Our Travel Blog

Surprise, another dull and foggy start to the day.

In celebration of Mothers day we had a relaxing morning (such a rarity), Lyn did some of her hobby stuff and I finally got around to tidying up all the electronics mess in “my corner” of the trailer.

After lunch we headed south, this time we took the seaward route that goes over a spit of land and a couple of bridges to get down to Eureaka. A little more scenic than using the freeway. Our first stop was a series of bluffs overlooking the Pacific. We were expecting something a little higher, but we got a view of the beach from above. The sand around here is quite fine, but it is grey rather than golden in colour.

Gets Blowy up Here!

Next we headed further south to the village of Ferndale which is known as a Victorian Village. Of course being a village it was full of antiques stores. Lyn managed to find something to buy!! The buildings were all in pretty good condition, and made for a scenic village.

Following on from there we headed inland to the village of Fortuna for a walk along the river. The walkway was along a disused rail bed which made for fairly easy walking.

All in we managed about 2.5 miles of walking. We didn’t find any geo-caches today; mainly because I forgot the GPS!!

Its hard to believe we picked up the trailer a week ago, we seem to have settled back into the routine quite easily. Sure beats working for a living!!

Another cloudy / foggy northern California day. Seems this is the norm for this area at this time of year. We decided given the weather it would be “an at home day”

After breakfast I went outside and finished off washing down the trailer and truck, both look a lot better now; if only I could get Lyn to volunteer to wax them (don’t tell her I said that!).

Once that was done I went back to work on an issue we are having with part of our internet equipment. We have a small out door unit that sits on a mast above the trailer that receives and transmits our WiFi signal. Because it is outside it receives a stronger signal, and also transmits a stronger one, it doesn’t necessarily speed up the internet per se, but it does mean we have a better chance of getting a signal, and therefore a better service. I had managed to get the software in the unit working over the last couple of days so I put it back outside. After I had finished washing the trailer, it no longer worked. All I can think of was that water somehow affected the waterproof unit. Back to the drawing board!

We also lost power this morning, which was fixed by resetting the breaker on the supply box, none of out trailer breakers blew. This happened twice more later in the day, but unfortunately the office is now closed so there isn’t too much I can do about it.

After lunch we headed out of the park for a walk around the local area, there were also a couple of caches close by. At the road leading to one of the caches was a large sign proclaiming that a special event was taking place.

The special event was a craft sale!! Made someone happy. It was being held at a local Indian (First Nations) health centre / meeting place.

Dugout Canoe on Display

We carried on with the walk and found the two caches we were looking for. There is also a lot of flowers and bushes in bloom down here, some we recognised, some we didn’t. For the following pictures with ??? under them please identify!!!

Fuchsia

Rhododendron Tree

Rhododendron Bush

Foxglove

????

???

We managed a 2 mile walk, which should help burn off some excess calories! When we got back to the park we found the internet had died!! It finally made a re-appearance a few hours later.

Hopefully tomorrow brings better weather and more well behave electrons.

No more rain overnight, but still a dull and foggy start to the day. After breakfast we (Lyn) packed up a lunch and off we went. There are two main areas of Redwoods left, one that we drove through on the way here, and one to the north of us, that’s where we are headed.

Before we got to the redwoods we stopped off at Fern Canyon. The road into the canyon was the worst road I think we have traveled on (including those in Scotland!). The potholes were enormous and very difficult to see due to the shadows on the road. At the end of a tortuous 6 mile drive we arrived at a little hut belonging to the local State Park authority, where they want to charge us for the privilege of nearly wrecking our suspension on their roads! Luck was on our side as this was one of the few State Parks that accepted a National Parks Pass. Thanks to our friends Alan and Marie, who we met in Alaska last year, we had the required pass; they bought one which was good for a year and donated it to us when they flew home. Thanks guys!

This area is famous for its herds of Roosevelt Elk, and almost immediately upon entering the area we saw two of them at the side of the road.Unfortunately these were the only ones we saw, we were hoping to see the males with the large antlers.

We drove another couple of miles to the parking lot for Fern Canyon, and started out on a walk where, surprisingly, there were ferns.

and even a few toadstools

The walk was invigorating, plenty of ups and downs some mud and towards the end plenty of water.

The wall looped around, and then descended onto the canyon floor.

The walk was interesting along the stream, in many places bridges were created using fallen trees. Along the canyon walls many areas were moss covered with water trickling down.

Plenty of clear cool water.

Remains of a landslide on the way out

Next item on the trip was the redwoods. These are the largest trees on earth, growing up to 300 ft tall and 20 ft across at the base; they can live for up to 2000 years.

Once we had driven for about 9 miles through the redwoods we headed off to the beach for some lunch and a little more exercise.

At the entrance to the beach was a large bench seat made from an old tree root.

A little further round the coast were some bluffs with a view along the rugged coastline

Our final stop was at Trinidad where there was a memorial lighthouse that had been restored by the local community.

