North to Garibaldi May 2021

 As the pandemic continued to keep us at home in January I managed to find a night over looking the Pacific at Harris Beach State Park.  3 nights at Harris Beach then turned into a short adventure.

May 8, 2021

During the rains that we did get in February the Last Chance Grade between Orick and Crescent City slid closing 101 and causing a 2 hour detour to get to Crescent City.  At that point I decided it would be prudent to stop for a night in Humbolt Redwoods State Park.  

We drove passed our Burlington Campground which would be our stop for the night and continued on to the Founder’s Grove where we hiked the trail and had lunch.

This incredible Redwood grove, located just off the famous Avenue of the Giants, is home to some of the tallest trees in the world. At the end of the loop is the magnificent fallen Dyerville Giant. The giant redwood once stood 362 ft. tall and was considered the tallest tree in the park before its fall in 1991. The redwood’s crash to the ground moved the earth so much that it registered on a nearby seismograph and one local, who heard the impact from half a mile away, thought a train had crashed. Today you can walk the whole length of the tree and stand in awe of its massive root system beautifully on display.   Dyerville Giant Facts: 362 ft. in height 17 ft. diameter 52 ft. circumference Possibly 2,000 years old.

As we hiked the loop we heard a loud crack as this branch came down right in front of us.

Our campsite for the night was site 55, a large site between 2 hiker biker camps.  Very quiet, except for the Varied Thrush with his electronic sound at dawn and dusk.

May 9 -11

On our way to Brookings we made a stop for a walk around the Arcata Wild Life Preserve.  The wind was blowing pretty strongly keeping the birds out of site.

Campsite 18 at Harris Beach

We spent the 10th walking on the beach and at the camp, Terri and Vance joined us after noon.

The 11th we visited hiked Chetco Point and visited the Brookings Botanical Garden, which was very sweet, before stopping for an early dinner at The Hungry Clam where the halibut fish and chips never dissapoints us.

May 12

Our destination for tonight was Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.  We stopped to stretch and go for a short walk at Arizona State Beach where we had an Osprey watching the pond from above and violet green, cliff and swallows and a cormorant caught a fish out of the pond right in front of Mark!

Stopped for lunch at the Rocky Point  park and had to eat in the car because of the mosquitos.  Hiked into the nature preserve and up into a Myrtle wood grove.

Umpqua Light aHouse State Park was very lush.  Our campsite was near the entrance station with a big hill to hike if you wanted to take a shower or deposit your trash.

May 13

Before parting ways with Terri and Vance I hiked down hill to lake Marie for a hike around Lake Marie.

We spent most of the day driving without many stops.  We did drive through Beverly Beach State Park near Lincoln City, a campground I’ve never been able to get reservations at.  It’s east of the highway with a pass under the highway to a beautiful beach.  Sites available now!

I found Munson Creek Falls Natural Area just off 101 it the east before Tillamook, a lovely place where we were able to get out of the wind and walk and picnic.

When we pulled into the Harbor View RV Park we were one of 6 RV’s here for the night.  When I reserved I made sure I could get a bay front site.  

We walked over to the harbor area and met a guy who was tending his sea weed crop.  He lives in Portland and does this on Thursday and Friday.  We took dinner from the Portside Bistro back to the camper and enjoyed dinner as the sunset.  The seafood chowder and a shrimp salad hit the spot.

May 14

Once the coffee was made we headed for the pier we’d been looking at from the camper. As we approached the pier a crow chased a bald eagle who flew out over the bay and circled back to perch atop a tree.  After a bit it grabbed something to eat from the water and landed a top a pilot where he chowed down until the seagulls chased him off,

After breakfast we walked around town and tried to locate the heron rookery that I saw on a promotional map to no avail.  It seems Garibaldi has quite a history for trains and logging.  Now it seems it’s fishing, crabbing and clamming is the draw.  Unfortunately with the winds today and yesterday the halibut boats weren’t going out.  Circling back to the camper we stopped at The Fishpeople Seafood Market where we picked up 8 huge oysters for $5.00 to grill for dinner.

Ghostly Days in the Eastern Sierras - September 2-7, 2021

 

Along Sonora Pass

After hooking up with Joan and Ted and Terri at the park and ride lot in Cotati we headed for Highway 12 eastbound.  Highway 50, our usual route to Highway 395 was closed due to the Caulder Fire burning adjacent to it and Highway 89.  Our options were either 80, Highway 120 through Yosemite or Highway 180 over the dreaded (so we'd heard) Sonora Pass. 

Another view along the pass

The drive was pretty uneventful.  We made a stop in Jamestown at Railtown 1897 for a picnic lunch.  It was a lovely day for early September in the Gold Country, the temperature was in the mid-seventies.  After lunch we continued on over the mountains and down the pass, which was a slow go with all the twists and turns, but the drive was filled with wonderful granite mountains and unseen territory for us.  Once we were down the mountain we were about 30 minutes from our campsite at Robinson Creek, which was 10 miles west of the town of Bridgeport.

Final view along Sonora Pass

After lunch we continued on over the mountains and down the pass, which was a slow go with all the twists and turns, but the drive was filled with wonderful granite mountains and unseen territory for us.  Once we were down the mountain we were about 30 minutes from our campsite at Robinson Creek, which was 10 miles west of the town of Bridgeport.

Our home for 5 nights, site 9

I was concerned about the campground being overrun since only campground in the Humbolt Toyabe National Forest had remained open when the US Department of Forestry closed all other National Forests because of an inability to protect them if any more fires were to break out.  Surprisingly it was sparsely populated when we arrived on Thursday although it to fill up by Saturday night.  

