Northern California - August 15, 2017
As is always the case things look better in the morning. We had a lot of fog and it was still really nice and cool. So we spent a leisurely morning getting to know the house better, reassuring ourselves that there were no mouse attacks in the middle of the night and having breakfast. We packed a picnic lunch and set off for our first stop, which was Patrick's Point State Park just south of Orick. It was just passed low tide when we got there so the first thing we did was drive out to the the point and go down a very steep cliff face to the rocky beach far, far, far below to go tide pooling.
We saw starfish and lots of snails and little crabs but the big highlight was sea otters! We saw a family of three playing in the water and on the rocks. They kind of looked like weasels, but the way they played and had fun chasing each other up and down the rocks and into the water was so cute.
David and I went further down the beach, following the otters. While I was watching them play, I realized that one of the rocks had a seal lying on top of it. And then I realized they were everywhere -- sunning themselves (as much as they could, given how gloomy it was) on top of the rocks, lying so still that you wouldn't even notice them at first glance.
We climbed back up to the top and had a picnic lunch. Then we drove to see a reproduction of a Sumek village, which is still used by the Sumek for ceremonies.
If you looked inside, you'd see a square pit in the middle surrounded by a ground-level gallery on all four sides. It didn't look like a space for living, yet there were several of them.
There was also a roofed viewing area with benches around it, which we think was the dance pit. There was some kind of ceremony going on with woman was braiding a girl's hair with a fire going and lots of shoes left at the entrance, which I assume meant there were more people inside than we could see.
Off to Wedding Rock. A huge rock outcropping - very beautiful and scary.
Both Evan and David climbed up the very, very top of Wedding Rock and hopefully got some good pictures, since it looked really scary up there.
Then we drove to the second hike, which was in Redwoods National Park. We took the Redwood Creek Trail - fantastically gorgeous.
Gina's hip started to bother her partway through the the trail, so she went back to the car. David and Evan went on ahead, and Noah and I followed more slowly.
When we got to our turnaround point, we saw David and Evan far ahead of us. But before we could catch up, they disappeared.
Noah and I hung out there and waited and waited and waited, occasionally calling for the others. Finally, we decided to go back to the car, because they'd no doubt been eaten by bears by then, and what was the point of waiting more? We were just spelling out a message with pebbles on the footbridge when they reappeared. They had some for some reason thought the turnaround point was farther on, because the trail book referenced passing a prairie, and we didn't. I guess a lot can change in 20 years, which is how old the book is. In any event, we all made it out in one piece, and it was a really really good hike.
After the trail, we stopped in the town of __ . I've never seen a town built in such a narrow strip along the ocean. We ate in a vinyl booths place right on the water. I had blackberry pie, and David had a blackberry shake. Blackberries were all over the menu, which made sense, as we saw tons of wild blackberries on our hikes.
That night we came back to the house and made spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner, which was not only gratifyingly cheap, but also necessary, since we were basically in the middle of nowhere. We were all so tired but it was a great day with the best weather imaginable.
We saw starfish and lots of snails and little crabs but the big highlight was sea otters! We saw a family of three playing in the water and on the rocks. They kind of looked like weasels, but the way they played and had fun chasing each other up and down the rocks and into the water was so cute.
David and I went further down the beach, following the otters. While I was watching them play, I realized that one of the rocks had a seal lying on top of it. And then I realized they were everywhere -- sunning themselves (as much as they could, given how gloomy it was) on top of the rocks, lying so still that you wouldn't even notice them at first glance.
We climbed back up to the top and had a picnic lunch. Then we drove to see a reproduction of a Sumek village, which is still used by the Sumek for ceremonies.
If you looked inside, you'd see a square pit in the middle surrounded by a ground-level gallery on all four sides. It didn't look like a space for living, yet there were several of them.
There was also a roofed viewing area with benches around it, which we think was the dance pit. There was some kind of ceremony going on with woman was braiding a girl's hair with a fire going and lots of shoes left at the entrance, which I assume meant there were more people inside than we could see.
Off to Wedding Rock. A huge rock outcropping - very beautiful and scary.
 |
| Evie climbing where he wasn't supposed to |
Then we drove to the second hike, which was in Redwoods National Park. We took the Redwood Creek Trail - fantastically gorgeous.
Gina's hip started to bother her partway through the the trail, so she went back to the car. David and Evan went on ahead, and Noah and I followed more slowly.
 |
| Redwood Creek. Where's everyone else? |
When we got to our turnaround point, we saw David and Evan far ahead of us. But before we could catch up, they disappeared.
 |
| Turnaround point. Hey, wha' happen'? |
After the trail, we stopped in the town of __ . I've never seen a town built in such a narrow strip along the ocean. We ate in a vinyl booths place right on the water. I had blackberry pie, and David had a blackberry shake. Blackberries were all over the menu, which made sense, as we saw tons of wild blackberries on our hikes.
That night we came back to the house and made spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner, which was not only gratifyingly cheap, but also necessary, since we were basically in the middle of nowhere. We were all so tired but it was a great day with the best weather imaginable.
Comments
Post a Comment