canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Two weekends ago we drove to northern California to enjoy hiking in the Trinity Wilderness northwest of Mt. Shasta. As I've written in several blogs recently, we had to contend with smoke from the enormous Park Fire blazing near Chico— plus smoke drifting down from fires in southern Oregon. 🥵 The latter caused us to cancel our plans to hike in the Trinity Alps Sunday, even after we hiked there comfortably on Saturday, so instead we picked a pair of shorter hikes further south.... in between the clouds of smoke from the various fires.

Hedge Creek Falls in Dunsmuir, California (Jul 2024)One of those hikes was a short walk to an old favorite, Hedge Creek Falls. It's just off I-5 in Dunsmuir, a tiny town between Mt. Shasta and Shasta Lake. In the past when we've visited it's been a hidden gem. Typically we shared the trail with just a few other groups. But on this particular Sunday two weeks ago there were more than 20 cars parked at the trailhead.

Hedge Creek Falls in Dunsmuir, California (Jul 2024)

The crowds don't make the falls less pretty. Well, not until over-visitation by careless people trashes the place. 🙄 Thankfully that hasn't happened here... yet.

Hedge Creek Falls in Dunsmuir, California (Jul 2024)

We stayed at the falls for a while, at least twice as long as any of the other visits. We watched two or three sets cycle in and out. I had fun making slow-exposure photos with my nice camera and tripod— even though I'd lost one of my lenses in an Alpine swamp the day before. You can see two of the motion blur pictures above. Here's a short video I made:



In beauty I walk.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Two weekends ago we explored Pluto's Cave on the north flank of Mt. Shasta in California. This was part of the weekend trip spent evading smoke from a huge wildfire. ...Wait, did I say a wildfire? There was more than one! Smoke from other fires choked us out of our Sunday plans to hike in the Trinity Alps even though we were fine there just a day earlier when we hiked to East Boulder Lake. We weren't just going to go home, though, with no hiking on Sunday. We picked two shorter hikes in areas not badly impacted by smoke. The first of these was Pluto's Cave.

Pluto's Cave is lava tube. It's collapsed in several places. Some of the cave-ins form entrances you can get down into (and back up & out!) with just a bit of scrambling. The entries are about 1/2 mile across volcanic desert from a trailhead that's about 1/2 mile in from a paved road on a dirt 4x4 route. We explored 4 parts of the cave. I edited together this video of our adventure:



One small note.... In the video I mention that some of the graffiti underground is historical graffiti. Although it's more than 100 years old it's still considered graffiti, not history. Even though it's dated 1917. If it were 11 years older it'd be protected as history by the Antiquities Act of 1906.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Last Saturday we hiked to East Boulder Lake in the Trinity Alps wilderness west of Mt. Shasta. As I shared in part 1 of this trip, the climb up to the lake was steep in places but full of views.

East Boulder Lake in the Trinity Alps wilderness (Jul 2024)

Once we got to East Boulder Lake we walked around the left side of it to sit under one of those large trees (the distant one) you can see in the photo above. Why the left? Well, because One, there was a tree there to sit under, and Two, there was another small group of hikers laying out in the tall grass around the right side of the lake. We figured why crowd each other.

We rested our muscles and ate a bit of a pack lunch while enjoying views at the lake. We also discussed whether to go farther. The hike up to the lake was strenuous enough, and the lake was pretty enough, to call it a full day's activity. But it wasn't a full day, especially with us getting a head start after Friday Night Halfway knocked out 4+ hours of driving. There was definitely time on Saturday to do more. The only question was whether we had the energy to do more.

After resting up a bit at the lake we decided we did have the energy to do more. Upper Boulder Lake wouldn't be that tough of an add-on to the trek. Reading our topographic map showed it would be maybe an extra mile round trip and not more than another 150' of elevation gain. Looking at it visually, it was just a matter of walking around to the back of East Boulder Lake and up a marshy draw to the next lip below the far ridges.

Upper Boulder Lake in the Trinity Alps wilderness (Jul 2024)

So that's what we did. We walked around the left side of the main lake, up the marshy draw at the back, and angled up to the foot of the far ridge. We explored the area a bit as we went, investigating a spot that was off trail according to our map but looked like it might have a small pond in it. It turned out instead of a pond it was another wet meadow. Then we trekked cross-country to get over to Upper Boulder Lake, shown above. Our cross-country route was fun because it gave us this nice view of the lake from atop a small lip.

We didn't stay long at Upper Boulder Lake. By that time we were already calculating times: how long it'd take us to hike back down to the trailhead; how long it'd take us to drive to Yreka, where we were staying for the night; and when we might eat dinner.

