May 12th - How Little We Know

Coming to the end of Trip 12 we are still amazed by the way we stumble on great country and great stories. We are camped on the fairground at Chico, we arrived on Friday and as advertised on Friday evening there was a Meet at the Raceway, all of 100 yards from our trailer. It was noisy, but not too bad. We did not go to see it, now if it had been a demolition Derby we might have ventured out that far. Yesterday we took time to go East from Chico to visit friends. Chico is 'The last Major Town' in the Central Valley, north of Sacramento (Though Redding is further north, I don't think it is as big), we approached from the south on Highway 99, through the now normal views of flat land, irrigation and intensive agriculture. So when we drove East of Chico, taking a road called The Skyway we were surprised that within a cople of miles of the fairground we were immediately in hill country. We very quickly worked out why the road was called the Skyway. It is the only link to Paradise, originally a gold town, and as it goes East is slowly rises up, while the land either side drops away, leaving you on a narrow strip of land with the beautiful Little Butte Creek Canyon a thousand feet below you. What an amazing view, yet hidden from the rest of the world. Not only is it a wonderful view the river itself is a salmon river, which having almost died now has up to 12,500 salmon a year spawning there. Quite amazing. Having driven through Paradise, past the Chocolate Festival taking place this weekend, we had a wonderful, relaxing day with our friends in their lovely new house.
We drove back down in the evening, taking a further look at the Little Butte River Canyon, are again amazed at the variety and beauty of this country.