Cali Coast

Talk about needing a vacation from vacation!  After we returned from our California vacation, Drew and I both hit the ground running and have not stopped since.  I had this post nearly ready to go shortly after our return, but computer problems and an insanely busy work week kept it from the interwebs.  But finally, here is the next installment of our California vacation blog.

After our most awesome time in the redwood forest, we pointed our van toward the coast. We popped out from the twisty mountain road Hwy 1 = the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) at the very last rays of the day to see ... WHALES!

That was pretty cool to happen on our first glimpse of the ocean.

It was getting dark so we motored to the closest state park we could find, just barely making a wine and ice run at the only store open until 9 along this uninhabited coast. We scored a good camp spot in the partially closed MacKerricher State Park. In the morning we "rised and shined".

We took a stroll out on the boardwalk and grasslands to the beach to see if we could spot some seals,

but all we saw were buzzards picking at dead seals.

and rocky beaches.

We had a lot of miles to make on an insanely twisty PCH, so we spent most of the day just driving and stopping here and there to snap photos and take in the scenery.

Oh, and stopping in Fort Bragg to bring you that first blog spot.

Since we were averaging about only about $50 per day, saving on lodging and restaurant meals because of our awesome van and thrifty spirit, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice meal. Problem was, finding a nice meal was difficult on this sparsely populated stretch. We finally got some decent seafood at Cove Azul Bar and Grill in Gualala.

We spent the night at Salt Point State Park, which looked on the map to potentially have great views of the ocean, but which turned out to be a shabby park with wooded campsites and no hot water. By the next morning, I was more than grouchy without a shower or good coffee, so at the first place we found north of Bodega Bay, we had a nice breakfast and walked the grounds of the posh hotel.

Then it was back on the road.

Turn after turn, gorgeous view after gorgeous view. We came across the estuary for the Russian River,

where seals like to hang out. Cool.

More PCH and finally, Stinson Beach, on Bolinas Bay, just north of the San Fransisco Bay area and adjacent to Mount Tamalpais.

A little rest on the beach before the final push to the Bay area. By this time I was really dirty (last shower two days prior) and chilled (cold coastal weather), but loving that we saw the northern California coast in all its beauty and wildness.

Awesome Redwoods. Truly AWESOME.

We resume the journey where I left off last; we had made it to the boondocks of northern California in Humboldt County. We turned out onto Avenue of the Giants, a narrow paved road that parallels Hwy 101 but snakes its way among some of the hugest giant redwood groves still standing.

We stopped at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park visitor center to get the low down on camping this early in the season.  They have this cool display of a relatively small 1000-year old log.

If you click on the picture below, I think you can read what events were happening when this tree was a baby. 

It was already more than 4 feet in diameter when the Pilgrims came to America!

The nice volunteers told us to go up to Albee Creek Campground, about 8 miles back away from the highway, where we would likely have the campground all to ourselves. (Many of the state parks are now run by volunteers and have sections closed off because of California’s budget crisis.)

So we motored up to the campground and found a place for our rented ice-cream van among a 2nd-growth redwood grove.

There were a couple of other campers there, but our closest neighbors were actually the wild turkeys that wandered through camp a couple of times.

Drew fixed his broken spoke under one of the big trees to stay out of the light rain while I took a good long hot shower, the first since leaving home 5 days ago!  That explains how we can look so fresh and clean in this picture – look at that body in my hair!

Life is good camping among giant trees with local brews and pesto pasta for dinner.

We slept well that night, knowing the only thing that would bother us is hungry bears nosing around our picnic table. (they didn’t.)

Tuesday was activities in the big trees day.  After full breakfast of eggs, hash browns and toast, we set out to hike in the Rockefeller Forest, the largest, most impressive stand of old growth redwoods in the world.

Many of the trees in this part of the forest are over 300 feet tall.  The park volunteer explained that they can grow so large right here because the King Range protects them from the worst of the winter storms coming off the Pacific and the location inland a little ways allows for slightly less fog and more sunlight (although redwoods typically get 1/3 of the moisture they need from fog).

 

This is one of my favorite pictures because Drew looks so tiny compared to the giant trees.

These trees are coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). Redwoods have existed along the coast of northern California for at least 20 million years and are related to the Giant Sequoia of central California. Coast redwoods are the tallest trees on Earth. Mature Coast redwoods live an average of 500–700 years and a few are documented to be 2,000 years old, making them some of the longest-living organisms on earth. They are highly resistant to disease, due to a thick protective bark and high tannin content, which also explains why they are great for building decks. Redwoods prefer sheltered slopes, slightly inland and near water sources such as rivers and streams.

The seasonal bridge across Bull Creek was not in yet so we forded the stream to be able to go over to the Giant Tree.

 

This tree as been designated the as one of the world’s largest trees.  One nearby that may have been larger was taken out by a falling neighboring tree in 1991.  There are several in Redwoods National Park that are about 10 feet taller, but the number of really big ones in the grove we were in was even more impressive than seeing just one super tall tree. 

We don’t even come close to spanning its girth!

I tried to look at other things on the forest floor too.  The rain made everything so fresh.

But really it was the palpable quiet and peace that surrounded the trees that was so special. 

Nature is so many thousands of times cooler than anything humans create.  These trees made me realize that again. 

We hiked back to our campground along the Bull Creek South trail. 

After a quick lunch at the campground, we set off for the first bike ride since our 8 hours on the bikes on Saturday.  We climbed 3000+ vertical feet over 7 miles on up to 30 percent grades on a fire road to an old fire spotting lookout.

