The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Perfect Day on Big River

It was a perfect day to go kayaking. Once again there was an eight foot high tide predicted for just after noon, giving us a good two hours before to paddle upstream, and another two hours to paddle back down with the ebbing tide. The launch site at Big River just east of the Mendocino Bay Bridge on Highway 1 is huge, with a boat ramp, but also with a broad sandy gentle beach perfect for us.

The weather was clear and crisp, if a bit cool. The current on the river was negligible, and with the incoming tide paddling upstream was easy. It was Abby’s first time out in the new kayak, and it was a perfect place for Mo to adjust to paddling with Abby while she learned to settle in to the bigger cockpit.

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On a Monday morning in November, we very nearly had the entire river to ourselves, with a single rower passing us going downstream, a lone kayaker going back downstream toward the beach, and a young couple paddling a large wooden outrigger canoe. The rest of the trip we were completely alone in the silence of the river and the surrounding redwood forest.

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We saw ducks, herons, cormorants, and on our way back to the mouth of the river, a group of seals. Reading about the trip in the Sea Kayaking book suggested a nice sandy beach about 3.5 miles upriver where we could take a break and get out of the boats. I think the combination of high river water and a very high tide completely obscured the beach, however, because we never found it. After a couple hours on the river, a bathroom break became somewhat of a necessity, so we improvised. In an area that looked just a bit less abrupt than the rest of the banks, we tied both boats up to a small stump and managed to crawl out of them from the deep water. Abby was glad for the break as well before we saw the tide turning and decided it was time to head back downstream.

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Paddling downriver at about 4mph was effortless until we were within less than a mile from the launch site where the winds picked up considerably. I didn’t get any photos of the big wind generated waves because I was busy paddling hard, and that last half mile was the hardest of the day. We had been warned of this, so it wasn’t unexpected and I’m glad it didn’t last any longer than it did.

On the beach once again, we easily loaded up the boats, but by then the wind was darn cold and we were definitely ready for a break. The tiny, incredibly picturesque town of Mendocino was just a stone’s throw from the launch, and we thought a good dose of fish and chips would be perfect. Many shops were open on this slow Monday afternoon,but open restaurants weren’t easy to find. A shopkeeper told us about Patterson’s Pub, suggesting they had the best food in town. She was right The pub was perfect, with an Irish theme, small warm and cozy, great beers on tap and truly wonderful food. I had a Bass from the tap, and Mo’s house Chardonnay was crisp and dry. Lobster bisque drizzled with very green virgin olive oil was a perfect beginning to fresh cod and sweet potato cross cut fries. Yum!!

Since daylight savings time ended it seems that it is way too dark at 6pm and settling in to a warm MoHo, cruising the blogs, and watching TV was a perfect way to end a great day.

More photos of our trip on the river are linked here.

A quiet day in Fort Bragg

It rained hard all night, pounding on the MoHo roof and making me really happy that I wasn’t in a tent! Someone said that there are two kinds of slides, ones that leak and ones that will. So far, there are no signs of any leaking anywhere in the MoHo, even in the hardest rains and wind. I guess the Dynamax reputation for solid coaches is holding up for us.

I took my time cooking breakfast this morning while we watched the Sunday news shows. Mo and I both love Fareed Zakaria, he brings such a different perspective to the world view. Then Mo balances all that out with a good hit of Fox News while I retreat into the computer. Ha! Guess you can tell who is ex-military and who used to be a tree hugger! The rain let up after breakfast and we took Abby for a walk around the park. On the way we met a couple from Victoria, just out on the beginning of a five month journey through the western US. Wayne and Lynn were very conversational, and we had a great time comparing notes on campgrounds, RV’s, and destinations. It’s amazing how easy it is to talk with strangers in this RVing world, no such thing as a stranger, really.

