Humboldt Redwood SP, Burlington (2)

Beginning with the important bit: June 6th is National Donut Day. We had celebrated, quite well in fact, but still Richard wanted to demonstrate his donut devotion on the day itself. He found a bakery on our way in the tiny town of Garberville. The towns along 101 in this part of California are really teeny tiny. There was however Il Forno Bakery, known in the area for its fresh pastries, breads, and donuts. Sadly, though we got there before 9:30 am, they were out. Boo.

Not to be daunted, we stopped at the last possible place on our way, Miranda. The Big Foot statue in front of the Avenue Cafe is practically as big as the whole town. But lo and behold, inside the Miranda Market, they did have packaged donuts. This was our fall back option. Like we were pretty sure we could get gas station donettes somewhere, but we did better. There was a display of Bon Appetit “Gourmet” donuts and we got the chocolate and crumb varieties. You guys! For packaged donuts, these are actually really good. The chocolate ones are what I always want the Hostess ones to be, but they never live up to my expectations. We have also now tried the strawberry cheesecake, and those are yummy too. I think this blog is now just going to be about finding donuts on the road. “Just keep swimming” will refer to the need for constant exercise in order to work off the donut calories.

With Donut Day in the bag, we still had a problem: arriving too early at the campground. We were lucky in that there was a safe spot in front of the Visitor Center to leave Dory until we could get into our site. Not sure what we would have done had that not been the case. The parking lot was too small and there weren’t a lot of pull outs where I’d feel fine just leaving her. But happily, we were able to get out our bikes and do a lovely ride up the Avenue of the Giants and up Mattole Road. There was a slide a little past the campground and a section of the avenue is closed to cars. No problem scooting past on bikes though.

This ride is one of our all time favorites. Majestic redwoods line both sides of the meandering road, keeping you in shade and awe the whole time. At times, the Eel River reveals itself to your left. You can stop and partake of some of the named grove trail hikes, like Rockefeller, Founders Grove, Big Trees. We had done most of these before, but we are not yet tired of the sky high natural wonder of this place.

Besides the sheer loftiness of the standing giants, the other thing that gets your attention in these groves is the ginormous fallen trees. They just go on and on, stretching hundreds of feet across the forest floor. These are an integral part of the old growth ecosystem and you can see multiple plant species taking advantage of the nutrients. One of the trees, the Dyerville Giant, was said to have created such a booming sound when it fell, that it was heard by a resident living more than a mile away. So that answers the question about the tree falling in a forest with no one around to hear it.

We got as far as the Albee Creek Campground and turned around. Mattole Road goes on to the Lost Coast and all the way to Ferndale, which marks the top of the Lost Coast. We dipped our toes into that world once and it’s a lot of narrow unpaved road for miles and miles. There is a campground out there somewhere, but it would be a brutal drive we’d not want to take Dory on. Past the Albee Creek Campground, Mattole Road seems like just a road, as it leaves the redwood forest, so we were content to head back.

Dinner that night was another Blue Apron recreation of stir fried ground turkey and Bok Choy, fresh ginger, garlic, and scallions. Radishes marinated in rice wine vinegar and sesame oil, with a sauce of soy sauce and a tbs of sugar. Over the top is a mayo Gochujang mixure. It was really good.

In the evening, we walked over to the amphitheater (which we will forever call “campground wifi”) where there was a ranger talk. It was all about the mammals that live in the forest, and I learned a lot. For example, I did not know Ring Tailed Cats were even a thing. Now, I would really love to spot one. There are foxes apparently, as well as the regulars, like bears, skunks, flying squirrels, and raccoons. My pond cam at home is showing me clips of late night raccoon spa parties in the pond, so I get my fill of raccoons regularly. One interesting fact we learned was that the Humboldt Flying Squirrel is a “cryptic species,” which means it hides among other similar species, so they didn’t know for a long time how many were left. Also, the Ring Tailed Cat, which is not a cat, can completely rotate its feet, allowing it to climb down trees head first.

The next day we rode north on the the Avenue of the Giants as far as the Drury-Chaney Trail. This hike is well worth the extra trip. The trees are enormous and the fallen ones seem ancient. The forest floor is covered in thick carpets of clover and ferns, making you feel like you have stepped into Rivendell.

On the way back, we caught the small loop trail at Grieg-French-Bell grove. This trail has been majorly messed up by tree fall. We had a hard time navigating because it seems that a giant tree has blocked the loop. There are informal smaller trails to get you around it, but you’ll have to do a little scrambling through branch piles. Unless you want to climb over the enormous trunk.

To celebrate, we stopped for ice cream at the little gift store by the Immortal Tree. That tree got its name from the number of natural, and unnatural, disasters it has survived. I honored its tenacity with a mint It’s It.

Dinner that night was chicken tacos in Guajillo pepper paste with a roasted corn and pickled jalapeño pepper salad. This was cooked on the grill, and it was wonderful. It has been mostly too cool so far for grilling, but I’ll take advantage of any nice weather that presents itself. I do love to grill.

One last thing to note about this campground: it is really really dark. This matters if you are trying to keep your batteries charged with solar panels. We ran the generator one night for a while until it ran out of gas and shut off. We figured that was fine. We should have run it again the second night to get a full charge. We woke up with batteries on the low side and decided, since generator hours don’t start before 10 am, to pack it up and head out. No big deal, but it’s worth remembering. Great place, wonderful stay.

Total miles from Standish Hickey: 44.4, 19.0 mpg, 2 hours 19 min. Site 56 no hookups. No solar. Next time: run the generator every day a little. Occasionally functional 1 bar of LTE, better for Verizon than ATT. Good wifi in Visitor Center but doesn’t do pictures. Workable cell here and there when out and about. No dump. Spigot in site.