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Last month I went on a field trip with my daughter’s class to Crater Lake. The weather was strange all day. This is what it looked like when we arrived at Walker Elementary School at 7:30 in the morning.
Over the next few days you’ll get to see photographs from the rest of the day’s adventures.
Today’s entry will wrap up the Chico trip. After departing Castle Lake we continued north on I-5.
We stopped in Yreka for lunch at Pat’s BBQ Express. I haven’t eaten often in Yreka simply because it is less than an hour from Ashland so if I’m hungry in Yreka I usually just press for home. I will definitely eat in Yreka more often now that I’ve experienced Pat’s BBQ. It was fantastic. I had pulled pork spaghetti with garlic bread. It was all very mouth watering. The smoker the pork came from was right out front giving off wonderful smells from the dinner meat.
My traveling companion had never been to Castle Lake before. Since it’s only about 10 miles off of I-5 I decided to take him there. I had no idea how beautiful it was going to be, never having been there in May before. Chico was about 90 degrees so I wasn’t expecting snow and ice on Castle Lake. The temperature was nice at almost 70 degrees, but the view was a winter one.
Amazingly enough, we were the only ones there enjoying the above scenery. I’ll share one more picture of Castle Lake with you tomorrow. To get to Castle Lake, follow the signs to Lake Siskiyou and just before you get there you’ll see one pointing to the left saying “Castle Lake 8 miles.”
On our way back from Chico I purchased about eight baskets of freshly picked strawberries from this field. We were north of Chico on Highway 99, probably near Los Molinos. They were amazingly good.
After wandering around town for a while we entered Bella’s Sports Pub. It was packed on a Wednesday afternoon at about 2. The service was horrible, the music was awful, and it was way too loud so we left after a single beer. Next we ventured into Madison Bear Garden. This has to be one of Chico’s, if not all of Northern California’s, finest establishments. Beers were only $2, the music was great and at the right volume level, games were on the many tubes, food was good, and everyone was having a fine time. I think we spent the next 4 hours or so here.
The above picture was the only time the place wasn’t wall to wall with people. Again, I found this incredible on a Wednesday afternoon. Don’t Chico’s students have class? It seems they drink more in Chico than in Canada.
Chico was known as the party school back when I was a high schooler in California in the 1980s. Apparently that hasn’t changed. Even though it was a Wednesday, the campus was practically deserted. The bars, however, were quite crowded on a Wednesday afternoon. I’ll show you one next time.
The main reason for the road trip mentioned in my last entry was to see Opeth at Chico’s Senator Theatre. I would have liked to have seen Dredg a few nights later too, but we were only there for one night.
Less than a couple of weeks ago I took a little road trip down to Chico, California. Our first stop along Highway 5 was the Mt. Shasta Vista Point turnoff. The above photograph is of the view from there. Over the next week or so I’ll show you more from this road trip. Stay tuned…
One of my favorite views in town is this one. I love getting to this spot on Ridge Road whether I’m on my bike or walking. Mt. Ashland is perfectly framed from this location.
I was reading a book in my Adirondack chair on the deck the other day with this view. It was cloudy and overcast but still nice out.