Sunday, August 27, 2017

Totality Run of the SSC - Prologue


At Damnation Creek Trail - I love the fallen redwood and
how it is now home to several trees and dozens of ferns and mosses.

I’ve been told that a using a prologue is for presenting material out of sequence with the rest of the story so that’s what I’m doing with this post. Probably. I intend to write one or two more posts of our summer trip to be in totality for the eclipse, hike with Gene Mauk, see my folks, and travel down the Northern California Coast. This post is about or inspired by our run down from Merlin, Oregon to Ft. Bragg and our day in Mendocino and provides a look and feel of our trip throughout.

We left Merlin behind and took the back way out to the Redwood Highway (US 199). This is the only highway to pass through the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon and connects Crater Lake National Park to the Redwood National Park. Merlin is about halfway between. We twisted our way through amazing forests, through Cave Junction and by pear orchards being worked and harvested. Almost immediately after passing through Crescent City, California we entered the Redwood National Park, one of our favorite places on the planet.

We have Ollie Verdoodle with us and we were on constant watch for where he was welcome. Our first stop in the forest was at the Damnation Creek Trailhead with its posted ‘no dogs on the trail’. We complied and took some photos around the parking area before moving on. I made some observations that lead me to the conclusion that people who heed signs about dogs and waste and cautions are the very ones who are best at taking their dogs along. The people who don’t heed them are the worst. In fact, the sight that most inspired this conclusion had nothing to do with dogs. It’s people. I won’t go into detail here but would if asked in a different medium.

We came to a trail that allows dogs – or at least does not post a ‘no dogs’ sign. The Ah Pah Interpretive trail is about ¼ mile long into the forest and then back out. It was amazing to say the least. The trail is along the pathway of an old logging road that was removed to reduce erosion. The signage is an educational tour of how things were with the road, why it was removed, and how things have improved by the road's removal. It was gratifying to see how the undergrowth bounced back given the chance. I was blessed by a quote I'll hold close to my heart:

“To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” – Wendell Berry

We spent the early part of today, Sunday August 27, 2017, in Mendocino, a wonderful coastal town perched on the bluffs above Mendocino Bay. The weather was clear, something of a marvel mentioned here and there by the locals as we walked along the main street and around unique shops and eateries. We hiked out to the bluffs and down near the point with great tide pools and rock formations.

Notebook in one hand, monocular in the other, I scanned the kelp beds for sea otters from time to time while waiting for a gentle wave to deposit a bestselling idea in the tide pools below. Though none was laid at my feet the whole of the scene restored my soul, if you don’t mind my borrowing words from David. A thought crossed my mind, a wonder in itself that I’m capable of such a thing. But the wonder here, I think, is the benevolence of the sea lion to allow man to place a fog horn where he likes to sun himself.

Nature revealed herself – dolphin in the bay leading a small raft of murre, gulls floating overhead, Oyster Catchers working the muscle beds, a raven enjoying a seafood lunch, a starfish clinging to the cliff just above the waterline, cormorants winging past all the while as the sea lions accented the mournful tones of the fog horn with a chorus of barks.

We took lunch at the Trillium Café, a dog friendly concern, invitingly so. We ate on a deck overlooking the garden with a lilting fountain and had a view of the bay between the main street stores. It was the best lunch in a long time, with or without our canine companion along. He was so good and the food so tasty we just had to extend it with desert.

Sunset was coming on so we ducked into Fort Bragg’s Safeway and grabbed crackers and cheese and granola/fruit/yogurt parfaits for a dinner on the clifftops to watch Sol descend into the Pacific. A perfect ending to such a day.

Our trip is drawing to a close, one day on the road with a too-short time in Pacific Grove/Monterey before running the rest of the way to SoCal. It’s been filled with many wonderful things and people, as I hope to show in the coming posts. Cindy and I remarked to each other that this will have been the longest time we’ve been away from home together. And we’ve loved it all.
Ollie and me enjoying the sunset on the bluffs of Fort Bragg