Monday, September 13, 2010 - Drive Day to Springville, CA

The goal is the Sequoia National Forest, or the Mountain Home State Forest, but I've had so much conflicting information about the facilities, we made the decision to find a stable in the town of Springville at the base of the forest area (elevation 1000') and trailer in for day rides. While there are apparently a couple of campgrounds in the forest, the reports on the roads in seemed to indicate they are all very twisty, hard on a trailer, and the camps are at over 6000' and most don't have facilities for a rig as big as ours. We made arrangements with a very nice woman (horse people all seem to be pretty nice, fortunately) named Judy Brey, proprietor of Shady Oaks Ranch right in Springville, to corral our horses and park our RV while we're here. After stops at a rest area to dump and a Walmart, we arrived at the ranch just after 3:00. We found a great shady spot for the RV, and put the horses away in the corrals nearby. Got the satellite up and running, and got settled in. The only problem is, despite the fact we're actually in a town, there is no Verizon signal here (can you hear me now?), so I had to run back about 10 miles to get a signal and make a few calls and check my email. On the way back, I drove slowly through town looking for a wifi signal, and found one near a place called Wild Places, so now I know where to go to check email a very short distance away. It doesn't solve the problem of a cell phone signal, but that will have to wait. Meanwhile, we noticed a curl of smoke coming out of the mountains, and we were worried that the park might be closed due to wildfires, but we learned that fire was started by lightning back in July, and had been smoldering in the wilderness since then. Apparently the conditions were just right for a flare up, nothing to worry about. We could see it glowing after dark, it was quite a sight!