Moments in Dirt and Ink

Redwood National Park Click for map In the once upon a time, after backpacking around Redwood Creek , I stopped by Lyons Ranch and Dolason Hill Prairie . Then I only hiked down the trail as far as the historic barn, about a mile. I decided it was time to take on the whole trail. With temperatures climbing a bit inland and it being wise to consider this a mostly inland trail, it would be a warm day for it. The current conditions page lists the trail as only "partly open" due to downed trees. On the one hand, this page still lists the central portion of Rhododendron Trail as closed for the collapsed bridge that was cleared away and trail smoothed to make the small creek crossing easier years ago. It makes the bold statement that the seasonal bridges in Fern Canyon are both in place and removed. On the other hand, this is a National Park page and they might be better about the conditions of trails that are actually in the National Park, like Dolason Prairie Trail. (On th...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park Click for map There's still plenty of trails I haven't tried out in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I wanted to finally get to the Childrens Grove way at the south end of the River Trail. This time the Eel River is low enough to cross and the summer bridges should be in, so a shorter trip is possible to access the grove. The weather folks over on Wooley Island were expecting 75°F in nearby Weott. Perhaps a bit warm now that all my Pasadena derived heat immunities have worn off, but tomorrow may rain so I'll go with the sun. The closest access point is Williams Grove (fee area), but I wanted to look around the Kent-Mather Grove (the only area close to road that I couldn't improve as I aligned most the trails and added the few missing ones in April) and walk all of the River Trail that I have missed so far. Besides, both the Kent-Mather Grove and Childrens Grove are rumored to be particularly nice ones and would therefore make nice bookend...

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Click for map I decided I wanted to do the Rhododendron Trail entirely, and up the California Real Estate Association Trail (CREA Trail), and connect the loop via Prairie Creek Trail (now called Karl Knapp Trail) and Big Tree and Cathedral Trees even though the rhododendrons are long gone now. Maybe I'd get to see more of those various parasitic flowers? I really only expected the ghost pipes to still be around in some form, but the others I have found in the area are not such long shots at this time either. All of this encompasses a length much further than I really wanted to go, but I've gotten it into my head that CREA is important to seeing the strange flowers as they seem more abundant along its little trod length. I've done something similar before , when they foolishly closed off parking in the park due to Covid starting. My legs didn't fall off. My feet weren't worn to stumps. Paved trail takes one the short way fro...

Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area Manila Dunes Recreation Area Click for map The OpenStreetMap version of Mendocino National Forest looks a lot closer to reality after more work than anyone might care to know. There's also mapping for a chunk of forest north to Hayfork where the Bigfoot Trail goes that is vastly improved. However, it might be a bit more fun to generate some content rather than stare at the computer, particularly if I can find a little something new to show off. Well, there's this mildly mysterious little picnic area next to the old tracks for something new. I checked (every two months after the Saturday DERT day) on the "mysterious leaves" I found in March and now there's some orchids to show off. In between, I could wander some less new areas among dunes and beach. Picnic tables painted by the nearby school children for a public rest stop. In this section of the North Spit, the old tracks edge along the side of Humboldt Bay a...