Coming back down from Upper Boulder Lake (Jul 2024)

We took a slightly different route down from the upper lake to the main lake. There wasn't really a marked trail the whole way— or at least we couldn't see one past the bit of trampled-down grass you see in the photo above. The trail went indistinct as it crossed the marsh area. That's not too surprising.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I accidentally my camera on this hike. One of the reasons I picked this photo is that this (where I'm standing) is near where I lost my other lens.

"If you remember where you lost it, why didn't you go back to get it?" you might ask.

Well, like I said, this is near where I lost it. I think it actually dropped out of my pack in the marsh. By the time I'd gotten down to the far side of the main lake I did not feel like going back to the marsh and trying to retrace my steps through the waist-high grass and ankle-deep (or deeper) muck to find a lens.

canyonwalker: Sullivan, a male golden eagle at UC Davis Raptor Center (Golden Eagle)
The Park Fire continues to burn in northern California, north of Chico and east of Red Bluff. As of Sunday evening it has burned 386,000 acres. That's over 600 square miles. It is now the 5th largest fire in modern California history.

Here's a map of the fire as of this evening from CalFire (click on image for link to source page):

Park Fire as of 30-Jul-2024. Image courtesy of CalFire, www.fire.ca.gov.

The CalFire incident page for the Park Fire notes that there are over 5,700 personnel fighting this one fire. Firefighters are being pulled in from all over the state. When we were in Redding on Sunday afternoon, stopping for lunch while driving through, we chatted with a fire crew who'd just driven up from near where we live.

The size of the fire, at 386,000 acres as of this evening, hasn't grown much in the past 48 hours. Authorities say that's because the hot weather in the area that last through Friday broke on Saturday. With cooler temperatures and more humidity in the air, the fire has spread more slowly. This has also enabled crews to start containing it— though as of this evening it's still only 18% contained.

Miraculously there are no deaths reported from this fire. Thousands of people have had to evacuate homes, though. To their credit, and to the credit of authorities managing the situation, people were moved to safety quickly. I'm sure plenty of people in the areas impacted remember the tragedy of the 2018 fire that burned the town of Paradise. There, even a half day of "The fire can't possibly spread over here that fast!" meant that when evacuations orders did come, there was pandemonium and dozens of people died.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
This past weekend we headed up to far northern California. Friday night we drove to Redding and stayed there. Saturday morning we saw a lot of smoke to the east from the Park Fire, but then we drove almost two hours northwest toward the Trinity Alps. By the time we reached the trailhead for East Boulder Lake an hour west of Mt. Shasta there was no longer any sign of smoke in the air.

East Boulder Lake trail into Trinity Alps Wilderness (Jul 2024)

We got to the trailhead at 5,700' elevation with no problem. A combination of AllTrails user comments and Google Maps were our guides. Even the 6 miles of dirt road, which we took our 4x4 to make sure we could conquer, were mild enough that we probably could have driven them in our convertible. Still, it's better to have the certainty of a real 4x4 in case there's an obstacle on the vehicle trail.

Once across the line into the wilderness, everything seems greener (Jul 2024)

The foot trail climbed steadily through the forest at first before leveling out and opening up a bit as it crossed the boundary into the Trinity Alps wilderness. Somehow it just seemed that everything was greener once we crossed the invisible line into the wilderness.

Waterfall beneath East Boulder Lake (Jul 2024)

Soon enough the trail started climbing more steeply again. First it was a steep climb through forest, then we broke out onto grassy hillside with a view of a waterfall ahead of us.

From here on up the trail was frequently wet. The outflows from East Boulder Lake and other lakes up above all pour down through this area, and the trail is often the path of least resistance for the water.

The trail climbing up above this falls was steep and often slow-going. I didn't mind the huffing and puffing and knee twisting because there was so much to look at. In beauty I walk.

Almost to East Boulder Lake! (Jul 2024)

Soon enough we were at the last bit before the lake. How could we tell? Just reading the terrain. There's obvious a huge flat spot up above us. That's where the lake is going to be.

East Boulder Lake in the Trinity Alps Wilderness (Jul 2024)

And, yup, that's where East Boulder Lake is. 6,680' elevation. In beauty I walk.

To be continued....

UpdateKeep reading in part 2 of this hike!


canyonwalker: Sullivan, a male golden eagle at UC Davis Raptor Center (Golden Eagle)
Sunday was the last day of our two-day weekend trip to the Trinity Alps in northern California. I'm backlogged on writing about the hiking we did over the weekend, but here I want to catch up on something else: the smoke from the massive Park Fire burning near Chico, California.

We started our day in Yreka, California. It's a town of about 3,000 people just 25 miles south of the Oregon border.

