Kansas Crimson

Oh!

Sorry I didn’t respond sooner.

NorCal is superlative. I don’t even know where to begin.

Actually, let’s begin here: has anyone else seen the Netflix/Hulu docs “Sasquatch” or “Murder Mountain?”

watched both

i take you got a little sketched out at some point?

I guess you could say so. Didn't actually encounter anything sketchy, but being up in those same mountains with those stories in your mind at least makes things more exciting. We didn't even get particularly too far off any beaten paths or anything though. I've wandered up creeks and remote forest roads and through wilderness areas pretty much everywhere else without pause, but in that area it would be hard to do without getting paranoid.

Did make friends with a couple Humboldt locals who seemed to know what was up, but my idiot traveling companion kept treating it less like "let's buddy up with locals and get the in on some sweet emerald triangle shit" and more just like a fleeting tinder date.

I guess I'm generally kinda fascinated by the whole culture of it. I wonder if it's as really rough as those docs purport it to be. Generally stoners are chill, but there's a whole unique Wild West element to that area.

they seem to me to be much more counter-culture hold outs than just stoners

the wild west description seems apt

besides all that - NorCal is some of the most unique and fantastic natural landscapes of anywhere ever. Saw some of the coolest beaches I've ever imagined. And redwoods! Holy shit! The trip was fairly open-ended, and ended up being a quest to find the biggest gnarliest old growth forests we could find. And it sucks that there's only like 4% of the old growth forests left. Fuckin human beings, man.

The drought conditions there also alarming. The rivers are so freakishly low. Camped in a redwood grove along one coastal river, went to jump in for a swim, but couldn't find anywhere deep enough to get past my knees.

Also spent the night in Eureka. Some serviceable bars, but overall a butthole of a town. Was pretty disappointed. After several nights of camping we needed a hotel, but woulda been better off staying in one of the cool little coastal towns instead.

KUTradition wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 9:17 am they seem to me to be much more counter-culture hold outs than just stoners

the wild west description seems apt

yeah, definitely. That's what intrigues me, though I know that curiosity about that greater encompassing counter-culture is prob difficult to distinguish that from the perception that I'm just being a stoner about it.

Drove past this ranch and it looks like a fantastic place for a festival. Will legit go back for this if anyone else wants to commit. Gutter? 99?

https://daysbetweenfest.com/info/

but did you see any banana slugs?

fuck yeah I did!

it's always fun to be hiking in some shady forest and come across a bright yellow slimy thing crawling across the trail.

Jerry's Middle Finger?

If you have never encountered redwoods the experience is awesome the first time! It’s really a great outdoor phenomenon, and it’s very easy to find desolate groves, not that far from populated areas. Of course, then there’s Muir Woods!

Never been to Eureka. Should check it out.

yes

they’re even better than the big Dipterocarp trees in Asia with the big root buttresses

zsn wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:25 pm If you have never encountered redwoods the experience is awesome the first time! It’s really a great outdoor phenomenon, and it’s very easy to find desolate groves, not that far from populated areas. Of course, then there’s Muir Woods!

Never been to Eureka. Should check it out.

re: redwoods, yeah the groves are easy to find once you start looking, but what about old growth groves? Where all the trees tend to average closer to Muir Woods size? And we wanted to see Redwoods NP so as to quantitatively get another national park off the bucket list, but after having seen shitloads of redwoods by the time we get to Eureka, then realizing the park is a good 2+ hours further yet, we decided to start wandering back toward the bay. It's easy to forget just how enormous California is.

re: Eureka, if you think you should check it out, first ask yourself: how much do you enjoy being chased down the street by screaming crackheads? For that matter, you could spare a lot of drive time and just go get the Eureka experience in Stockton.

dude, shoulda gone to Armstrong reserve…

Ohh.

I guess we missed Colonel Armstrong, but I'll see you and raise you the Grandfather tree:





Rather than go up through Sonoma where that Armstrong tree is at, we were still sticking to the coast. Then, pretty much the second we cross into Mendocino county, there's redwoods all over the joint. Go up a forest road, fend off some tweakers, strike a deal with the Mexican cartels, get in a gunfight with some Hell's angels, and next thing you know we find one of the coolest campsites ever, along a river, in a grove of redwoods so dense you have to take your sunglasses off to see around in there midday.

But, though this grove had some big trees pushing like 3+ feet wide at the base, it also had these random stumps that were all closer to 10-15+ feet wide. We got the feeling this was new growth that had since popped back up after being mostly cut down, which got us curious.

We ended up hitting "Avenue of the Giants," which did not disappoint.

why’d you kidnap that child, yo?

child?

but that MFer is 1800 years old!

lol for real tho, I just googled some other pics real quick. I seent it in real life though! But, like I mentioned in that message about banana slugs, for some reason I didn't take as many pics as I thought.

lol

Unfortunately old growth is not generally confined to just one large swath. Amidst the new growth are many old growth trees. The loggers cut about two out of three existing trees when they encountered these groves and replanted some of them. But many small swathes still remain, like Armstrong, Henry Cowell, Big Basin, Pfeiffer Big Sur etc.