4/16 - 4/22 Oroville - An Ironic Odyssey

4/16 - What was supposed to be an easy 4 hour jaunt up to the lower Sacramento Valley turned into an exhausting all day odyssey. We pulled out of our Diablo camp shortly after noon. We had been there so long (three weeks) that some of our blocks & chocks had to be pried out of the ground, where it seemed they had started to take root! It was a little hard to say good-bye& I left with a feeling of nostalgia, reinforced by the vados music of the group Madredeus. I felt a little like a pilgrim, moving on with no real home.

But as we started down the grade back to the San Joaquin valley, I soon became immersed in maintaining control down the steep, twisting secondary road. After a brief rest stop along I5 we pushed on through Stockton & Sacramento, heading for the Spenceville Wildlife Area east of Yuba City & Marysville. We took SR20 east out of Marysville, but as we got closer to where the wildlife area should have been with no signs in sight, I stopped & consulted the detailed maps in my California Gazetteer. It looked like there was a road to the south that would get us to our goal. Not! It dead-ended at Beale Airforce Base, but we didn't find out until we were 15 miles down the winding bumpy road. So we back tracked all the way back to Marysville & tried the directions in Don Wright's campground book. These lead us down what became a tertiary farming road that also dead-ended. It was now past 6 and we were getting tired & hungry.

I took Timmy for a short walk; he had been so patient & good. Then we headed back to Marysville again. I needed diesel & I was ready to take any campground I could find. Spenceville seemed like a bad idea now, just too hard to get to. We got the fuel, but found no campgrounds. Don Wright said there was a free campground at Live Oak, not too far north of Yuba City, so we headed there, but watching all the while for any other place to stop. There was no camping in Live Oak, the second time that Don has led me astray in that way. I decided to keep heading north toward Oroville, which ironically had been my initial choice before deciding instead to try Spenceville. We arrived at the Oroville State Wildlife Area just at dusk, too dark to investigate the area for the best available spot. But there was a lot of level ground, so I just pulled Gypsy up on some leveling blocks for the night. We'll check out the area in the morning & decide if we want to stay here for the week & if so, where.

4/17 - In the daylight the area proved to be as I had feared when I had decided to try Spenceville. This region is an old gold dredging area. Back when gold fever swept California, the Feather River (among many Sierra streams) was turned upside down. Gold trumped everything in those days; great environmental damage was done before some semblance of sanity returned. The results are all about us here at this wildlife preserve, set aside no doubt because it no longer has any value. The river here should be meandering through lush farmland. Instead it's a broad channel with gravel piles for banks & numerous unnatural gravel bars. On both sides there are large pits, acres in size, separated by gravel levees.

Spenceville beckoned. I went back to the gazetteer & plotted out an alternate route via SR65 southeast of Marysville & then heading north on secondary roads. We left midmorning, taking county roads south & east through walnut, almond and peach orchards back to SR70. We finally arrived & it seemed that it was going to be worth the trouble we had getting there. This wildlife area is located in the lower Sierra foothills, in an extensive savannah ecosystem: miles of grasslands in spring green interspersed with open oak stands. Numerous horse trailers indicated that this area was also a favorite of the equine set. It seemed ideal & I was even getting a signal on my cell phone. But each time I tried to dial, I got back "no service". Nuts! I've been looking into getting an external antenna for my cell just for such situations, but without one, we weren't going to be able to stay. We walked around the area a little & then headed back. On the way out I decided to continue north & within a couple of miles I was back on the road we had been on yesterday. More irony, we had been that close! Finally we completed our scenic tour of rural Butte & Yuba counties & arrived back in Oroville to set up for the week ahead.