The weather could have been better, but it also could have been a lot worse.

We woke up to some heavy rain showers this morning, didn’t bode well for a day of sight-seeing. After breakfast I headed out to do some more trailer washing. Today was the turn of the front cap of the trailer, this part takes the brunt of the road kill… flys, bees and other airborne bugs. Unfortunately most of these were collected about 15 months ago and have stuck on pretty well. A mixture of bug remover and fibre-glass cleaner and a lot of elbow grease removed most of it. After cleaning up the front, one side almost got finished plus half the truck. By this time the damp and the wet were making life uncomfortable, so it was deemed the right time to get a nice HOT shower.

After lunch we headed into Arcata to look around the town. At this stage I would be putting in pictures of local buildings and wall murals plus a road mural. Unfortunately the camera was back at the trailer. We may make another trip later in the week when the weather forecast is much better. At least we managed a mile and a half walk and a geo-cache.

Tomorrow should be a little more interesting as we head north to see the giant redwood trees.

Woke up to a cloudy / misty day and 13°C. What happened to the California heat? In reality we are on about the same latitude as south-western Ontario.

We headed out into the next town to the south, Eureaka, to catch up with the shopping. Also managed to get in a trip to a non fabric store for a change. This time it was Harbor Freight, something like Princess Auto on steroids.

When we got back Lyn had some laundry to catch up on, so I thought it would be a good time to give the trailer some TLC. It has been well over a year since we have been able to wash it, the drought in southern California has put a ban on auto washing. I checked with the office here, and to my surprise there is no such ban this far north, there’s plenty of water. First job was to clean and condition the roof, it was amazing how much dirt and grime came off. By the time the roof was done some showers moved in, couldn’t possibly wash the rest of the trailer in the rain!

After the rains moved away we took a walk around the RV Park; unlike many places we have stayed at about 99% of the trailers here are from California. Maybe tourist season hasn’t started yet.

We had a leisurely start to the day, after breakfast we packed up the trailer and moved out under high overcast skies and 22°C. The first part of the journey was along windy roads that climbed up a few hundred feet. Enough to keep the driver concentrating! After about 30 miles we joined Hwy 101. This alternated between 4 line divided highway and narrow twisty 2 lane parts. There were also a number of steep, twisty hills as we drove up and down between 200 and 2000 ft.

We passed through a number of valley, full of vineyards

Once we got north of grape country we headed into heavily forested areas

Then finally the redwoods.

Unfortunately the trip took about an hour longer than planned; I was planning on averaging 55 MPH, but the hills and California’s 55 MPH limit on trailers dropped the average down to around 43 MPH.

We arrived at the campground about 4:15, it is far better than the previous one! We got the trailer set up, then I headed out to set up the satellite dish… a mistake. I had forgotten how to use the meter, we finally got a weak signal which we tweaked enough to get a watchable picture. Usually we a 95-99 strength on the received signal, today we were getting 75. At least is was watchable! When I got back into the trailer I looked out at the dish and realised there was a metal lamp standard directly in front of the dish!!

Today was a day of relaxation, no driving, no jobs that HAD to be done…… pure bliss!

It took a bit of time to work out how things worked, first world issues like a different toaster, different coffee maker etc. Good news was that the internet came back, and is pretty fast and reliable.

After lunch we took a walk into town, a sort of boutiquey yuppie place with plenty of wine stores and hot spring spas. A little disconcerting to see notices on some of the shop doors proclaiming that the building was a masonry structure not built to the latest earthquake building standards, and should you seek shelter there during an earthquake then the risk is all on you!!

We managed a 2.1 mile walk, which will help reduce the bad news that the scales gave us this morning. I think it is impossible to travel in a car for a week and not put on any weight!

Tomorrow we head north to Eureaka, once there the sightseeing should startup in earnest.

After breakfast, our last motel waffle for a while, we headed out to the truck in 22C temperatures…. beautiful.

I must admit to having been somewhat apprehensive about heading out to the trailer after it had been left in the California sun for a year. Would the tyres still be inflated, would the trailer have been colonised by hundreds of mice, would the roof still be waterproof etc?

After about 40 minutes of twisty-turny driving we arrived at the storage facility, our gate card worked (another concern!!) and in we went. The trailer was still there, whats more there was no visible signs of damage and all 4 wheels were round. Things were looking up.

While I got the truck and trailer ready to hitch up, Lyn opened up the trailer. No mice, or signs thereof, and no water or signs thereof! The battery still had enough power to raise and lower the legs supporting the trailer, and as a major bonus I connected onto the trailer at the first attempt.

All we had to do now was to get some air in the tyres, the trailer tyres had dropped from 80PSI to 65PSI, and the truck is normally set to 50PSI, but needs to be raised to 80PSI for towing. Luck was still on our side as the storage place had a commercial size compressor that I could use. Ten minutes later all 8 tyres were correctly inflated.

