TRAILS WEST -- MARKERS OF THE CALIFORNIA TRAIL

When the day's work is done, it is time for a cold beer and dinner.

When we are done for the day, a cold beer really tastes good.   This photo was taken at the end of the first day of a September, 2005 trip along the California Trail.  We took that trip to replace a number of marker inscription plates. The first day was hot, and the beer tasted good.  The next day, it was so cold that there was ice on our vehicles in the morning.

Trails West traditionally has a potluck on the first or second evening of an outing.  As usual, each person brings some- thing to share with the others on the outing. The potluck shown in this photo was held at the NFS Bogard Campground during a June outing along the Lassen Trail.  As can be seen, it was a wet and cold evening.  Much of the campground was flooded and could not be used.  But we still enjoyed the potluck because of the good food and the mutual suffering of those of our Trails West friends who had joined us on that outing.

Here we are having another Saturday evening potluck which, of course, was preceded by a happy hour.  The location was great, being a NFS campground near the Carson River.  Instead of dry camping and having to make use of a nearby bush, we had piped water and pit toilets. Almost civilization.  Photo by Richard Hallford. Deciding on what to take for sharing at the potluck can sometimes be the hardest part of planning for one of our outings.  We often start on an outing on a Friday and have the potluck on a Saturday - the second day of the outing. That means you have to carry some prepared food item for two days or longer before serving it.  Hopefully, it will still be edible when you share it with the others for dinner.

Mary Mueller and Pat Loomis, long-time friends of the emigrant trail and staunch members of Trails West volunteered to provide dinner for the crew the first evening of our work trip along the California Trail during September, 2005.  It was great! The weather during that work trip started out great.  During the first day, it was warm enough that replating a number of markers was almost pleasant.  Then, shortly before dinner that evening, the weather turned nasty.  A cold wind came up as a weather front moved into the area.  What made it worse was that most of us were not prepared for cold weather (we should have been, of course).  It got so cold that shortly after eating we retreated to our individual camp sites instead of sitting around enjoying each others company. The temperature stayed cold for the rest of the September, 2005 trip while some of us drove the Hastings Cutoff after completing work on the California Trail.  Since "we were in the area," we added to our trip a drive over the Hastings to obtain the information necessary to write a guide to that trail.  Because of the cold (about 30 degrees in the morning), we stayed in a motel in Wells at night instead of camping out as we usually do on our trips.  It was cold!

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