A Year About

As we have driven along the northern California and Oregon coast, Bobby and I have noticed these blue signs on the highway. On the east coast, they say “Hurricane Evacuation”, but here it is all about tsunamis. Right now we are camping in a tsunami zone. Here’s hoping no continental plates collide off the coast while we are here.



It is a perfectly glorious day on the Oregon coast. As I type this, I am wearing a tank top and shorts. Elise has gotten water from the nearby creek and after “soaking” in it for a bit, is giving all of her Polly Pockets a bath. This is warmer weather than usual for this time of year, but everyone in the campground seems as pleased as we are that it is here.



This morning we picked up Elise’s junior ranger packet for Oregon state parks. They run their program a little differently here. After completing the activities at one park, she gets a badge and learns the “secret hand signal”. At the next park, she earns a pencil and decal. After completing activities at the third park, she will get a patch and a certificate “signed” by J.R. Beaver. It sounds a little corny, but she really enjoys doing it and we all learn a little something.



After picking that up, we took a walk on the old Route 101 to an overlook. The old 101 runs behind us in the park and it was an easy walk to a lovely view of the beach where we explored yesterday. The creek we had crossed seemed so small and peaceful from up high!



Tonight we are heading to Port Orford for an early dinner. The camp host here told me about a chili place in town that serves the best chili he’s ever tasted. Just the other day Bobby was telling me that he wanted to make a big crock pot of chili so this will be perfect! After dinner we will head back to the trailer for Movie Night. Elise has banned all scary movies from her repertoire so I think our choices are “Mary Poppins” or “Sound of Music”. We’ll let you know.

Low tide was around 10:30 this morning. After Elise worked on her handwriting (she’s started cursive) and we ate breakfast, we headed down to see what Oregon beaches have to offer.

There is a creek behind our site that runs into the ocean, so we followed it. Next to the creek is a path that took us under Route 101 and low and behold, we were on the beach!



It’s fairly spectacular to walk on Oregon beaches because they are so wild. On signs, they warn you about sneaker waves (ones that “sneak” up on you) and rogue waves that will carry you out to sea. Another thing about these beaches at this time of year is that you are almost guaranteed to be alone. Have you ever been driving along the coast to look at what seems to be a remote beach only to see people walking on it and wondering how they got there? That was us this morning.



The interesting part of the beach was on the other side of the creek. After a quick trip back to the trailer for a towel, we forded the stream. Bobby and I took off our shoes, rolled our jeans past our knees, and Elise got a piggy-back ride on her dad. The creek runs a lot faster than we first expected, so it was smart to carry Elise across.



Once we reached the other side, we scrambled on the rocks to see if there were any tide pools of note. There weren’t really. But the low tide was a -1.4 this morning, which means 1.4 feet lower than normal, so maybe there would have been tide pools had the tide been not so low. We did see lots of California mussel colonies which I learned from our guide book can be toxic, barnacles and a new marine invertebrate we hadn’t noticed before — pacific goose barnacles.


California mussels


Barnacles


Pacific goose barnacles

Right before we started back, Elise found Kelpy. What looked initially to be a two- foot piece of seaweed, ended up being about eight feet by the time we pulled him out from the rocks he was wedged between. An instant pet! Kelpy came back across the rocks with us, stopping for drinks of water as we passed pools. We left Kelpy on a cliff, hopefully above the high tide line so that Elise will be able to find him tomorrow.



Back at the trailer, Elise made lunch for her parents. Bobby got cheese and apple and Elise made her first PB&J for her mother. I can tell you it was delicious. Now we are sitting outside in the warm sun while we eat. Bobby and Elise are each reading their own books as I type this. Elise has been craving salmon so will grill that tonight and have another roaring fire. It’s a good day.

Multiple posts below. Got to get wifi in Redwood National Park!



We have left California and are now officially in the Pacific Northwest! The Oregon coast is spectacular. The views are rugged and long. If it wasn’t so far from the east coast, I’d consider living here!

It was drizzly this morning, but I jogged anyway, thank you very much! Right before I headed outside a large group of (apparently) Buddhist monks walked through the campground. They all walked into the bathrooms and then a 13-seat passenger van picked them up and off they went. No idea there.

