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Whiskey Anyone? (6/14/22)

We have been getting settled in Redding — laundry, grocery shopping, establishing daily routines, finding running routes, etc. We even interviewed with a homeowner for a nearly 5 month housesit starting next January in North Carolina. She chose us, so fingers crossed the world doesn’t turn upside down so that can happen

But there is so much to see here, that today we headed out for a little excursion. (We’re trying to figure out the best balance between seeing sights and not going crazy with the driving since gas is so pricey right now.) We headed west out of Redding for a 20-30 minute drive to Whiskeytown National Recreation Center. No real whiskey involved for us, though when the nearby community was established during the Gold Rush, I’m sure there was plenty.

We started at the Visitor’s Center, which isn’t open on Tuesdays. We knew this but wanted to see if we might get a site map. We could and did. As you can see, it’s a beautiful entrance to the large (42,000 acre) national park in the foothills of the Klamath Mountains.

Entrance to the park

After looking at the map, we saw that there was a JFK memorial, so we knew we wanted to see that before starting a hike. It turns out that JFK dedicated the Whiskeytown Lake Dam at the exact site of the memorial in September of 1963, just a couple months before his assassination.

The JFK memorial erected following his assassination.
The Glory Hole near the memorial site which keeps the dam from flooding.

Prior to driving to Whiskeytown we had read that some of the hiking trails remained closed due to being impacted by the Carr fire in 2018. Sadly, you see evidence of burned trees all along the drive to the park as well as in the park. We started with a hike along the Mount Shasta Mine Loop Trail before driving further into the westernmost part of the park to see some historical structures and one of three waterfalls.

Some of many charred or bare trees within the park along our hiking route.
Another burned tree along the path.
Another view of Whiskeytown Lake and the Klamath Mountains as we started our hike.
Camden House in front of more burned trees. Charles Camden was an enterprising man, originally from England, who came to this area and created a toll bridge that connected Eureka and Weaverville from which he collected tolls for 50 years.
A grave across the creek from the back of the Camden House. We had read that there was a Tower House Hotel along what is now Hwy 299 near the Camden Houe. We assume that Levi may have been associated with that.
Based on the park map, it appears that there are three waterfalls within the park. We visited Crystal Creek waterfall, which seemed to have a pretty good flow.
On our way back to Redding, I snapped this photo from the car of the Oak Bottom marina.

When we got back, we enjoyed the pool a little bit. Bob braved the cold water and got in. I sat and dangled my legs. We also played a bit of ping pong, which we’ve been enjoying— just to see how long of a volley we can do, not really to play. I’m enjoying trying to improve my eye/hand coordination.

Chef Bob is creating a veggie pizza for us tonight. We may start including some photos of his creations.

Today’s high 89, low 59.

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