Moments in Dirt and Ink

Headwaters Forest Reserve (map link) Since I had spotted the single blooming fetid adderstongue (and the two already seeding!) near Avenue of the Giants, I decided to head up one of the only real climbs around Eureka to see if I could find some more. I had seen many of them before, but all with drooping stalks to seed pods in May and June. It would be something to see all of them when the stalks are stiff and holding up flowers. Unfortunately, wheels were starting to turn and I might not be around for the more opportune time after mid-February. I started up that first paved mile. The South Side Trail was closed, of course, so there was no going around it. The barn along the way used for educational exhibits. The nearly obscured South Fork Elk River water level isn't very high at the moment. The paved ADA accessible portion of the trail ends at Falk after a mile. It gets a little more rolling for the next two miles. There is a slick mud section where land slides have ...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park Click for map in new tab. The final little hike of the day spent along the Avenue of the Giants was another marked as a stop along the auto tour. The parking area is a short way north of the unmarked road for the High Rock River Trail . This particular trail seemed designed to highlight hillside forests and log bridges. Trails form two loops with a spur down to a creek. I started up the rightmost trail, to head around the outside of the loops counterclockwise. Hillside trees generally aren't quite so big, but there was one or two, along with other features of old growth as listed on the sign below. Trees on a hillside with a multilayered canopy. Some big trees turn out not quite so big above. Not many bright colors at the moment, but there are a couple mushrooms in the duff of redwood needles and laurel leaves. I took the spur down to the log bridge, of course. It is a rather steep little trail switchbacking down to the tiny stream be...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park Click for map in new tab. I would expect Founders Grove to be among the sites developed enough that it requires the $8 day fee, but found nothing about it. I set off on a double loop through the trees. They're nice and big. Perhaps not quite so large as those at Rockefeller Grove on the other side of the river, but still very nice. There's even one labeled with its particular details and set with a platform for picture taking without quite so much root stomping. You can go on up to Tall Trees for a taller one, but this is just off the main road and that is up a narrow, winding thing. Signs marking one of the starts of the trail. A half mile ADA accessible trail starts here as well. Some 346.1 feet of Founders Tree. Extensive burn scars help set one tree off from the rest. There's a few tunnel trees near the start, too. Taking a clockwise route, I found myself passing the stilled drama of fallen giants crashing down atop eac...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park Click for map in new tab. While the High Rock River Trail is an official trail shown on the map provided with the Humboldt Redwoods State Park brochure, it certainly doesn't seem that way when starting out on it. I turned down a narrow and unsigned road which happens to be the High Rock River Bar Access and parked in the wide spot just before the open gate. I was a little past an opening into the forest beside a cut log where there is an unsigned trail. I started down it with a sureness set very precariously. The slightest hint could have sent it tumbling into an abyss of dread. The first and only indication of what the road is for is at the gate, well down it. You are not to drive in the river, just on the gravel. It's not a problem this time of year. A path under the trees. Pondering the massive burl in the side of a redwood and the way the bark has split around it. Fortunately, the signs were good. In fact, I started passing hu...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park Click for map in new tab. Humboldt Redwoods has some long trails and great redwoods along Bull Creek, but I decided to take a day to see things on the auto tour along Avenue of the Giants. My first stop was a pair of loops at the north end. I must admit, my motivation to stop in this area was that I found out there is an "albino" tree nearby, but I wandered the advertised routes before going after that special treat. The Drury-Chaney Loop is a stop on the tour and is an accessible lollipop of a loop trail. It is 0.8 miles to the loop and 2.4 miles for the round trip. I found the curves banked so much it put me in mind of some rough racing event and one tree was down nearly to the loop, but a hardy wheeled traveler might still be able to make it. Hopefully soon without the tree. Signs and a picnic table at the start of the trail. Just inside the trees, the gravel path executes some little, high banked, curves. These auto tour stops...

