Closing in on Nirvana
Garberville
We bid adieu to foggy Bodega Bay and headed north to Garberville. 101 winds through some tourist areas featuring trees. Well, they are not just trees, but rather trees that have been tweaked to make them appealing tourist traps. They are living trees that have been cut out so that you can drive a car through them, trees that have been hollowed out and kitted up with furniture so that they could be called a real tree house and so on. Oy. I guess you stop to see these oddities (and I admit to doing that myself 20 years ago) and then presumably go buy some of the forest-kitch available – a statue of Big Foot for your yard carved with a chain saw out of genuine redwood perhaps? Oy again.
There are trees that have been left more or less in peace such as the magnificent Grandfather Tree. This is a coastal redwood that is at least 1800 years old standing 265 feet. It is not a tall tree compared to others, but rather, it is massive. What makes this tree worth stopping for is that it is isolated from other trees. This means the trees that stood by it for much of the 1800 years of its life have fallen to the saw, for no redwood can live alone. Ordinarily redwoods exposed in this situation fall in storms or simply die, but this one still stands and you are able to see it in its entirety. It has limbs the size of entire 100 year-old oaks and many of the remarkable structures of a coastal redwood of this age are visible from the ground. More on all that later.
We stayed at Benbow Valley RV Resort and Golf Course. La-tee-da. Well, it is quite lovely and adjacent to the absolutely wonderful Benbow Inn. I stayed there once and would recommend it.
We set up and went into Garberville seven miles away to the grocery store and found……all the hippies in the world. I’m not kidding. If you are wondering where they went, they went to Garberville. Going into the grocery store was like stepping back into the 70s. It was great. And, you know, they are not so dumb. They live there in sunshine and warmth and beauty and, if their brains are a bit addled by recreational pharmaceuticals, their brows are not furrowed by stress, their eyes unclouded by worldly cares. One could do worse.
We were there for two days as it was an exhausting drive -- of all of three hours -- from Bodega Bay. Actually, it was hot and sunny, so it was good to dry out a bit. We watched people pulling in across from us and realized they were the same people who were across from us in Bodega Bay. So, a brief but fun friendship was forged. A shout out to Carolyn and Mark and the pups! We ended up traveling up the road together to Trinidad and it was a very good time.
Eureka
This town has an unusual feel to it. Is it hippy? Pioneer? Some of both? It has very charming areas. There are some of the most beautifully kept and elaborate Victorian houses I have ever seen.
And it has a nice little harbor.
But there is something I can’t quite put my finger on. There is a kind of end of the line feel to it. Maybe it’s the hitchhikers. I have never seen so many hitchhikers of such a ...what?...different character. Dreadlocks, bare feet and a dog. Hmm. Do you think you might be limiting your prospects?
But there is something else. There are service businesses such as auto repair places. There are more furniture stores, both new and used, than I have seen in a 100 mile radius of Marshall. Food, fuel and housing are very expensive here and, while there is no in-your-face affluence, the residents seem to be doing okay. Logging and whaling were industries of the past and though there is still a saw mill there, it seems to have a lot of cut lumber, but few people in evidence. I have had a chance to consider this since we have now been here six weeks – more on that later – and I believe I have found the answer in one of those free local papers. There is between $250 million and $1 billion worth of marijuana produced in Humboldt County per year (apparently it’s somewhat difficult to pin a basically illegal industry down exactly). And it is harvest-time right now.
Many things now make sense. There are some feed and seed places here, but there are far more with horticultural supplies. Horticulture? One look inside one and you know this is not your father’s Tractor Supply Company. And the influx of transients on the road? They are coming in search of high-paying trimming jobs. At least $25 million a year goes into the economy here from those jobs alone. At $20 an hour, (Uncle Sam free) these jobs are coveted and protected by residents who have been doing them for years. That explains the forlorn, disappointed look of the still-unemployed hitchhikers moving on through, destinations uncertain. Many cardboard signs say simply “north”. The kids break my heart, but to the adults (who are referred to as “down on their luck”), I have three words of advice to apply: sobriety, hygiene and industry!
I have one more thought. Friends of ours here have a son who is border patrol on our northern border with Canada. One would think they have a lot of time on their hands, but no, they are in fact quite busy as they say the northern border is being flooded with drugs – yes, from Mexico - just as the southern border. So, north, south and here in the middle: maryjane up to our hip pockets. Are we becoming the united states of Cheech and Chong? Is anybody sober? (Hmmm. This could explain some recent decisions of our government). And could this be a cause of global warming??? Somebody, look into that.
Arcata
A college town, home of Humboldt State University. It’s a pretty school and the town has a lot of charm in that bit-of-grunge, lots-of-kids-everywhere kind of way.
Trinidad
Then you are on the road to Trinidad. And … holy cow … what is that? It’s the ocean, the Pacific as far as you can see.
And then trees, huge trees on both sides of the road.
Finally, you are in Trinidad. There is a grocery store and restaurants. What else really do you need?
And scenery, lots of scenery.
A narrow, bouncy road along the ocean leads to our RV Park. It’s a 10 minute trip, but it is breathtaking.
The park is small, but very nice. Sounds of the Sea is its name and indeed there are sounds of the sea.
You can hear the surf when the ocean is wild and you can hear the sea lions nearly always. AR AR AR. And in case you have ever wondered about it, they do that all night, too. Oddly, it is not annoying as with barking dogs, but rather nice and somehow comforting.
We immediately moved from the traditional RV area to a place way up on the hill. I have no idea how we got this thing up here. I just remind myself that if it went up, it can also go down. But it is wonderful up here. We have the woods to ourselves -- complete with deer at no extra charge.
And we can see the ocean.
Across the street Patrick’s Point State Park, a beautiful place with towering Sitka spruce, tide pools and agate beaches. Why would we leave? So, we didn’t. We became the people who came and stayed….and stayed….and stayed.
A few of the neighbors:
Harbor Seals
Black Oystercatcher
Pacific Green Anemone
Ochre Starfish
Roosevelt Elk
End of the day . . .
. . . Bob is cooking.
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