July 25 - North Fork Rescue and Mary Beth's Week

 Mary Beth held her week at the cabin.  Her friends from school and past that came up for Swimming, Kayaking, Tubing, Mountain Biking, Hiking and other fun.  She had two groups visit during the week and had more than enough food to feed an army (or a reunion).  On the final weekend, Katie brought up her godson, Oliver for kayaking and hiking.  I am sure Mary Beth took lots of photos that may, or may not be added to this site later.

There was some smoke on the final days of her week from the fire up near Quincy. We arrived at lunchtime on the 25th and all of her friends had left for home.  The smoke was very high and smelly - creating a thermal layer and making the midday very muggy and hot.  Katie decided to take Oliver down to the falls at the North Fork of the North Fork prior to heading home.  About 2 1/2 hours into her trip i got concerned because she was just doing a short hike and had wanted Jim to take Oliver on a Polaris ride before they left for home.  There was a good reason for the concern.  See the story below (which I also posted on Facebook).  

We have 4 new heroes here at Emigrant Gap. Yesterday, Katie and her godson Oliver went down to the NFNFAR falls to hike down to the pool. They met up with our "schoolhouse" neighbor, Adrian there. He scuba dives the pool below the falls and returns people their lost cell phones, go pros, etc. (truly a good guy).

There were a lot of people jumping off the boulders into the falls gorge and into the pool below. We have had many accidents at the falls and a few fatalities over the years. Anyway, while Katie and Oliver were there, this guy climbed up the face of the pool boulder (which has a nice flat ridge to climb along and handhelds to climb higher) and jumped off. Unfortunately, he did not clear the rock and hit his leg on the way down. He came up (luckily) but was swimming with only one leg. Adrian knew right away that he was in trouble. Adrian swam across the pool, rescuing the guy off a rock he had swum too on the far side of the pool. Then he pulled the guy to shore. He and another hero assessed the damage, there was a lot of blood and the knee looked to be broken. They got the blood to stop gushing by tying a towel around the guy's knee, which also kept his leg stabilized.

B y the way - there is no cell service back at the pool, Luckily for this guy, Adrian had his satellite phone and texted Jim (up at our cabin) to call 911. The response time for emergency services up here can be 40 minutes to 1 hour. Since Adrian could not tell if we got his text and we could not text him back, Adrian and the other hero carried the injured guy about 1/2 mile to the road. Oliver and Katie walked ahead of the rescue crew and removed debris and rocks from the path. Then they put him in the back of our truck, readying to drive him slowly out.

That is when the Cal Fire rescue guys arrived (4 rescue trucks). We are not sure the injured guy took the rescue truck to the hospital ($$$) - we think he must have since his leg looked pretty badly broken.

With all that, Jim and I are here for a few days working on the siding.  We hope to be ready to prime and paint during the month of August. Then, of course, September is the beginning of football season and also it is time to get ready for tree cutting and firewood for the winter.  Ah, the idle life of cabin owners. 

July 4th - Visitors as the Pandemic Softens

 For the 4th of July (and prior) we had a few guests visit us in Emigrant Gap.  And now that we all have our COVID shots, we are feeling a bit safer venturing out.  First, my mom (who is almost 92) came up for a week.  She has now decided that she will most likely not visit the cabin in winter - but likes it in spring, summer and fall (as long as there is not any snow on the ground).  Luckily for her, and unluckily for us, California is back in an epic drought, so I think it will be easy to accommodate her wishes.  

Jim's sister, Carol was driving back from a visit to Utah and stopped off for several days.  She and Jim took a drive over to visit Jim and Laura at their Lakeside cabin at Lake Tahoe. I stayed home with Taylor the terrible dog and my mom.  They spent the afternoon at one of the beaches on the east shore.

Carol left the day before the 4th of July and Katie, Mary Beth, my sister Mary and her husband Lynn came in for the holiday.  On July 3rd, Mary, Katie and I drove down to Colfax and went to one of my favorite small thrift stores.  I found some items we needed for the camper and the cabin - but Mary found a wonderful sewing machine that works perfectly!!!!! Later that evening, Katie, Mary and I went to Colfax for their fireworks.  We watched from the upper hill (where we always watch) and then headed back to the cabin.    Lynn, Mary, Katie and Jim went to the 4th of July parade in Dutch Flat (always a soaking experience) while I stayed home with mom, Mary Beth, Clinton and Taylor.  Then the night of the 4th, Lynn, Katie, Jim and I drove up to the summit to watch the fireworks over Donner Lake.  It was a beautiful evening and the sunset was lovely - but little known to us, the fireworks over Donner were canceled  due to COVID and fire danger.  So we drove back down the summit and called it a night.  Luckily no one started any fires in our area over the 4th and most of the campers where pretty respectful with their driving speed and no littering. 

