MV "Help Me Rhonda": California Coast, Redwoods, and Motorcycle Rides

We previously, but only briefly, spent time in California around Lake Tahoe, so this is the "official" entry into the state on Interstate 80, heading west toward Sacramento, then northwest into a portion of Napa Valley, and west again over to the Pacific Coast.

It was good to see "green" again after crossing Nevada and so much "high desert" around Reno and Carson City.

These are the Sierra Nevada Mountains, quite a challenge for the original settlers heading west. The first covered wagons hit these areas around 1845. It was tough - at Donner's Gap, the Donner and Reed families were stranded due to an early snowstorm, and we all know the sad story that ensued. At Emigrant (yes, that's the correct spelling) Gap, they actually lowered their wagons down some of the passages by ropes. It doesn't look it, but it is a long way down. Can't imagine watching all you own sliding on ropes down the mountain. Not sure how the cows and horses were lowered.

Rhonda does not like the directional "arrow" signage out here!

I-80 connects with I-5 at Sacramento but we never got close enough to the capital city for any pictures. We headed northwest on I-5 through some of Napa Valley. I have always wanted to see this. We saw fields/groves/orchards of all types - sunflowers, almonds, pistachios, grapes, pears, apples, peaches, strawberries, corn, hay, and we don't know what else. All are hard to photograph at 60 mph but Rhonda got some decent shots.

And this one highlights the "valley" with the mountains to the west.

And leaving the valley on Highway 20, there was an abrupt landscape change we had not seen previously. Sort of a mix of high desert and green trees.

We spent the night at Nice, CA on the northern shore of Clear Lake, largest lake in the state. They had free kayaks you could use, but there was some algae in the water so we took a stroll instead.

Then we headed north on CA Highway 101 toward our home for the next week at Redwoods River Resort (RRR) at Leggett, CA. (I'm gonna quit saying CA all the time. For the rest of this post and probably several more to follow, you can assume we are still in CA. It's a big state!)

RRR is a first class campground with all sorts of amenities EXCEPT there is very little WIFI or cell coverage and NO TV. We're actually paying them $5 per GB to get this blog posted. We are the first to use their recently completed site #46 and it is huge, kind of like the state that I am not saying the name of.

You are welcomed by lots of blue birds called Stellar Jays and the obvious attraction, redwood trees. More on them later.

Another reason for choosing RRR is its proximity to three of the top motorcycle rides in the state - numbers 1, 4, and 17. I rode #4 first which takes you back south on Hwy 101, west on Hwy 20 to the coast, and then back north on Pacific Coast Highway 1 to Leggett. All of this is curvy roads with the Hwy 1 stretch of 22 miles compared in lots of reviews to "The Dragon" at Deals Gap in NC and TN. I concur and was exhausted after a total of 150 miles of curves and more curves. I don't take many pictures of the rides any more as it detracts from the fun of the ride. But I did stop for a couple of the coastline - here's my favorite.

And I had to stop for 2 elk grazing along the highway!

As I was almost home, I passed "Peg's" (known for their hamburgers) and the smell was in the air, I was exhausted (Rhonda had no sympathy - "You said you wanted to ride curvy roads!"), I was starving, you get the picture. So, Rhonda and I headed there for dinner and I'll use Peg's as an example of some of the many unusual things you will see here (besides lots of the people, but I won't go there). You eat outside at Peg's and the tables are in the midst of their vegetable garden from which you can purchase cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and others. Nothing wrong with this, it was just different.

In order to get the #1 and #17 rides in, I covered 500 miles and overnighted in Douglas City. Here's the summary of the #1 ride, Hwy 36, Fortuna to Red Bluff.

I have no idea what the scenery was like - it's a good idea not to take your eyes off the road! Also, Rhonda and I have both learned the reality of rockslides and mudslides here on this trip. We honestly do not see how they keep their roads open. The slides are everywhere. On the #1 ride, one entire section of the road is closed daily, almost all day, and has been for months. You have to time your trip to be at the closure at lunch time. It's open from 12 to 1. Here's one of the 7 or 8 closures on Hwy 299 (Redding to Arcata). Yes, that's the mudslide in the distance. Most manage the traffic with one-way lanes once the road is passable, but it's quite inconvenient and obviously creates delays.