We left Elk Prairie this morning after more luxurious showers and another visit by our elk friends. Elise got them to stay still long enough for a group photo.



We are now at Humbug Mountain State Park. We’ll be here for three nights. We’re looking forward to exploring the area.

Yesterday was our deep woods day. Today was our coast day. We drove up to a beach only a few miles south of Crescent City in order to check out the tide pools. We are tide pool aficionados at this point. The beach was made primarily of grapefruit size stones, all of them rounded by the pounding surf. Everything was rounded and scoured by the power of the waves. Little pieces of wood were smooth and oval, so were huge logs and tree trunks. The tide was low, but coming in when we arrived. When it’s high tide, there is no beach. This inspired us not to dawdle too long. We found plenty of sea anemones, mussels, barnacles, limpets, and snails. We couldn’t spot any sea stars though. At this point the tide pools in La Jolla still take the proverbial cake.





We backtracked south to the mouth of the Klamath River. There’s a parking lot about 600 feet above the ocean from which you can occasionally spot whales. We sat on picnic table, ate lunch, scanned the water and hoped. Lo and behold, there was a gray whale just off the point below us. They stir up the bottom and feed — often just beyond the wave breaks. I wanted to get a closer view from the overlook 400 feet farther down. I took our binoculars and started running. The trail was long due to the switchbacks on the steep hillside, but eventually I made it. Then I waited. I saw two whales. Each would surface just long enough to breath and then dip gently back beneath the swells. Since the bottom wasn’t too deep, they didn’t dive or raise their flukes. After seeing them a few times I turned to head up, but Danine and Elise came running down too. Now we all watched them for awhile, stopping only to track down the loud bark of a seal — several were swimming in the midst of the breaking waves either for fish or for fun.




At least Danine is working on the Junior Ranger packet!

Unfortunately, in our excitement to get down to the overlook we neglected to consider the steep 400 feet we now had to climb. It was tough! We were happy to rest on the picnic table before continuing back south. Our next stop was Big Tree. It’s right off the highway. It isn’t as tall as many of the larger redwoods we’ve seen, but the girth of the thing was amazing.


Elise is sworn in as a Junior Ranger.

We passed our campground and went back to the Information center to have a ranger identify a section of vertebrae we found and to turn in Elise’s Junior Ranger packet. The good news is that she was sworn in once again as a Junior Ranger. The bad news is that the rangers had no idea what kind of vertebrae we had found. It started to stink, so I packaged it up and mailed it to my favorite blog reader. You’ll soon know who you are…


Coming to a mailbox near you . . .

We stopped on our way back to Shackleton for some elk pictures, but it was unnecessary. We had only been back 45 minutes when four cows (female elks) came wondering into the campground to munch and sat down just across the road. Danine whipped up spaghetti, steaming hot rolls, and a salad. We ate outside watching the elk.


Elise named this one Susie. She is not standing on her right front leg. She has been injured since last summer. The rangers were sure she would get taken down by a mountain lion, but so far so good.

Tomorrow we’ll leave California after being here for over a month. We’ll keep to the coast and stay in one of Oregon’s state parks. Not sure where yet.

Elise peers through a hollowed-out, yet living redwood.

My cousin, Jayme, emailed me earlier this week and asked me how the jogging was going. I had to confess to her that I hadn’t jogged since San Diego and was feeling a little sheepish about it. So this morning I pulled out my trusty Virginia Tech athletic shorts, stretched at the picnic table and started a-runnin’.

Thus sweated-up (a lovely image, I know) I headed to the showers at the campground and discovered a lovely secret. You see, California state campgrounds have pay showers. Two quarters gets you five minutes of water, hopefully hot. This campground has a regular shower with a small bench and no hooks, but it also has a handicap shower with a great big bench and three hooks. Choosing the handicap shower, I put my three quarters in (for seven and a half minutes), turned on the water and was thrilled with immediate hot water with great water pressure. The best part, though, was that the handicap showers don’t work on a timer! So my 75 cents was wasted, but I got to take a really long shower with as much hot water as I wanted with great water pressure! It was an excellent start to the day.


A small waterfall in the Tall Trees Grove.

