And now for the solo portion of the trip.
Friday 6/27/14 - Northern California Coast
I woke to the smell of PANCAKES. Jimmy had cooked us breakfast (can you believe this guy?) as we cleaned ourselves once again and packed. Then finally some down time to watch a little TV while Jimmy worked from home and we waited for Kyle and Amanda's flight. It was all too quick though; I drove them to the airport for our final, tearful goodbye. Fairwell you magnificent bastards.
And then my solo adventure began. The rest of the day was just me driving. All day. From noon until 10pm. It was both fun and exhausting. It started through San Francisco, which had some aggressive traffic. I am not looking forward to that when I move there (hah! joke's on me, I deal with that all the time now!). Then across the Golden Gate and on to CA-1, which I drove the entire way up the coast North (until it merged with Rt. 101, which I drove into the Redwoods).
I had a few nice stops along the way: Hog Island Oysters, where I had a few delicious, fresh oysters and beer, Stinson Beach (the water was cold!), and Point Reyes Seashore: all tremendous places.
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| This bridge. EVERY. FREAKING. TIME. |
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| Yumfest 2k14 |
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| Oh hey I found those sunglasses in Yosemite! |
And the drive is beyond gorgeous, so I obviously stopped plenty of times for beach overlooks. After a while though (several hours), the twists and turns started getting to me. But I powered through.
HOURS later, I finally made it into Redwoods National Park, which seems to be just an amalgamation of state parks all tied together. Very strange. Before the Sun set I was able to get a few cool views of the area: the entire landscape was covered with evergreens. It was beautiful. And the "highway" turned into a scenic tour where I was literally surrounded by enormous Redwood trees. Not as wide as Sequoias, but taller. Holy crap so tall.
I stopped for shitty fast food and was way too tired to be driving, but I did manage to make it to my campsite. Luckily this is the one night that I had booked ahead of time, so it was there waiting for me. It was so late when I arrived and I was so tired that I just decided to sleep in the backseat of the car. So much for camping.
Caturday 6/28/14 - Redwoods and Lassen Volcanic
I woke up in the car at sunrise, but the area was overcast, so I slept in half an hour (what a badass). Then at 6am I started touring the Redwoods area near me: Elk Prairie. I found out why it was named this when I exited the campground passing a field full of elk. Pretty cool. I drove over to Gold Bluffs Beach and walked around for a bit on the beach. It was nice, but a little foggy that early in the morning.
I then took a scenic drive through some very impressive Redwood groves, a a few walks here and there. I was making my way toward Crescent City, the northern part of the park which had a lighthouse and a few really interesting beach/harbor areas. It reminded me of New England with the water on the wrong side.
At 9am I started my way back down south through the park, backtracking to catch the 299-East highway to head to Lassen Volcanic National Park, my next destination. Also I had some reception, so I was finally able to talk to my parents! Yay!
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| Mr. Rental Car enjoying some redwood shade |
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| This is normal |
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| Dinobombing the redwood forest? |
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| Oh there are beaches too. I do not understand: this state has it all. |
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| This looks like a regular house that someone just said "btw you're a lighthouse now." "ok." |
The drive back through the Redwoods was gorgeous, but unexpectedly the eastern highway was also really pretty. It went through Shasta-Trinity forest, so I had a few views of Mt. Shasta and happened upon a pretty cool lake, Whiskeytown Lake. I stopped for lunch by a river that followed the highway and decided a little dip in the water couldn't hurt. Yes it could, if it were surrounded by thorns. Blackberry thorns. I scarfed down every single ripe berry as retribution for my thorn stabbings. So I got a good swim in and a ton of blackberries at the cost of a few thorn scratches: good deal to me.
After a bit more driving I made it to Lassen Volcanic, a park dedicated to the second most recent volcano eruption on the US mainland. Lassen blew in 1914, so a lot of the plant life has returned at this point. I got in at 3:30, so I had a fair amount of the day to use. I got a campsite right away at the northern section of the park, Lake Manzanita. Then I immediately took off for some high-speed adventuring. Saw a few high elevation ponds here and there (most of the park is between 6000 and 10,000 ft), then I took a swim in Lake Helen - a glacial lake. It was so cold. But so freaking refreshing.
The road basically circled the volcano, so I was able to get a good view of it from every direction as I explored - it was pretty interesting. There are still a few snow fields at the higher regions and you can see the little plug where the eruption first occurred. After the swim I hiked down to Bumpass Hell, which is a sulpher-spewing area with vents and bubbling pits. It reminded me a lot of Yellowstone. Especially the smell. Yum.
Then I hiked up the Lassen Peak trail, but only so far; the upper region was still closed for winter(?). So I went up part way and then "didn't" continue my way up and then "didn't" summit. Because there were signs and gates that said it was closed. And that would be dangerous.