A deer strolls through the parking lot of our hotel in Yreka, California (Jul 2024)

The town's so small we spotted a deer strolling through the hotel parking lot when we were packing our car at 8:30am. But notice also in this picture how clear the sky is. Yreka is about 140 miles away from the Park Fire. Oh, and there are a lot of mountains in between them, too. Like 14,180' Mt. Shasta.

Southwest of Yreka the sky wasn't so clear. We headed down toward the Trinity Alps with a day of hiking planned, but as we got to Fort Jones, just 20 miles away, we could see a wall of smoke ahead of us. That wouldn't have been smoke from the Park Fire... it was smoke from various fires burning in southern Oregon. We decided to pull the plug on the Trinity Alps and try a pair of shorter hikes further south.

The "WEED" sign in downtown Weed, California (Jul 2024)

Our next stop was in Weed. Yes, there's a town called Weed, California, pop. 3,000. Yes, it's the one famous for the road signs "WEED: NEXT 3 EXITS".

Weed, Next 3 Exits! Road sign on I-5 near Weed, California (Jul 2024)

We did a hike about 15 miles northeast out of Weed. Down here the sky was clearer than in Fort Jones though not as clear as up in Yreka. There was haze low to the ground.

After that hike and driving back through Weed we continued south on I-5 toward home. Smoke in the air increased as we reached Lake Shasta. It got thicker as we dropped down out of the mountains into Redding, California, where we stopped for a late lunch. There we could not only smell all the smoke in the air but practically taste it.

Smoke from the Park Fire chokes the air around I-5 at Corning, California (Jul 2024)

Thick smoke continued with us quite a ways south of Redding. The last photo above is from near Corning, California. It's just before 4pm in the afternoon. You can see how thick the smoke is all around us and how it limits visibility. At this point we'd been driving through smoke for 80 miles— and would continue to see (and smell, and taste) it around us for another 70 miles or so.

Compare this to the smoke cloud we driving through here on Friday night. It was a single, if large, cloud on the horizon. On Sunday afternoon, less than 48 hours later, it stretched over 150 miles across.
canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
Last night I booked a trip to go hiking in the mountains this weekend. Shortly after writing that blog this morning I checked my news feed and...

Aaand it's on fire 😧🔥😖

It's on fire.

Overnight the Park Fire near Chico, California exploded in size (Sacramento Bee article via Yahoo! News, 25 Jul 2024), growing from under 6,500 acres to over 45,000 acres by morning and 71,000 acres by midday. The fire was just 3% contained at last update in that article. That means it's burning out of control and growing in every direction simultaneously.

When smoke from a fire affected our day of hiking in the Sierras a few weeks ago I wrote that maybe we'll have to check not just the weather forecast but also the fire forecast before we travel. I wrote that as grim humor, not as a literal prediction! Alas my grim humor is the emerging grim reality. Summer in California is becoming fire season. Anywhere in the state may be burning or choking on smoke from a fire.

Fortunately the effects of the Park Fire are currently only indirect on where we planned to go hiking this weekend. Like the fire near Fresno a few weeks ago there will be dozens of miles and some pretty high mountains between it and us. But like then the smoke could be an issue. Already the smoke is definitely an issue in Redding, where we're stopping on our Friday Night Halfway. And it might be an issue up in the Shasta-Trinity mountains if the wind shifts strongly to the northwest (though that seems unlikely).

Incidentally this Park Fire is not far from Paradise, California, where the 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people. (A note about naming fires: "Camp Fire" does not mean it was a campfire that got out of control. It was given that name because it started near a local road named Camp Creek Road.)

Update: this afternoon I saw news that authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of arson in deliberately starting the Park Fire! Example coverage: KCRA News Sacramento article, San Francisco Chronicle article. Witnesses say the suspect pushed a burning vehicle into a gully. So maybe it wasn't his intention to start a massive forest fire destroying numerous homes and requiring thousands of people to evacuate the area, but that's been the result so far of his deliberate actions.

Update 2: As of midday Friday, the fire has grown to 178,000 acres and is now rated as 0% contained.

Update 3: As of Friday evening, the fire has burned 239,000 acres. That's 373 square miles. 1,600 firefighters are working on it... and it's still 0% contained.

Update 4: As of Sunday morning, the fire has grown to over 350,000 acres. Cooler weather on Saturday slowed its spread and enabled firefighters to establish some containment lines, otherwise it could be even worse. Miraculously there are no deaths reported from this huge fire. Thousands of people have had to evacuate. To their credit and authorities' credit, people got moved to safety quickly. I'm sure plenty of people living in the area remember what happened in Paradise in 2018 when a half day of "wait and see" delays before evacuation orders came caused pandemonium and dozens of deaths.

