Moments in Dirt and Ink

McKay Community Forest ( map link ) As of September 29, 2022, a portion of the McKay Community Forest is finally open. This includes the Northridge parking area in the southern portion of the forest and about four miles of trails. A map can be found here . I decided to return to the forest ( prior hike from this start is here ) to hike the longest loop available on the now officially opened trails. The parking lot was indeed open with a great big sign stating the gates would get locked at 6PM. Gates locking at a variable time sometime after sunset seems pretty common for Humboldt County parks. Kiosk with map and other trail signs at the trailhead beside the Northridge parking area I turned onto the Bob Hill Gulch Trail, which is a much smaller trail and harder to see than the Perimeter Trail, an old road that is also an option. Bob Hill Gulch turns back on itself and really is just a longer way through the dark and scruffy forest to join another old road that branches from t

Trinidad State Beach ( map link ) After wandering a few beaches (and rocks) south of Trinidad, I headed off to wander a few rocks (and beach) north of Trinidad. I found the parking lot at the north end of Trinidad State Beach working its way toward full. Most were headed out toward Elk Head, but quite a few got caught by the trail down to the beach around College Cove. There's plenty of beach down around College Cove, but the arch is watery I shuffled off fairly directly to Megwil Point on Elk Head. Lots of cliffs to the north Out to the point to look south to Trinidad Head

Trinidad Coastal Land Trust ( map link ) I finally got the roughly 2.5 months backlog of hikes down to something reasonable, and after just a bit over 2 months of solid writing. (Yes, it takes me as long to write up a hike as it did to hike it.) Between all that writing and a general feeling of saturation of the local area, I wasted a lot of lovely November days not going anywhere interesting and got into a December when it was harder to find a halfway nice day. I decided to use this particular window of good weather to go out and see what the big tides were doing in Trinidad. The king tide already passed, but the high would still be over 8 feet. So, while the rest of the country was popping their pipes in an extended freeze, I went off for a day at the beach. The temperature was pleasant, the wind drifting about when it did anything at all, and the fog probably wouldn't cooperate. It's been around and Trinidad is good at gathering it. Houda Point I started off at Hou