San Francisco - Adelaide Hostel
K. says: "Best feeling, knowing that we are in San Francisco"
First day in San Francisco was detailed earlier. Our second day was spent exploring the Castro district, visiting the Twin Peaks, buying Thai fisherman pants, eating amazing peanut butter from Safeway, and discovering small pearls in Bubble Tea.
Here's the view from the Twin Peaks:
El Portal - on Eamon's lawn
K. says: "Best morning"
Yosemite - 3 nights in back-packers, one night in wilderness
K. says: "Most challenging experience"
Here's a video of the falls and the view from the top.
San Francisco - Dakota Hotel
K. says: "Best shower ever!"
Yosemite showers cost 5 bucks a pop, so we didn't shower the whole time we were there... and we went on 3 long hikes in the sun! We didn't feel too gross while we were there (and we did try to wash in the freezing water of a stream), but once we got back into the city, we realized that our skin wasn't really that dark, it was simply dirty! So I would have to agree with K., best showers ever!
Bodega Bay - SP with our first dunes
K. says: "Best first day of the rest of the coastal trip"
Getting out of San Francisco was the tricky part of our first day up the coast. Luckily, we found out that there were suburban-type buses leaving the city, and crossing the Golden Gate bridge!! (I was very excited about getting to cross said bridge) And so, we tackled the walk to the bus stop, about 12 blocks (which is 9 more than the maximum number of blocks we were willing to walk with our backpacks the last time we were in the city, yay Yosemite!), and took two buses out to Marin City. There, we found a grocery store, and after stocking up, as we were crossing the street, we were offered a ride! This got us to Stinson Beach, where I picked up a better map of California. This little town was perhaps my favorite we saw all trip, and I wish we would have taken the time to visit it better... but we were eager
to go North (by looking at the first map I had, we had decided to aim for Russian Gulch State Park that day, which in reality was
way over ambitious, as it took us 3 days to get there). Then it took us three more rides to get to Bodega Bay, where we discovered that for three bucks each, we could stay in hiker biker camps!! We also discovered that it's very
very windy on the beaches, which makes it chilly...
- SP in the field
K. says: "Best smoking ever, with Aki in her orange sweater, purple pants, and metal cup full of rum"
So as most of you know, I'm not the biggest fan of animals... mostly because I'm scared to be attacked and/or bitten by them. However, cows have never been on the list of my most feared four legged creatures, but it seems that they did not appreciate being overlooked. For our second night of camping, we stayed in another SP, this time it was in a field, and next to another campground, a K.O.A. This K.O.A. was just down the road, past a pasture, where cows were standing around or eating, looking bored. Needing something to help wash down the alcohol, K. and I set out to the general store at the K.O.A. (the SP we were staying at was particularly rudimentary: dry toilets were the only amenity). On the way there, the cows sort of glanced our way, but that was all. On the way back though, something triggered a few cows to walk our way, slowly. Seeing
this, I waved at them and called out to them (I was quite surprised to sees cows moving at all), which somehow translated in these first cows picking up the pace. The other cows, seeing this unnatural haste in their comrades, decided to also come over to see what was happening. By then, I was getting slightly scared (ok, a lot, but in my defense, K. was also quite freaked out) and started running down the road. This resulted in the cows picking up the pace again, and so I was being followed by a whole herd of running, snorting cows, with only a very flimsy barbed wire fence separating us (and it was quite crowded on their side, so much so that one cow actually run up atop another). Luckily, this fence was enough of a determent, and the cows stayed on their side, and we escaped safe and sound back to
our field.
Further down the road, we found another beautiful beach, but this afternoon was very foggy...
Manchester - SP on the cliff
K. says: "Best spot ever ever EVER"
This spot was, I must wholeheartedly agree with K., the best place we slept at the whole trip! Imagine simply setting your tent atop a cliff, with the ocean just below, creating a beautiful soundtrack of crashing waves. I mean, people pay for ocean sound cd's right? Well, we were at the place that such cd's are recorded!
