Author: Melissa

Over the weekend my dad and I went up to the gold country and Big Trees State Park outside of Arnold up in the Sierra foothills in the Stanislaus Forest. Big Trees is one of my favorite places ever, and I hadn’t been there in a couple years.

It was really, really hot.

This is the meadow in the north grove, complete with lupins.

We climbed and huffed (okay I huffed) and it was truly, way too hot to really get in a good hike, and then we went to the Lava Bluffs trail and it was like straight up, and hot, and so we (I) decided we’d had enough and turned around, and since the trail was less used than the ones at North Grove, there were a lot of leaves and it was kind of slippery, and I fell, and landed on my butt on an outcropping of rocks. I apparently also hit my back because there is a big black bruise on the side there now. I am fine, don’t even worry. I must confess as I was falling, I thought to myself, sweet, now we don’t have to hike the rest of the weekend! at the same time I was hoping that I didn’t break anything.

Anyway, so that happened and I have been stiff ever since (much improved today though), so on Saturday my dad and I headed into Murphys, where it was hot. Also I discovered that Clarissa, the beloved Murphys burro had dropped dead in May. Clarissa lived in a paddock at the edge of town, braying at everyone she met.

I took the above picture in 2008. At her little barn there was a shrine, like the kind you see on the side of the road when a teenager runs their car into a tree. Someone posted the local newspaper article about how she died of “unknown causes” at the age of 28. Well, it seems to me that she was pretty old, so that’s not really “unknown”. But anyway, I also learned that she has a mention on the Murphys Wikipedia page, and that’s doing pretty good, for a burro.

Here is another picture I took of Clarissa braying at me.

Anyway, so after we paid our respects we headed up into the mountains a bit more to the Lake Melones Recreational Area, where it was hot. Lake Melones is actually man-made and apparently quite the controversy in its time. Under the lake is the gold rush era town of Melones, which was destroyed after the dam was built and the area filled. To be perfectly fair, it’s actually kind of pretty.

After we stopped there, we headed into Twain Harte where they were having an arts festival.

It was really, really hot.

It was a good little festival for such a little town. We had a good time. There was even parking on the middle school basketball court (I don’t know why I’m tickled by that, I just am.) My dad got my mom a nice basket from one of those fair trade African dealers. My mom has admired these types of baskets for a long time (she always looks at them at Stitches).

On the way back from Twain Harte we stopped in Sonora where I had spotted a yarn store (of course) and I did get a skein of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in the Ysolda Red colorway for my hat project. I also got a cherry limeade that was the most refreshing thing ever because did I mention? It was hot.

After that, my dad suggested we stop in Columbia but when we got there, I was like, dude, it’s hot. And he was all, I concur! Let’s go back to the motel. So we did. We were staying in Angel’s Camp. So I went comatose next to the A/C and he went off to walk around the track at the high school down the street a bit. He later reported that they had the fake grass. I approve.

That night we went to CAMPS Restaurant which is at the golf course in Angel’s Camp and had delicious burgers (not as delicious as the Bandera burgers, FYI, but what is? The Bandera burgers transcend all other burgers).

On Sunday we headed out of town and stopped in Jamestown at the rail museum there, where a lot of movies were shot using their locomotives. Movies like Unforgiven and Back to the Future III. I now need to watch Back to the Future III to see if I can recognize the trains. We had a great tour of the still-in-use roundhouse and even got to see them bring in one of the locomotives that wasn’t working correctly on the roundabout to its designated area. That was unexpected and pretty cool.

THEN we were finally on the way home when my dad pulls off the road and is all, “I think there’s a covered bridge down there somewhere.”

And I’m like, groan, time to go home. So we went down to Knights Ferry and it was actually pretty cool (she said, sheepishly).

On the far side of the bridge were the ruins of an old mill and a random little cowboy-esque house.

(Except for the power lines, I really like this shot. I may photoshop them out later.)

Then we finally went home. Where it wasn’t hot.

My back feels fine and I remain unscathed from my slightly violent adventure on Friday. Despite its rather technicolor appearance, the bruise is a surface bruise and doesn’t hurt unless I poke it.

Until next time, my peeps.