Update 5
Tuesday check-in.


canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
We made a decision to cancel our travel plans for the Fourth of July weekend. We were going to drive up to northern California and spend 4 days hiking in the Trinity mountains near Mt. Shasta. Now we'll stay home instead. I've even given up Friday as a PTO day. I'll work on Friday instead. 😢

We made this decision on Sunday, when we were home and resting up after our long day-and-a-half trip to the Sierras. It wasn't because we were too tired to take another trip so soon, though I was really tired on Sunday. I rolled into that Sierras trip less than 24 hours after coming home from a business trip and I was feeling ragged on Sunday. No, the reason was weather. Weather.

This is NOT hiking weather! (Jul 2024)No, it's not that the weather's going to be cold or shitty (or both). Summer weather is predictably warm and sunny in Northern California. The problem is the opposite— it's going to be too warm and sunny. Look at those temps on the four days we'd be out hiking (Thu-Sun), with highs running well over 100° F! (For those outside the US, 108° F is about 42° C.)

Yeah, those temperature figures are for Yreka, the town where we'd be staying in a hotel. Weather up in the mountains at ~7,000' elevation where we'd be hiking would generally be cooler by 10-12° F. But still, temps in the mid to high 90s are not ideal for hiking. Especially not for physically demanding hikes climbing mountains.

It's a bummer canceling these plans. Even though I do find make plenty of opportunities to travel and do things I enjoy, I'm always looking for more opportunities. The challenge, of course, is balancing fun times with needing to work for a living. In that sense a holiday weekend is such an easy opportunity with free time away from work I feel like I'm squandering it, like I'm failing to step up and take what's mine. Thus Hawk and I did not come to this decision easily. We debated it and came to the decision reluctantly. But as we've asked ourselves since Sunday (it's now Tuesday) if we made the right call, our confidence has grown as the weather forecast has gotten even more extreme. 🥵

Are we being wusses? That's a question we've asked ourselves several times as part of our debate. We didn't used to cancel plans because of hot weather. But now we've done it at least twice in recent years. (The other time I'm thinking of is when we canceled a trip to Eastern Washington when the temperatures were so hot roads were melting.) Sadly, increasingly extreme hot weather is becoming increasingly more common with climate change. Yeah, we didn't used to cancel trips over weather. But worse weather is a new normal now.

What'll we do instead? We'll stay home. It's going to be hot here, too. Our local forecast has highs in the mid to high 90s. But instead of climbing mountains in those temperatures we'll hang out by the pool all day. Except Friday, when I'm working. 😢

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck California's north coast region early morning. The epicenter was a few miles offshore from the town of Ferndale, population 3,500. Scattered damage was caused to roads and buildings. Thousands of residents in the remote area lost power or water. Two deaths occurred shortly after the earthquake. Authorities say that the deaths weren't caused by the shaking of the earthquake but by the inability of victims to summon help.

Google Maps: Ferndale, CA

One point of interest about this earthquake is that millions of people received early warning of it, 10 seconds before it struck. In a partnership between the state and Google, the warnings are sent automatically to all Android phones in the region. There's also an app available for other phones.

We didn't feel the earthquake here in Silicon Valley. Partly that's because it occurred at 2:34am Tuesday. It wasn't strong enough to wake us up. And partly that's because we're 250 miles away. A 6.4 earthquake isn't strong enough to shake things up 250 miles away.

Distance, though, doesn't stop some of our well-meaning relatives from reaching out to us breathlessly, "OMG I heard there's an earthquake in California are you okaaaaay?!?!" We always gently remind them that California is a huge state, almost 800 miles north to south. When you hear that something happens "in California", whether it's an earthquake or a fire or a crime spree, you need to check the geography to determine where it's actually relevant.
canyonwalker: A toast with 2 glasses of beer. Cheers! (beer tasting)
I'm still catching up on the first few rounds of my Beer Tasting 2022 project. A few weeks ago I bought a pair of amber ales in six-packs. As with Round 2 when I compared two dark lagers that turned about to be almost indistinguishable once poured I ended up choosing these two beers because I expected them to be similar. Although I didn't start this project as a head-to-head, knockout kind of competition it does make sense to compare apples to apples. Or, in this case, amber ales to amber ales. How similar would these be?

Alaskan Amber Ale vs. Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale (Mar 2022)My two picks for Round 3 were Alaskan Amber and Anderson Valley Brewing Company's Boont Amber Ae. Good lord, that's a mouthful. Even its acronym, AVBCBAA, is ridiculously long.

