Day 1 - Oakland, Jefferson, and to Oregon (Tuesday May 28, 2013)

As we drove north on Interstate 5 the sky was high, the the rice fields were just breaking through the surface of the flooded fields, and mile after mile of orchards and vineyards in various stages of growth were full of leaves but not yet fruit.  As we passed Redding and Lake Shasta and into the mountains between Jefferson (AKA North California) and Oregon the green valleys made me thing of what Lassen and Peter Ogden saw as they traveled through this country in the 1840s and a little before.  Lassen would not recognize the expansive meadow he observed as Lake Almanor, the site of a recent rather strong earthquake that rattled shelves, broke glasses and frayed nerves, but apparently injured no one..
As we approached Yreka we saw only one sign, pained on the roof of a barn, reminding us that we were in foreign territory. The State of Jefferson, so declared in 1940 by some of the leading citizens of far Northern California and far Southern Oregon.  The State seal, consisting of a gold pan with two Xs in the bottom, were meant to remind us of gold mining in  the area. Gold mining continued into the twentieth century as dredges worked its way along the Trinity River leaving behind mile after mile of tailings. I recall seeing those as I travelled along Highway 3 in 2008.  On that trip I discovered the beautiful Scott Valley and the small town of Fort Jones.
Fort Jones was a US Army post established in 1853.  One of the commandants at the Fort, in 1856, was then Major Crook.  this was his first frontier post, and other famous military characters, including Sheridan, Grant, and others served there.  Well, according to the story Grant was assigned their but never managed to show up.  He was, as they say, AWOL.   But Crook's stay there was uneventful even though he wrote that he woke up suddenly one evening and thought that he was being scalped by an Indian who had crept silently into the camp  It turned out that an Indian had snuck into the fort and startled an owl that was sleeping. The frightened owl swooped down and landed on Crook's head, grabbing ahold with his sharp talons.  That was what Crook imagined  being scalped would feel like.
As we proceeded north out of Yreka we began to see signs of the Applegate Trail.  The Applegate trail parallels IS5 and is very close to former US 99 which is still marked at least in Oregon, although the maps tend to show it ending in  Red Bluff where it merges with IS5.  We stopped in a few of the road side places that were marked as part of the Applegate trail. That trail is not part of the National Trails Project. At least not part of the "politically designated National Historic Trails Project as determined by Congress" in the words of the NPS representative who responded to my inquiry abut the trail from Yreka north to Oregon City.  But that lack of "political" designation has not deterred the residents of small towns along that route who continue recognize, document, explore, and mark the Applegate Trail in Southern Oregon.rail.
Her is a link to some photos taken at a spot along the Applegate trail.
We proceeded north on IS5 until we got to the small town of Cottage Grove.  Since there were some camp sites nearby we decided to go into the town of a little over 9000 and buy some food for dinner. We searched high and low but found noting but the Bi-Rite, Ken's Super Mart, a Dollar Store, and a store that looked like a gas station snack shop without the gas station.
We decided to head back to the freeway and continue on to the next town. As we drove out of town we ran across a large shopping center on the edge of town, obviously fairly new, with a Safeway, Wells Fargo Bank, and a couple of other large stores. So we bought some veggies and tortillas to go with some canned chicken I had brought and headed out to the campground.  Schwarz campground is a facility sponsored by the Army Corp of Engineers who is busy building a dam on the Row River at the outlet of Dorena Lake.  And who, I wondered, is the famous American after whom the Corp named this very nice and spacious campground.  He campground host had no idea - "a famous person" was his reply to my question. I could not bring myself to inquire who Dorena was.
We spent a lovely night in the Schwarz, even though it rained all night and I was sleeping on a cot under the RV awning.