Continuing north from Chico, we spent a week among the lakes and mountains of Mount Shasta in northern California. I don’t have an awful lot to say about Mount Shasta – we didn’t party the night away or see any Fields of Light, or visit any wineries. But we did enjoy plenty of the Great Outdoors.

But first, a bike ride and trail run along the way.

The only reason I’ve heard of Chico, California is because I read it on the side of a beer can. A Sierra Nevada beer can no less. So when we were looking for our next stop (usual criteria: co-working office, campsite, brewery), we dropped a pin on Chico. And while it IS home to Sierra Nevada brewing, it’s hardly smack bang in the middle of the Sierras. I guess maybe the northern foothills.

It started out kinda stormy in Chico. Which was actually cool because we don’t get a lot of those big beefy storm clouds back in SoCal. As long as it’s not actually raining on me, I don’t mind a bit of storm cloud and thunder drama.

What with that weather, it felt a bit like we were back in the UK. So we embraced the experience by going to a British pub. Which was actually rather nice. We enjoyed our scotch egg with brown sauce, Cornish pasty and a pint of bitter. I don’t want to sound picky but… But! I did have a few thoughts…

1. You couldn’t stand at the bar. You did have to go up to the bar to order but there was nowhere to hang around and drink – off to your table you go.

2. ‘The Bull’ pasty nailed it (chunks of beef, carrot, potato and onion cooked in a rich British Bulldog Brewery ale gravy). Still trying to imagine it being served ‘with a small house salad’ in England.

3. Woe betide the gastro-publican who makes a pie with ground beef and calls it ‘The Shepherd’. Have they no concept of what a shepherd is or does?

4. You risk getting ID’d for the ‘Drunken Duck’ English trifle pud, as it included almond poppyseed sponge soaked in sherry and was strictly 21+.

Of course, work is a constant in our lives and a productive working environment is important. Coffee helps. And almond croissants. Not to mention avocado toast. Yes, Stoble Workplace, which was attached to Stoble Coffee in downtown Chico quickly became my favorite office of the trip.

As the week wore on, the weather took a turn for the better. Not just sunnier, it got hot hot hot 🥵 Not so great timing for my half marathon long training run but I do love that having to train gets me out there experiencing more of a place on foot than I ever would otherwise.

We rounded off our Chico visit by driving up to Paradise Lake for a walk. The name Paradise rung a bell and as we drove along the Skyway highway, we remembered why. In 2018, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history devastated much of the town of Paradise and surrounding areas, causing 85 deaths and many more injuries. From what we could see from the Skyway, much of the town had been re-built, although there were patches of vacated ground zero land.

The surrounding mountains were also in recovery mode from the Camp Fire (ironically not from a campfire but a faulty power line), colonized by fireweed and lupines, the slate grey spindles all that remained for now of the tree trunks and the forest that was.

The hike around Paradise lake was serenely beautiful but hot hot hot.

And there’s nothing like a cool dip in the pool after a hot hike in the sun. While the campsite was somewhat resort-like, that came with the added attraction of a swimming pool.

…And… relax!!!

From the lesser known wine region of Paso Robles, we traveled north past the golden gates of San Francisco to the somewhat better known (and indeed more pricey) wine region of Napa. We based ourselves near Healdsburg in the Sonoma valley for the week, our 20 minute morning/evening commute taking us along winding country lanes past pretty vineyards.

The commute also took us past Riverside park which had the perfect-sized lake to get two laps in before work. Running that is, not swimming.

Every co-working space is a little bit different and they’re certainly getting much busier this year compared to deep covid. CraftWork in Healdsburg rather excelled itself with its pricing structure, it ended up costing over $500 for the week for the two of us. (I’m literally searching for a shock horror gob-smacked emoji).

The other oddity about this place was that I couldn’t find the microwave. I searched high and low, thinking it must be hidden in some random cupboard. I literally turned the kitchen upside down, flinging open doors and drawers – must be a cryptic game of hide and seek for the newbies. Kettle – tick; toaster – tick; plates, bowls & cutlery – tick; even a dishwasher. Surely there must be a microwave? 🤔 But nope.

Fair enough, it was a nice contemporary professional space to work in and they had really good coffee. You didn’t have to smell the milk or check the date before putting it in your coffee, nor did you have to make it yourself. And they had free snacks galore – tangerines, trail mix, breakfast bars, nutrition bars, popcorn and chocolate. And yes indeed, we did attempt to eat our body weight in snacks to get our money’s worth!

The campsite we were staying at in nearby Forestville was also a little, shall we say quirky. We were in a spacious, secluded site nestled among pine trees by a river. Barely another soul around, just the odd fellow traveler came and went during the week. Meanwhile, at the other end of the campground, there were the residents. These trailers were going nowhere – they were practically fenced in by the inordinate amount of firewood they’d obtained. And there was some rather odd decor, including a life size skeleton, that made you really not want to hang around.

