Pacific Northwest Random Ride 2014 - California

Every 4th of July weekend the random ride continues from where it last left off. The 2013 random ride ended at the Big Tree in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We traveled west over the Trinities on Highway 299, met a friend on Berry Hill Summit, stayed at a nice double room for 5 at the Town House Motel in downtown Eureka (for a reasonable price), and on the morning of July 3, had a lovely breakfast with friends at the Cafe Waterfront.  Then we hit the road on Highway 101 traveling north.

Berry Hill Summit, Trinity Alps

Fern Canyon

First stop was Fern Canyon; maybe I had been there at least 3 times, but every time is like a first time. Helped 81-year-old mom navigate the trail that followed the creek on the canyon floor with gigantic log crossings, and spectacular walls adorned with ancient ferns, mosses, and other lush flora, on top of which lies a forest of very tall redwoods.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

After losing the uncle on the beach and finally getting him back to the car, we continued north to our destination in the Redwoods National and State Parks: a small but secluded campsite at the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park campground. After an evening of hot dogs, roasted marshmallows, hot cocoa and schnapps, we spent the morning on the Cathedral Trees trail before officially starting the random ride at the Big Tree loop trail.

Cathedral Trees trail

The Big Tree. 

Then continued north and hiked the Ah-Pah trail--an interpretive showcase of how restoration can turn a busy, denuded logging truck road back into a beautiful forest.

Base of a redwood on the narrow path that was once a logging road. Can you see the monkey face in the root?

Lagoon Creek and Yurok Loop Trail

We spent the next 2 nights in Klamath, camping at the Redwoods RV Park (formerly Kat's RV), a quiet, family-owned, and uncrowded campground on the Klamath River. From this base, we drove around the Klamath and Crescent City areas--the highlight being the gorgeous Yurok Loop trail at the Lagoon Creek beach and picnic area, just about 4 miles south of Crescent City. I wrote in my diary, "Man, what a magical place." The old mill pond donned with floating aquatic vegetation (aka lily pads) was a beautiful site to see even from the highway.

The Yurok Loop trail was even better. It took us across Lagoon Creek, past the beach, and through a Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir forest with a thick understory to an overlook of the Pacific Ocean and False Klamath Rock--a protected seabird rookery blanketed with thousands of noisy birds flying to and fro. I am guessing these are common murres, but pigeon guillemots and cormorants also nest on the rock.

Top of False Klamath Rock rookery. That's a lot of murres!

I spent the rest of the loop trail taking photos of the flowers. I didn't have a Jepson manual and I'm not great at identifying flowers, but here are some best guesses:

Angelica species (Henderson's or Lyall's) with daisies and thistle; though I also considered it could be cow parsnip, being that it grows with a bunch of non-natives.

Common white yarrow

Some kind of berry

Then took the side trail to the Lagoon Creek beach, where the drift wood gets trapped and piles up  and where I could sit and stare at the seabird rookery from a different vantage point.

False Klamath Rock from the Lagoon Creek beach

Calystegia soldanella (beach morning glory)

Towola Dunes and Lake Earle Wildlife Area

Our next adventure was to find and visit the Towola Dunes State Park, just a couple miles north of Crescent City off of Old Mill Road. We got directions from a corner store clerk and were confused, stopping at an unmarked gate in an agricultural area. The gate had an opening to a dirt road and a very small sign gave us the realization we had arrived. With only two inconspicuous entrances, the park is an expansive 4500 acres of coast land that extends from just north of Crescent City to where the Smith River enters Pelican Bay. Three of us--uncle, brother, and I--were game to hike the dirt road into the park. The park was once home to the Towola tribe of native Americans, and there is a cultural site where the road meets a horse trail that shoots off into the dunes. We took the trail which led us through several ecotones--transitions between different ecosystems from a sitka spruce dominated dune forest, to coastal dune scrub, to northern foredune--grassy dune dominated by sand dune blue grass, to the beach. All the natural communities here had one interesting phenomenon in common: the vegetation grew in the sand.

Dune forest with Sitka spruce

Coastal dune scrub

Northern foredunes

Beach!

Ecotones

It was a very long hike to the ocean and back, tiring but exhilarating, and we soon left the park to retract our steps and continue our random ride. Now for a side-bar of animal rights advocacy. On our way out of the dunes on Old Mill Road, we passed a huge ranch with odd-looking round things--didn't know what they were until we saw calves' heads poking out, necks stiffly trapped between a gate in the hole of their crates. It was a veal farm where veal crates hold calves in one standing position, not allowing them to move, run, skip, forage, or be a living, sentient being. Back in my animal advocacy days, we pushed to ban such agricultural practices and for consumers to turn their backs on veal and any restaurant or store that sold it.  I believe the ranch we saw belongs to the Alexandre Family. Ironic that their website says they are organic "EcoDairy" farmers that care about the welfare of their animals. On January 1, 2015, the voter-approved ban on veal crates in California should have gone into effect. Any activists reading this blog, please take heed and check up on our Alexandre Family "eco friends."

Now back to our regular scheduled programming. The random ride, being random, doubled us back south towards Crescent City on Lake Earle Drive. But we had one additional outing before calling it a night. The Lake Earle Wildlife Area, managed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, surrounds Lake Earl and and Lake Talawa, and is adjacent to disjunct sections of Towola Dunes State Park.

Lake Earle Wildlife Area with a view of the dunes

We spent the night in Crescent City and had a nice seafood dinner and blueberry cobbler at the Apple Peddler. Then headed north on our random ride on Kings Valley Road, stopping at Blueberry Hill Farms to buy fresh organic blueberries and delicious blueberry jam. Back on 101 North, we headed towards the Oregon border. To be continued...