On The Road 2012

monday august 27 2012
Salmon river USFS Nordheimer campground, California

• Salmon river campsite
  
  i'm sitting here 7am at my campsite on the Salmon river near Forks Of Salmon in northern california - as far as i can tell i'm a few miles west of there - lots of shade at this campsite, in fact i haven't had to erect my elaborate tarp aparatus once on this trip (much refined since the Cape Breton road trip 14 months ago) - this time its for shade not rain - bugs have been minimal, mostly pesky flies, only a few lethargic mosquitos
  
  the Salmon river is one of the last pristine rivers left in california, with salmon and steelhead runs - its wild here - i've got my 9-year-old never-been-used bear spray handy in the tent, as well as the $5 machete i bought in Baja a few years ago, also my lee valley ugly tool which will do anything including, i hope, bonk a bear on the nose when he stinks up my tent with his foul breath at 5am - with any luck the bear spray won't just dribble a few drops if i need to use it - the largest fox i've ever seen wandered by last evening looking somewhat perplexed at my presence
  
  no tent fly needed here - there is no condensation in the morning because its so dry and rain is out of the question - the dryness makes the upper 90's mid-day temperature more bearable - that and frequent dips in the rocky Salmon river a few hundred feet from my campsite - $8 fee, national forest campsites are the best in the US - there was even a big pile of firewood waiting at the campsite, no fire ban either
  
  the flora here is quite different from BC, wish i had a tree book with me - really interesting deciduous trees, red bark, waxy leaves, not arbutus - its cool in the mornings and evenings - i'm waiting for the sun to come up over the steep ridge to the east - it'll be 9am before it does - i've decided to stay here an extra day, its so idyllic, in order to chill out after 4 days of over-exposure to social discourse with strangers (not my strong suit) and too-much-fun at mandojam at the Sandy Bar Ranch on the Klamath river
  
  
• mandojam
  
  mandojam was the main focus of this road trip - its a sorrento-swing-camp-like music gathering except there is only 25 people including the hosts mark and blythe who are celebrating 20 years of running the Sandy Bar Ranch where mandojam is held - its truly a ranch with a dozen goats, inumerable chickens - they grow most everything they need here - there are several 'interns' young people in late teens who help them run the place - i'm guessing they get some kind of funding to pay them or maybe they volunteer just for room & board, they are all so young, tanned and beautiful
  
  mark plays a macaferri-type guitar extremely well and blythe his lovely partner is an excellent singer - i shot lots of video of the saturday evening performances which i'll youtube when i get back to vancouver - the calibre of musicianship was very high - many accomplished musicians most from northern california and oregon - ashland OR was well represented, a cultural enclave in southern OR, home to a now almost year-round shakespeare festival - ashland is crawling with musicians many of the gypsy jazz variety which is the focus of mandojam - mandojam originated apparently around 2003 from a bunch of local people going to the fall djangofest on whidbey island WA
  
  
• cabin 6
  
  cabin 6 was the all-night jam arena, hosted by a collection of loons from fort bragg CA - several john belushi clones in cabin 6 - they were all well-oiled on bourbon for the saturday night performance - they were a hoot - my main jamming compadres for the event
  
  
• the girls
  
  i managed to weasel my way on stage on saturday with 3 woman who were camped near me - we did a yodelling tune about grandma sliding down the mountain into town on the mail chute(?) - i was quite attracted to the lead singer (OK, all of them) a woman my age who plays slow-pitch scruggs-style banjo - i should mention there was quite a variety of instruments here, including a dozen or so ukuleles, lots of gypsy and archtop guitars, fiddles, a trombone, clarinet, trumpet, and of course numerous mandolins - i got in a good jam with my lovely tent neighbour playing fiddle/banjo tunes like over the waterfall, blackberry blossom, which led to an invitation to play on the saturday evening performance with her and her 'mates' - my carnal ambitions were dashed, alas, when i heard her cavorting in her tent early one morning with another tent neighbour, the very attractive 60 year-old fiddle player in our impromptu band
  
  
• Sandy Bar Ranch
  
  i swam in the Klamath river several times a day, at the sandy bar for which the ranch is named - a refreshing change from the mid-day furnace of northern california in august - one meal a day is included in the event (a very reasonable $235 for everything including accommodation, your choice tenting or shared cabin) all food was from the many gardens and animals on the ranch - the 1pm meal was typically a hearty soup with huge bowls of delicious vegetables on the side - the ranch must have 20+ buildings on it - worksheds, barns, greenhouses, houses etc - with lots of open air 'party barns' for jamming
  
  coincidentally when i topped up on gas at the local Orleans gas station on my way out, a native woman nursing an infant told me the ranch had once been owned by her tribe but was sold when it got to be too much work to maintain - when i inquired about gassing up from the 1960s era pump she told me to just fill it up and tell her how much i put in - a refreshing change from the california norm of needing a US zip code to buy gas with a credit card
  
  
• my itinerary
  
  my itinerary is open, just the way i like it - i may toodle around remote northern california, possibly head south on hwy 3 where the Salmon river road runs into it and head down to trinity lake - as long as i can swim the blistering mid-day heat is quite bearable - the Salmon river road i'm on is quite something - 20mph, mostly one lane with periodic turnouts for 2-way encounters, and harrowing drops to the river below, haven't seen a single guard rail - my kind of road - later maybe i'll head west on hwy 36 to Grizzly Creek Redwoods SP - my 150 page delorme california atlas and gazetteer says you can swim there - camping in the redwoods is something you don't forget
  
  
• poison oak
  
  i forgot to mention that on arrival at mandojam i foolishly camped in the poison oak glen much to the amusement of the california natives - i must be immune because i never got the rash or the itch, oops i may be getting some now (hint: be careful what you scratch) - mark quickly moved me to the std tent area with all the women so i was a happy camper after that
  
  
• mandojam camp hilights
  
  being an early riser i would take a chair down to the river at 5am to watch 3 otters play some sort of tag game in the Klamath, and observe the stunning all-white heron that frequented the sandy bar every morning
  
  one of the musical hilights was the flat-five string band, from Ashland oregon - they did all original material, sort of a mixture of gypsy jazz and jugband - one of their songs (which i have on video) is about 'looking for a good woman whose bad enough to take me home' - they stuck together in cabin 4, never got to jam with them alas
  
  mandolin class with paul blackwell and his lovely wife lynda scheben, who plays a shelley park D-soundhole guitar, was excellent - we learned a bolero rhythm for troublant bolero, a django composition i think with clever juxtaposition of E and Em chords every other bar or so
  
  paul seemed genuinely impressed with the 2 mandolins i brought down, and suprised me by lauding my playing as well - he had a steve anderson A mandolin with him but his primary instrument was a mandola, not sure who made it
  
  
• disaster strikes
  
  late on saturday afternoon lynda fell off a paddle board on the Klamath when a power boat roared by - she broke her fibula, tibula and a couple of other 'ula's - they both missed the sat evening performance as paul drove her to emergency in Redding, a 2-hour drive, ouch - she sees an orthopedic surgeon today, it could be very serious - they were sorely missed at sat evening performance and our mandolin orchestra decided against doing our rendition of troublant bolero w/o lynda's superb guitar rhythm backup
  
  
• post script
  
  the mickeys and $10 bourbon is holding up just fine - the native-run All Star Liquors just inside the california state line at Smith River has both - and the 4 4L frozen water jugs i brought down from vancouver are still cooling my Xtreme cooler after a week of travel
  
  its now 11am - i've had to recharge the laptop in the cigarette lighter twice to complete this missive - its getting warm enough to head down to the Salmon for a swim - life is good on the road
  

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