A couple of things that did happen prior to the holiday.  On the 28th of June, a car was driving back to North Fork Campground and said they saw a deer, went off the the side of the road, and hit a tree (and a bit down the cliff).  Sheriff Taylor was out walking with Jim and found it necessary to investigate the scene (see photo). On the 29th  just after Mom and I returned from a quick trip up to Truckee,  and Carol arrived from Utah, a semi truck slammed into a pickup that was parked on the side of freeway by Laing Road (changing a tire).  The chain reaction resulted in another semi crashing and spilling 300 gallons of diesel fuel which caught on fire and started a small grass fire on the side of the freeway.  They had to close down I 80 westbound for a few hours as they cleaned up the mess. Since things usually happen in 3s we are counting the freeway mess as two incidences.  Luckily no one was injured in these accidents. 

And on another note, one of the Fulda Creek homes went up for sale recently and it is currently in escrow.  We are hoping the new neighbors (Mark and Amy) love Emigrant Gap as much as we do. 

Finally, we had a brief visit with Jim White, the current sierra photographer and former game warden near Emigrant Gap. Jim and his wife were dating in 1943.  Jim's wife is a young 96 while he is a bit older (we are guessing 98). He is still driving up to Emigrant Gap to photograph the wild flowers. He shared some of his memories about the Monumental Lumber Mill Railroad on Texas Hill Road and how people used to take the train up from Auburn to ride the railroad to a tram that took them up to Big Valley Bluff to view the Royal Gorge.  He and his wife have also hiked down into the gorge (from Big Vally Bluff) and back in one day.  He talked a bit about the train that derailed at the MLMR (which is supposed to still be back there) and how he removed some of the steel rails from the old railroad later for the war effort in WW2.  We hope his next visit will be longer so that we can capture more of his history on the upslope. 

Mary Beth is using the cabin with her friends the week of her birthday.  Jim and I will return to the cabin after her departure.  We are still working on sealing the siding (prior to priming and painting) and getting the window trim ready for installation.  August is a busy month, but we are hoping to get this project (residing the east side of the cabin) done soon. 

June 24 - Siding Continues

 Jim has been busy residing the east side of our building.  Soon he will complete the fire block soffit vents and then it will be my turn on the scaffolding.  My job is to caulk all the knot holes and cracks in the siding and then prime and paint.  After that is completed, Jim will add trim to the windows and I will caulk, prime and paint again.  I will be happy with this project is completed because it slows up down on other projects that are in the wings.  

As the siding slowly disappears from the basement, Jim starts thinking about adding drain rock and concrete to the basement floor.  I would love that too, since it is no joy to go into the basement in winter and have to rummage around in the dirt.  I would also love to get the attic rafters out of Orinda and onto the basement wood storage rack (they are going to be added to our attic to add better flooring for storage - currently we are on 2/8s with plywood on top.  There are lots of "gaps" where you have to be careful not to step.  And if we get the rafters and flooring in up there - it may be an incentive to add a staircase for easier access (instead of our pull down attic stairs).  

Between May and now, we have also taken our new dog Taylor on a few water experiences.  Unfortunately, he is not a great swimmer like our Quincy was.  He will swim - but his preference is hiking.  We have taken  him to Lake Valley a few times and down to the North Fork of the North Fork at least once.  Also he has been swimming at Fulda Bridge a few times.  

And we have been on a few explores with our neighbor Adrian.  He is a true adventurer.  He found a beautiful falls in the "North" burn zone and also found a path down to the Monumental Spires.  We have now visited both locations and are hoping to go to each and spend some time there this summer. Below is one of Adrian's photos from the Spires. 

There are currently two properties for sale in our little community.  One - is the cabins across the street.  They have been for sale for over a year and we are hoping with the newly reduced price that they sell soon.  The other is an off the grid cabin down by the Fulda community.  It is a reasonable price and includes 15 acres and a septic and well.  We are hoping for new neighbors soon.