Alaskan describes its amber ale as an alt-style ale, pointing out they are using "alt" as the German word for old. "Old" apparently refers to the fermentation process they use, which runs longer and lower temperatures.

AVBC doesn't pretend to give us German lessons but instead gushes with adjectives and nouns in English. "[R]ich, crystal malts give this beer a deep copper hue and contribute a slight caramel sweetness while the herbal, spicy bitterness from carefully selected whole-cone hops impart a crisp, clean finish. Hints of sun toasted grain, toffee, and fruity esters compliment the mellow, noble hop aroma." They produce their beer in the bucolic small town of Boonville, California, in rural Mendocino County. I've driven past their brewery several times on Northern California road trips though I've only stopped in once so far, in October 2020.

I've enjoyed both of these beers in the past. They're both kind of on my short list. As in, if I were in a restaurant or bar with 10 assorted beers on the menu and either of these were on the list, I'd probably pick it and be happy with my choice. That's not a surprise, BTW, because red/amber ale is my favorite style of beer. But which of these amber ales is better? I'd never tried them head-to-head before!

It turns out these two beers are very similar. They're not quite indistinguishable like Baja Laguna and Negra Modelo were in my previous test. In tasting them backward and forward, with food and without, I found that Alaskan had a slight edge. Its flavors combined just a bit better to give it a slightly richer taste. Winner: Alaskan! 🍻

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
The SF Bay Area and much of Northern California have been getting soaked with rain this weekend. There are a variety of names used to describe the weather phenomena at play: La Niña, Atmospheric River, and Bomb Cycle. What's in a name?

La Niña: Spanish for "baby girl" this name sounds downright mild. It describes a condition where waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean are warmer than normal. This shifts around the prevailing winds in a way that gives the Pacific Northwest rainier weather and the US Southwest drier weather. Here in the SF Bay Area our weather can go either way, drier or wetter. La Niña conditions last for a year or longer at a time.

Atmospheric River: This one sounds like it could go either way. Rivers are good, right? But rivers are also dangerous, and can flood. This name describes an atmospheric condition where wind currents carry warm, moist air from the tropics to the West Coast. It lasts for a few days at a time and dumps rain on us. Pineapple Express is colorful name for atmospheric rivers because they come from the area around Hawaii.

Bomb Cyclone: Okay, I gotta say, nothing sounds good about this name. A cyclone is a violent weather thing like a tornado. And a bomb? Either one on its own is bad; put them together and it's like... I dunno... a sharknado?


So, all three of these are happening at the same time in California right now, bringing us heavy rain and high winds. While we desperately need rain to replenish drought stricken reservoirs and groundwater tables the amount of rain we're getting all at once has oversaturated the ground, causing flash floods and slides. And the wind's a hazard, too.

Near where I live the weather has been relatively mild. We've had 1-2 inches of rain in the past 24 hours plus occasionally gusty winds. Elsewhere in the Bay Area rainfall has been 4 inches, 5 inches, up to 10+ inches in some places. And winds have been fierce enough to topple trees, knock out power lines, and flip over trucks on highways.

Update: I posted an explainer on how atmospheric rivers work.


canyonwalker: coronavirus (coronavirus)
I like to browse Coronavirus statistics a few times a week to see how trends are developing. One of my favorite sites is the New York Times, "Coronavirus in the U.S." When I checked its California detail page a chart I've never before paid attention to jumped out at me: the map of infection hotspots in the state.

California Covid Hotspots (NY Times, data as of 4 Apr 2021)

As you can see in the chart there's one hotspot in the state right now: that bit in the upper left. That happens to be Del Norte County in the northwestern corner of the state. That's where we took a short trip 7-10 days ago and saw many people refusing to wear masks despite it being the law. And now, 7+ days later, they've got the highest new case rate in the state by a significant margin.

Wow, I'm so surprised.

To put this in broader context, though, this worst county in California still has a lower new case rate than the entire states of Michigan and New Jersey right now. Statewide, California currently has the second lowest rate of any state.


canyonwalker: Driving on the beach at Oceano Dunes (4x4)
North Coast Roadtrip travelog #7
Back home - Mon, 29 Mar 2021. 11pm.

We wrapped up our three-day weekend road trip to California's north coast today, driving some 440 miles home. Along the way we managed a handful of stops— including one to drop off some rocks, a few for attempts at lunch, and one for a serious hike on the Mendocino coast.

Had we gone "straight" home via the shortest possible route it still would have been a long day, with just over 400 miles of driving. We added to that by dodging out to the Mendocino coast, through the towns of Fort Bragg and Mendocino, to visit Russian Gulch State Park and hike 5+ miles to a waterfall there. That's what pushed us to 440 miles of driving. Door to door, it has been a 14.5 hour travel day.

