Whiskeytown

Today we traveled through Shasta County, stopping at Whiskeytown Lake for some light hiking and lunch. We also crossed the California/Oregon border! I’m now in a state I’ve never visited before today. Tonight we are staying in a campground just outside Crater Lake in Fort Klamath, OR. It’s a gorgeous spot just next to a creek with lots of greenery. However, it’s also ridden with mosquitoes so we are holed up in the RV for the night.

Person:
Well, this was a pretty quiet day, but I did have one amusing encounter. While at the visitor center at Whiskeytown Lake, I was waiting outside with Argos and a guy came up and made the usual dog introductions (“oh, he’s beautiful,” “is he friendly?” “what breed is he?” etc.). Then he asked him, “where’s your tennis ball?” We all enjoyed that; he’s obviously spent time with a Golden Retriever before.
Place:
We hiked a very short hike off the highway near Whiskeytown Lake to Crystal Creek Falls. This was a very worthwhile side-trip, as the falls gave us a little exercise, a beautiful place to eat lunch, and the dogs a great swimming opportunity. We met a Rotty-mix puppy that was adorable and happy to meet our dogs, and Argos and I played with a stick for a while. I never grow tired of getting wet spontaneously in a natural water source.

Food:
I’m going to indulge myself today and choose my own concoction. We had tacos for dinner and I did an improvised corn relish for them that turned out great. I cut white corn straight off the cob, toasted it on high heat in a skillet, combined it with raw diced red onion, lime juice, kosher salt, sugar, freshly ground black pepper and a great buttery olive oil that Cathy bought in Sonoma. The warmth from the just toasted corn caused the flavors to meld pretty quickly, and the result was just delicious IMHO. This kind of improvisational cooking is my favorite thing to do in the kitchen.