I woke up early today to a clear blue sky and went back to the scene of my disappointment last night to try again with a sunrise picture. Not quite early enough for the sunrise, but its still a nice shot.
Before going any further with this blog, there is something I need to get off of my chest. I have been pissing all over these National Parks and Monuments. I don't know what it is about hiking, but I have to pee every twenty minutes! There's never anyone around . . . there's all these convenient trees to stand behind . . . I don't know, maybe this is normal, but I've pissed everywhere: on 800 year old Douglass Firs, on 2000 year old Redwoods, over the rim of the crater at Crater Lake, off the cliff into the fog-bank, everywhere! I doubt there's any real harm in it, but I feel a little bad about it.
John Steinbeck wrote "The redwoods once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always . . . from them comes silence and awe. The most irreverent of men, in the presence of redwoods, goes under a spell of wonder and respect." This was written on a park sign at the trailhead I randomly stopped at. I read this sign, took two steps down the trail and was literally overcome with wonder, to the point of tears. No words can describe walking through a redwood forest better than 'wonder and respect.' I spent the morning hiking through this forest and took great peace from their massive presences. What a gift our ancestors gave us in preserving this forest.
After my hike I continued on down Hwy 101 to Eureka where I stopped at a tempting looking Organic Grocery store. I had intended to bring a huge pile of Builder Bars with me for when I couldn't find a restaurant that looked good or just wanted to keep driving. I forgot to get them before I left and was surprised to stop at two different grocery stores along the way that didn't carry them. I knew the Organic store would have what I wanted. I deduced the presence of the Organic Grocery store because of the woman crossing the street in front of me in a floor length hand knitted rainbow poncho and no shoes. Following her with my eyes I noticed the teenage girl in the garishly tie-dyed parachute pants and knew my Clif bars were within reach. Inside the store I was embarrasingly un-cool at the coffee bar when I realized at the last second it was actually a juice bar and then spastically pointed at someone else's drink and said, "What's that? I'll have one of those!" I then compounded my gaffe (of not having ordered a smoothie here every day of my life and having the menu memorized) by not adding any bee pollen, ginseng, acai powder, wheatgrass or wasabi to my drink like everyone else. (ok, maybe not the wasabi) (Sighhh), out-greened in Eureka . . . when I get to Texas I'm gonna throw my organic weight around like a big green bully, make them feel like self-poisoners!
Past Eureka Hwy 101 heads inland so I peeled off onto Hwy 1 which sticks with the coast. Hwy 1, along with the road up to Oregon Caves, is right at the top of my list of roads that Chi should never be allowed to drive on, even when sober. For those of you who have been to Carkeek Park in Seattle, it is just like the drive down the ravine to Carkeek's entrance, only it's 22 miles long and drops about 4000 ft from the mountains to the sea. I swear there was not one straight bit of road the whole distance, just one curve blending into the next, many of them full on literal hair pin turns. I was almost nauseous by the bottom, and I was the one driving! It was so much fun . . . but I'm now glad that there weren't any of the bicyclists that the signs warned me about, 'cause I would have squashed 'em.
At the bottom I finally got my Pacific Sunset. Second times a charm.
What a beautiful picture.....it must have been far more stunning in person. Thanks for sharing.....
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