Beer O'clock?

Traveling through Fort Bragg meant picking up some beer. I mean, it's always beer o'clock somewhere, right? The town is home to the North Coast Brewery, which makes several beers of which I'm a fan. On past trips through I've ordered beer samplers with afternoon snacks. But since it was only lunch time and there were still many miles to hike— and drive— I merely bought some beer to enjoy later.

"We've got a few specials right now," the beertender at the beer shop informed me, "Including a make-your-own-6-pack special. Combine any 6 individual bottles you want for $10."

"I didn't come this far to buy loosies," I snarled playfully. We both enjoyed a laugh.

Five minutes and two six-packs later I was back on the road. It's not the 44-bottle armada I bought last time I passed through town. Many of those from that previous trip I can buy locally. This time I grabbed six-packs of a stout and a dark lager that aren't carried by distributors.

A Hike and Car Trouble

Car trouble cropped up as we entered Russian Gulch State Park. After we stopped at the kiosk to pay our entry fee, the car didn't want to shift into forward gear. The gear selector physically wouldn't move to the "D" (drive) slot. On the third try it did, but only barely. It slipped out of gear occasionally. As I nursed the car down the hill to the trailhead parking area I wondered if we'd have to call AAA after our hike.

We managed not to think too much about the car trouble while hiking. We enjoyed the trek. At first I didn't think we'd done this hike before, but toward the end of the way in I remembered it. It was pouring rain last time, so lots of things looked different today with not-shitty weather.

As I've done with other hiking treks this trip, I'm skipping pictures for now because they take time to prepare. I'll follow up with them in a few days in separate blog posts.

Sweating the Drive Home... And the Next Repair Bill

We got back to the car around 5:30pm. "Maybe it will have magically fixed itself," we agreed, both of us knowing the chances of that were remote. And we were right. The car hadn't magically fixed itself; the transmission was still struggling to engage "Drive" mode.

I was already mulling what the nature of the problem could be... and what it would cost to fix. Car trouble— and the cost of repair— is/are a sore point for me right now. It's just ten days after getting the car back from the shop, with a $1,400 repair bill. The problem is different enough that I don't suspect the shop of screwing anything up, but it's still galling to face downtime and expense— not to mention the possibility of being stranded by a breakdown 200 miles from home— so soon again.

Well, the fact that I wrote "Back home" in the byline at the top of this blog tells you that we didn't get stranded. The car behaved just enough for us to get home.

And that's where we are now. Home. We arrived sometime after 10 this evening and unpacked the car. I took a shower to clean up from the long day and help unwind before going to bed. It's late already, and tomorrow's a work day.


canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
North Coast Roadtrip travelog #6
Crescent City, CA - Mon, 29 Mar 2021. 8:15am.

I haven't written much about the hotel we've stayed in the past two nights in Crescent City. All I did write has been about the prevalence of Covid-denying idiots there. But there was a good reason we chose it. It's one of few hotels on the shore in Crescent City. We booked a room with a balcony and a view. Here's the view from our balcony:

View from our hotel room in Crescent City [Mar 2021]

Why did I not share this picture earlier? Well, the weather hasn't cooperated. First, Saturday night, we got in after dark; then all day Sunday the coast here was foggy. Now, Monday morning, as we're leaving there's a bit of sun.

Another reason we booked this hotel is that it's a bit of nostalgia. We stayed here back in 2008 or so on our anniversary. Back then it was a Hampton Inn. Hampton Inns hold a special meaning to us since we proposed to each other while staying at a Hampton Inn one weekend. Then, we started our honeymoon at a Hampton. It sort of became an in joke.

This particular hotel is no longer a Hampton Inn. It left the Hilton brand several years ago. But we still remembered the property and wanted to return. And, the property still has a number of Hilton hangovers. Like the lap-desks I used to eat breakfast while catching up online this morning. Current Hamptons don't have them anymore; but this property still does as a holdover from its past.

Were there other hotels we could have stayed at? Sure, there was a cheaper one a mile or two south that I stayed at with a buddy on a road trip through here years ago. It's a relic from the 1960s with drive-up exterior doors, tiny, outdated bathrooms, and showers that take forever to get hot water.

"You're willing to stay at dumps with friends, but when it's me you insist on nicer places," Hawk groused. Marriage, everyone!

Beach in Crescent City [Mar 2021]

As we headed out of town this morning we stopped by the beach to get our rocks off. Literally, rocks. Hawk had, like, 50 pounds of them in three sacks from collecting at beaches Saturday and Sunday. She sorted through them at the hotel the last two nights and separated out the dull, boring ones from the keepers. Wanting to make sure they're returned to a proper habitat, she asked that we put them out on a beach. Neither of us cared to try to figure out which beach, so we dumped them with others of their kind at the beach in Crescent City shown above.

