California 2: Jackson Forest, Samoa Dunes, and Redwoods

Hello Again Vicarious Travellers!

Mossy (although dead) tree limbs, common in the area but not so much
where we are from.

So after promising a quick turnaround on our next post we managed to drive into the southern Oregon Signal Barrens, where there wasnt any phone signal or data signal for even a lowly phone update.  We are out of the abyss now, and I'm trying to get this up from a public library in Klamath Falls, OR.

So back to the trip, yet again.  The first night out we had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay, since (due to budget cuts), many California State Parks are currently closed.  Our original plan was to drive out to the Sierra Mountains and camp somewhere around the Lake Tahoe area, but we decided to cut out the huge westward loop out there and back to the coast.  Well, actually, I decided that I had about enough of mountain driving for a while and vetoed that leg of the trip.  I also was not interested in straying too far from the coast since it is significantly (like 20*) cooler on the coast than further inland, especially at night. Due in part to our late departure and further compounded by state facilities either being full or closed, we had little choice but to stay at Jackson Demonstration State Forest since that was the only open place with available sites within driving distance at about 6pm (our unofficial cutoff for finding sleeping arrangements).  So my decision to avoid mountain driving planted us -- guess where! -- that's right, ON a mountain which meant even more mountain climbing for us and the Buick.
I will say it was only about 30 miles of switchbacks and up-and-down hill driving so it was far less than we would have had in the Sierras, but still, the irony was not lost on my assertion that I had had enough of driving through mountains for a while.

Side shot of our camp at Jackson.  The stream is to the right off camera.

Proximity Shot: See how close we were to the stream (Buick on left)

I’m not really sure what they “Demonstrate” at this Demonstration Forest, but in my opinion it wasn’t how to preserve a forest, since many of the camp areas were closed due to logging operations inside the forest.  I suppose it supplements the area’s income, but still.  At $15 a night it was affordable, although the campsite facilities were less than what we found an $8 per night ground was east of the Rockies.  I have no problem with staying in a primitive campground, but it is nice to be charged accordingly.  The grounds were fairly well kept, and we had a large picnic table with a firepit.  There were only pit toilets and no running water (at least that I found).  The whole grounds were oddly devoid of bear-proof trash bins as well, only squirrel bins (heavy lids but no latches). 

Our campsite treehouse!

Empty treehouse

We arrived just before dark and had just enough time to set up camp and figure out the self-registration system before having dinner and heading to bed.  Miriam did manage to find a “Rapberry Bush”, from which she grabbed and ate a “berry” before I could stop her.  Being from the city, I’m fairly certain anything you find in nature is in some way designed to kill you and I’m thoroughly convinced that that so-called raspberry bush was filled to the brim with poisonous berry look-alikes.  No deaths have been reported yet amongst our compliment, but I’m still skeptical.  I found a HUGE Banana Slug (look it up!) and tried to entice it to grab onto a stick so I could take it back to camp to take some pictures, but only succeeded in getting it all dirty as it seems that dirt tends to stick to gooey things when rolled on the ground (in my attempt to have it make it stick-borne).  Those two episodes aside, we had very little interaction with the local wildlife, with the exception of an underground beehive I stumbled on the next morning right near our picnic table (which was not awesome!).   

Me taking a picture with my phone, of Miriam taking a
picture of me through the treehouse window.  We have
resorted to double-photographing some things
because we dont know if we will be able to update
 with the computer (camera shots) or cell phone (phone shots).

Decidedly Poison Berries!!!  Still no deaths reported though...

What the grounds lacked in facilities it made up for in its environment.  Despite being camped right next to the only other people in the grounds (yes, we were “that guy” unfortunately since we got there after them!), the natural surroundings were amazing at Jackson.  We were surrounded by new-growth redwoods (so not as huge as the famous ones but still much bigger than the trees out East), and our campsite was right on the bank of a small stream (evidently much larger during a normal rain season, evidenced by its steep banks).  There was a hallow redwood stump near the bank, big enough to walk into and stand in (with telltale charring of its fiery demise).  The stream was low enough that we could have walked down (or up) it for quite a ways (most of it was about ankle deep and crystal clear).  There didn’t appear to be many trails or paths but if we had been so inclined I’m sure we could have found much hiking recreation in the area.  Being only about 6 miles from the ocean, it remained fairly cool during the day, even during our late departure around 2pm, only getting up to about 71* and staying in the low 50s overnight.  It was a very pleasant place but we chose not to stay in favor of trying to get to Redwoods NP in the northern corner of the state.

On our way north, we did drive past a town called Garberville, which I regret not stopping for a photo in since they had a cute little wooden town sign that would have been perfect.  If I recall correctly, their motto was: Garberville “The Friendly City”.  Author's Note: **I appologize for the awkward placement of this paragraph but the eccentricities of the new version of Word, combined with the mal-programming of Windows 7 (its complicated, but just know I hate computers and this isnt helping!!), is making it very hard for me to move around content within the blog itself, so this will just have to do!**  
        

Samoa Dunes.  The Buick is in the middle.  VERY cramped!

