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2011-04-17 tl;dr: In northern California the trees are big, the roads are curvy and the breakfasts are filling. Twice I was pulled from sleep by dreams of bears outside my tent. A third dream of a raccoon didn't immediately wake me. For once I wasn't too cold, but it did rain the entire night. I had purchased a pool float at Walmart for $2.50 to use as a sleeping pad, and, remarkably, it held air. I would have taken a picture of my campsite beneath the redwoods, but I arrived as it was getting dark and was packing up before sunrise. That's camping!If you stop for breakfast at Deb's in Redway, do not get the full order of biscuits and gravy. Especially if the waiter accidental brings you hash browns that you didn't order. Gasoline around here is all the way on the right side of the bell curve. I have always assumed that the redwood groves were limited to a small plot of protected ground where tree-hugging vegans used their bodies as human shields to ward off the onslaught of bulldozers and chainsaws of uncaring heathen lumberjacks. As usual I was wrong. Unless you define a small plot as a 40-mile-wide strip of land stretching from central California into Oregon. After visting the coast again I decided I'd drive north through Humboldt Redwoods State Park along the Avenue of the Giants. Then I'd head east through the Trinity National Forest. I'll say this about redwoods: They're big. And there are a lot of them. The scenery is beautiful. But after a while it's all ho-hum. Oh look, another giant tree. Or another sweeping mountain vista. Or another stretch of rugged coast. Also, there are a lot of deer. And I spotted some turkeys. In the Trinity National Forest I once again reached an altitude where the ground was covered in several feet of snow. These roads would have been daunting on a bicycle. Especially with the schedule I'm usually forced to keep. Some of them were daunting in a car. The road from Redway to Shelter Cove is under 15 miles if you're a crow, but driving it is about 22 miles. But I'm taking notes. Someday I will successfully complete a bicycle trip through the mountains. Back into central California I turned south and drove a lazy 2 hours to Woodland, which is just west of Sacramento. I will stay here for 2 days before visiting my next customer. |
 Pinnipeds on Seal Rock  Pinniped  Eel River  Avenue of the Giants     some waterfall    another shoe tree |