A is for Adventure

OK, day 3 (10/8) is the winner! (As of 10/14/10)

I really like waking up here

Woke up there in Stillwater Cove pretty early and continued to drive, eventually taking a break in Fort Bragg, CA.  I was in the mood for some exercise and got local recommendation to run a path down by the ocean.  Unfortunately, It didn't take my own picture but I did find this one online just to give you an idea.  It was a beautiful warm day, you could run on a little treaded path right on the edge of the bluffs.  It was breathtaking and wonderful and I can't really say more than that - you really should have been there.

Northbound we continued through the Avenue of the Giants.  Redwoods are cool! 

This picture can't explain

After that we tried to navigate to another scenic drive mentioned in Kent's book along the Lost Coast (here comes the fun part).  GPS led us astray and we ended up a little too far south at Shelter Cove in the King Range National Conservation Area.  Already a pretty intense steep and winding road, we did make it to see the ocean but dusk was arriving and there wasn't much point to do the Lost Coast drive at night.  We tried to navigate to a town along the way, maybe find a place to camp and then continue to the coastal portion in the morning.  Seemed easy enough, but the GPS took us on the steepest, scariest dirt road I have ever had the pleasure to drive on.  The sun was just about set, and little did I know I was going to be on this road for close to 2 hours.  15-20 miles can take a while when you are driving 8-15 mph.  After passing 5 identical puddles coming around 5 identical corners, I was pretty sure we were trapped in the twilight zone.  Of course we were in Humbolt County, and its harvest season so (what I can only assume were) marijuana crops were fragrant all around us.  We had thoughts that maybe we were somewhere we shouldn't be and that could be bad.  (Everything was fine, Dad don't worry)  There were a few signs along the way for camp grounds and maybe trail heads which was reassuring.  Otherwise it was pitch black and spooky!  Cheryl (yeah, that's my car's name - she came with it) handled like a champ, and I really, really appreciated her and all of her abilities as an individual after what we went through together.  Let's just say my nerves were good an shot by the end of this, but really I loved every single moment of it.

Finally we made it back to a paved road, and saw several parked cars and even a couple of humans!  We were in Honeydew, CA and we made it just in time for Ian's birthday party.  Turns out many of the people there were growers, and assumed Kent and I had showed up for "trimming" work for a few days or however long we could.  By the end of the evening we had secured ourselves some floorspace in a yurt on a farm.  A couple of kids from Montana who were there to work for the harvest were decent enough to host us.  The farm had chickens and cows and blueberries in addition to an ample supply of ganja, (again just inferential assumptions)!  Its a strange sort of hippie mafia out there on the Lost Coast.  All in all a fantastic adventure, probably the most spontaneous and exciting we had on the drive up the Pacific.  Again, this is the best I can do with words to describe how much I enjoyed all of this, the anxiety, the beauty - all of it.  Maybe I am too ignorant to articulate myself, maybe there aren't enough words in the world to do the job and again - you really should have been there.

Again we woke very early and drove on.  Got on the road before the sun was up, and drove the Lost Coast during sunrise.  Making it to the secluded black sand beaches, the early morning stillness and the fresh air along with the great excitement and challenge from the previous night to get there made this, in my opinion, the biggest success thus far!