A Northern California Adventure!
Oh where to begin,
Well this all started out with a wedding invite for one of my oldest friends Kino, he long since had moved to Northern California and that is where his wedding was to be held. Originally Olivia and I were gonna go up and camp for the weekend as a campground was the venue for the wedding but Olivia wasn't able to take time off work and with the wedding being 10 hours away (one way) we realized she was going to unfortunately have to sit this one out. So I left Thursday evening to head North but knew there was no way I was doing it one shot so my good friend Phil at Vagabond Outdoors offered to let me sleep in their shop in Benecia which would get me North of the Bay Area so I wouldn't have to deal with that mess on Friday. It was great to see Phil and hang for a while but also see their operation, Vagabond is doing some really cool stuff and makes one very rad camper! If you haven't seen one head on over to www.vagabondoutdoors.com and check it out!
After a good nights rest I started my journey even further north and then west, we were set to meet between Shasta and the coast at a Native American campground so that's where I headed. I arrived Friday afternoon to near 100 degree temps but luckily the river ran right through the campground which they had completely reserved for the wedding but I'm not much a campground guy....So after talking to the campground manager from the tribe I was given permission to camp in what is normally just day use area away from the campground. So I set up and hit the water to cool off!
I was gonna be here for the next few days so it was great to finally get to use my ARB awning and just not have to be on any sort of schedule to be in a new spot everyday, the wedding was a very short but sweet ceremony on Saturday around noon and afterwards everyone hit the river to cool off. I spent the next couple of days relaxing and watching the bald eagles fly overhead while I fished it honestly was one of the most relaxing trips I've done in a long time it was much needed.
Ok well enough of that spot it was time to head towards home, but I wasn't gonna go back the same way I came up I figured if I drove this far north I should take the 395 home and hit some of my favorite spots. It wasn't all camping though, I was staying at my family friends house for a bit so I could work remote and not use up too much PTO. But when I arrived I was surprised to see a fire was burning just over the mountain behind Mammoth so the smoke was really heavy making camping near there not great anyway.
So over the next few days I split my time between working and exploring, there are tons of swimming holes I like to visit in the area so I basically drove around between Mammoth and bishop hitting swim spots and just driving random dirt roads I've never driven before to see what I'd find!
I was basically just finding cool little caves, dwellings, petroglyphs (sorry I actually didn't take any photos of the petroglyphs) and reptiles. Also sorry no real photos of any swim spots because I don't wanna risk these locations being found and ruined, just the name of the game with swim spots in the world of social media oversharing! I will however post one that is of a very well known spot that I lucked out on getting all to myself!
I did get a pretty good spot near Mammoth, I keep a very simple set up when solo because I hate clutter and I hate packing up to leave so I try and keep everything packed away unless absolutely needed. I also was able to get some work done which is one thing I really like about my GFC so here are a few photos from that spot which you may have seem in my Expedition Portal Article: https://expeditionportal.com/life-in-a-go-fast-camper/
After all that I decided it was time I head home cause it'd been about a week and I had work to do so I took my time driving home stopping off at more spots along the 395.
