Klamath River Trip July 2004

We have just returned home (summer, 2004) from a weeklong trip to northern California, where we camped along the Klamath River, and Jim got to use his “new” four-inch dredge to look for gold. We had a great week! That is a beautiful area down there, and at this time of year we got to visit with many old friends, made some new friends, and thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed pace.

We knew the weather would be warm, but it really wasn’t bad except for a few hours in the afternoon. When you are near the river you get the breeze that travels up or downriver, and it almost always has some coolness to it. It also cools off wonderfully at night in that area, so mornings and evenings are “marvelous” as Jim kept saying over and over. They really are nice.

For those of you who are not familiar with a gold dredge, it works sort of like a vacuum cleaner in the river, although it is designed not to keep hardly any material; just the heavy stuff, like gold and black sand. A hose pulls it up out of the river and over a sluice box, where the gold is hopefully trapped in riffles running across the sluice, and then the material goes off the end of the sluice to deposit right back in the river. You work your way upstream, filling in your hole behind you as you move.
Photo right: Jim's Pro-Mack dredge

For those who are familiar with dredges, I have been talking to Jim for quite some time about getting a four-inch dredge that would be much easier to set up and move than his five-inch triple sluice. Although he had never seen one of the Pro-Mack dredges we manufactured while I was part owner of Pro-Mack Mining Supplies, he was interested when I explained how well they operated, and why. Few of them are sold, and we had just about given up on finding one, when one turned up that had been used very little, and we were able to get it. This was Jim’s first opportunity to see it work, and he was impressed (I just knew he would be).

This was also his first opportunity to dredge outside of Interior Alaska, and he found it quite different, as he expected. He had also never had the opportunity to camp and dredge for more than a day at a time, and he thoroughly enjoyed all of it. He especially enjoyed the part about camping without hordes of mosquitoes and other flying insects, and not having to worry about a brown bear (grizzly) sneaking up behind you to have you for his dinner.

When we first arrived, we were the only ones in the camping area where we stayed. It was very nice and peaceful, and we found a nice, shady campsite under the trees. Our first morning there, he did have an “Alaska” moment… we were sitting outside in our chairs, enjoying the beautiful morning, when all of a sudden Jim gave a big shout (it really wasn’t quite a shriek…) and leapt from his chair to land about six feet in front of it. A very large shaggy, and very black dog with a huge head had silently walked up to him from the backside to say “hello.” The poor dog was scared to death, but accepted Jim’s apology, and left happy after saying hello to me, too. Jim was just sure it was a bear, a leftover from his Alaska camping experiences. There, you can never relax, but must always be on the lookout for them.
Photo above: Jim and Missy pickin' chicken

After a few days there were more people in the camping area, and a good friend, Mike Higbee, was among them. He was there with a friend to try out some new equipment the friend has manufactured. It is quite innovative, and they seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

In our first few days there, we made trips downriver to the town of Happy Camp three days in a row. We had a few things to buy on arrival at the mining store, and visited with friends there, then the next day attended a large potluck, and the day after that we attended a large birthday party for a friend, Jan Stumpf. Jan is married to my ex-husband, Bill Stumpf, and it is nice to see them both happy. We all get along quite well.

We also took an early morning drive along a country lane that follows the river on the opposite side as the highway. We were rewarded by seeing several bucks very close to the road (great photo opportunity missed, I forgot the camera), and continued to see deer and fox. As a climax I looked into a tree on the river side of the road, and a bald eagle sat there in clear view, not ten feet away, and made no move to leave, but posed beautifully, looking to the side…. Darn! That is such a peaceful, serene ride that it is always enjoyable.

