Our trip had unfortunately been marred by our first car problem. Somewhere outside of Crater Lake our turn signals had stopped working. No forewarning, just...stopped. We pulled over at a rest stop and tried to find broken fuses or anything that could cause it but couldn't solve the problem. Two girls from New Jersey staring at a car with it's hood open is like a peacock opening it's feathers for testosterone fueled men. A car pulled up next to us and a man and his...male companion (brother? friend?) practically flew out of the car to help while their female companions stood a fair distance away and offered little to no help other than random "so hows your trip been" questions. They were stumped, however, and we were sent on ourr way. They seemed a bit bummed that they couldn't help us, though, which made me a little bummed.
After gawking at Crater Lake we decided to give the car fixing another try. Again, like moths to a flame we had no sooner started pulled out the fuse box when a car careened into the spot next to us (nearly killing me) and a man jumped out mumbling how he had left his tool box at home. He sent his one eyed wife to grab his flashlight (it was broad daylight) and he set to work pulling fuses out of our car. Great. This is really going to help. His wife went to go stare at Crater Lake for awhile before coming back to bring the general mood of life down.
One Eyed Woman: This your first time at Crater Lake?
Me: Yea! It's gorgeous!
OEW: Not with all this smoke.
Me: Well, even with the smoke it looks great.
OEW: No. No it doesn't. You really missed out on something special.
Me: Um...I'll...have to come back...
After she finished bringing the mood down her husband declared our car broken and gave us a crash course on using bike signals in lieu of our turn signals. In his words "They don't lik'em, but dere legal!"
Long story short, our drive had been long, stress inducing, and Chiz nearly blew us both away when she opened the window to signal a right turn. We got to our cabin and had no desire to return to the road even for 2 miles. The Pacific Ocean would have to wait until tomorrow.
The next morning we awoke and took our time getting started. This is becoming a recurring theme, we are not early go getters. Chiz had to pick something up at Wal-Mart, so we made that our first stop. This was a friendly Wal-Mart where everyone was smiling and gave you a knowing look of "don't steal anything, we don't get many customers and we will remember you". This is crucial information for later.
Also at Wal-Mart there was a homeless man with two dogs. This is a key difference between the East and the West. There are a lot of homeless people in the West. Everywhere. You expect them in cities...but not at Wal-Marts in tourist towns. The amount of hitchhikers we passed on the road was unimaginable, we must have picked up at least 6 of them (jusssst kidding). It seems that our idea of heading West once unemployed is not an original one, and could lead to a significant lifestyle change if we're not careful.
After picking up what we needed at Wal-Mart we continued down route 101 to see the tall trees. Redwood National (and State) Park was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much other than some...really tall trees, but the minute you get into the park there is a sense of peace and calm that just descends on you. Sound and light disappear and you get lost in the sea of giants. It's incredibly disturbing if you stop and think about it. You're out there alone and no one is around to hear you scream....but in the moment it's glorious. Ferns blanket the floor while fallen redwoods decompose providing a home for new growth. That's another disturbing part of the forrest, there are a lot of fallen trees. Meaning that these trees fall frequently. These trees are HUGE...and if one fell on you....and no ones around to hear you scream...just don't think about it. It's gorgeous.
As we left the park we saw a sign for the "Tour Thru Tree" aka the tree you can drive though. Our sole reason for coming to Redwoods National Forrest, we wanted to drive through a tree. I had assumed that this would be part of the National Park, but upon further review I see that the idea of the National Park cutting a giant hole in a tree doesn't compute. So I paid the nice old lady 4 dollars for the right to drive my car through a giant tree that she happened to have on her property. Lucky bastard. As we pulled up she smiled and said "looks like you girls are going on a picnic!" We were so thrown off by the understatement of the year that we nodded and said "yea, we....are...sort of..."
I felt a little bad about falling for a tourist trap but as soon as I pulled Rigby through the tree I realized "hey, it's not everyday you get to drive through a tree". So Ch'nel went through, then we walked though, then we took pictures under it, then we took pictures of another couple. We were getting our four dollars worth if it was the last thing we did. As we waited for another car to pull through we started talking to a couple who was also waiting.
Man: So you're from New Jersey?
Me: Yep!
Man: Awesome...we're from Indiana!
Me: Of course you are.
Those Indianians are out and about!
When we had exhausted our drive through tree options we decided we were hungry. We drove back into town and began exploring their harbor area for lunch options. We saw a sign for a place called "Beacon Burger" and decided it sounded fantastic. After numerous false alarms pulling into docks and federal areas we managed to find the burger shack. We pulled up and noticed the three people out front were clearly talking about us and our Jersey status. We hopped out of the car and the eldest man immediately began recounting his glory days down in Wildwood for us.