So, that's the first stop on our road trip home today. Less than five minutes out, and we've already stopped. Given that we've got some... 440 miles to travel... at this rate we'll be home around... June.
canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Coast Roadtrip travelog #5 
Crescent City, CA - Sun, 28 Mar 2021. 8pm.

We've had a busy day out here on the far northwestern coast of California. But busy in a good way: less driving to places and more doing stuff once there. Today we've taken short hikes to a few waterfalls, walked through old growth forest among huge redwood trees, and driven miles on the beach to collect rocks.

In between all that we did drive, of course. The odometer shows 120 miles for the day. But that's way less than yesterday's 305 miles and even Friday night's 155 miles. Not having to drive so much is the benefit of staying in one place on a trip. Tonight we're staying at the same oceanfront hotel in Crescent City as last night. Tomorrow, though, it's time to head home, and the miles will pile up again. We'll drive at least 400 miles tomorrow; maybe more if we take a side trip out to the Mendocino coast.

Where's the Pics?

Waterfalls, redwoods, and sand dunes sound great; So where are the pictures? you might ask. It takes time to review them, select the right ones to share, and clean them up. Doing that is the main reason why my travel blogs tend to fall days behind, even for short trips. [Already this blog is 36 hours behind - Ed.] I'm blogging the outline of the trip now; I'll come back with pictures and details later. Stay tuned!

canyonwalker: I see dumb people (i see dumb people)
North Coast Roadtrip travelog #4
Crescent City, CA - Sat, 27 Mar 2021. 9:30pm.

As we've headed further north in California today, intelligence and responsibility have headed south.

Friday evening we left the SF Bay Area, where mask compliance is nearly 100%. When we stopped overnight in Ukiah, 110 miles north of San Francisco, mask compliance was down to 50%. Mind you, this is not a local-laws thing. The mask mandate is state law, and county law, and store/hotel policy. It's literally posted everywhere on signs— and has been for literally a year plus— so the argument "Oh, I forgot" holds zero credibility.

When we went hiking today in two state parks compliance was around 10%. Again, "I didn't know" is not an excuse. Neither is "But we're outdoors, it's not required." Signs posted at the parks, and clear printing on the permits required, reminded people that masks are required when within 6' of others. On even somewhat-busy trails you've got to have a mask for when 6' distancing is not possible.

At one of the parks there was a "wildlife sightings" kiosk for visitors to record their experiences on the trail. Today we saw plenty of Ignoramus Americanus, I quipped to Hawk.

Tonight in Crescent City mask wearing is like a joke. Immediately inside the hotel lobby where 6 or 7 guests, none of them wearing masks. One eyed us, wearing our masks, suspiciously— as if we represented a threat to him. Over at the front desk, beneath a sign in large print "Staff must wear masks at all times", the manager came out of the office and hurriedly put on his mask to check us in. Elsewhere in the hotel— which I believe is full for the night— barely any guests wore masks in common areas.

Altogether this is sadly reminding me of what I concluded after our driving vacation in September: no matter how many steps you take to lower risk yourself (we took several this trip), traveling anywhere is inherently risky based on stupid, irresponsible people being there.

canyonwalker: My old '98 M3 convertible (cars)
North Coast Roadtrip travelog #3
Leggett, CA - Sat, 27 Mar 2021. 10am.

When we stopped at a roadside convenience store outside tiny Leggett, CA, for snacks this morning we found something unexpected: a new hawk!

We found a new hawk in a middle-of-nowhere convenience store [Mar 2021]

Yes, in this historic old house in the middle of nowhere, tucked between the touristy bigfoot paraphernalia, fresh baked cookies and brownies, and racks cheap fake jewelry, was a stuffed hawk of a model we haven't seen before.

It turns out this hawk is an updated pattern of a toy we already have. Both are made by Wild Republic. ...At least, we're presuming the new pattern has replaced the old, as it seems unlikely the manufacturer would make two different kinds of red-tailed hawk. Curiously this model doesn't come with the informative and slightly amusing back-story of the older one.


Our new hawk starts socializing in the nest [Mar 2021]

We still own the older pattern of Wild Republic's hawk. We bought several of them years ago. 😂 Here's the new hawk, which we named "Peg" (we bought her at the Peg House) socializing with "Winter" in the car as we get back on the road.


canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
North Coast Roadtrip travelog #2
Ukiah, CA - Sat, 27 Mar 2021. 8:30am.