Our next stop-over was the somewhat misleading Samoa Dunes State Recreation Area.  While not a park, it offered camping and again was the only place we could find before dark, having wound our way up the coast road.  It was just outside the town of Eureka, which is the only place around there that appears on any maps with a respectable scale.  We drove past the “camping area” in search of an actual campground but were forced to face reality when we noticed the rest of the area (the actual “dunes” part) was closed after sunset…so the “campsite” was in what essentially amounted to a paved parking lot where you set your tent up on the grass surrounding it.  It was by far the weirdest state facilities we have run across.  Each “site” got about a 16’x30’ parking slot, and about the same amount of space behind the spot where a fire pit, concrete picnic table, and tent site (read: flat grass spot) were located.  At $18 dollars per night ($20 for non-handicap), this was definitely a one-nighter.  This area was clearly intended for RV’ers who had ATVs and could camp at the dunes and run their buggies over the sand during the day.  There was also a boat launch, although the bay (Samoa Dunes appears to be on either a barrier island or a peninsula) didn’t seem canoe or kayak friendly, with somewhat choppy water, ripping tides, and heavy barge traffic.  There were water hookups at each site, so campers (meaning the nouns you drive or tow behind your car, not “campers” like us) could fill their tanks.  It wasn’t the ideal place for us to stay, but it was something and it was still cheaper than a hotel.

Looking back at our "campsite".  This was in the morning so
we already had broken camp and were getting ready to pack
up.

We slept in the tent as it is a bit awkward staying in the car while parked nearly door-to-door with your neighbors.  What this area lacked in natural charm or beauty is made up for in company, with our right-side neighbor Steve giving us some of his chopped up wood pallet for our fire and making conversation throughout our stay.  We were surprised to learn that he actually knew where Coventry, RI was after we told him where we were travelling from.  Apparently he had grown up in eastern CT and drove through Foster on Rt 6 quite a bit, so he was at least familiar with the name Coventry.  We did get some good pointers from him about the nearby town of Arcata (just north or Eureka), where there was a large used book shop and some other stores of interest. 

After staying at Samoa Dunes for the night we packed up our camp and headed out to Arcata in the morning, in an attempt to turn in our used AAA Travel Guides (Steve was distressed at the thought of burning them as kindling and suggested we try to sell them at The Tin Can Mailman book shop).  Although the shop wouldn’t buy them from us, they would accept them for free as a donation, which we were just as happy with as either way they were off our hands and out of our car.

There really should be something said about the town of Arcata.  In our travels we have yet to find a place with as weird a feeling as this little coastal town.  It was a mixture of very expensive food and stores with a very (monetarily) depressed population.  If there was ever a “hippy town”, this was it.  I don’t know how anyone buys or eats anything in town since the prices weren’t in line with the “look” of about 90% of the people around.  Maybe it was a town of very wealthy potheads, but I somehow doubt it.  One venue we decided to check out was a “glassblower” shop, and upon entering we could definitely tell what they were blowing glass for.  With one tiny cabinet devoted to blown glass jewelry, the entire rest of the shop was bongs and pipes and HighTimes magazines.  Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that, it just wasn’t subtle in the least….especially since the shop reeked of pot.  It was both Miriam and my opinion that the town didn’t have enough normalicy for its quirkiness to be appreciable, since EVERYTHING was somehow designed to be super meaningful or grab your attention by being off the wall.  Again, nothing wrong with those things as we both appreciate them but in moderation.  There was also a strange overabundance of bicycle and outdoors shops for such a tiny town.  I counted at least four within two or three blocks of one another.  Not a significant discovery, just something I found a bit odd. 

One hidden gem in the town was a full length suede trenchcoat that fit Miriam perfectly (for $12!!).  We found it at a thrift shop and had to get it, despite trying to constantly unload stuff whenever possible.    

This was pretty far away...I barely ran into the shot with
a 10-second self timer set on the camera!!

It was only a short drive (about 40 miles) from the weird Potville to the southern end of Redwood State and National Parks.  The Redwood Parks are actually a conglomerate of interspersed State and National Parks, but for all intents and purposes I'm going to refer to them collectively as Redwood National Park (NP) since I frankly have no idea when we are in one or the other.

Driving through Redwood Park(s)

Three redwoods growing from a single root base
(look closely!)

The park itself was really nice, and fairly well-kept, with lots of hiking and day trails to check out along the way.  Miriam and I havent really gotten back in the "outdoorsy" mood quite yet so we didn't do much hiking during our stay.  We got out to on one "trail" that was actually just a closed access road, and walked through the giant redwoods, which was really nice.  The trees at Redwoods are truly enormous, and we were among the smaller of the bunch where we were.  We estimated them to be about 16 or 18 feet in diameter, with the larger ones being I think in the 25 foot range.  One interesting fact we learned on our way to the forest (via our National Parks book courtesy of Deborah and Jonathan) that the trees are over two hundred feet tall but with roots that only penetrate the ground by about 10 feet.  Apparently they work on a "wider is better" strategy, rather than sinking deeper for stability.  They also absorb about a third of their daily water from morning fog, with the remainder coming from the ground, and use up to 500 gallons of water per day per tree, which is a baffling amount when you consider how many trees there are in the area!

