How We Got Here
Although we're from the Bay Area and love it there, we thought about getting a place in the country and poked around the Sierras for a bit, quickly settling on California’s Gold Country. The history of the foothills, along with its rivers and air perfumed with cedar and pine, was irresistible and we had found our place. Now we had to find our place within that place.
Roughly 2 miles downstream from the current Bear Flag Lodge site, we settled on a 76 acre parcel of land along the Cosumnes River's Middle Fork. With our daughter and two dogs, we camped there in tents and sleeping bags for years and had a lot of great times swimming and hiking. Eventually though we wanted to build a house and so started the process, but unexpected hiccups (there always are some) interrupted the planning stage. After a deep breath we scrapped the idea of building a house from scratch and, around 2010, began to look for an existing house instead.
Around the same time, the parcel at 8001 Canyon View Drive went up for sale and we took a peek. The log house, the land and the river was our Eureka moment - despite the fact that the house was bereft of decks, interior walls, bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. There was just a single electrical outlet in the entire house and it was on the second floor. For a long, cold moment you could have dubbed the place "Extension Cord Lodge" because they went everywhere. A local contractor began installing drywall, wiring, and plumbing and was enthusiastic all along for our ideas on keeping things funky. We also raised a lot of dust with the finishing work, but we're finally at a moment when we can comfortably call this log structure "Bear Flag Lodge."
The work never ends inside and out (forty acres of tall grass, fallen trees and eroding roads ensures that) but it's all a weird sort of fun. Our imaginations get daily workouts as we continue making it up as we go along.
2nd Floor bedroom - don't go out that door!
3rd Floor
Decks Up!