Update since I typed this up: I’m posting this from the Point S in Klamath Falls, as my front driver side wheel was making an absolutely awful, metal on metal sound when we were driving out of camp. It disappeared once we made it over 30mph and was quite all the way into town, but we’re getting it checked out just in case. The next few days call for us to be in northeastern California, where help is a bit more scarce. Fingers crossed it’s a workable issue!

I was supposed to write this up and post this before we left, but here I am writing this at our first campground of this trip, Hyatt Lake above Ashland. Hopefully I’ll get to post this as we pass through Klamath Falls on our way south. We’ve already accomplished quite a bit on this trip, and we’ve only been at it a day!

We started as a half hour late yesterday, which has become habit for me. Those last “five minutes” of packing always take at least 20 more than I expect. Once we had the trailer hooked up and the truck filled with diesel (what, you think I’d do that the night before we leave?) we made it to our first destination, 15 minutes from home. We loaded up a horse that was quite a bit smaller than Tarma (the mini Fig and his cart), and drove him down to his new home in Applegate. We stopped in Canyonville for fuel and I gave him a bucket of ice slushy water…which he drank deeply from then promptly knocked over. Ahhh, minis.

 I managed not to get lost on the backroads and safely delivered him to his happy new mom, then I faced the first dilemma of the trip…dinner in Ashland or straight to finding our first campsite? The truck read about 100 degrees, so we couldn’t stop and eat anywhere with Benny left in the truck. I also didn’t fancy finding a place to stick the rig in Ashland, and although it was only 4pm, we were all pretty tired from the long day’s drive. We made the decision to eat dinner at camp, so we chugged like a slightly overheated turtle up the road from Ashland to Hyatt Lake. How on earth they put a highway there, I’ve no idea, but the truck didn’t love it, even with the trailer unloaded. Even if it hadn’t been so hot, we couldn’t have gone any faster than the 25-30mph we managed, those curves are no joke! Of course we had plenty of folks pass us on the double yellow blind curves, because being stuck behind a slow moving trailer is a death sentence for some people.

Once we gained the top of the hills the temperature dropped from over 100 to the mid-80s, and the trees reappeared. The first campground we checked, Wildcat, was booked, so we headed back down a bit and after one site’s false start where the trailer didn’t fit, we found an empty site I managed to half jackknife the trailer to fit into. We both devoured a backpacking meal because it required no more brainpower than heating water (I love my little butane stove!) We both perked up a bit and took the dog down to the lake, then watched a big, loud thunderstorm rumble and flash it’s way closer.  We managed to get everything back in the trailer and dived inside just as the rain arrived, and we listened to the fury of the storm from safety as it rolled over the top of us. And this is one of the many reasons I don’t tent camp anymore!

We all slept super well once the storm passed over, though I had overestimated how cold it would be even at this elevation and put too many blankets on the bed. I woke up at one point with Benny’s too hot panting directly in my ear (why?) so I dragged all but the sheet off the bed and fell back to sleep. I thought about leaving the door open with just the screen door, but the thought of only the screen between us and a hungry bear kept it closed, we made do with just the windows opened.

Now we’re enjoying a much slower morning than yesterday, Benny’s already been to the lake twice. I’m watching bold Stellar’s Jays check out Benny’s leftover kibble and not fighting off as many bugs as expected. I’ve almost finished one of the four books I brought with me (“Behooved” by M. Stevenson, and it’s proving delightful and flipping tropes around so far). We’ll finish packing up here shortly and meander our way to our next destination for the night, The Lava Beds National Park in Northern California. By Thursday we’ll be in Roseville so we can shower and clean up before watching the Tevis vetting in at Robie Park, then I’ll get set up at the Chicken Hawk vet stop as part of the Tevis horse transport crew.