onderroad

Gualala to Port Reyes Station, CA on Highway 1

Highway 1 on the California coast, north of San Francisco

The sky cleared up after the 1 day of overcast yesterday (except for afternoon fog, the only overcast day I have run across in the last 10 days) a pretty good ration for this part of the country. It stayed sunny most of the day as I headed south on Highway 1 from Gualala. The road was spectacular in places, curvy, dramatic overlooks of the coast, twisty corners up and down the valleys, sheer cliffs dropping up to 500 feet to the coast.

I stopped at Fort Ross, which is a reconstruction of the farthest south Russian settlement along the west coast of North America. The Russians settled Fort Ross in 1812, in an effort to try and get a stake into territory the Spaniards thought they had control of, as well as trying to establish a base for fur sealing in California, since they had near exhausted much of the stock of fur bearing mammals from their settlements in Siberia and Alaska, and to try and establish a granary and life line for needed crops to supply their settlements in Alaska. Their previous supply lines to their Russian-America settlements was either half way around the world via the dangerous Cape Horn route to the Pacific, or a grueling 2000 mile trek from Irktusk in Siberia, overland, crossing the Sea of Otoshk, and then the perilous sea route to Kodiak and Sitka (New Archangel) their main settlements in Alaska.

Fort Ross was controlled by the Russians from 1812 to 1841, when they realized it cost more to run then it profited, whereby they sold it to an American named Sutter, for $30,000. It is and interesting historic site, nicely re-created. A large rectangular fortress with stockade houses in the corner, the commanders house, and some sample rooms furnished with supplies of the period, north of the Spanish settlements in San Francisco and a nice visitor center. As I have been reading a lot of Russian-American history and history of the exploration of the west coast, it was a fascinating site.

I continued south and stopped in Port Reyes Station. There was a fiesta fund raiser in progress for one of the local clinics. It was being held in the feed store, stacked high with animal feeds, and they had brought in bales of hay in tiers for people to sit on. There was an authenic 7 piece Mexican band, and the crowd enjoyed the festivities and a lot of the young people were dancing.

One of the foods they had at the fiesta were barbequed oysters. I asked the guy cooking them how it was done. He looked at me like I had asked the most stupid question - first you shuck them. "Do you put them in the shell to barbeque?" He said "They come in the shell".... looking at me like I was a complete idiot. I was trying to understand how you cooked them, but we were hopelessly out of synch, so I let him finish and moved on.

There was also a guy who was grilling hot dogs and asparagus. I asked him it there was some local custom where you put the asparagus

I stopped at a mega campground, that was more like a village. It had all the necessities of life - a post office, general store, food and supplies, and most have had close to 500 sites. I was a little surprised as the tent sites were $25 (no water, no electric, just some pasture land and a picnic table) and I was ESCORTED by a little gulf cart to my site. I'm not too fond of even being ASSIGNED a site, so imagine my surprise when I was escorted by the golf cart at 5 miles per hour through the campground to my assigned site. Kids ran around with abandon, and a smoky cloud of wood smoke hung over the entire campground. There must be something in the human psyche that needs to feel like it's getting back to nature somehow.

Bill, a fellow biker, although he wasn't biking today, came over and brought me an orange and a juice, he said he knew what it was like to travel light when biking. How thoughtful.

Sea Ranch Chapel, south of Gualala, CA - A beautiful, non-denominational chapel, composed of human size spaces and swirling lines, kind of a cross between a ship and a hobbit hole.

Fort Ross on the Northern California coast, site of a Russian settlement from 1812 until 1841

Curb work in the parking lot at Fort Ross, Northern California

S curve on the coast on Highway 1 on the Northern California coast, north of San Francisco

Fiesta at the Feed Store, fund raiser for local medical clinics in Port Reyes Station, CA

Musicians and hats af fiesta, Port Reyes Station, OR

Peace of mind fertilizer, Feed store, Port Reyes Station, CA

Mendocino to Gualala, CA on Highway 1

Hairpin curves on Highway 1 south of Mendocino, CA

Okay, one modifier on my last post from Mendocino. Today was Friday afternoon and I hung out in town until early afternoon, and I must say, I now understand why people say the place crawls with tourists - it does. It was getting really busy and crowded. I must say, that Mendocino does a pretty good job of handling it's popularity, but I like it better early in the morning, in the evening, and during the week.

Left Mendocino and headed south towards San Francisco on Highway 1. Highway 1 winds down along the rocky broken coast. It swirls down the sides of river drainages and they curls up the other side. It is fairly remote in this area, not too much traffic, not much development, a few towns and a few clusters of houses. There are places where you look down and you see the ocean breaking on the shore several hundred feet below - not inches beyond the white line and with no shoulder.