Trinidad State Beach (map link) I decided to have a walk out to Elk Head and watch the water a little out there. I parked at the other end of the park by Trinidad Head, then climbed over the ice plant covered hump of sand to the beach. The tide was quite high. Some day I should come at a low tide and actually get to see the arch up close. Well, the one arch on the beach, anyway. There seem to be quite a few in the area. The blowhole spouted once on the side of Pewetole Island to help remind me of other fun structures within the rocks that happen to exist out here. The stacks around College Cove at Trinidad State Beach. The trees on Pewetole Island are looking very nude for the season. I had to scamper across the beach in a couple spots before getting to the trail up beside Mill Creek. It has nice flow right now. The squish spots on the trail were almost dry enough to just walk across without paying too much attention to foot placement. Above the mouth of Mill Creek. Mi...

Six Rivers National Forest (map link) There's a piece of riverside trail along the Klamath between Bluff Creek and Aikens Creek, or so it says on the map. I decided to start it on the south end, so headed into the much reduced Aikens Campground. It had running water, flush toilets, and even a dump station once. Now it doesn't even have pit toilets to serve the people who might choose to camp, updated fee: free for up to 14 days, in the wide open spaces between the hills. It does look like it gets some use, but was completely empty. Nothing points to the trail, but I found it very easily from the closed campground loop by walking around the gate and through the first site. The only indication that it was once a camp site was the stone base for an iron stove. Everything else is vanishing under the leaf litter. "Closed for the winter" it says, but that was a lot of winters ago. The trail, in contrast, was beautifully built and still getting some use just like ...

Six Rivers National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 (map link) Bluff Creek Historic Trail gets my attention as I zoom by because it is clearly signed to be visible from the road and the trail is obviously used and in good shape. Also, why is "Historic" stuck in there? (Besides the obvious, the Forest Service simply says, "Gateway to Bigfoot Country" , which doesn't seem particularly unique along the Bigfoot Scenic Byway.) It doesn't get my attention when I'm looking at a map because it just offers about 1.5 miles of connecting the highway to Slate Creek Road, a paved road that leaves the highway a short distance northeast of the trail. However, further along in the same direction and connected by an unimproved road is "Wright Place (site)" which sits next to Bluff Creek. The trail is numbered, the road is not. While it is tempting to think that an old road is bigger and therefore more likely to be passable, it doesn't really work out that wa...

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 ... oh, bother again (map link) This is the overnight plan I was most looking forward to. The Forest Service quad shows a trail running 4-5 miles north (upstream) along the Klamath River from the road at the Halverson River Access to a pair of odd shaped inholdings. Things like that are usually patent mine claims. This was likely access to the Stenshaw-On-Klamath placer mine, originally. Just south of a massive landslide, another trail climbs away from the river to an old road that in turn connects to Ogaromtoc Lake with a campground. A nice walk along the river, then a climb to a lake with luxury accommodations (= tables and a toilet could be provided!) in about 6 miles. Short, but otherwise what's not to love? The marked river access next to the bridge. There were some clues this plan might not work out as I hoped. The Forest states that this is a 0.6 mile trail down to a spot popular with fly fishermen , substantial...

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 ... oh, bother (map link) I finally sorted out that what I should be doing with all these nice, sunny, winter days is trying out some of the speculative backpacking trips on my winter suggestions ! Then this one rainy night popped up to interrupt the sunny days, but I got everything together to go. The rain oozed into the next morning and I sort of delayed because I didn't want to be in it. I drove out pelted with rain and looking at an impressive amount of recently completed work by Caltrans making CA-299 clear and safe for the usual speeds. There were even big groups of workers at a couple turn outs getting either some congratulations or prep for the next step. I got to the start of trail only delayed by the current road workings on CA-96. Since it was already lunchtime, I went for the one that seemed the most reliable at the end of a little road on the south side of the Salmon River. The start, on Somes Mountain Trail, is ma...