We pulled the trailer out of its parking spot, checked all the brakes and headed out. Having not driven with the trailer for over a year it was a little strange, particularly as we were on back roads that were neither straight nor level.

All went well though until about 300 yards after we turned onto another road, there on the side of the road was a sign that proclaimed that this road is not recommended for trucks towing trailers!! Too late to turn back now.

Luckily the road was not busy, nor was it too treacherous. It was steep though, and for the first time I felt that the truck was really working near its limits to keep us moving. Gas consumption at this stage was about 2.1 MPG. We climbed about 2000 ft before heading back down, this now put a strain on the brakes, even with engine braking the the brakes got pretty hot and smelly.

We finally got to the bottom, and headed through the vineyards of Napa Valley. Thirty minutes later we arrive at the campground, not the best we’ve been at by a long way; it’s situated in the middle of a residential area and has very little grass, mostly gravel.

Its most serious deficiency is the lack of internet access. We can connect to the WiFi, but the WiFi has lost its internet connection, being Sunday there is no one around to fix it. Realising I am morally obliged to publish the blog we went for plan B, I renewed my T-Mobile plan for a small WiFi/Cellular box that we have.

We only booked this site for two nights, primarily to allow us to get the trailer set up and fix up any problems that there might have been.

Headed out this morning for the final long haul into California. The weather was cool, but high cloud and dry. Nothing different from previous days as far as driving and scenery were concerned. We hit our first “major” city, in the form of Reno Nevada. It came as a shock as everyone seemed to be out driving.

Reno Skyline

We climbed back up to 7500 feet to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range, then started a slow descent towards the coast.

Diesel prices in Nevada were higher than other states so I decided to tough it out and wait until California before fueling, my magic computerised fuel thingy said that I had plenty to spare, so we carried on. The gas needle proceeded to slide nicely into the red zone and the computer insisted I still had 9 gallons in the tank (~200 miles). We arrived at the lunch / gas stop, the low fuel light had remained off (so at least 5 gallons in the tank). The computer told me I would need 25.6 gallons to fill and the tank eventually took 26 so it was pretty accurate. It’s just a little disturbing to see the needle so low when there is plenty of fuel left.

After filling up both ourselves and the truck, we headed off again. As we were still descending I got some pretty impressive fuel readings; 1075 miles till the tank ran dry and an average of 31.8 MPG (remember this is a 6.2 litre engine).

The next city we passed through was Sacramento, the traffic here made Reno look like a small English village in the off season. We made it to the hotel unscathed and happily got out into the 27°C heat.

A lot of the plants are in bloom, and right outside our hotel window is a cherry tree full of fruit.

Note the blue sky!

Tomorrow we head off for another 50 miles into the back country to pick up the trailer. I must admit to being a little nervous as to what state the trailer might be in after being left for year.

A couple of planning errors came to light yesterday, I am glad to say I can’t take all the credit for them!

Last nights motel was near the Salt Lake City airport in a high tech area with a few other motels. After we left the Interstate and drove to the motel there were no signs of ANY restaurants. In the hotel room was an order-inn menu, so we ordered from that, amazingly it was pretty good! When we left this morning we found a Perkins family restaurant about 150m away! Shame, their food is normally pretty good. The second error revealed itself when I was checking the distance to go. It showed a trip of 800km today and 270 tomorrow, which didn’t make sense for a couple of reasons; one why weren’t they a little more equal, and as tomorrow is the last day before we pick up the trailer, why did I have an overnight stay booked, we could have gone straight to the trailer!! The easiest solution was just to change tonight’s stop and eqaulise the trip, hence we are now in a town called Winnemucca, some where in the depths of Nevada.

We had a leisurely departure from Salt Lake and picked up Interstate 80 (again!), the temperature was around 10°C, with good visibility but the promise of showers.

We were soon driving along the edge of Salt Lake, and then out to the salt flats, famous for car speed runs. Today the salt flats looked more like saline puddles

Off in the distance we could see a huge pile of white “stuff”, first thought was a snow dump, second thought was correct – salt.

and a little closer

I recall last year being amazed at how many FedEx, UPS etc trucks there were on the Interstate, there seemed to be one every couple of minutes. This year they have upped there game with BIG trucks!

These trucks have the ability to go down hill very fast, albeit swaying all over the place. Uphill….. not so fast, we were continually overtaking / being overtaken by this guy for about 100 miles.

As we climber back up to the 6500ft mark we got a clearer view of the scenery compared to the last few days.

We also hit a few rain showers on the way, this one was about 250m off the road as we passed it, but we still got a reasonable fall out of hail from it.

With another time zone under our belt, we are now on Pacific time, we arrived at the hotel just before 4PM. Plenty of time for a walk and some geocaching. There was an interesting geocache that was actually a walk through historic Winnemucca, which guided you to various landmarks and you had to answer questions about them. The town seems to gain most of it’s “fame” from the number of banks robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!

Below is the court house, probably the most modern building here.