Stopped at Gualala which is about 45 miles from Mendocino and about 120 miles north of San Francisco. Gualala is the perfect intrepid travelers stop - a couple of hotels, a campground just out of town, a couple of interesting pubs, a nice coffee shop (The LaLa Café) and a couple of nice restaurants.

I went over the Gualala Hotel which is a 101 year old building with a bar, restaurant and lodging. I happened to be sitting in the right cosmic corner, as soon after Heidi from Calgary sat down next to me. She is doing something like me, taking a break from her publishing and arts business to recharge her batteries. She was looking for the perfect beach but the weather had been windy and the air cold, and so far, the best beach she had found was in Vancouver, not California. Since she was heading north, and I south, we both found we liked the same kind of pubs, bars, music, we compared notes. I suggested she check out Ferndale next, and she suggested Morro Bay for me.

A little later, on the other side, Susanne and Jeanette from the bay area sat down on the other side. It was Susanne's birthday, and they had come up from Benicia which is in the east bay area. They are both sailors and they race, and they talked about the challenges of sailing in SF bay (windy, tides, currents, fog, cold water, etc...). Jeanette is an artist and mural painter and Susanne is taking a break from sales.

I was going to go and have a beer and dinner and head home, but we ended up having such a good time, I hung out for the evening. To add to the charm, the power went out in the entire town about 5 times. I should have suspected something when the clock in my hotel room was flashing.

Gualala Hotel, Gualala California

Creative haircut on a cypress tree along Highway 1 in Northern California

California coastal view along Highway 1 North of San Francisco, CA

Highway 1 - Legget, CA to Mendocino, CA

Pacific Coast on Highway 1 between Leggett and Fort Bragg, California

California's Highway 1 officially begins on the north at the town (really an intersection) of Leggett, where it splits off of highway 101 for a run through the coast range to the coast. This was a great motorcycling road, very twisty, slowing down for hairpin curves, accelerating to the next curve, braking hard, repeat. The road was well marked and newly paved except for a couple of miles right before the coast, and the traffic was light which made for great biking.

After about 15 miles of twisties, the road hits the coast. The water is a beautiful deep turquoise blue and the coast is very rocky and rugged, with splashes of white interspersed with the blue as the waves break on the rocky shore. Highway 1 goes along the coast for another 15 miles, before heading slightly inland through Fort Bragg and on into Mendocino.

Fort Bragg is the major commercial center for this area of the coast, and all the accompanying conveinces. It is not exactly charming, being a working town, but it has a small, interesting downtown, and an excellent micro brewery - North Coast Brewing company. They have a great hoppy ale, Red Seal an excellent wheat beer, Blue Star, and a nice Pilsner, Scrimshaw. There is also a funky coffee house /gathering spot, The Headlands, which was has live music, good food and good coffee, and a great atmosphere.

, and an excellent old
About 8 miles south of Fort Bragg is Mendocino. Mendocino is a cute little village which is completely preserved as a historic district. It was a logging center in the 1860's, and a mill operated here until the mid-1930's. Development passed it by after the demise of the logging industry, fortunately preserving much of the town in a historic, but downtrodden state. In the 1950's an art center was established in town and the city has been a hub for artists every since. The lodging is all B&B's, no motels, no strip development, one neon sign, and tourists flock in by the carful during the summer, filled with galleries. Kind of like the Cannon Beach (Oregon) of the Northern California coast. A lot of people told me they don't like Mendocino, they find it to 'cute' too many tourists, and I find that I am turned off by typical tourist towns, but this was a unique combination of tourist/local and draws a lot of interesting and creative people.

Mendocino sits on a headland of the Pacific Ocean,k and the view from downtown is across the inlet of Big River to the bluffs and headlands across the bay and the turquoise blue waves breaking with their white crests on the shore.

I particularly liked Patterson's, an Irish style pub with better than typical pub food, a good selection of local micro-brews and a friendly clientel. I watched two games of the NBA finals there and the crowd to a person rooted against the Lakers (and thus, for the Pistons). At the end of game 5, where the Pistons upset (?) the Lakers and claimed the NBA championship, the crowd uniformily broke into applause, a spontaneous group event that I will long remember. All I had to do was take a seat at the bar, and I was in constant interesting conversation with the group of mostly locals gathered there. A great pub!

Pot is a big part of the culture in Northern California. A lot of people grow pot, and apparently a lot of people use it as well. There are a lot of ex-hippies (actually, still currently hippies) and an under current of new age thinking - mysticisim, healing crystals, etc, as well as microbrews, a growing number of wineries and organic food.

