Too far away from everything. Without a tow vehicle you are stuck with nothing much else to do. There is only one site for campfires which is always with a group, there are none at the individual sites.
6. Burney Falls Trailer Resort, Burney, CA 
    Positives: Location, this park is located one mile south of Burney Falls and the owner of the park is really sweet
    Negatives: Old park that needs some updating, everyone staying there actually live there. There is a handful of mobile homes in the park and some of the residents look a little creepy.
7. Paiute Casino, Bishop, CA
    Positives: $5 with security and a casino
    Negatives: It is still located in the desert so the daytime is hot
8. Beale AFB Famcamp, Marysville, CA
    Positives: Quiet
    Negatives: Forever lost, absolutely nothing in any direction that is close by, GPS is jammed so your GPS won't get you there, the owner was kind of rude and it is located in a vacant open field.

Well, I believe that pretty much sums up this trip and we intend to have many more like it and hopefully get a chance to meet some of you on this forum. This has been an adventure full of memories and great family time. I will post some photos from the trip when I get the chance.

Well, that's it folks! ;D