Super Important Mission Accomplished
Fort Bragg is a no fail fun time stop on our way up the coast. This time, we had a very important mission to accomplish right out of the gate. As Richard is well attuned to all things ice cream and donuts, he has been looking forward to celebrating National Donut Day (which is June 6th just in case you didn’t know) for quite some time. In fact, he already realized that we would not be in an ideal location to properly observe the holiday on the official date. Furthermore, he researched the best donut places in ALL of the proximate locations and determined the most worthy contender would be Drop In Donuts in Fort Bragg. And finally, he found out ahead of time that it would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday. That left us Monday only to sample the doughy offerings. And since this place is a small batch specialty bakery, making only what they feel like putting out there and selling until they are sold out, they can run out a couple of hours after they open. This presented us with a seriously stressful situation.
I like that she defines what “early” means.
We made the decision to hook up and roll as early as we could without being nuts about it. Richard wanted to ride up the coast, but even at his fastest donut motivated pedaling speed, it was going to be a journey fraught with disappearing donut dread. So my mission was to fly ahead with Dory and hope to get a parking spot close to Drop In. I was to then use my best judgement to procure a properly representative selection of one or two to share, and have something waiting for Richard when he arrived at the campground. I arrived at 10:00, with ample parking and a non empty display case. SUCCESS!! The thing is, you really cannot put me in charge of narrowing down the selection of unique specialty donuts and expect restraint. The owner listed off all of the varieties in the case: maple spice, chili hot chocolate, chocolate cream filled, coconut, cinnamon sugar, and chocolate strawberry. I struggled visibly for a while and finally said, “What would happen if I said one of each?” She had already perceived my dilemma and had the number “21 dollars” at the ready. “Perfect. Let’s do that.” I did use some restraint in not ALSO getting a slice of donut bread pudding. I might have FOMO about that.
Really, most of this post is about donuts. There’s some extraneous camping blah blah blah, but this is the bit you need to pay attention to.
I waited for Richard in the Day Use area by the lake and waited a respectable amount of time before losing patience and sampling one, then two, then three of the donuts. Of course I left him half of each. Oh my dear god, those were good. The chocolate filling was like some kind of rich custardy pudding and the strawberry glaze on the chocolate cake donut was intense. We both thought the maple glazed spice was the best overall. We have made a note to make sure future visits to Fort Bragg do not happen on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, just so we can go back to Drop In.
Ok fine. I’ll include some camping stuff too.
Our site this time was in the Surfwood loop and we are fans. It is closer to the beach, and quieter than the main campground. It is only open for part of the year, so that is worth noting. I managed to pick a site with the least solar, but the most privacy. We needed to run the generator on the second day to charge up my bike battery, so it really didn’t matter. And we loved the privacy. There was maybe one site at the beginning of the loop that would have a view of the ocean, but then you’d lose the privacy. I think I would try for this one again in the future. We spent the rest of the day walking out on Ten Mile Beach in the fog. Dinner was a pork and vegetable stir fry, which was delicious.
Wooden trestle bridge over Pudding Creek
The next day we spent biking up and down the multi-use trail. That is a favorite activity for sure. You can’t get better scenery and there are short little trails down to the water, like at Glass Beach. On the other side of the bridge at Noyo Harbor, you can go a short distance to another day use area and catch views of the harbor from the other side. And of course, on your way back, you can head into town for a stop at Cowlick’s Ice Cream. They not only have great ice cream, but also great hot fudge.
Pivot! Back to ice cream!
We tootled around a little and made a visit to the local music and gaming store. I text argued with our daughter for a bit on what constitutes “too many DND dice.” I did not get her another set, and in retaliation, she sent me a super cute picture of our cat showing his fluffy belly so I’d miss him. Diabolical, she is.
Taco Tuesday!
Soon, we started thinking about dinner. If you are on social media at all, you may have seen the word “TACO” thrown around more than usual. The trend amuses us and it was a Tuesday, so we decided to enjoy a TACO Tuesday dinner at Los Gallitos (appropriately slang for: “cocky little tough guys”). They had a $10 two taco + margarita special, almost as though they knew I was coming.
Someone at Safeway misplaced the TACO seasoning in the Tums spot. lol
And on our last full day, we redid the Fern Canyon Loop Trail in Russian Gulch State Park. Boy was that a good call! We just happened to be there at exactly the right time to see all of the rhododendrons in full bloom. This is just a spectacular trail. You can do a loop up through a lush fern canyon, then cut up through dense redwood forest, swinging around to a nice waterfall at the top. On your way back, you can take the North Trail which tracks a little higher above the valley and ends back in the Russian Gulch Campground. The whole entire way, we were gifted with glorious pink blooms, filling the forest floor and lining the sides of our path.
Spectacular Rhodies on the Fern Canyon Loop
We could easily stay in this campground some time. It is also only open part of the year, but there were plenty of sites that could have fit Dory. The cell service there was not great, but it was pretty, with the little creek running through it. It is about fifteen miles south of Fort Bragg, so close enough to services.
Seals bobbing in the sunset waves
We wrapped up our stay with a delicious recipe of Shawarma spiced rice with currants, carrots, and ground turkey. Fort Bragg gave us our last evening with clear skies for the sunset and we walked the boardwalks, entertained by bobbing seals splashing about in the sea foam. Richard is thoroughly enjoying his first official week of actual vacation, and we have learned that we can recharge my bike battery in under two hours of generator time. All wins.
“Unique Tree” – so labeled because a pine took root over the top of a redwood stump. A few hundred yards down the trail we saw another “unique tree.” I wonder if this one is perturbed by the copycat.
I doubt I will ever get bored of Fort Bragg. Even if we do the same things over and over, they are always fun. It’s also always a good replenishing stop, where you can refill groceries, propane, gas, and of course donuts. Of the three approaches to Fort Bragg (Highway 1 from the south, Highway 1 from the north, Highway 20 through the mountains) I prefer the coastal route from the south by far. If I wanted to cut off some of the roller coaster, I could take 128 from Cloverdale, landing on the coast at Navarro Beach. But when there is time, I really like the Salt Point-Navarro-Fort Bragg trio to get in the summer spirit.
Total miles from Navarro Beach: 27.2. 15.0 mpg, 1 hour 10 min. Site 139 Surfwood loop. No hookups. Water spigot in loop. Some solar, but topped up with generator. $10 dump and hole is too small for dump hose. Water spigot in dump is on wrong side, so have to do a maneuver to turn around or run the hose underneath. Potable water tasted weird. Something to consider for the future. Generally, not our favorite dump, but at least you can dump. 1-2 bars 5g. Surprisingly slow given proximity to Fort Bragg, but workable cell service for both.