Mendocino Hotel, Mendocino, CA

Sunset in Mendocino, California

Cypress tree(?) in Mendocino, CA

Main Street in Mendocino, CA

Mendocino headlands, view from downtown Mendocino, CA

Fence and tree in Mendocino, CA

Photographer at work in the Redwoods, California

Pacific Coast at Shelter Cove, CA

Avenue of the Giants (Redwoods) and Arcata, CA

Redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California

Honeybears on parade at the Saturday Farmer's Market in Arcata, CA

Drove north on Highway 101 through the Avenue of the Giants, the old 2 lane highway 101 that winds through the redwood groves of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It is a beautiful stretch of road, the giant redwoods blocking a lot of the sun and filterintg the light leaving dappling the forest with spots of light. And I find myself consistently taken aback by the size ofr the redwoods, a real peaceful place.

Anne at the beach near Trinidad, CA

I headed north to Arcata to meet my friend Anne, who showed me the sights of Arcata. Anne went to college here at Humboldt State University, and knew all the cool things to do. Arcata is a college town and has a beautiful central square. At the square, there were people protesting something at each of the four corners, and an unkempt looking bunch in the middle, with their backpacks, sleeping bags, guitars, and other essential paraphenalia.

Street Musican at the Saturday Farmer's Market in downtown Arcata, CA

We went to the local Finnish Country Sauna and Tubs, and is also a coffee house. It sits on a little courtyard which is surrounded by little buildings with private sauna's and hot tubs. You get a half hour of sauna time and another half hour of cool down and showering. I understand they have music on the weekend in the peaceful little courtyard. It was a wonderful experience. It reminded me of my friend Wendy's parent's sauna which is in the barn of their dairy farm in northern Wisconsin. They are Finnish, and they like their sauna's hot. In the old days, saunas were the easiest way of getting clean, sweat out the dirt, and then rinse with cool water - nice. I loved the sauna's and they were very popular. You feel wonderful and relaxed after just 30 minutes.

Bar Signs in Downtown Arcata - In front of each of the bars was a cluster of people. It turns out that California is smoke free in bars. I never thought this was that big a deal, until I got home from the pub and DID NOT have all my clothing smelling like smoke. I used to be indifferent about smoking in pubs, but now I am more favorable to the idea.

We also ate several times at Hey Juan's, a little Mexican restaurant geared in price and serving size toward the college crowd. Anne anxiously awaited her enchilidas and red sauce, while I had a combination plate of food that was bigger than my head. We saw the movie the Stepford Wives, a little goofy, but always nice acting from Nicole Kidman. On Saturday, we headed to the beautiful College Beach, near Trinidad State Beach. We figured that two white skinned people could sit in the sun all day without sun screen, actually, I'm not sure what we were thinking, and we both were well broiled by the end of the day, and we ended up spending the evening lathering ourselves with various aloe based products. We hit the deli and pizzeria and had a nice dinner and then watched the college crowd at the local brew pub.

Super bouncy balls dispenser in Best Western Motel, Arcata, CA

On Sunday Anne and I parted, and each of us, a little sad, headed in opposite directions, Anne north to Ashland/Medford, OR and myself south to Highway 1 and on to Mendocino.

The Lost Coast

Capetown-Petrolia Road (The Lost Coast Highway) near Cape Mendocino, CA

Beginning at Ferndale in the north, there is a portion of the coast called the Lost Coast. It is relatively inaccessible as highway 101 swings inland through the redwood groves of Humboldt State Park. Highway 211 or as it is alternatively known as Mattole Road or the Capetown-Petrolia Road......

Victorian Ferndale, California in Humboldt County

The Victorian Inn in downtown Ferndale, California

Ferndale lies on the plain of the Eel River, about 20 miles south of Eureka in Northern California. The Eel River is the 4th largest river in California and empties a good portion of the coastal range of mountains in Northern California. Ferndale lies right .........

Redwood National Forest, CA

Stump of big Redwood tree on the Howland Hill road, east of Crescent City, CA

I headed north from Eureka to Crescent City, to see the slice of the coast I missed when I headed inland. There's some nice roads where you can get off 101 and get closer to the coast....

Eureka, CA

The Carson Manor, built by a lumber baron at the turn of the century, in downtown Eureka. It is now a private club.

I spent a couple of days in Eureka. Eureka is sprawling strip development along Highway 101 which cuts through town, but it has a couple streets of preserved development with some good galleries, eateries and....

Klamath Falls, OR, Mount Shast, CA and over the Coast Ranges to Eureka, CA

Mount Shasta and Shastina, from Highway 97 south of Klammath Falls, OR

South from Klamath Falls, OR to Mount Shasta City in California on US Highway 97 , then west over the Coast Ranges from Etna to Somes Bar south on Hwy 96 through Oreleans and Hoopa to Willow Creek, and then west on Highway 299 into Eureka, California.

Ashland, OR

Rafting the Upper Klamath River in Southern Oregon and Northern California

Checking out the very nice town of Ashland, Oregon (just south of Medford, OR, along I-5 in Oregon's central plateau), and rafting on the Upper Klamath River