The Oroville Wildlife Area may not be pristine, but it's not a total loss either. It has probably been over a century since this area was abused & abandoned, but nature is doing her best to reclaim it. The pits are turning into marshes, while cottonwoods, willow, ash & black walnut now line the river banks. There's a heron rookery just upstream & we've seen egrets, osprey, cormorants & various other birds working the stream. The fields & gravel banks are blooming with poppy, wild sweet pea, red clover & purple vetch. My office window overlooks about a mile of the river and if you can overlook the misshapen banks, it's a nice view. There is only one other camper here, so we should have a quiet stay.

4/20 - I tried fishing the Feather late this afternoon. I chatted with some other gents downstream of us who were using bait to fish for catfish & bass. Not my style. Upstream there was a nice riffle which appeared very fishable on both ends. But no luck & I really doubt that there are any trout in this section at all. I checked the Feather River fishing forecast online this evening & they are talking steelhead. So I may give that a go tomorrow. I've seen a few large splashes this week that very well could have been steelies.

After fishing I spent most of an hour bird watching. The trees that line the river at our camp are festooned with oriole nests, those little hanging baggies. A pair of Bullocks Orioles dodged in & out of the large cottonwood just outside. I got several great binocular close-ups. What gorgeous birds! Also admired a beautiful purple finch.

California hosts a common weed that produces unique auger-like seeds can literally screw themselves into the ground. We've seen a lot of them back in the Diablos & other places, but here in Yuba county they are larger that I have seen anywhere else. This plant bears small magenta flowers that develop into 3-5 inch long spikes. As these dry out, the spikes split into 5 segments & each starts to curl up into the auger shape, leaving a "handle" on one end. The seed head forms a sharp "bit". It is fascinating to poke the bit into a piece of fabric, then dampen the auger & watch the handle unwind. Leave it long enough & it will start to dry out & wind itself back up. Timmy is very familiar with these augers (we call them corkscrews), since they readily catch in his leg fur. We spend part of every day here extracting them.

4/21 - I went steelheading this afternoon & actually managed to hook something. First I went down to a section of the river just in front of us, where I had seen some fish jump, possibly steelhead. I was surprised to discover that I could easily wade clear across the river there, as it was no more than knee deep, though fairly wide. The spot I wanted to try was just below, but no luck there. My next try was back to the riffle area above us. I hoped to get across it to a smaller riffle where I had seen a guide & his client fishing below earlier. But they had a boat & I didn't, so I decided not to risk wading the swift water to get there. Instead I just cast out across the riffle, letting it carry my fly down to where I hoped some fish might be holding. As I let out more line I began to have difficulty controlling my cast & on what was to have been the last cast, the fly looped up from behind me & embedded up to the shank of the hook in my left forearm!

Hmmm... My initial reaction was surprise that it didn't hurt much. Then I decided that probably this was the end of this fishing expedition, so I reeled in, cut the line off the hook & headed back to camp to see if I could extract it. Steelhead hooks are pretty good size, with large barbs. I discovered right away that I could not simply back the hook out. I assembled my instruments: Exacto knife, needlenose pliers, tissue, ointment & bandaid. I thought I might be able to open a slit for the barb with the knife, but my hide is tougher than I realized (or the knife was just too dull). Besides that, I have limited strength & dexterity with my right hand, so I concluded that Dr. Jerry was not going to pull this off. Of course there was also the risk of infection, so I put Timmy in the trailer & headed for an emergency room. I caused a bit of a stir as I walked in with an egg-sucking leach fly dangling on my arm. I announced that this was merely a case of unintentional body piercing. Some time later, as I was starting to consider whether I might start a new fad in body jewelry, a doctor came in, numbed up the spot a little & simply yanked the fly out using fancy pliers. Technique is everything.

Tomorrow we will head back down toward Sacramento, spending the night in the Camping World parking lot so we'll be there early for service on Saturday. Besides replacing the awning, I'm upgrading my noisy water pump. Our probable destination next week is Lake Shastina near Mount Shasta. The weather looks a bit dicey & definitely cooler. Our backup plan in case the weather goes bad is to head for one of the RV parks in nearby Weed.

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