This area seems almost like a forgotten paradise. First settled by gold miners in the 1860’s, it is heavily forested with a mixed forest, thick with blackberries, wild grapevines and many other vines, is well dotted with fruit trees that have grown wild. There are many wildflowers there, and in the spring and early summer the roadsides are a riot of color with the yellow blossoms of Spanish broom, the pinks of sweet peas and many wild roses, blues of chicory and lupine, and the whites of phlox, Queen Anne’s Lace, and more. The display is still going on there. Hwy. 96 follows alongside the Klamath River from I-5, almost to the Pacific Ocean, and almost every bend of the road presents another postcard view. The largest town along the highway is Happy Camp, with something less than 1,000 residents. At about 1100 feet elevation it is not high, but the forested canyon walls make you think it is. It gets warm in summer, but cools off wonderfully at night. It does get many of the storms that roll in from the southern Oregon coast, and averages about 55 inches of rain a year. When I lived there, we had more than 100 inches in several years, so those averages may have gone up. It gets a bit of snow in winter, but it mostly doesn’t last. There are a number of nice creeks in the area along with the river, and it is a nice, relaxing place to vacation.
Photo above right: Scene along Hwy. 96, the Klamath River Hwy. The river is one of the "Wild and scenic rivers."
Photo below: Our camp, under spreading oaks. The river is to the right, behind the bushes.

There are a number of campgrounds in the Happy Camp area with full hookups, but that was not what we were looking for on this trip. We wanted to camp on the river, to be close to where Jim was dredging. Missy, our cat, came with us, for her first time camping out, and she enjoyed the trip, too. She travels quite well for a cat, and has been on trips before. She even flew from Alaska with us on one trip and visited in Oregon and California for a couple of weeks. She doesn’t like flying, but then, neither do we. When we moved down to Oregon last winter she drove the Alaska Highway with us, at temperatures of 40 below. She has bonded well with us, and has a lot of personality. Jim says she is half dog.

She was a stray cat we adopted from the Humane Society in Fairbanks, and we luckily got her before she had to go through a winter up there, so she has no frostbitten ears or feet. She has been forever grateful to us for adopting her.

Where we were camped there were two feral cats, evidently dropped off by someone. We were never able to catch them (it was a young mother, and a kitten of about 10-12 weeks), but we did finally get them to eat. The mother went off every morning to hunt somewhere, but the kitten stayed right in our area, and all it took to bring her near was to cook some meat on the barbecue. She kept her distance, but after eating she would curl up somewhere nearby and take a short nap.
Photo above right: Missy in the tree, guarding camp...

Missy came outside with me on her harness and a small rope, and watched the kitten carefully, but did not bother her. The kitten really wanted to come close to her, but Missy “talked” to her each time, and the kitten decided, each time, to back up and leave her alone, so they understood each other clearly.

During the days while Jim dredged, I did a lot of reading, and Missy lay around watching butterflies and lizards, birds, and anything else that moved. We napped each afternoon, and generally just enjoyed ourselves. Most days it was very peaceful and quiet under our large oak trees, with only the breeze brushing through to bring us some cool air.

We have been so busy lately that it was wonderful to take a break from all our activities, and fully relax. Jim did not do as much relaxing, as what he was doing used a lot of muscles you don’t normally use. He enjoyed himself thoroughly, however, and can’t wait until we Photo above: The Klamath River... can go again. This was a good learning experience for him, to help him get used to the very different conditions in this area, and his new dredge.

We will go back next month so he can do more serious dredging, and we can get some more relaxation time. He has plenty to keep him busy around here, and will be getting a lot of "exercise," so he should not be quite so out of condition when he goes back. This has also served to convince him that he needs to lose more weight again, a good thing...

The photo to the right is of Mount Shasta, and never fails to awe and inspire me. It is gorgeous, no matter what time of year you view it. It rises from low hills, all alone in its majesty and beauty. We drive near the flanks of it each trip down and back, and I can never resist taking photos of it. A small camera, however, really cannot do justice to it.

There are so many places that Jim and I want to explore in Oregon and northern California, that we will be busy at it for a number of years. It is a fascinating area.

I hope you will join us on our adventures, and learn more about these areas, too! Photo above: the majestic Mount Shasta

Until next time,

Marcie
July 9, 2004

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