Lake Siskiyou and the family reunion (Travels in Cookie part 3)

We bid goodbye to Eagle Lake on the morning of the 4th of August. We packed up, loaded the bikes, had some breakfast and hit the road. We decided to drive around the lake and take the road there towards McCloud and then on to Lake Siskiyou.

The lake is prettiest where the campgrounds are located - or the surrounding land is prettiest. It gets to looking very high desert after that. The lake, like many, is low this year, and that didn’t help with scenic factor. It was still fun to see what the rest of it looked like and to gaze back to where we camped before we turned away from the lake for the last time.

We took 139 to 299. The landscape is quite beautiful the entire way; we also drove through several little towns. We stopped at Fowlers Campground outside of McCloud to see about doing a little trout fishing. We spent more time getting ready to fish than anything else. We hiked down to the fishing area and it was so deplete of water we basically turned right around and left. Then a funny thing happened - as we drove down the road towards McCloud we passed a pick up and trailer on the other side of the road; I looked at the man standing outside of it and said “that looks like our neighbor!” The man waved as we went by. I texted the neighbor and sure enough, it was him. How funny to drive so far to run into someone who lives next door.

We arrived at Lake Siskyou in the mid-afternoon; I had made our reservations about six months previous and knew that I had asked for a full-hookup site. We drove to the site they told us to go to and not only was it not a full hookup site, it was an A/B site, so the people on the other side were right on top of us. This would not do - we headed back and talked to them and they said they had made a mistake and they gave us a different site - whew. It was full-hookup, had a nice gravel “yard” and was close to the beach and the little store and a short bike ride away from the rest of the happenings. Once we settled in we took a walk to the beach and got into the water to cool off.

That first night was a no-host dinner in the town of Shasta; with no car, we weren’t sure how we would get there but luck smiled on us: a cab driver (!) had driven into the park to get a soft-serve ice cream at the little store (they are really good) and she was willing to drop us off at the restaurant in town on her way to her next fare. We jumped in with no time to change and made it in time to get seated and served with the rest of the family. That first night is always a little crazy - the restaurant puts the group, which is large, in its own room and it’s loud - most everyone hasn’t seen each other since the year previous. Our unflappable waitress was able to get us all drinks and food in good order and no mistakes were made. The next challenge was getting back to the campground but we figured the odds were in our favor with everyone else heading the same way. It was more challenging than we expected as most folks had piled in and filled cars, but luck was with us again when two cousins emptied their back seat into the bed of a pickup and made room for the three of us.

The first day we had those same two cousins come by for coffee and some breakfast, then we all headed over to the spot by the lake near the clubhouse where we enjoyed the water and the company. That night’s dinner was at the clubhouse and another great time to get to visit with everyone. The evening ended with a gathering at a nearby campsite around a nice fire. Apparently, that wasn’t enough for everyone and several folks took a late night boat ride as well, including my husband. I, however, craved some peace and quiet and went back to Cookie to do some reading.

Saturday is the “main event” day; Anthony and I took a bike ride counter-clockwise around the lake to start. We left it a little late - around 11:00 AM, so it was getting hot, but the trail is mostly shaded. I learned something too - I had only ridden the trail clockwise in the past, but it is significantly easier to ride it the opposite direction! Which, on a hot day, was good.

We spent the rest of the day back by the lake, in and out of the water. Anthony spent some time on a paddle board and really enjoyed that. We ended the day with another dinner, this time BBQ, back at the clubhouse. Apparently there was another boat ride that evening as well, but neither Van nor I went on it.

Sunday was our last day and we were bittersweet about that. I think all of us were ready to get home and sleep in our regular beds, but we had really enjoyed the trip. For me, getting out of the house after losing mom was just the thing I needed - some time to grieve but not have her absence be in my face daily like it would be at home. I felt stronger and better ready for what life was going to be like moving forward. I think Anthony had fun, especially the last few days when he was able to hang out with a bunch of kids his own age, and got a little vacation in his summer break. The trip home was uneventful, which was good; we were happy to be home and all of our dogs were very happy to see us.