Our first stop was to the visitor center about ten minutes from the campground. Here we picked up a permit to drive to the Tall Trees Grove, site of what was once the tallest tree (hence the name) in the world. A locked gate is at the top of the gravel road that leads down to the trailhead, and the trail permit gave us the combination to the lock.


There is approximately 5 feet between these two behemoths.

Before we headed to Tall Trees, though, we parked and walked through the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. It is a one-mile loop through some fairly spectacular trees. We walked through the spot where then-Governor Ronald Reagan and Presidents Nixon and Johnson stood when they dedicated this grove to Lady Bird Johnson. That was pretty cool.


Some very cool moss growing on the side of a redwood.

Elise loved the walk through the Tall Trees Grove. As soon as we stepped on the trail she said, “I like it already!” The forest was primordial and though there were almost no clouds in the sky, the under canopy where we were was dark. It rained last night so the ground was wetter than usual, though that’s not saying much. Once we made it down to the grove (1.3 miles) there was a mile loop around to explore. Before we did that, though, we picnicked next to Redwood Creek which used to be a very small stream. Silt buildup and erosion from logging widened the creek to its present size. We sat on a rock bed next to the creek and enjoyed the sun and moving water.


Bobby and Elise check out the forest from the water’s edge.

The hike back to the truck was a little tougher since we were heading uphill, but Bobby entertained Elise with plot summaries of all the Indiana Jones movies to keep her mind off the climb.


These banana slugs are very common in these wet forests.

Getting back to the campground tonight there were three other campers besides us on the prairie! Another pulled in before the night was through. Call me anti-social, but I kind of liked it when we had it all to ourselves.

Our site at Elk Prairie. Our favorite campground yet, in terms of sheer beauty.

It was an easy drive up 101 today. Many portions were downright straight. Our plan was to go about two hours north to Jedediah Smith State Park. On the way we stopped at the Redwoods National Park Information Center about an hour up the highway, near Orick. Danine talked to the ranger who gave us lots of great information (as they almost always do), as well as the Junior Ranger packet. The ranger also told us to try the Elk Prairie campground in Prairie Creek State Park. Three state parks abutt the national park as you move up the coast. Prairie Creek is the most centrally located, but has only a few campsites that can fit us — they say their maximum length is 27 ft., we’re 30 ft. From Memorial Day to Labor Day it is full. Today it is empty. So empty, in fact, we parked in the camp host site. There won’t be a camp host until May, so we get the benefit of the roomy site and a water hookup. This is good because we won’t need to run the water pump which will save a little battery power for the furnace blower. The other upside is that we are camped on the edge of the prairie. We’ll get some sunlight (if it shows up) to warm the trailer a bit during the day.


The sky is great here. Very Adirondacks-like.

We saw three deer wandering through the prairie this afternoon, but are hoping to see some elk while we’re here. Tomorrow we’ll go into the forest, to see some of the tallest trees in the world. The next day we’ll go to the coast. Cross your fingers because we’re hoping to see some migrating gray whales or even orcas.

Today was another mish-mash of stuff. We all did some laundry (although I was the official folder of the clothes), Elise and Danine did some math and I did a little maintenance on Shackleton. Our afternoon plan was to head to Ferndale, a Victorian-style town about 20 minutes away from here. First, though, why not take a scenic drive? Our National Geographic atlas lists several and we have inadvertently taken a few and been pleased. This one was a doozy and not one, we realized too late, to be started at 2:00 in the afternoon.

The Lost Coast is the longest stretch of undeveloped land on the coast of California. The drive was beautiful, yet really really switchback-y. The lost part of the coast is primarily in the King Range National Conservation Area. This is a rugged area of the coast — too rugged for the highway. We only drove through the valley behind the range, but it’s a popular hiking area. We drove south on 101 and then through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This was better than the Avenue of the Giants drive, which is very touristy. Here it’s just you driving along, narrowly avoiding humongous trees. It’s a pristine forest and feels as if you are driving into the prehistoric past.



After easing out of the redwoods, we wound up and down hills and through valleys, and over several one-lane bridges. Despite the winding road we found ourselves looking over grassy hillsides and peaceful farmlands inhabited by grazing cattle and sheep. In a few places we stopped to watch them standing close to the road. Elise fell in love with at least half a dozen little lambs.