The girls and my mom with be up for the 4th of July and we have plans for others people to visit now that the pandemic is under control. And next year we hope to finally host our family reunion.

May 10 - Siding the east side

Jim has started siding the east side of the lodge.  He has put up the scaffolding, torn down about 1/2 of the old siding and installed 1/3 of the new siding so far.  Luckily this side of the lodge was in much better shape than the west side.  Goes so show, never install 3/8 inch exterior plywood right over old worn out tongue and groove siding (with no vapor barrier between).  Anyway, on the east side, he did have to reset a few windows that were installed incorrectly and we had to order a new window that we had installed - but had broken on the sliders.   So, more window trim to purchase and we will run out of siding before we get to the back of the cabin.  When I originally ordered the siding, we did not have the screen room and the snow room planned for siding - alas.

It appears this year will be a dry drought year at the lodge.  We have had no rain in May and little rain in April.  A sign of global climate change.  As a result, we have more cedars to remove this fall and a lot of branch clean up this spring.  Looks like Cal Fire will be putting the burn moratorium in to place a lot earlier this year (we have already had many "no burn" days).  

At the beginning of our adventure with the Emigrant Gap Lodge, we usually had snow up and over the roof for many days in winter and the snow lasted outside until Mother's Day.  Those days seem to be gone.  

We plan to take a ride with the Polaris soon up to Sailor Ridge Road to look for the remnants of our Air Mail Beacon (from the times prior to radar, when big concrete arrows and lighted beacons were used to guide air mail planes to the west coast).  Here is a photo of a google maps search that looks like a likely area.  

I did find a wonderful websites that lists the arrows and some of the beacons in the sierra.  Here is a page that confirms that we did not have an arrow at Emigrant Gap (it was located at the Blue Canyon Airport) but we have a map from the 1930s that establishes that we did have a beacon at the highest point of Sailor Ridge.  

And I recently found some additional historical information about the Gap.  My section about the 1840s includes information about John C Fremont and his expedition to California and through Emigrant Gap.  The reference was from a 49er who traveled to California and called out a few of Fremont's topographical references in our general area (though I am not sure where between Emigrant Gap and Colfax/Grass Valley these would have been.  The first - the members of the expedition set up camps to explore the areas of the sierra.  While at one of these camps near us, they stripped a large cedar of its branches and raised a flag.  The flag could not be a US flag since the land that was being surveyed actually belonged to Spain.  So Fremont's wife crafted a special flag for him to use.  Here are tow examples of flags that Fremont used in his California expeditions.  Additionally, Fremont wrote about a huge tree that a person could use for shelter.  That tree was somewhere between Emigrant Gap and Colfax/Grass Valley and unfortunately was burned to the ground when some "shelterers" lit a fire inside and burn the core of the tree. 

Here are a few URLS that provide information about Fremont's expedition:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/HNS/Domwest/mcauley.html

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/AAZ9580.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext;q1=John+C.+Fremont

http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=M231780;type=101

file:///Users/Carol/Downloads/Diary-of-John-Markle-1849-Letter-to-the-Donner-Trail-Marking-Expedition-from-Wendell-Robie-1940-1.pdf

https://www.octa-journals.org/merrill-mattes-collection/the-travels-of-a-gold-digger-enroute-to-california-john-a-markle

https://www.archives.gov/nhprc/projects/catalog/expeditions-of-john-charles-fremont

http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=M231780;type=101

March 12 - New Dog, New Deck (Material)

 We lost our dear Quincy during the COVID crisis last year and have been missing him greatly since then.  Last month, Carol finally felt ready to think about a new dog for our immediate family (and hopefully a host for our cabin to our extended family).  We looked at a labrador mix who was very loving, but his foster handler felt that Carol would not be able to walk him (he was a stray for his first 6 months of life and he was very determined and as a mix with a rottweiler - very strong). Next, we saw a 10 month german short hair/coonhound mix.  He was also very loving, but very active and a bit crazy.  Additionally,  he was very very cute.  So, we decided to take the risk of lots of training and adopted him.  His original name was not to our liking, so we renamed him Taylor (for Zachery Taylor, in keeping with our presidential dog history). Taylor likes to get loose from his leash and run wild, likes to bark at people and cars.  He came to us with little training.  In the 3 weeks we have owned him, he has learned his name, has been mostly house broken, has learned to come when called (most of this time), how to sit and lay down.  We are working on other aspects of his behavior. 