I actually enjoyed the #17 ride the most, even with all of the delays. It was also nonstop curves, but the long sweeping 40 to 50 mph type.

Rhonda and I spent a day at the beach in the Fort Bragg area. Rhonda was born at Fort Bragg, not this one but the NC version at Fayetteville. She got to see the curves on Hwy 1 by truck and I promised her the elk would still be there. True to my word, one of them was there......

....as was the beautiful coast line.

We had lunch at Noyo Harbor with a nice view and a few fur seals/sea lions/sea otters playing around in the harbor.

It was a very foggy day and in most cases you could only see the rocky shoreline for short distances.

Here's Rhonda at "Glass Beach" where the residents used to dump their trash until 1967. The garbage is now gone but the gimmicky thing is the smooth glass remnants of all the bottles trashed here after years of pounding by the surf.

But around 4 PM, the fog lifted a bit and we were able to see some beach. I could not get used to the black sand or the large amounts of kelp washed up on the shore.

Regardless, the coastline here is rugged, very different than what we easterners are used to, and without a doubt, beautiful.

When you leave Fort Bragg heading north, you pass through 3 nice "tree tunnels" and then disappear into more fog banks along the coastline.

Moving on to the big attraction here - redwood trees. Redwoods are primarily known for their size (some over 300 feet tall and as wide as 20+ feet at the base) and their age (in some cases over 3000 years old). Also, they resist fire, are hard to ignite, slow burning, and easy to extinquish. They resist rot with a natural preservative, are light in weight, easily worked, and won't warp, shrink, or crack if processed correctly into lumber. They do not have a primary tap root, rather, several large roots that are about 6 feet deep, with filaments that branch out from them as far as 100 feet. They grow almost perfectly straight because of their innate ability to add weight by growing extra branches to the non-leaning side! Now that is cool. We have hundreds of pictures but here are just a few from Humboldt Redwood Forest and "The Avenue Of The Giants," 31 miles of the longest stretch of remaining virgin redwoods in the world.

Rhonda is standing at the base of these to give you a perspective of their size.

And standing inside of this one.

Speaking of "inside the tree" - cars can drive through them but duallys cannot, so we had to pass - the limit was 7 x 7 feet and we are 8 feet wide! This particular tree is 3000 years old, 21 feet across, and 275 feet tall.

But I was able to climb inside one of two treehouses carved out of redwoods. Warning - do not attempt this if you are claustrophobic or over my size. It was close going upstairs and back down - probably meant just for kids. Duh, but you know, it's the challenge.

Tree rings take a while to count on these babies.

And speaking of root systems, The "Dyersville Giant" was believed to be the world's tallest living thing at 362 feet until a 1991 monster storm brought it down. At 1 million pounds, it registered a seismograph reading over 10 miles away and folks thought it was an earthquake or a major train wreck.

All sorts of odd shapes are possible. This was probably the "knottiest" that we saw - looks like a turtle sitting up on its rear. Rhonda thinks it looks like a bear.

She also is suspicious that "Bigfoot" may actually exist in these hills somewhere. There are Bigfoot references and statues everywhere.

It was gold that brought the settlers west, but many soon realized the money to be made in redwoods. Thanks to a group formed in 1917 called SRR - "Save The Redwoods" - the lumber companies were prevented from wiping out the forests. SRR brought John D. Rockefeller to the forests in 1926, and he was so impressed that he contributed a million dollars, matched by the state that I am not naming each time, to purchase much of this land on which the "old" redwoods still stand today.

Today the old redwoods continue to sprout the new growth around them and that's a common growth pattern. The parent tree sprouts lots of smaller ones around its base and eventually the parent tree dies.