Hippie trail through the West

 This post is copied from one I did on the internet and lost many years ago but rediscovered recently on web archive. This is the source which also includes a lot of material I wrote when we had a VW camper and I renovated it. 

Our window on a bit of the South West of the USA whilst camping in a Wasserboxer Westy (Westfalia conversion) for a month during August 1999. This covered LA, across the Mohave desert, Flagstaff and to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to the North Rim, across part of the Nevada Desert to Yosemite and east to San Francisco before travelling south on Highway One to LA.

Our transport for the trip.

 

Providence Mts across the Mohave desert. Spot the "Little Devil"?

First early morning at Carpintera Beach, CA. A big thanks to Walter and Heather

Hit the Town of Needles near dusk and this is was a HOT place to camp !! Helen not feeling too well with the high desert temperatures!!

Sunset near Needles

Resting at Flagstaff after visit to Mary's lake; spot the splittie ?

Meadows and view into Wuptaki Park and Sunset Crater just north of Flagstaff

Then headed north to the Grand Canyon with its tour buses but fantastic scenery.. still hot but the altitude helps !!

First view of the Grand Canyon from the South Rim at Desert View

The river that caused it all, the Colorado River at the Navajo Bridge, brown soup but no rain in these parts!!

North Rim. Shot from "Bright Angel point" point looking over to the South Rim in the far distance

Travelling a distance here from the North Rim across the Nevada Desert to Yosemite via Tioga Pass and then on to San Francisco which was really great fun...particularly the trams!!. Great scenery on Highway 1 but much cooler than we expected. Visited Pfeiffer Beach, Limekiln, Hearst Castle, Morro Bay and lots of photos of  Elephant seals on route.

Heading for Yosemite and the Crane Flats campground through Tioga Pass after crossing the Nevada Desert, relieved to see trees again!!

Sunset from Glacier Point looking to "Half Dome" after visiting Wawona and Mariposa Grove

"Big Sur" coastline south of San Francisco on Highway One. Very hot inland but cool near the sea and mist

Santa Barbara, great place to relax and "roller blade", see Westy on seafront?

Venice Beach on a Sunday morning. Lots of market stalls but deserted beach.

 This is the end of the trip in LA before the long flight. All told, a great way to discover the west with lots of freedom built into the trip...loads of stuff missed out of course!!!

Lancaster Canal near Galgate

 Seems a while since I have posted as we have been staying locally to avoid spreading or getting Covid 19. We had intended to stay in Lancaster and visit Emily and also meet with my family nearby but as the virus spread with the Delta variant, the family wasn't allowed to meet and we decided to cancel the Lancaster booking and find somewhere closer to Emily's boat and also in the country so as to avoid crowds. In fact the change worked out very well as we had two weeks at a cottage on a dairy farm which was only 10 minutes walk to Galgate and the canal and only a further 15 minutes walk along the tow path to the boat.

Sellerley farm where we stayed between Galgate and Glasson.

Galgate is a small village outside Lancaster city consisting of mainly residential housing with a chippy (closed), a small store and a good pub "The Plough". The store and pub served us well. The pub had a large area outside for eating and the weather was mostly dry so we had a few enjoyable lunches there. The cottage itself was adequate and has lots of space outside and of course it is well situated close to Lancaster and Morecambe. There is a footpath to the canal and another just down the road to Glasson that goes to the Glasson Arm of the canal. If you don't like farm odours of the dairy type, then this won't be the place for you but as we were brought up in the country, it wasn't a problem and we enjoyed the rural location.

This was our first time away from home for ages, it was to be a mixture of jobs for Emily at the boat  and some recreation time to enjoy the countryside. Most of our time was spent on the canal between Galgate and Potters Brook to the south towards Preston. This is a scenic part of the canal with the mariner at Galgate near the skew bridge passing the offshoot of the branch of the canal to the Lune estuary at Glasson (incidentally where Emily and I finished the Morecambe Bay cycle ride mentioned in an earlier post), and then through fields and woods to Potters Brook. Most of the time the boat was moored between Galgate and Potters Brook.

The private mariner at Galgate with the tow path on the right of the photo. 

We got to know the walk very well as we had come prepared with a trolley to move heavy items to or from the boat to our car as moving loads is difficult by cycle and trailer. There has been a shortage of  Calor gas cylinders in England recently, so our first job was to locate some of the larger 13 kg cylinders.  We were lucky to find a couple of places each with one cylinder, one in Morecambe and the other further north in Carnforth. After this, the boat needed new leisure batteries so we found a good source on the internet and got four delivered to our cottage over the next few days ready for installing. Emily and I also discovered that the solar panel wasn't working because of a bad connection and also that the solar panel controller wasn't working either so we soon fixed that and got the electrics into a good state. At the same time Helen and Emily were designing and making some window cushions to help insulate the windows in the colder winter weather and also to eventually make new curtains from recycled material. We had got some recycled material for the covers from a "Restore" shop in Dartington and also from various places, some old pillows with wadding for the insulation. We also took a short trip to Garstang about 8 km to the south on the canal where we found some material off-cuts for some of the curtains. We also visited the boat yards in Garstang and Glasson to get other supplies that will be needed in the future.

An old Ferguson 20 tractor on show at the farm with pictures of it being used in the winter in the 1960s to collect mangels for cattle fodder. This is something we used to do on the farm when I was a child so it all looked familiar.

The view down the Glasson Arm of the canal. This makes a pleasant walk to Glasson.

This a the bridge along side the main canal with the first lock in view that starts the Glasson Arm of the canal.

On our walks by the canal we saw some unfamiliar flowers and also lots of Chiffchaff with their distinctive call but never actually seen as the border hedge was thick and wide. Also a few swans with cygnets either on the canal or the canal bank.

Giant Bellflower near Galgate

On route down the canal; ideal conditions in the sunshine without wind!

Typical part of the tow path in the rural areas.

When we visited, the canal boats were active but not as much as we expected.  I think the majority were hired boats with people enjoying the tranquility of the farmland and villages or town on route. We certainly enjoyed the scenery and seeing Emily after a long time. Also, most of our visits have been in autumn and winter at locations further north on the canal, so this made a pleasant change to see more southern reaches of the canal and in the summer time.

Near Potters Brook in the morning sunshine