Just 10 ½ hours after arriving in Ukiah we are leaving. It's not that there's anything particularly wrong with the place; but this town and the Hampton Inn we've stayed at are merely a Friday Night Halfway stopover en route to adventures further north.

While even 8:30am is later than we wanted to hit the road this morning it's a slight shame we couldn't stay longer. We have a comfortable room with a balcony overlooking the pool and hot tub area. Here's a pic from last night:

Hampton Inn, Ukiah CA [Mar 2021]

We arrived too late for the pool's 9pm closing time, and this morning we're leaving too early for its 9am opening time.

In other respects we're glad to be moving on. People here are not exactly taking the Coronavirus and Covid-19 precautions seriously. Oh, they're doing some things to show you how seriously they take it. "Safety Theater", you might call it; in the same vein as Security Theater. For example, our TV remote has been sanitized and safety wrapped for our protection:

Great, the TV remote is sanitized; now how about people wear masks?

...Not that I even touched the TV remote. I haven't turned on a hotel TV except to see if I could connect my computer in the past 1000+ nights of hotel stays.

But while the TV remote is all nice and protected, how about the people? Ha ha, no. This safety theater, not safety fact.

Wearing masks indoors is state law in California, and it's company policy at this hotel. Placards are posted at the front door, at the front desk, in all the elevator lobbies, etc. Yet half the customers are walking around or sitting in common areas without masks, and the staff does nothing. Some of the staff aren't wearing masks correctly, either. We know that the virus gets passed between unmasked people near each other indoors— far, far more readily than it gets passed on the surface of devices, such as  a TV remote, that two different people might touch hours apart. But yeah, it's easier to put a bag on a remote than get a bunch of knuckle-draggers to wear their damn masks.


canyonwalker: My old '98 M3 convertible (cars)
We've headed out of town this evening... and it's not just to get a shot 105 miles away from home. It's a legit, leisure road trip!

Friday Night Halfway

Tonight we're bedded down in Ukiah, CA, 155 miles from home. It was a not-hard trek up to here, well north of San Francisco along US-101. We left home at 6:45 after work and a quick supper of leftovers and arrived 3 hours later, having made a 30 minute stop for snacks and stretching our legs halfway here.

Even here is but a halfway point, too. Partly that's because there's little about Ukiah to recommend it as a destination... even though we have stayed in Ukiah a few times before! But mostly it's because Ukiah is a convenient way-station, a Friday Night Halfway stopover. Tomorrow we'll continue onward to Crescent City, on the far north coast of California, another 240 miles away.

Time for a "Vaccication"?

A lot of people right now are planning or taking "vaccications"— vacations to celebrate their vaccination. I've also seen the concept called "revenge travel". It's still too early to take revenge on Coronavirus; Hawk is fully vaccinated but I've had just 1 of 2 shots. Thus we've kept our plans for this trip cautious.

1) We are planning to travel around 1,000 miles total, but it will all be in our own car. We're not traveling via planes or trains, or transiting through airports or train stations. This cuts the risk way down.

2) We're planning outdoors, uncrowded activities; we're going hiking in remote areas! We're not visiting people indoors or even going to crowded outdoors places. This also cuts the risk way down.

3) Finally, we're planning to eat meals by buying groceries and takeout. We're not going to eat inside restaurants, or even in hotel common rooms, just because we're away from the conveniences of home. This, too, cuts the risk way down.

When will we take bigger trips again? Basically, a) after we've both had full vaccinations and ideally b) as nationwide infection rates drop from their current plateau. We did start booking an east coast trip for June earlier this week. With luck we'll see a clear path to take a flying trip before then, too; perhaps by Memorial Day.

About This Weekend...

But enough about what might happen weeks from now; let's talk about our plans for the next few days.

Saturday we'll drive up 101 out along the coast, stopping by Redwood National Park. There's a tall-trees hike there we were thwarted from being able to trek when we visited last October. We've got a permit now for it, so we'll hike it on Saturday. (Okay, so maybe there is an element of revenge travel to this trip!) After that we'll head up to Crescent City for the next two nights.

Sunday we'll visit a few waterfalls in the redwood forests around Crescent City. We've got a book of waterfall hikes with several ideas marked; really a lot more that we can do in this short trip. We'll finalize our picks in the morning based on weather and energy levels.

Monday we've taken the day off to stretch this trip out to a 3-day weekend. We've got another waterfall hike marked; this one along the coast instead of in the redwoods. We'll also visit Agate Beach at Patrick's Point State Park again as Hawk so thoroughly enjoyed picking up shells and rocks there last time. Shortly after laying out her collection of spoils, in fact, she started talking about when we could go back.



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