Fire-hallowed base of a (we estimate) about 16' diameter tree.  This was on the "small side"
The scar opening is 2.25 Miriams wide

A crazy redwood burl, probably the size of
a large backyard shed!

Walking through the forest.  Again, Miriam provided for scale
reference

Possibly a viable treehouse, large enough to live spartanly in!

Treehouse Door...approx. 1.3 Miriams tall

Same door,with Rob used for those on the metric system.

Back door of the treehouse

Fallen redwood.  Scale is difficult to see in this shot,
 but its easily 18' tall

If you think that any of the pictures of our forest walk look like the Forest Moon of Endor (from Return of the Jedi), then you're right!  Apparently the scenes from Endor in the final installment of the worthwhile series of Star Wars movies were filmed in the redwood forest in the park.  A little less obvious would be the forested scenes in the first Jurassic Park movie (again, the only worthwhile one), although much of the focus was on the dinosaurs and characters and the scenery was only a tertiary component (plus half of the movie was at night, so there's that too).

Endor!! Unfortunately due to budget cuts the Ewoks have all
been released from the parks! :( 

Our stay in Redwood was another first, as it was the first time that we camped at a non-government campground, that is not a State or National Park.  Why, you may ask, since we were literally surrounded by State and National Parks?  Well, for starters there was no campgrounds in the National Park bits, leaving only the under-funded California State Park system to foster the campgrounds.  Unfortunately for us all of the grounds were full by the time we got there (on a Friday, bad timing), and it is apparently a very popular park.  We did get a (free) permit from the National

Pretty self-explanatory here...

Park Ranger Station for backwoods camping, which we are really not outfitted to do, but it was only a quarter mile hike from the parking area so hauling heavy gear in wouldn't have been so terrible for a few nights.  When we got to the parking site (which was very poorly marked), along an unpaved, single-car-wide back road, we found absolutely no parking, and were faced with the prospect of either driving the several mile loop again and again until a space opened, or finding camping elsewhere (there was no where to pull off the road to go and grab a site either).  A few miles away from the backwoods area we ran across a private campground (Kamp Kalamath), which took AAA and was reasonable at $26 per night, which included wifi (the previous CA update) and hot showers, as well as a really reasonably priced camp store.  Our second night there we had an all-you-can-eat grilled salmon dinner put on by the camp for a fairly reasonable cost.  Apparently the Klamath River is a famous salmon river and the fish were caught that day just a few miles from our camp, and grilled for us that night.  We enjoyed our HUGE salmon steak portions (probably about 1/2 pound each) and including the sides of rice pilaf, mixed vegetables, and salad there were no complaints on our part for paying $15 per plate.

Probably the best sense of scale yet.  This is zoomed-out with
the Buick and Miriam as references.

Although going on a bit of a tangent with the salmon dinner, this brings me to my main qualm with the California State Parks (especially the ones in Redwood), which was their cost.  When a private campground offers better facilities at less cost, I fell as though there might be an issue worth looking into.  The state grounds (if there were available spots), were around $35, which is approaching RV park prices.  Even a REALLY nice campground shouldnt be more than about $25 or so, at least in my opinion.  I know Miriam has heard my complaints about the CA parks, but I really dislike them overcharging and underservicing just because it's California.  I dont mind paying more for better facilities, or less for lesser facilities, but one should follow the other.  We have tried our best to support the State and National Parks with our patronage as far as camping goes, but in this case it was simply cheaper and more comfortable to camp at a private ground.

While the park was certainly nice to visit, it was fairly crowded and the Visitor Center had WAYYY more visitor parking than the facility could provide service for.  With only about a dozen spots filled and about ten times that empty, the VC was crowded and there was a line to either talk to a ranger (about camping or hiking) or checkout of the souvenir section.  I'm not really sure what they were thinking with that one, as there wasnt a place to sit and have a picnic or a museum to learn more about the park in (most good VCs have had a small museum to give you an idea of the history, ecology, and geology of the park you're visiting).  I think we would consider going back again, but definitely on a weekday (again, not the parks' fault, it was bad timing on ours) when it should be less crowded.

Just north of the Redwood Parks is Crecent City, which we stopped in for lunch.  We found a place called The Chart Room, which was a bit pricey (not overly so), but had really good food.  There was a big to-do about the local sea lions and seals, the former having a big colony on a nearby island, but we didnt manage to see any.  We did get to see some seals hanging out on a dock in the harbor, which was pretty neat.  We have taken to calling any seal a "Sea Diesel", since they have that same face he always has with nearly all-black eyes that tend to melt your soul into doing whatever he wants.  Although we do realize that seals seem to make the most of their time and play and have fun, something which Diesel should maybe pick up on!

Although our exploration of Califonia was shorter than imagined, we are glad to be moving on, as our energy on this second half of the trip is decidedly lower than on the first.  Our next stop was Crater Lake in Oregon, which I will report on separately, after having just left there this morning.

I think Miriam needs to use her computer now so I will sign off and hopefully update in less than a week, which seems to be the going rate for these things.

Till next time!
RhodeKill Rob