Our Journey to Northern California

Phil's Hot Rocks

We completed Phil's research at the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (CoM) in early September 2008. The end of his research trip to the 'Craters' was to be his first, and my second, encounter with the Klamath River Country Estates (KRCE).

Phil was scheduled to depart by plane from San Francisco. I decided to drive Phil from Idaho to California in my usual manner; which is interpreted as 'taking any back road that is not paved and that is likely to lead to some adventure'. So, we came to a sign west of Keno Oregon pointing toward Yreka California. I determined that we might save an hour by taking this 'short-cut' rather than going through Ashland.

A quick glance at the maps showed some faint blue line heading toward Yreka California. With no further thought than, "It's in the right direction", I turned onto the narrow paved road. It passed through a rest area and soon dwindled to a dirt road which became two sandy tracks through a grassy field. Then, it diminished to a narrow trail with shrubbery brushing the sides of the car, knocking the mirrors back against the windows. Then rocks the size of softballs covered the road as it descended nearly 300 feet down the side of the Klamath River gorge to a dead-end where a helicopter was sitting.

I came to the conclusion that we'd need to go back up the grade to the barely discernable 'fork-in-the-road' and take the road that was clearly "less traveled". I decided to let Phil drive on this 'back-road' since he did not have a license and was begging to drive. Soon the road trailed out to nothing but a space between the trees with occasional traces of tire tracks.

Phil pointed out that we seemed to be getting closer to the smoke from a forest fire that we had noticed nearly an hour before. Before we could get our heads around that idea; we were into the fire itself. He drove slowly into the heat of the fire. Flames were licking at the trees on either side of the car. With windows up and vents closed, we drove on.

The smoke became very thick. Phil could not see the road and suddenly slammed on the brakes. He said, "I think I saw someone in the road." We stared into the thick smoke ahead of the car.

Like a ghostly apparition, a fire-fighter in full uniform with air tanks and a mask appeared out of the smoke. And then other fire-fighters appeared. The first one motioned for Phil to roll down his window. The fire-fighter came to Phil's side and asked where we were headed. Phil said, "I'm not sure." I answered for him, "We're heading to Yreka. The map said the road goes through here. How far is it?"

The fire-fighter flipped his mask back as he slipped his helmet off and said, "Guys, you are a long way from there, but yeah this road does go down to Copco Lake, a small housing area, then on to Yreka. You can get through. Just stay on this road until....." And he went on to explain the directions on how to stay on this road. We thanked him for his help and drove on. I suspect those fellas are still telling that story back at the fire-house.

We drove on for another half-hour and the paved road reappeared as we came to a small bridge at Copco Village. We were now back on good road and out of the smoke. As we drove west on Ager-Beswick Road we came to signs about "No Hunting" with the KRCE acronym on a yellow background. We could see that it was a development, but apparently not too successful, or at least with only a few scattered homes. I remarked to Phil about 'always having wanted to live in a place like this...'. We snapped a photo near the intersetion of Ager-Beswick Road and the Yreka Road.

We drove on through the night over Mount Lassen (and another forest fire 'drive-through') to Reno and then to San Francisco the next evening. At the time, I did not recall my 'years ago' search for this very subdivision in May of 1968. It's interesting how the Universe can 'bring us back around' when it wants to, or when we might need it.