The Red Writer: 2021

POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - California's state parks are closed, victims of the state's pandemic-related, stay-at-home order. But just before the gates closed across the state in early December, Biscuit and I snuck in a three-day camping expedition to Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenwood (Sonoma County), a place that holds decades of history of me.

Biscuit is ready to go again. Me, too.

Morning view from our campsite

Adm. Sylvia Fox took a pass on this trip because of tasks she wanted to do at home. Plus, it was going to be damn cold during the longish nights, which spelled quite a few hours in The Red Writer. It can get beyond cozy with the three of us in cold weather.

The campground is a dry camping spot - no electricity, water from just a few taps and wi-fi is available at the visitor's center at the far end of the area. No cell phone service at all.

But Biscuit and I worked it out, though he wanted to watch a movie, I could tell. Instead, I read book aloud which put him fast asleep.

Biscuit vs. the gophers

Biscuit didn't know it, but the trip was an experiment. I needed to see how he and I would fare with just the two of us. Would he wander off? Would he come back when called? Would he eat and be his sociable self, or miss Sylvia too much and mope. Yes, Biscuit is an excellent moper, if he wants to be.

He didn't wander. He ate plenty and was abundantly social with other dogs and campers. We are working on the recall issue.

Overall, The Biscuit is now officially cleared for travel, once Adm. Fox and I get the jab of vaccine and feel safe on the road.

The nearly 4,000-acre Sugarloaf Ridge park is a few miles from Jack London State Park and hasn't changed much since I first visited it in 1970, just arrived in California with my young family from Lakewood, NY after driving cross-country in a 1964 blue VW bus. A ranger named Martin told me if I was looking for an interesting place to check out, I should try this little town not far away called Napa.

He was right. And a few years later I had graduated from Sonoma State University and was working as a reporter at The Napa Register newspaper. The rest is history.

Pandemic porta-potties

Portions of the park have burned in recent years in the massive Sonoma County wildfires. But the campground has been spared. This year the pandemic kept it closed for months, then when it reopened the state put porta-potties at each site, cleaning them thoroughly between camper visits.

It looks a little odd.

But the benefit for campers is they don't have to use their trailer or camper holding tanks if they don't want to.

Even with many of the trails closed because of the fires, it's a still magical place. And for Biscuit, it was heaven chasing gopher and squirrels.

We'll go back when the state gives the all-clear, days are longer (and warmer) and the Admiral wants to join the gopher hunting and other fun.