Regular visitors

The deer have evidently been well fed by visitors as they were not afraid to approach us.  This doe and her fans were right in our campsite.  The next day they joined me down by the creek.  We were also amused by the antics of the ground squirrels as they chased one another around the trunk of a pine tree.  The one that crawled into the truck when I accidentally left the door open, and was closed inside the cab for a bit was not quite so amusing.  We knew he was there by his tell tale droppings.  After searching for him I started banging around behind the seats and he flew out the door past Mark's shoulder just like Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

Along Robinson Creek

The creek was just across from our campsite and we could hear it from our bed at night.

Robinson Creek

Sitting alongside the creek was a lovely respite from the afternoon sun.  Terri and I saw 5 messengers manuevering up the stream. 

Curious about what was on the Bridgeport Reservoir we picnicked at a park along side it and discovered what was there.

The reservoir abounded with birds, there were oodles of stilts, lots more ibis than we saw on our visit to the valley, white pelicans flying along looking for food a tasty morsel, heron and ring neck seagulls.  The RV park was not great, but might be worth a stay just to watch the birds and hookups would make it so the camper could be heated in April!

 Bodie Bluff

The idea for this trip to Bodie State Park came to me when I read about  Ghost Walks  that the Bodie Foundation Sponsors.  We booked reservations in March.  On Sunday Evening at 6:00 we traveled about 45 minutes to Bodie State Park for our tour.  The evening began bright, sunny and warm.  

We were lead by a guide to stations where volunteers roll playing period characters from Bodies past recounted tales of ghosts in Bodies present and past history.

This character from the Wild West recounted the story of Jerry the mule who lived in the mine because he was to fat to get through the passageway and out.

The mine was along the summit of the hill.  Jerry was killed in a fire in the mine.

To this day Jerry is seen walking along the bluff at the top of the hill.

Immigrant from Cornwall

This lovely British lady told the tale of the Tommy Knockers, wee folks who hid in the luggage of miner's from Cornwall who came to Bodie in the 1870's.  The miners were called Cousin Jacks.  The Tommy Knockers would protect the miners and made a loud knocking sound to alert the miners when they needed to get out of the mines.  They also like to play games by moving things and playing jokes.  More information on the Tommy Knockers.

Best role play of the evening!

She told stories of shootings and lynchings.

Lady Jole had lived in this house and she and her husband were upstanding members of the community, articles were often written about them and there participation in local society in the newspaper.  She became ill and the pharmacist prescribed salts.  Rather than salts, she received poison and died.  The house later became the postoffice.  

Lady Jole's chair

Lady Joel was seen recently by a film crew sitting in this chair.

Mrs. Friend

Mrs. Friend's husband had pneumonia and died when she was 22, he was 33.  She was one of 2 undertakers in town.  She recounted the story of the importance of a wake so that there would not be a premature burial.  Loved ones were buried with bell ropes so they could ring the bell if they woke up.  Once someone heard them they were dug up and thus "saved by the bell'. 

 I did find another account which states that it was used in boxing when a boxer was in danger of losing a bout and the bell rang, it was saving the boxer from defeat.

The Dechambeau Residence

Window in Dechambeau Residence where a woman often peers down

By the time we hiked backed to the parking lot the sun had set and the drive back to the campground had become a ghastly adventure!

Here's a link to more of Bodie's ghostly past.

The area we camped in is considered Twin Lakes.  The above photo is of Lower Twin Lake.  All the white on the minarets above the lake is granite.  We were so happy to have a few days that were smoke free so that we could enjoy the beautiful blue sky.

Twin Lakes is a great place to camp and explore the area around 395.  Besides Bodie we checked out another almost ghost town about an hour and a half southeast.  

In 1860s silver was discovered near by Benton and it became busy with competing hotels, stables, saloons, breweries, newspapers and shops. 

The historic general store also served as Wells Fargo station, stagecoach stop and post office.

Bodie was the longest standing mining town rival, Dogtown and Monoville appeared and soon vanished.  In 1883 the Carson&Colorado Railroad built it’s station 4 miles east of the general store.  The town of Benton grew around it and this place became known as Benton Hot Springs.

Sudden deaths that could leave restless spirits were common:  murder, suiside, acute illness, accidents in the mine and mill.  Prominenet citizens included Robert Morrison, a store keeper deputized in 1871 to pursue prison escapees who murdered him at Convict Lake; and F.B. Remington, a proprietor of the store who died right in front of it! The motive for his 1914 suicide by cyanide is still a mystery.

When the silver ran out, the hot springs still flowed.  A series of entrepreneurs appealed to the tourist dreams of their era- hotel, health spa, dude ranch, motel-and the bed an breakfast of today.

The hot spring, it was hot!

On our final day after a lazy morning around camp we drove over to Buckeye Campground, what a spectacular view along that road, and hiked along Buckeye creek, we thought.    We followed Buckeye trail for about and hour past a small meadow and turned around and headed back to the trailhead.  It was well over 80 degrees and getting a bit warm.  

Aspens just beginning to change color.

We continued along the road but made a circle and ended up on Highway 395 north of Bridgeport.  All that hiking had earned us rooter floats in town at the Jolly Cone.

Meadow

We continued along the road but made a circle and ended up on Highway 395 north of Bridgeport.  All that hiking had earned us rooter floats in town at the Jolly Cone.

Tuesday came and it was time to head back over the mountains and home.  Every day when we'd had cell service we'd tried to get reservations at Yosemite for Tuesday so we could stop, but there were no day passes available.

Granite mountainside along Tioga Pass

More granite along Tioaga Pass

We decided to drive through on 120 anyway and at least experience the beauty that is Yosemite from the road, no stops allowed.