We’re all glad we decided to stay another night here. Rich C and I had lighter work days, and we all took off to the tiny town of Chester to explore. It’s a cute little town, populated with people who work for the National Forest Service and people supporting the influx of campers who occupy this place seasonally. But other than getting a haircut, dropping the mail and picking up some groceries, our visit to town was pretty quiet.

Walking along the abandoned railroad tracks that pass the campground was more fun, in a way. The tracks lead past a place where eagles and turkey vultures circle overhead all afternoon, looking for dead carp by the shoreline. Then the view opens up to the expansive Lake Almanor, with fly fisherman and mountains in the distance.

Lake Almanor feels like the northeast forests of home. We can imagine being in the Adirondacks, except that the pines are much bigger (ponderosa pines), towering over us like redwoods. It’s a pleasant place to be, except for the thick yellow pollen that has coated everything. (Fortunately it doesn’t seem to be bothering Eleanor unduly.)

We’ll be leaving tomorrow, to start heading west to the coast. We’ve decided to make an overnight stop at a National Forest campground about 100 miles from here, and then spend the weekend at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. We may be out of touch again due to limited cellular coverage, but I’ll update as soon as possible.