Starting out at Last

June 29
Finally on the road.  After many many delays we finally hit the road today with a goal of getting to Idaho by July 1.  We chose to head north on I-5 and then east and north on Hwy 299 and up 395 to Oregon and on to Idaho rather than the faster route through Nevada. Here we are, all loaded up and ready to hit the road.
Our ready to play inventory included:
1 slalom kayak
3 river running kayaks
2 bikes
1 dirt bike

Aguadream was not perfect by any stretch yet, but definitely ready for the road-- safety wise.  Much of our delay was in getting the electrical done...just couldn't get the lights to work. Also just couldn't get the curbside front window situated so we patched it with a piece of wood hoping for little rain on our journey.

An afternoon start out of Oakland meant hitting some rush hour traffic.  After Vacaville it was easy sailing, but our 50 mph speed limit meant that we'd only make it as far as Red Bluff on day 1.  We found a kind of seedy mostly full timer trailer part right on the Sacramento River, and settled in for the night and an early start.

June 30

I had always wanted to travel through extreme north eastern California.  It's pretty country. It roughly follows the drainage of the Pitt River.  We had hoped to stop at Burney Falls but put it on our bucket list for the return trip of another time.

first night of actual camping

Wish we'd had more time in this part of the state; we'll for sure be back. Around mid day we crossed the intersection of 299 and Hwy 89-- the only point on our trip where we would for sure be again as we headed north to Seattle in August from Camp it Up. We shot a video here but I won't bore you with it.  Had our first real night camping near Alturas at a little lake, called Big Sage Reservoir in Modoc National Forest.  No one camped near us for miles, though when we initially pulled up, there was a fellow next to us shooting target practice that creeped us out a little bit, and another group of four guys just taking a breather before hitting the road again.  Turns out he's an off duty cop from San Francisco-- showed us his badge and everything.  He took off after a bit and left us all to ourselves.  Ben got a chance to ride his dirt bike, and I got to relax a little bit.

Goose Lake

The next morning we headed out hoping to make it to Boise before the end of the day.  A big driving day ahead of us.  Today we would pass through some of the most unusual geography of California.  Most people think of the Great Basin and Range area being in Nevada, but it actually starts right here in Northeastern California where the block faults lifted the Warner and Fremont mountains which surround the lake.  We passed by a huge lake, called Goose Lake that was stranded here when the uplift happened.   At one point in it's history the lake may have been 300 ft deep, now it is less than 30. Here we are at nearly 5,000 ft above sea level  We won't drop below this for another 5 weeks or so on our trip until we are at Camp it Up! in August.

Looking down on Goose Lake

We reached our final destination Boise Idaho around 8 pm local time, and granted ourselves the luxury of a night in the local Motel 6, before heading up to Horseshoe Bend to hang out along the Payette River til the 5th of July.