I guess I wasn’t recovered yet because that was a tough climb and I wasn’t really having a good time despite Drew’s never ending humor, but at the top were 360 degree views and we could just make out the coastal fog rolling over the mountains to the west, so it paid off.

Time for the descent down through a burned out section of forest.

And those 30 percent grades were much more fun on the downhill.

We saw this weird little guy – maybe a skink?  Looked like a cross between a salamander and a lizard.  He ran kind of funny and hissed at us.

Here is a picture of a landslide taking out the road. With all these trees and forest, the geology is way too hard to see and blog about.  I had to get geohazards in here somehow.

Enough activity for the day.  Time to pack it up and drive out.  This is a 30 second clip of driving through an the Rockefeller Grove old growth redwood forest. I suggest watching the first 10 seconds at least to get a feeling for how big they are when you are driving through them.

Goodbye amazing, awesome redwood trees!

 

Next we would head over to the coast and journey south.

Northern California: farther away than Vietnam

 

Oh faithful readers, I am happy to report that I am finally on the grid again after 7 days in the bush of Northern California!  Wow, I didn’t realize that we would have less internet connectivity in our own country than while we were traveling in SE Asia.

But here we are in a coffee shop in Fort Bragg, on the coast 130 miles north of San Francisco, so before we blast off to another state park, I’ll post a few picks from days 1-5 of our California vacation.

We left SLC in a rented van last Thursday.  My truck went into the shop for a possible transmission problem last Tues, so I found www.basecampervans.com and rented a sleeper van that runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).  We were off on a camping, racing, hiking, biking, wedding-going adventure!

We made it through Reno and up to Donner Pass before crashing for the night at a rest area.  When ya got a bed in the back, there’s no need to find a tent spot or hotel! 

Friday we rolled through Sacramento for groceries, beer, ice, and CNG and then headed up the mountain to Boggs Demonstration Forest for the 8 Hours of Boggs mountain bike race.  We were both entered as solos, along with our friend Leslie from SLC and Irene, formerly from SLC but recently relocated to the Bay area.  With Leslie’s husband Rick for support, we were set to show these Californians how to race .

Friday night we went out for a preride of the course.  It is made up of some fire roads like this

but also lots of moderately rocky singletrack.

By

Friday night, the campground was jammed. 

 

That didn’t stop us from having a nice solar shower to clean up.  Gotta race clean, ya know.

RACE DAY

Race start was at 8 AM Saturday. We didn’t even need arm warmers! 

What happened over the next 8 hours, I would rather forget.  In short, for me the race was Very Hard, Not Enjoyable, and notably more PAINFUL than other races I have done. There were a couple of fun sections of trail, but the combination of my aluminum hard tail bike, rocky dusty trail, very aggressive riders, and especially my lack of any type of conditioning or training, made for a difficult day.  Still, after walking 5 hills and stopping for a back rub (thanks Leslie!), the Advil kicked in and I made it around the 8-mile course 7 times.  Race time 7 hours 48 minutes, which put me 6th out of 7 in the Expert Women category.

Drew faired better, completing 8 laps even with a broken seat rail and broken spoke.  He beat his performance last year (7 laps) and enjoyed himself despite a sore back and the mechanicals.  Thanks for the seat loan from Leslie, who unfortunately had to call it a day early due to a sprained thumb incurred on lap two. 

Drew’s face post race is testament to the dusty trails!

OK, I was looking pretty rough too.

But we all survived.  Irene did 6 laps and placed the best out of all of us – 2nd in Master’s Women. Yay, Irene!

After the race we hung out, drank beer, had another solar shower, and went to bed early. 

WINE MAKES FOR GOOD RECOVERY

Sunday, as a reward for the difficult day prior, we went wine tasting in Sonoma and Russian River Valleys with Rick and Leslie.

First stop Ferrari-Carano.  Great wines and their mascot was a wild boar.  We like pigs, right.

Next, we got some lunch at the Country Store and then to Jordan Winery.  We have had their wines before and they are really tasty.  Apparently, Jordans are snobby, as they wouldn’t even let their namesake in for a tasting on short notice. 

So we went to their affiliated winery and Leslie’s favorite, J Winery, which specializes in sparkling wines.  They were sooooo good.

We went for the cheese and charcuterie plate and were astounded by how different foods make the wines taste so different.

I splurged and bought 2 bottles of fine wine.  Now we need to make a special occasion to drink them! 

After the tasting, we got a mini tour of the bottling facility.  Hook me up to the spigot on that one!

After all that finery, what better place to relax and feel at home than …

a Brewery!  Home of Racer 5 IPA, a new Lucy and Drew favorite.

After our brew pub dinner it was back to chill with Rick and Leslie at their hotel on Clear Lake in Lakeport for a few minutes.  nice view from their room!

 

 

By dark, we figured it was safe to just troll around the area looking for a park or quiet lane to pull off for the night.  We found just the place on a dead end lane next to a cow pasture.  Living large in our rental van we are!

NORTH TO THE BIG TREES

All the fun and games have to come to an end sooner or later. Monday we pulled out of Lakeport and headed north to go find some big trees.  On the way we picked up more beer, groceries and ice in Willits

and got some clothes clean.  We don’t live the glamorous life all the time

Then it was north to Humbolt County, the home of the Drive-Thru Tree!

Our van was, of course, too big to drive through, but it was fun to see others go through.  Everyone has a kitschy grin on their faces.

Jean Luc encouraged us to ham it up on this shot.

From there, we continued north to Humbolt Redwoods State Park.  We will pick up there when we get around to another coffee shop in a day or two when Drew’s patience for my blogging is restored .