Day 2, Muddy Water

March 23, 2023


We ran out of propane last night and were not on electricity so we headed out early. We stopped at the Chevron in Caruthers to get propane. After assuring me that they could fill our tank, the guy brought us a pre-filled tank. We weren’t sure when we would find a place to fill the tank and we were 100% out, so we swapped.

Our plan had been to travel down 99 and stop at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. The town of Allensworth was established in 1908 by Colonel Allensworth where African Americans could live without discrimination and be self-reliant. The town failed to thrive when the railroad decided to bypass it and the town ran into problems providing water. The park offers an augmented reality tour app. It all sounded pretty interesting but Hwy 99 has some flooded lanes of traffic, there is a flood alert for the county, and the park is under evacuation orders (there is an RV campground there). So, we headed back to Hwy 5 to travel south. 


On our way there, we passed fields with standing water. Listening to the radio this morning was quite worrying. Not only is there standing water in agricultural fields, there are worries about another storm heading our way next week, and also worries about the melting snowpack and how it will impact this area. This area provides fruits, vegetables, and beef and lamb to California, and much of the agricultural products from the Central Valley feed the country.

We took a quick detour to go to Tule Elk State Natural Reserve. The 935 acres protect a small herd of tule elk. Efforts to save them began in 1874 when they were on the brink of extinction. Once the herd gets to 35, a number of elk are moved to other reserves in the state. Today, there are 5,700 in California.


We are staying at Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Park, a Kern County park and campground. We have FHU and a lakeside pull-through site. The water in the water is more brown than blue. Not surprising with the amount rain this area has had. Still, we are comfortably above the bank.


We got settled. It was now after 1:00, time for lunch. Denis found Lengthwise, a local brewery. We enjoyed two of the beers as well as the fish tacos. Of course, we needed ice cream as well. Denis found Rollin' Creamery. There Is a rolled ice cream store in San Jose; it always has long lines. The ice cream liquid is poured onto a frozen service and then the ice cream is scrapped/rolled from the frozen surface.


The Kern River Parkway Trail starts at our campground and goes on for miles. The first number of miles out of the campground looked unexciting for a cloudy, windy day that was threatening rain, so we headed to one of the local parks on the trail where we could park. We rode 11 miles. The trail is mostly flat and smooth. There is a parallel unpaved running trail. We saw ground squirrels and rabbits, but not as many birds as I had hoped. There are a few unhoused people living along the trail, but there were many fewer than the river trails in San Jose. We managed to get the ride in between the raindrops.

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