Moments in Dirt and Ink

Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and more interactive map link The Humboldt Bay Trail is meant to be one continuous trail connecting the local communities with a multiuse path. For years there has been the "Bay Trail North" and "Bay Trail South", but now, finally, it is all one trail! This connection was meant to be completed last November, but the contractor (who is of the area and knows the weather) miscalculated and didn't get the paving in before the rains softened everything too much for the heavy equipment. So we waited very impatiently for this last four mile stretch between Arcata and Eureka to finally be completed. It's more than a decade in planning and haggling and work. As of the last Saturday of June, it is officially open. I joined the Volunteer Trail Stewards cleaning up the "north" section from Arcata Marsh to No Longer Two Rocks on that day, but decided to hold off actually walking it until it was a little less busy. It...

Eureka City Parks ( map link ) With a second day of sunshine, I decided to check out the trail extension along what will, one day, be a complete Humboldt Bay Trail. This bit has been referred to as the Hikshari' Trail extension or the Bay Trail extension. It's a piece of the Great Redwood Trail where the California Coast Trail follows along. Specifically, it is a mile of paved multiuse trail running between the breaking waves coming in through the bay opening and restored salt marsh. Since it is only a mile of trail, I planned on seeing a bit more and actually started at some parking at the Bayshore Mall for the Eureka Waterfront Trail. There's supposed to be trail parking somewhere around the mall, and I believe I saw it marked once near the oil pier at the other end of the long line of unused spaces where I parked. I got a spot next to a short gravel connecting trail and turned south toward the extension. This is paved multiuse trail with occasional rest points...

Clam Beach County Park Little River State Beach ( map link ) I decided the place I wanted to go for this window of sunshine between the rain was Little River State Beach, which I previously visited on an even sunnier June day full of flowers . There aren't quite so many flowers as March starts. It's not very big, so I decided I should take in some of the county's Clam Beach to the south and Moonstone Beach to the north. The tide would be out late in the afternoon, so I left the areas with cliffs for late. I started in the county's North Lot, which was quite busy at one end and flooded at the other. Lots of dogs out, but all but one with obedient people leashing them. North of the lot is Little River State Beach which only allows dogs leashed on the waveslope. They take their position as critical snowy plover habitat seriously and loose dogs are huge threat to the ground nesting birds. Plenty of parking under the bluffs at the beach. There's trail aroun...

McKinleyville City Parks Mad River Bluffs ( map link ) As I've compiled the yearly hike list and map , I can't help but notice there's been a distinct lack of interest in presenting much local. I go off to the upper reaches of the Mad River and there's plenty of content, off to Trinity and there's a run of content, out to Nevada and there's a barrage of content. Stay local and there's whole months without content. I didn't even get out to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to go looking for some of the distinctive parasitic flowers that are still to find. And I have continued this way as there is no content for January and nearly none for February. Oh, what a beautiful day. There has been a near constant parade of storms in that time, but sometimes they wander north or south and leave a day or two that turns out sunnier than predicted, much like this supposedly overcast day. (Well, it was sunny for a while.) There are things to go out and se...

King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (brown line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 With just a short way to go and since it takes a long time for the sun to get over the hills, I took a while to get started. Powerhouse and fuel tank in the morning light and a bit of processing to see what's happening in the shadows. In fact, the first hikers of the day came by just after I finished packing and wandered over to the sign about elephant seals. Listening to their strange clacking noises and thinking how I'd now seen them in very different seasons (October before), I wondered when you don't get to see them. The sign promptly answered. August. You don't get to see elephant seals in August. And you might miss them at the end of March. At this time, there should be molting females. I'd seen a few clearly molting and hadn't managed to spot a male. I should have ...

King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (purple line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 I looked around at how soaked everything was from the dew and decided I had enough water to cook breakfast right there (well, on a rock under the Douglas fir) while waiting for everything to dry out a little. My windbreak trees became morning shade trees, but they were still blocking some strong gusts most excellently, so I wouldn't want to trade them. Good soggy morning! So I headed out on the faint old road to join a much better road until getting pointed off to the left at a gate. Trail gets really faint there, but it's all much easier to follow on the second pass than it was on the first. A bit sunnier, but most spots aren't much drier than they were. After the short road section, follow near the fence on the faint track. If truly desperate for water and it ...

King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (green line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 No rain, but my tarp was soggy with dew for the morning. A big fat moon sat above the ocean and I realized that except for a brief blurry light in the sky the morning before, I'd seen no sign of the moon at all so far. I breakfasted and packed not intending to head up Horse Mountain Creek Trail after all. I also didn't really care to go up Buck Creek Trail. I figured I'd camp at Randall Creek. I just needed to be reasonably early traveling the impassible zone on the way back to Miller Flat. A delightful tease of sunlight played on a piece of the waves, let in by the window of the canyon of Horse Mountain Creek. Otherwise, I was consumed by the shadow of the cliffs. The short way to Shelter Cove under the morning moonlight. Shadow and sun across the hills ahead as mists p...

King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (yellow line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 So, my tarping didn't perform so well for the storm. I'd let the one stake go without dropping a rock on it, so I had to get up in the middle of the night and resecure it. There was a rock all of 2 feet away to drop on top of it. That left the foot of my quilt wet on the surface. The wind kept changing direction, but it didn't do so laden with rain until early in the morning. I'd figured I'd just use my poncho for protection if it did that, but hadn't decided how that would work, so it took a while to sort and wasn't very effective when done. I simply pulled it across, hopefully wet side out in the dark. Anyway, things only got moist and it's not down nor particularly cold. The rain seemed to encourage the broadleaved stonecrop flowers to pop open. Big Creek after a ni...

King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (orange line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 Waves of rain passed in the night and it was dry but windy when I started the day. I needed to make it early because some parts of the trail can only be done at a low tide (below 3 feet, generally, but a couple spots are getting reported as below 2.7 feet now) and the first 4 mile section of this (referred to as the impassible zone) was coming up in 2.4 miles. The low tide was early and one of those especially tight spots is the north side of Randall Creek, the very end of this impassible zone. Yes, the tide would be coming in rather than receding as recommended, but it was a rather flat ocean and I have been here before. I had a pretty hard deadline of noon for the first 6.4 miles, which is tight but really shouldn't be hard to make. However, that rain overnight wasn't the r...

King Range National Conservation Area, Arcata BLM (red line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7 Well, an air fryer was obtained and even though this one doesn't have a "dehydrate" button, it turns out beans dehydrate well at 180°F, taking only about 3 hours for a pound. In 3 days, I had 3 pounds of various varieties and it was suddenly much easier to think about going out backpacking. I could try out the Lost Coast Trail the way everyone tells me it should be experienced, then wander back my own way because that shuttle is way too expensive and there's more to see than the beach. The tides would be super low in a couple days and the only weather a brief storm zipping past mostly in the night. Clouds (and storms) make things more interesting. Yeah, that's how it works, right? I decided on doing the biggest loop, so after pounding along the beach from north to south (as the ...