Old Man: Man, back in the twenties there was no better place to be
Me: HOW OLD ARE YOU! (ok, I thought this, but I did nearly shout it out)
He kept us captive for a good 15 minutes, detailing everything we needed to see as well as pulling out pictures of his rose garden to show us. We were finally relieved to go eat lunch when he escorted us in to get our burgers. While they were just burgers and fries there was something satisfying about eating them along the Pacific Coast. We had made it to the West Coast. If we failed from here on out we would totally be able to cover it up. If we had to return home early we could still say "one time I drove across the country". We had made it across the country and we were going to have a subpar burger to celebrate.
We headed back to the campground by way of Wal-Mart so that Ch'nel could pick something else up...or something. On our way out the greeter saw us, laughed and said "You girls again! Wow you come here a lot". Yikes, never good to be a regular at Wal-Mart.
Back at the campground we relaxed for awhile...which turned into even longer. Before we knew it night had fallen and we didn't have anything for dinner....so back to Wal-Mart we went! We grabbed some pasta for making mac and cheese then came back to feast. And feast we did not. The pasta was undercooked, our cheese to pasta ratio was all off and in the end we went to bed hungry. It was sad.
The Redwoods are incredibly peaceful during the day, but incredibly terrifying at night. Darkness comes fast and our campground prided itself on the space that it put in between it's cabins. So we were alone in the forest in the darkness...in silence. I also had mistakenly Wikipedia'd Crescent City and found out that it was home to California's SuperMax prison. Never Wikipedia the town you're in while you're still in the town, you'll find out things you don't want to know. My love for the Redwoods died at night when it was replaced with pure terror. Once we were safely back in our cabin I immediately went to sleep, despite the fact that it was 8 at night, just so that the morning would come faster.
For all the fear that the night brought, the peaceful mornings of making oatmeal and drinking tea out on our picnic table negated it all. The sun peaked through the thick canopy and my love for the Redwoods came flooding back. Next time I come...I just won't camp.
We checked out of our campground then hit the road, stopping of course at Wal-Mart so that Chiz could exchange the Miley Cyrus t-shirt she had bought the day before. While she did that I wandered over to the food section to get some granola bars....however when Chiz came to find me I was wandering around with packages of cookies, candy and peanut butter crackers as well. Wal-Mart is just a bad place to be when you're about to embark on a 5 hour car ride. Everything seems delicious.
Before leaving the Redwoods we stopped at the Trees of Mystery at the suggestion of one of the people we met at Beacon Buger. Trees of Mystery was clearly a tourist trap, but a fantastic one. The parking lot has a giant statue of Paul Bunyon that waves and yells things at you. From there you enter the park and following a twisting series of trails past a bunch of funky looking redwoods, including my favorite which had 12 additional redwoods growing out of it's branches. Very cool.
The trail continues along past the Cathedral Tree, a tree with 9 trees growing out of a single stump creating an alter of sorts. From there you head up another trail to the "Sky Trail" aka a bunch of ski gondolas that go up into the tops of the trees. See previous entry for my feeling on ski lifts, but through some will of God I managed to get myself in one and up into the trees we went. In between shaking and willing the gondola to get to the top I managed to open my eyes to glorious views of the ocean and trees. We finally reached the top and gazed out across the landscape. I am truly in love with Redwoods National Park. Most underrated national park.
We had to get back in the gondolas, much to my dismay, in order to get back down to the trail. Going down was easier than coming up and I was able to enjoy the view a little more. The trail finished through the Paul Bunyon history exhibit or something, as suddenly the trail was surrounded by giant wood carvings explaining the story of Paul Bunyon. I really want to take up wood carving now.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay in the Trees of Mystery forever and had to get back on the road to San Francisco. We bade goodbye to the Trees of Mystery and carried on down Route 101. Here we encountered tiny towns who's only source of income appears to be carving bears and Disney characters out of tree stumps. The closer we got to San Francisco the more traffic we encountered. It was here that we realized just how long we've been out in the wilderness. At no point in the past week and a half had we been on the road with more than 5 cars at a time. Suddenly we're plunged into rush hour traffic in the Bay Area. We were a little shaken and out of our element but we managed to make it to my friend Amber's house where there was macaroni and cheese and a giant salad (and beer) waiting on the table for us. A post-dinner viewing of Touched By An Angel capped off our first night in the San Francisco area, which we will cover tomorrow when I'm not ready to pass out.
Pictures will come tomorrow...also when I'm not ready to pass out.
You saw Paul Bunyon and Babe the blue ox! My family and I used to visit the Trees of Mystery during our summers in the Redwoods. The statues are hilarious and gigantic!!
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