After an hour and a half we finally saw the Pacific again. The coast here, according to the National Geographic atlas, rose about four feet after an earthquake in 1992. The result is that it looks to be perpetually low tide, rocky and black. We climbed and wound again finally reaching Ferndale almost three hours after we left. It’s a lovely little town, but most stuff closed around 4:00. I went to mass at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin which has been a parish since 1858. Danine and Elise wondered about town and grabbed a snack.


The Gingerbread Mansion Inn next door to the Catholic church.


This elaborate play house was raffled off, but the winner lived far away. Folks wanted it to stay in town, so a local purchased it for such a high price that the winner was able to send their grandchild to college. Or so the story goes.

At some point we’ll all need to unwind, literally.

We’ve found it! We had a Eureka vacuum cleaner when I was a kid. Now that I think about it, that’s a funny name for a vacuum cleaner. “Mom, I can’t find one of my Lego men!” SCRNKCRNCHCKLT! “Eureka! The vacuum cleaner just found it!” Eureka, California doesn’t have much to do with vacuum cleaners though. However, we walked by an old movie house that’s been turned into a performance venue (much like The State Theater in Falls Church). A white van was parked outside and a long hose extended from it into the theater. It was making an enormous racket. We figured it was vacuuming up the place after a concert. Boy, they probably found all sorts of things. Probably no Lego men, but maybe.

After a quiet morning of chores and school, which we all needed and enjoyed, we drove up to Eureka to have the truck checked out and to wander about the town. The truck appears to be fine. They looked things over and found nothing amiss, but the sound is still there. If it persists, we’ll have it checked out again at our next oil change.

While the Nissan dealer was looking over the truck, we walked around downtown. We passed a lovely old brick library that has been turned into an art gallery, the aforementioned theater being vacuumed, and then into an “educational supply” store. This is a euphemism for “toy store for teachers.” It was cool. Elise played with the elaborate wood train set while we browsed. They had tons of workbooks, puzzles, games, maps, posters, and other learning aids. We came away with a 600-piece puzzle of the world in which each country is its own piece. Little countries are kept together, otherwise you’d lose Lichtenstein right away. US states and Canadian provinces are also shown. The ocean is covered with the name and basic stats of all the countries in alphabetical order. On the back of each piece is the name of each resident of that country written with a tiny laser! Not really.


Danine loved the plank floors in this building, so, as you can see, she took a picture of them.


Now here’s an informative plaque.

That place was hard work, so we went to a deli for lunch. After that we hit the two used book stores in town. They are conveniently located on the same block. We are really liking the used bookstores we’ve been encountering on the trip. Unfortunately, this makes our trailer heavier. Elise got several Boxcar Children books, Danine got two more Adriana Trigiani novels, and I got a book of essays by Italo Calvino.



We picked up the truck, drove down to the water, and hung out at the harbor watching boats come and go. While there, Elise climbed on the abstract ship scupture-thing with another little girl. We chatted with her father who teaches English at the high school.

It was gettin’ on towards suppa time, so we drove back to our Airstream and walked to the Eel River Brewering Company for dinner. I had a dungeness crab sandwich with bleu cheese — good! Danine had a delicious italian sausage and pepper sandwich. Elise had her usual: pasta with butter. The beer was good too. We’ve avoided buying beer to save some money (har har), but splurged. Danine had a couple pints of their stout which was great. I had a couple pints of the IPA. IPAs are my favorite and this one was excellent. We then stumbled home.

We have one more day here in Fortuna. We’ll have an easy morning (after those pints), then drive to the victorian town of Ferndale and along the Lost Coast: the longest undeveloped stretch of coastline in California.

You never feel big when you’re next to a redwood.

Today’s drive was not short. We left Hendy Woods around 11:00 a.m. and didn’t get to Fortuna until 4:45 p.m. We covered a distance of 170 miles, which according to Vicky when we left, would take us a mere three hours. Anyone not towing a trailer would have made it in that time. We just weren’t one of those people.

