Cresent City To San Fran "Avenue of the Giants"

(Jason)

After our day of boredom waiting out the storm that decided to hit after all of Sam's no chance of rain curse, we figured it was the perfect time to head into the Redwoods. It was hard to believe that we had been so close to these great natural wonders and yet had not explored hardly at all due to the rain.We were all well rested so Jon, Justin, “Buzzer,” Sam, and I were on our way to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods to take in our first taste of the breathtaking, humongous giants that make up the Redwoods!



The Redwoods would have to wait though, mostly because we didn’t really know where they were. We swung by the information center in Crescent city to figure it out, and that's where we met Lynda, who helped us gather much needed information on the surrounding area and where to go. Linda was very informative and helpful; I hope that you read this Lynda, for brownie points are always nice anywhere in the world. Our first stop before the Jedediah Smith Redwoods was the Battery Point Light house on the coast in Crescent City. The tide has to be out in order to walk to the island that the light house is stationed, fortunately the tide was out.

Now that we got our Attention Deficit Disorder out of the way, we headed straight toward the heart of the Redwoods. It’s hard to imagine just how big these historical trees are, I’m talking up to 380 feet, that’s twice the height of the Statue of liberty! It makes sense since these are the tallest trees in the world. Hiking through the forest brought us all to states of inquisitiveness. In this land of the giants, we found ourselves stopping often trying to capture the essence of how amazing our surroundings truly were.

The time had come; we had to decide where we were going to stay for the night, and since we didn’t want to pay for accommodations, we decided to look for a place along a river somewhere in the National Park where we wouldn’t get bothered by the Rangers like all the times before. After deciding upon a calming spot along the south fork of the Smith River; we set up camp, hung out hammocks, and built a fire just in time for the sun to set in the west. It’s worth noting; fires take a long time to start and create a lot of doubt within a group of friends when all the wood is wet. Since it was Buzzer's 19th birthday and we wanted it to be memorable we stayed up late trying to get the most out of the night.This had been the first time during our travels that all of us slept in our hammocks all at the same time and place. Waking up in the morning was quite tranquil, especially after our gourmet breakfast thanks to Justin's masterful breakfast making skills. The breakfast consisted of eggs, pancakes, oatmeal, oranges, and hot chocolate. Realizing that we hadn’t cleaned ourselves going on three days, we figured it would be a good time to bath in the freezing cold river. Not even the quietest of us could help but to let out what could be described as grizzly bear roars that meet sounds not far from yelps a dog whose tail was stepped on, when first entering into the frigid rapids of the Smith River to cleanse ourselves.

Moving on was hard, but there was still much to see. South was where we were headed next, and we are glad we did. Not only did the weather to seemingly get better, and so does the scenery. Along the 101 Highway there are many tourist attractions to see and do; some are better then others. Driving through the tree outside the town of Klamath in the “Dragon” was especially one of the highlights. When on top of a vehicle looking up, you will notice that the tree is hollow. If the tree entices you to want to climb up into the center like "James and the Giant Peach" just remember, adults don’t do those types of things, I know I had to tell myself that at least. Landing in Arcata later that night we had close encounter with “Slack Ropers” who basically tie a specialized rope between two trees and balance and do tricks on. This makes perfect sense; we were in a college town which boasts Humboldt University. Deciding to eat, we shared stories as we eat at a local pizza place in town. The next stop that night was the city of Eureka so that we could find a place to hang our hats for the night. It would be easy to assume as we did that it is a safe bet to sleep in an empty park parking lot in the middle of no where, yet it wasn’t at all. Once again a park ranger in the middle of the night told me as I slept outside in the rain under my make shift tarp while the others were sleeping inside the vehicles that we had to leave. The others never heard or saw the ranger and some wondered; did Jason make this whole story up because he didn’t want to sleep in the rain? They may never know!

That next morning we decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to head toward San Francisco since we were within a day’s drive. Along the way we had the pleasure of driving through the Avenue of Giants which is located in the Humboldt State Park located along the Eel River. The park contains some of the world's most majestic ancient redwood groves in the world. The park encompasses over 17,000 acres of old-growth coast redwoods. At this point it was still down pouring so we didn’t really have a chance to hike around at all but it was still amazing none the less. The next bigger town we ran into on the 101 was Willits. Stopping for Subway as we usually do, especially when Sam is around, we headed back to the car when one of us noticed that Jon’s Envoy had a flat tire. Thankfully, it was only a minor set back though and after a stop at Les Schwab we were back on the road. South of Willits, one thing we noticed was how more and more populated the area become as we approached the bay area. Excitement was in the air as we got closer and closer to the big city. The novelty of the Golden Gate bridge quickly wore off when we realized that there was a six dollar tole and we had no cash. It’s amazing how much change can be gathered up from the crooks and crannies of a vehicle when there is a big fine on the cusp of being charged. Finally, we had made it to the big city, and the night was still young…

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