Columbia CA
 

Katie and I are planning on three days, two nights camping at Columbia CA, O22 on Memorial Day Weekend. (VFR weather permitting from Aurora OR)
I talked to the FBO and the county airport manager today. Only a small group of West Coast Taylorcraft have a announced trip in. We did this Last year and there were about 10 airplanes total, plenty of room for more.
Any way...if anyone is interested...join us...
Here's a trip report from last year.
We sneaked out of UAO at 6:00am Saturday, flew at 5500 to 7500 feet picking through scattered skies.

GIB (Girl In Back) Katie "HulaGirl"


DIBs (Dogs In Back) Hanna and Maui sleep most of the time when flying, but get excited when I power down for descents and landing cause they know we are getting close!


Mt Shasta


Lake Shasta, with my GIB looking over my shoulder.


At O22 you have both paved or grass strips. Looking from the end of 11 to the left behind the two parked panes is the camp under the trees. Avoid taxiing on the dry rough grass by back taxiing on the green strip. Or if you use the hard runway, taxi on the gravel taxiway to camping, watch for large rocks with low wheel pants. HulaGirl made it just fine.


You are close to your plane from most of the camp sites with tables, or plenty of room further into the trees. Many camp under the wings too. Flushing bathrooms with hot showers to the left of photo too.


Katie crashes with beer in hammock after easy 3 hour flight.


Across the airport and across the highway is a gas station for food, cooler, ice and drinks including liquor. I made margaritas with no plans on flying the next day. The preserved gold rush town of Columbia is one mile, easy walk, but there is a shuttle service advertised at the camp too. Lots to do, see, and eat....

Trip continued...
 

In town for lunch...I held the dogs while Katie went into the saloon for takeout. They told us to bring the dogs in. So we all sat at the bar. Yes they are old enough, in dog years! Only in the Wild West

Maui and Hana can't wait to go back!


Beale AFB 0 to 4100 ft airspace ceilings. We planned Red Bluff as a waypoint to avoid military airspace.


Return trip home we used 4500ft at first, the made our way up as high as 16,500 to get over most clouds, still turned a few times to stay away from some higher. Then we dropped down through at Roseburg to fly at 2000 ft under full overcast the rest of the way north.
Mt. Shasta between layers.

FYI for those interested in the excursion but would prefer to camp in a hotel: it's a 10 minute walk from the Columbia airport to the town along a trail through the woods where several hotels are available, reservations advisable I'm sure. The town is a state park, preserved somewhat as a '49ers gold rush town, with interesting things to see and a number of eateries. Columbia is my 2nd favorite place to fly to from the greater Sacramento area (1st being Half Moon Bay).

PS. I wouldn't advise wandering off the trail into the woods because it's the right elevation for both poison oak plants and rattlesnakes. Stick to the well-worn trail and you'll be fine. Ask locals about proper hiking trails, there must be some around there.

I've been lucky enough to break in new spam can engines out of the Los Angeles area and both times I chose Columbia for the flight. Last time I was here just happened to stumble in on an EZ/canard plane fly-in. It's near the top of the list for cool airport destinations in California. Thanks for posting those pics.

We have stayed in the historic City Hotel in Columbia.

It was a nice place to stay, but the rooms got too hot when it was 105 F outside - the modern AC units couldn't match the single pane historic windows. :)

Pick a slightly cooler day to visit and stay.

Trip is a go
 

Weather report says severe clear for the weekend. Upper 80s day time, 50ish at night. The Taylorcraft type club should have about ten or so planes there and have welcome a few of us nice RV's to join them. I have only heard from one RV-10 flyer so far...
Also as posted by Ralph, a day trip Sunday to Half Moon Bay looks very inviting...
My plan is to arrive about 10:00 on Saturday... Will pitch a tent, hang the hammock and let the min pin run wild...TBD