Before arriving in Manchester, and going for
our first (and only) swim in the ocean, we took a little time off in a small and cute town called Mendocino. There, we went to a Farmer's Market, for a walk along a cliff, jewelry shopping, and I ate the best ice cream on the trip: homemade berry ice cream (I don't remember the name of the berry, but it was some local one, the first batch of the season, and simply amazing!). There isn't much else to say, it was a lovely day, and an amazing place to sleep at!
Mendocino:
Sunset on the cliff:
Patrick's Point - SP with all the rocks
K. says: "Most peaceful place"
I remember this day because of the ride we got in the morning. We were planning on only making it to Humbolt's Redwoods SP, but the first person to stop was a guy in a decomposing car he was rebuilding that was heading all the way to Arcata, and so we decided to tag along, and so we got through twice our daily goal distance by noon! We also got to try out how the air flies by when you have your head out the sun roof (no worries, we don't have any disfiguring marks from this), which made our eyes tear up and our throat dry out. Our second stroke of luck that day was that it turned out to be graduation weekend in Arcata, and there was a little celebration! The town square was full of people, live music, performers, dancers, and another farmer's market! (we had unfortunately already done our grocery is a wonderful coop, lots of bulk food and snacks...) We finally made it to our campsite, and went to explore Patrick's Point. We also had a little nap on the beach, and I got to take my first shower since San Francisco!
Redwoods National Park - Elk Prairie
K. says: "Best reminder of : we are small!"
Ok, so elks are scary. First off, they are a LOT bigger than deer. Second, there are signs everywhere to warn you off them. And third, they sort of stare at you until you're trembling in your shoes in cold sweat. After our experiences with the cows, you can hardly blame me for being afraid! Of course, K. was fine, and actually had the nerve to laugh at my perfectly rational fears...
A bit about Redwoods, they are simply HUGE! We went for a walk in the forest, and were continually amazed at the denseness of the plants, and the height and width of the trees. In my opinion, it was one of the most eye opening experiences of the trip, simply to take a few moments to realize how mother nature is ever present in our lives, and we don't notice it, until BAM, it's thrown in our faces! We are just so small!
Still, small things can be pretty amazing:
Brookings - Harris Beach SP
K. says: "Best facilities ever, y'avait juste tout!"
This was our first night in Oregon! After having a bit of trouble finding the best place to hitch a ride, and playing some ABBA music in order to keep our spirits up, Justice stopped on the side of the road in a beautifully new and clean Hybrid car, and offered to drive us all the way up into Oregon! Patience does pay off in the end!
Harris Beach was only a mile out of Brookings, and so after setting up camp, we walked back into town to enjoy a city perks (a.k.a McDonald's and a public library with internet access). We also discovered our soon to be favorite store: Fred Meyer's! Now, normally K. and I aren't the type of girls that get excited when going to say Zellers or Wal-Mart... but when camping and trekking, such stores become infinitely more appealing. Cheap food, lots of fruit, amazing bulk food choices, and aisles dedicated to candy!
This was also the day that our first propane tank decided to give out, while we were cooking supper, on a bench with a beautiful view of the sunset.
So after a few minutes of debate, we decide to walk back into town, and visit Fred Meyer's again in order to get more propane. We also decided that night to try to stay in one camp ground for two nights in a row, since we hadn't slept at the same place twice since Yosemite, and have been taking down and putting up the tent everyday since El Portal.
Florence - Jessie Honeyman SP
K. says: "Best sunset"
Yachats - Beachside SP
K. says: "Best stupid idea ever"
Newport - South Beach SP
K. says: "Best overview of LOST ever"
Van Duzer - Stealth camping
K. says: "Best forbidden spot"
Portland - One night Marriot, one night HI
K. says: "Best hotel room ever, and best hostel ever too!"
we'll fill in with more info as we get the time!