And tomorrow, we pickup more used Trex decking that we will be using to replace the old wood decking/fire escape on the back of the lodge. The top wood on the original decking is just worn out (though the structure is still sound).  We will store the decking until the snow is gone from Emigrant Gap.  

And finally, Jim and I have completed our two shot COVID vaccines and are feeling much safer because of it.  We are hoping they expand the shots to people 30 and older so that Katie can get her shot soon.  Mary Beth has gotten her first shot (she is a teacher and will be returning to the classroom on March 29th).  Mom and Pattie have gotten their shots.  So this year is already looking a lot brighter than last. 

 

January 18 - A Wind Storm

A major wind storm hit the sierra with gusts up to 135 mph at the summit. At Emigrant Gap, our building shook from the winds, we woke to a loose roof panel on the screened in porch (Awahnee Room), trash cans and other items not weighted down went down the hill, every tarp off every covered thing in the yard. We faired OK - but our neighbor lost a good section of shingles off his roof and a huge dead cedar fell into the road heading back to the off the grid cabins. So, before we left the cabin for home, we cleared up the mess outside, screwed down the roof panel, picked up our neighbors shingles and put them in their entry way and moved the big dead tree off the road. When we return to the lodge, there could be snow again - so we may not be able to clear up any more of the mess until the snow is gone. Not much snow left at the lodge and we are again in a drought. Hoping for snow tomorrow. In Orinda, we lost roof shingles, branches off our trees filled tons of trash cans, a roof panel came off the tree house and we lost the side tarps on our portable garage. We will be cleaning up from this storm for a while. photos will be added later. The pandemic continues and we have not been able to have visitors at the lodge (just family, and than is feww and far between). And we have a new president and vice president. Hoping for better days.

January 11, 2021 - Christmas has come and gone and a new year has begun

Goodby 2020. We were so glad to see you end. Now to get through the dreaded COVID pandemic and start healing the rift in our country. By the date of this post, you can tell that it is after the January 6 attack on our nation's Capitol Building. A horrific sequence of events was played out on national television. Most of us feared for the well being of our duly elected represenatives, senators and vice-president. Unfortunately, in the melay, 5 people died. One was a police officer trying to protect and serve. Another was a protester, climbing through a broken window to gain access to the Capitol Building interior, reason unknown. There have been many arrests and many calls for a historic second impeachment of our president. It is a black day in American history and we are still embroiled in a huge rift in our nation which, in my mind, will take a long time to heal. I am saddened to see friends and family separating over differences. I am hoping that a thourough investigation will be completed soon and we will be made aware of all who are responsible for this catastrophe. Just before Christmas, Jeremy, Jody and the kids stopped by on their way home from Montana. It was great to see them prior to the holidays. The kids were so excited about their adventurous trip and it was wonderful catching up with our nephew and niece.

Christmas was small (Jim, the girls and me). We invited our neighbor Adrian and his son Adam over for Christmas eve dinner and had planned to spend some time with our neighbors Jim and Lisa on New Years eve until I received a call that one of our extended family had contracted a mild case of COVID. That moved us into quarantine mode (since we had seen her recently) until we figured out the timeline of her visit (with face masks, of course). Our risk was exteremly low in contracting the virus - but we are unwilling to take any risks with our friends and neighbors.

Since then, with the state mostly on stay at home orders, we have been staying at the cabin and the Orinda house, only going out for groceries, gas, small shopping visits, etc. I can't remember the last time Jim got his hair professionally cut and I have been to the doctor, dentist, etc. Christmas brought back fond, and sad memories of our dear dog Quincy. I miss him every day and and still having trouble talking about him even in this post.

This weekend, Jim and Katie finally got to go skiing at Sugar Bowl. We were supposed to also ski today - but plans were changed. Jim has started to work on wiring in the basement (we have one plug down there and a few lights - a real problem with working on projects in winter). I have started working on spackling the windows that needed to be reset with the siding project and finished setting up an antique bookcase/desk in the "girls" room downstairs. I have also been busy setting up and tearing down Christmas.

We are fortunate. We are healthy, we have food on the table and wine in the bar. Our kids are doing ok. We have two homes to shelter in while this pandemic continues. Though we do get cabin fever at both, we have beautiful country around us to enjoy. No photos this time. Happy New Year.