In the middle between the two areas was the restroom and shower block. One of those unheated buildings where you wouldn’t want to spend a single minute longer than you had to. And yet, they felt the need to post a whole host of rules on the entrance, including No Co-Ed showers. Think they’re pretty safe with me on that one. And No Food. Damn, that put paid to eating my breakfast in the toilets.

Not forgetting we’re in wine country, so we did make it out to a winery. And a brewery. Oh and a rooftop bar.

Weekends in the winelands are perfect for cycling. So that’s what we did. The End.

Leaving the salty sea air behind us, we set our sights on the central SLO Cal town of San Luis Obispo. Again, short notice availability got the better of us and we split our week between SLO and the nearby winelands of Paso Robles.

But I’m getting ahead of myself – along the way we spent the night at a Harvest Host winery, Dark Star Cellars. The chickens scratching around our feet kept us company as we worked our way through a wine tasting. The afternoon drew on and before we knew it, we had the place to ourselves. Well, us and the chickens. A delightfully warm and pleasant evening sipping wine amongst the vines.

San Luis Obispo was light on recreational activities but we had the most awesome Hipcamp camping spot.

Back in Paso and no more excuses. I got my running legs on and pootled along the winding country lanes, those adorable slopes of converging vine lines whichever way I looked.

Now that Covid restrictions are in the rear view mirror, we treated ourselves to a night out in Paso Robles. I have been known to get quite excited about good pizza. And this indeed was good pizza.

Come the weekend and Darren suggested we escape the heat in favor of a coastal walk. I wasn’t exactly convinced about escaping the heat – it was forecast to be 82 Fahrenheit (28 Celsius, easiest conversion to remember ever), which happens to be my absolute perfect temperature. Albeit perfect for hanging out, rather than perfect for hiking. I begrudgingly agreed, as the rugged yet beautiful Montana de Oro state park was only an hour or so’s drive away and promised some cool hiking opportunities.

So there’s cool and there’s cooler. Would you believe it, as we neared the coast, the temperature dropped from the low 80s to the high 50s and in rolled the fog. Boom! Our plan of hiking up Valencia Peak was a non-starter, lost in the clouds. Ever versatile, we ditched the mountain hike in favor of a bluffs walk.

I made Darren take me to a winery on the way back to make up for it. One in the sun and in the 80s. I’ll take it.

But my absolute favorite thing about Paso (ok the Della pizza was close but this was more unique) was the Sensorio Field of Light experience. We’d heard it was optimal to arrive before sunset, but we didn’t know quite what to expect. “If you build it, they will come”. Oh no hang on a minute, that’s Field of Dreams not Field of Light. But sure enough the people came.

The first thing we saw through the throng of people was an airstream bar – made us feel right at home. We got a couple of (plastic) glasses of wine and made our way past the open fire pit tables and live music.

To this…

Yes – a gorgeous sunset and striking tree silhouettes. But in the foreground, the slopes were awash with a sea of white. A closer look revealed they were as yet unlit lights – bright white iridescent globes on stalks, like alien wildflowers.

And as sunset turned to dusk, the lights started to take on a life of their own.

And then we realized we didn’t just have to stand in the same spot to view the awesomeness. We could stroll on the trails that meandered their way through the Field of Lights. A walk that took us through 15 acres of illuminated hillsides, lit with 60,000 solar powered fiber-optic lights. We got a top up from the airstream bar and immersed ourselves.

They also had a new exhibit for 2022, the Light Towers. In deference to the hundreds of wineries in the Paso area, the Light Towers celebrate not with alien wildflowers but with wine bottles. Over 17,000 of them.

So there you have it. Lots of photos because I just can’t help myself. But quite honestly this is less about viewing art than feeling art. I was blown away by this exhibition and would recommend it to anyone remotely in the area. And we weren’t even VIP.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There are few better places to be in the Spring than California. We tend to get blue skies and warm (but not too hot) weather. The days are getting longer and the wildflowers are out in force.

The return to the office is still optional and quite frankly those in-office days have been few and far between. No real need to stick around for that then. And the feisty Basecamp was raring to go after five months of chilling out in the back garden. It gave us a look every time we went out in the garden “C’mon then, what are we waiting for? Let’s get out there and enjoy it!”

With a resolution to stay closer to home than last time (that Alaska trip kinda took it out of us), we decided to check out the coast practically on our doorstep, starting off with a week camping in Carpinteria and working in Santa Barbara. Oh and not forgetting Ventura, because our last minute plans meant we couldn’t get a camping spot for the full week. Literally last minute, as in we only thought about this trip on a Friday evening and by Sunday morning, we were packed up and on our way to the beach.

So bring on week one!

And with that, it was time to turn our sights inland once again. Next up: San Luis Obispo.