The nearest town to our campsite at Gold Lake was a quaint little place called Graeagle. It's pronounced "Gray Eagle", and was apparently named after a nearby creek.
There are about 750 residents in Greaeagle, and by most standards it's a pretty tiny town. It is located in what the locals call the "Lost Sierra" (i.e. north of the area where most tourists dare venture). But for all it's remoteness it was charming, and had all the necessities. There was a grocery store with a good selection of coffee and sundries, and a cafe that served homemade soups and baked goods, and sold candy and tea by the pound. The hardware store was located in the next town over, a mere mile or so away, and had everything from door hinges to Christmas ornaments, and wine glasses. What else do you need?
Since we'd spent the better part of the morning freezing, getting soaked, and trying to make breakfast under a makeshift shelter at our campsite, we decided we'd braved the weather long enough to retain our "hard core" camper status and headed into town.
Our first stop, the grocery store was, as I mentioned, well stocked. The floors were creaky old wood ones, and they slanted every-which-way, but the store was full and the isles packed with everything you could think of, and they had a surprisingly good meat department stocked by local farmers.
After that we went to the hardware store in Blairsden. It was one of the nicest ACE hardware stores I've seen. On top of all the normal stuff they had clothes, fall decor, dishes, candles, wine glasses, souvenirs, and sporting goods of all kinds. It was really nice.
The next stop was back in Graeagle at the Graeagle Mill Works Cafe. It was about the most charming, homey little cafe I've ever been to. Nestled in an old house (all the businesses in town were in similar converted homes) it had mismatched tables and chairs, little homemade crafts for sale, a candy counter, and a really sweet waitress (who'd dog was attacked by a bear we overheard her telling a local patron!).
The Cafe had fresh baked items like pumpkin pie, and snickerdoodles the size of large pancakes. The kitchen of the restaurant was actually the kitchen of the old house! Ha ha. They had homemade soups and sandwiches, and espresso drinks and tea. I ordered tea, and I got a whole pot of water with it just for myself! The taco soup was delicious, and it was so nice and warm in there after our windy morning in the rain! It felt like heaven! What am I talking about, it
was heaven!
After that we went to a small brewery back in Blairsden...but I'll save that for the next post.
All in all I really enjoyed the town of Graeagle, and can't wait to visit again!
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| Our shelter at camp. |
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| Exactly. |
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| Don't steal. |
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| The "infamous" Graeagle Store |
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| Warming up at the Mill Works Cafe |
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| A beautiful sight on a cold rainy day |
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| Candy and baked goods! |
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| Festive too! |
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| Downtown Graeagle |
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