Our travel route for today had a few choices. Hendy Woods sits between Route 1, which is on the coast, and Route 101, somewhat inland. We needed to get to 101 but hadn’t decided how to do it. Yesterday I needed groceries so I headed over the mountain range to get to Ukiah (which is on 101) for some vittles. The grade up the mountain was 9%. The grade going down ranged between 8 and 10%. After the drive, we knew this was not a road we wanted to take Shackleton on. We decided, instead, to take Route 1 to 101.


Along Route 1.

By the time we finished with Route 1, I realized that we probably drove several 8 to 10% grades in the course of the drive and neither road was ideal for a trailer. The views were stunning, though, so I’ve almost forgotten the near death experience of the drive. For a good hour of the trip, it seemed we were making no progress at all: we were always two hours away from our next campground. Once we got off Route 1, we seemed to make actual forward progress. We drove part of the Avenue of the Giants, which is not named for the football team. More redwoods, but these were very close to the road, almost actually on the road. We clipped a few — that’ll teach ‘em. Elise was not particularly impressed with the trees and didn’t think the road deserved its name. Tough to impress, that one.

We have settled in Fortuna for a few nights. We are not under a canopy of redwoods here so there is actual sunlight hitting the trailer, which is a bonus. We need to take the truck to a dealership to check out the steering (funny popping noises, but not funny ha-ha) and while we’re here we’ll visit a few of the quaint towns nearby. There is an award winning micro-brewery here that Bobby and I are excited to try out. We’ve cut beer out of our grocery budget (since it was one of the things breaking the budget) so we’re looking forward to a yummy beer tomorrow night. Kind of sad, huh?!



Yesterday, when we were taking our hike through Hendy Woods, we came upon the park boundary. The northeastern edge borders an apple orchard. As we walked from the shade of the redwoods to the fence and the apple trees, Elise exclaimed (with real wonder in her voice), “Oh, you can smell the sunshine!” I love kids.

On Monday we left Pacifica and drove north through SF, across the Golden Gate Bridge, up 101 past Sausalito, Marin county, Napa, and Santa Rosa. We looked out over row upon orderly row of grapevines, green hills dotted with live oaks and other stout evergreen trees, cows. Our drive took us from the excitement of the big city to the calm of the forest.


This is behind our campsite. Three enormous redwoods have grown out of the fallen tree.


This is the tops of those trees.

We wound our way along 128, a road as twisty as 78 near Julian, and found ourselves in Hendy Woods State Park. Of the 92 campsites in the deeply wooded park, only about 20 are open. During our two nights here so far, there have been exactly three other campers. It’s quiet, empty and in a perpetual twilight. There are many redwoods here, as well as douglas fir and madrone. Every tree that is not perfectly vertical is covered in moss. The moss is covered in moss. If you don’t look up you forget that there is a bright blue sky above you.



It’s the quietest, most peaceful place we’ve stayed in since perhaps Ocala. We slept well. However, the transition has been jarring. Our trip up the coast has been full of activity and visiting. Now we find before us a long stretch of meandering up the California and Oregon coast. We’ll visit my brother and his family in Portland, but that seems a ways off still.


Hermit Hut #1.

Yesterday we hiked through the woods to the site of two hermit huts. One was built, teepee-like, beside a burned out redwood, the other was built beneath a fallen and hollow redwood. Both huts were surprisingly roomy and next to a water source. Both were constructed by the same man, Petrov Zailenko, who lived in these woods for many years until he died in 1981. He had been a Russian soldier in WWII, came to America illegally, and found these woods. He lived quietly and peacefully, made friends with the ranchers who border the woods and would avail himself to their vegetables and fruit — but only as much as he needed. It’s hard to imagine a hermit could live within three hours of San Francisco. We were intrigued and touched by his story.


Hermit Hut #2.

We’ve been scavenging lately too. Since the campground is mostly empty, there are no camp hosts (campers who live here for a few months and help out) and no rangers manning the ranger station. We can’t buy firewood and you are not permitted to gather wood. Instead we gathered leftover firewood from the fire rings of vacant campsites. We found quite a lot. Last night was one of our best fires yet.


Peeking out of a very tall, yet hollow redwood.

We will stay here for another night and then make our way up the coast to Eureka or thereabouts. Then to Redwood NP.