Low Expectations, however . . . and Kayaking to Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park

This day was full of activities for which we didn't have high expectations, however, they all turned out to be good experiences in their own way. We were staying at a privately owned campground in northern California, and we were disappointed with the noisy campers and crowds of people jammed into this small space. We found out that part of the crowd was a church group that was cooking all their meals together under the pavilion. They were also having a church service on Sunday morning before they left. We asked if we could join them because we hadn't found many churches in our neighborhood. We had low expectations, however, it was good to see it turned out to be a fine Sunday service in the campground.

Likewise, we had low expectations for our kayaking trip for the day. We were heading to Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park--the only park we had ever heard of that you can't drive into. There were no roads in the park, and the only way to get there was via boat. The local ranger at Old Station, California, hadn't gone there for many years. Her only suggestion was to bring bug spray--lots of bug spray. She even used the term "vicious" when describing the mosquitoes at Ahjumawi State Park. So we had low expectations, however, the wind was blowing enough to put ripples on the water, and that kept the bugs at bay.

It was a long dirt road to the boat entry point, and google maps labeled this area, "rat farm." A name that like that would give us some more low expectations. But we aired up the boat and started paddling against the wind towards Ahjumawi State Park.

We had read that migrating birds love this little waterway, because it is so protected from people and boat traffic. So in the spring and fall this can be a great place to go bird watching. But we had low expectations for seeing birds in the middle of the summer. However, some of the local birds showed up to give us a good show.

We're not sure of the name of this pointy-beaked-red-eyed-diving-water bird. But they continued swimming just far enough in front of us to tease Denisa to try to get them in focus.

Straight ahead of us was the state park that we had read about--Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park. It was named after the tribe that once lived here, and Ahjumawi means "river people."

The only wildlife we found were a couple of curiously-shaped turtles sunning on the bank.

When we paddled out of the entry cove, we had to make a decision between going east towards the big lake, or west to Horr Pond. We chose west in expectation of going all the way to Tule River, with views of Lassen Peak ahead of us. But after a couple miles of paddling against the wind, we decided it was time to turn around.

Another local bird showed up for lunch. We had read about the unique crayfish that were found only in this area, and were on the protected list.

We watched as the gull caught and then quickly gulped down one of those endangered crayfish.

The clouds were building, and it was interesting to see their effect on the water. We had blue water under the blue skies, and brown water under the clouds.

As we turned towards the state park, we saw that a gaggle of geese were also flying in towards the park.

We docked the boat and walked into this unusual state park. While they had some primitive camp sites to rent for $15, we wouldn't be able to bring our trailer here. All of your camping supplies must be loaded onto your boat to stay at Ahjumawi state park! We saw another kayaker unloading all his supplies for an overnight stay. That's the only human we saw in this state park visit. A number of trails start near the campground, and this looked like a great place for campers that love solitude. We can guess that they won't be kept awake by noisy campers like we experienced last night at our campground. 

After stretching our legs at the state park, we paddled back to "Rat Farm" to load up our boat. We had come with low expectations, but we had a good time at this unusual state park. We had worked up an appetite, and we were ready for dinner. We had low expectations for a good meal considering that we were in a very remote part of Northern California and most of the restaurants were closed on Sunday and Monday. In fact, we had only one choice, however, our Mexican food meal was very good.

Our last stop of the day was the Great Shasta Rail Trail. That's a rail-to-trail bike trail that we had struggled to find information about, so we had low expectations. When we finally found it, we discovered that it was still a work in progress. While some of the red cinder surfacing was in place, there were no signs and we were pretty lost. Then we found Peter, who was walking the Great Shasta Trail with his dogs. Peter loved to talk about all his philosophies concerning logging, California's economy, and raising a family. But he liked to talk mostly about this trail that had given him a reason to endure the cancer treatments that had taken over his life for the last three years. So even though we had low expectations, he explained that he worked to get out of the hospital each time to get strong enough to return to this trail. While we had low expectations, this was a good trail for Peter! He gave us directions and we continued our drive through this forested area. Now we had more information about the logging industry, this state of California, and turning low expectations into good times.