Castle Crags - A cold night - and on to Oregon

Castle Crags and on to Oregon March 18^th

I shouldn't have mentioned the furnace in my last post. I got up at 3:00am because it was so cold. The thermometer showed 49 degrees F inside the trailer, and 32 outside. I flicked the heater lever, nothing. I noticed the fridge was off. I tried to light the stove in hopes that my guess was wrong, but no, I was out of propane. And the park ranger had told me when I arrived that there could be bears around due to the recent warm weather. And bears like to be out at night, right?

My thoughts raced on; perhaps the elusive cougar was also outside my door right now, sniffing out the only camper in the park.  I thought about doing nothing until it got light out, but I knew it would get very very cold inside if there was no heat for that long. My pipes could freeze, I could freeze. But it was so very dark out, and so isolated.

Ok, I would do it. I had to do it. But what about Baloo, would he help or hinder? What if he started barking and lurching at something in the dark, like he had done just before bed turning our late night sojourn into a quickie. I would have my hands full climbing into the truck and digging out the propane tank. Would he scare a wild animal off, or annoy it to the point of charging? Was this a moment I would second guess myself after?

Enough, it was bloody cold. I elected to leave him inside. My headlamp wouldn’t turn on. Curses, why at this time? I grabbed the hand held flash and headed out fast and swung the light in a 360 circle. Nothing moved, it was completely silent. I charged to the truck in my slippers and wrenched up the levers for the cover. I jumped up into the truck bed and did another 360 with the flashlight. I yanked out the tank like it weighed nothing, placed it on the tailgate and forced myself to get down carefully; a sprained ankle on a rock right now would really make me lose my temper. Then I had to do up the cover, because if it was left open, something big could get curious about all that stuff and jump in to check it out.

I unscrewed the other tank, pulled it out. Inserted the other one, and tightened the knob, turned it on. I could hear the propane spitting out, and I could smell it, the rotten egg product they put in it for safety. Quickly I unscrewed it, tightened it again. The same result. I pulled it apart again, looked in both pieces, all clear. One more try, I tightened it up, no sound and only the residual bad egg smell. I shone the light again and then raced in the trailer, my heart banging, as I slammed and locked the door. Safe. I started up the stove, then the water heater to get the gas flowing, and then finally begging it to start, I turned on the heater, and after a moment, heat began to come out. I laughed out loud; I couldn’t believe the ornery thing would start just like that because it had failed so many other times.

After all that, it was hard to get back to sleep. I wondered if the propane was leaking outside. I wondered if the window was open enough for fresh air. I had read stories about people in boats and out camping dying from lack of oxygen because of their heaters.  

Baloo heard things in the dark - twice in fact so he did his usual barking - loud, loud barking - in this tiny little space.

In the morning, I nearly filed away my face cream in the garbage can so I realized I had better be extra careful driving today – it’s a windy road ahead through all those mountains. Lots and lots of caffeine needed for today.

By the way, I found out the hard way that loud trucks go by all night on I-5.

It was a gorgeous drive through the passes seeing the snow topped mountains, especially Mt. Shasta. There were lots of farms with cows and horses in the valleys and the foothills, and the ground was beautiful in varying shades of spring green. I cranked up the radio and felt great singing along to old favourites. I thought about the interesting and fun people I have met, and the kindnesses and gift of friendship. All together it has restored my faith and trust in the goodness of people. It has been such a great trip, and I have seen so much beauty.

By 2:00pm and 200 miles later I was in a small Oregon town called Sutherlin and because I was so tired, knew I could go no further. I checked out RV places on my GPS and found one called Hi-Way Haven RV Park. It’s a very nice RV park with little wall sections between camp sites and it’s all very nicely laid out and super clean. It's $34 per night but with my Passport America discount, I get 50% off from Monday-Thursday so that’s a good deal. It's got showers, laundry, a small dog area and movies too. They have a big screen so that you can sit in your trailer, tune into their radio station and watch it. A very cool idea. And they have daffodils!

I was already to head to the coast tomorrow and continue up on highway 101, but I just saw the weather report – rain, and winds up to 60mph on the coast, and snow expected in the interior. March looks like it’s going to go out like a lion, and I have one final storm to weather.