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| Somebody hasn't been paying their heating bills because that water was very cold. |
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| [poundsign]volcanoselfie |
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| It's ok I guess |
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| Ugh, moooooove geese; I'm trying to take a picture |
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| That object on the right was either a log or two very drunk, very wet guys on inner tubes paddling back after a day of fishing. |
After "not" climbing to the top, I drove back to Lake Manzanita for sunset. It was beautiful over the lake and was surrounded by Canadian Geese. Then I fired up my new stove and pasta'd it up before bed. What a day.
Sunday 6/29/14 - Crater Lake
I decided to try for sunrise again today, waking up and packing up by 5:15am. I stayed near Manzanita Lake to watch the Sun rise over the lake. After splashing into the river crossing and getting wet and dirty, I eventually found a nice place to see some cool colors, but unfortunately the elevation wasn't right to see the Sun. So I left the park, heading North toward Crater Lake National Park.
The entire drive was really pretty. Basically it circled Mt. Shasta. I took a few pictures, but other than that the drive was pretty quick and easy; I got to the park at about 10:30am. I drove in the South entrance and grabbed a campsite at the South of the rim. I am setting records for my tent construction speed. Then I sped off to the East side of the rim drive. Well, as far as I could; part of the East rim drive was closed for snow. I was still able to see a waterfall and the view of Phantom Ship, which is a rock outcropping in the lake that kind of sort of looks like a boat maybe. But it was my first view of the lake fro the rim: it was incredible. So blue. So intensely blue. And clean and clear. The story behind Crater Lake is that it used to be a volcano that erupted almost 8000 years ago. It then collapsed in on itself, and rain/snow gradually filled the crater.
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| Um wut |
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| Holy hell |
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| I'm actually frozen in that position; this is not a pose |
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| I put my beer in that snow to cool down |
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| Oh man that is just ridics |
So here I was staring at this insanely blue lake from the rim of an enormous crater. So amazing. I stopped off at a few more overlooks along my drive around the western part of the rim drive. I stopped for a hike up to Garfield Peak, which offered some more ridiculous views. And butt sledding. Then I drove to the North side of the lake to hike down to the water. Not a bad little walk. The water temperature was 51 degrees, so naturally I jumped off a high rock into the lake a few times. So freaking refreshing. I've really started to get into this cold water swimming thing.
Now, I have a few hours before sunset, so I'm going to hang out at the Watchman overlook and wait for it. With snacks and beer. You can't really beat the view.
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| The jacket is to avoid the mosquitoes |
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| This. Freaking. Sunset. |
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| Eeeeeeeasy |
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| SO MANY MOSQUITOES |
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| What is going on with that sky? |
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| Whatever. I just don't even get it anymore. |
Whelp. That sunset was unbelievable. The rim is such that you see the actual Sun setting on one side of the lookout, and the shadows and colors playing out on the lake and across the rim on the other side. Might be the best sunset I've ever witnessed. Except there were about a billion mosquitoes. Oh well. Now it's time to race down to my campsite and get ready for sunrise.
Monday 6/30/14 - Portland, OR
Ah, the land of Portlandia. That was my destination this day. But first I had to get there. I woke up super early, took down my camp, and drove up to the Watchman Overlook for sunrise. Are you shitting me? It was yet again spectacular. The colors and shadows around the crater rim were unbelievable. Not a bad way to start the day.
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| I mean really, we have the atmosphere to thank most of all |
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| That's it. Stare directly into the rising Sun. That's good for the old eyeballs. |
The drive to Portland, OR was actually really short and easy (relative to some of my other drives). I didn't have reception, and therefore didn't have maps, for most of the drive, but I basically drove North and West through the mountains until I did finally get reception. Ryan Jacobs, my buddy/housemate who is temporarily working and living in Portland, is who I'm bunking with tonight, but he was at work (internship at Nike) when I arrived. The guy is great though, because he gave me his key so I could shower (first one in sooooo long), and I started exploring on my own.
The first mission of the day was to get food. I stopped at a place called Tilt, which had good, heaping mounds of food and some good local beers. The guy serving me was like "whoa, starting early" at my beer request. It may only be 11am, but I've been up for about a million hours. Give me a break. With that said, that beer did a number on my stomach. Could be a combination of no alcs in a week and a really weird diet up to now.
My next task was to go find a beer garden to watch the Germany World Cup game. I talked to a few Portlanders at what seemed like a cool place (flags everywhere surrounding a bunch of school-bus-converted-to-outdoor-bar kind of things: super Portlandy). They were incredibly friendly, but this city is definitely a bit odd. A place where young people go to retire. So yeah - strange and friendly. Germany won, so that's good.
Then I walked around a bit in the Pearl District and Washington Park, which has a rose garden that maybe my Mom would go crazy for. At this point, Ryan got back from work and it was time to get a guided tour of more of the downtown area. We got some pizza, went to a few brewpubs, went to a bar-cade (arcade that is also a bar: how are these not everywhere yet?) with tons of classic games. It was a blast. At the top of a hotel we got some drinks on a roofdeck bar and saw the city from a decent vantage point. All-in-all a pretty fantastic evening around town, and it was good to hang out with Jacobs.
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| It's called a camera. No need to get cranky. |
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| Portlands gonna Port |
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