I love my new kayak, but there were a couple of little problems with it when it finally arrived. Somehow the bubble wrap used to protect it caused the paint to discolor on the side exposed to the sunlight and it has a small area of bubble wrap design along one side. In addition, the rim around the cockpit has a small split that shouldn’t be there. I called the company as soon as I unwrapped the boat and they called me back to make sure everything is taken care of properly. Bill Swift is the owner of Swift Canoe and Kayak in Ontario, Canada, and I am so impressed with his customer service. He is building a new boat for me and paying for the shipping to my home in Oregon. My boat was a sale boat, with a few minor flaws, so he asked if I wanted to pay a bit more to get a new boat, or if I wanted to send this one back for repairs. Either way he would pay the shipping, so I decided to opt for the new boat and the chance to pick my own colors. In the mean time, he said I should use the boat I have now as much as I want to until the new one arrives some time next January. Great customer service, great product, and great company! I highly recommend them.

We spent the morning walking through the Mendocino Botanical Gardens, senior discount fee was 7.50 each, and well worth it. The gardens have several areas, with more formal perennial gardens close to the entrance, and then about a half mile of wilder gardens that lead to a great ocean bluff overlook. At this time of year, the flowers weren’t that exciting, but the plants and foliage were lovely. The trails were nice too, and we took our time enjoying them even more than the gardens.

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After our walk, we drove to the main part of town, but it didn’t seem to have much to offer, not enough to actually get out of the car to explore. Nothing caught my eye and Mo isn’t a shopper anyway. I think we got our fill of browsing back in Ferndale, anyway. At the northern edge of town is Elm Street, leading down to the hidden Glass Beach. Once the town dump, it is now covered with beautiful tiny smooth pieces of sea glass. Somewhere we read that you aren’t supposed to pick up the glass, but once at the beach, it was filled with beachcombers looking for that perfect piece of glass and filling hands and pockets with the tiny treasures. We took a few as well. My favorite is the pale light turquoise pieces. We didn’t find anything particularly fabulous, but had fun looking and enjoying the beach and the surf.

We traveled up the Noyo River to check out Liquid Fusion Kayak Company, only to find an open lot with some kayaks and a sign that said to call them if you wanted to rent one. I had hoped for an actual shop with information, so we later stopped at the dive shop along the highway. The young man there was really helpful and told us that Big River ten miles south at Mendocino was the best paddle around, with easy access and fewer people. Big River is listed in the Sea Kayaking Northern California book I bought recently, so after looking it up and reading we decided that for sure this will be tomorrow’s destination.

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It was just a napping kind of day, so instead of doing anything else we went back to camp, had a late lunch snack and I took a great nap, snuggled back in the comforters watching the trees outside the window as I fell asleep. I love the chance that we have had on this trip to actually slow down and relax. An afternoon nap is just about as decadent as I can imagine! When I woke up a bit later, it was starting to darken and we took Abby for a walk around the nearly empty park before coming back home to make supper. I’m really looking forward to getting out in the kayaks tomorrow, it should be a sunny day, and again the tides are with us perfectly.

Photos for our day at the ocean are linked here.

We are staying at a park in Fort Bragg that had many reviews: Pomo RV Park and Campground. It seems it is the best place to stay around here, since most others are merely parking lots. Some of the reviews complained about the rules and policies, but we had no problem with anything. It is a cash only park, and doesn’t honor anything but Good Sam ten percent discount, so at 40 bucks a night it’s not a cheap place to stay. The sites are huge, however, and as private as a good state park. We wonder if maybe at one time it was a state park. I haven’t seen a private RV park anywhere laid out with this kind of luxury of space. CeiPui asked for some photos of the park, so I linked a separate album here.

Northern California Coast

We have been here in the fog, but even so, the town of Eureka seems rather drab. There are a lot of interesting people walking around, people who look like they have been in the same mode since the 60’s. Last night we decided to take an evening tour of the local co-op. North Coast Co-op has a huge mural on the street side facade, and is bigger than most major grocery stores. I love natural food stores, and while it wasn’t Trader Joe’s, it was bigger than some and filled with amazing stuff. Mo is at a loss in this environment, so I walked around explaining some of the lingo to her and some of the reasons for buying this or that instead of the everyday brands you get in a regular grocery store.

The produce was fantastic, and if our refrigerator wasn’t full I would have hauled tons of colorful stuff home. We can’t eat enough to support all the temptations so gorgeously displayed. We managed to get out of the store with some great looking green tea from China and two bottles of “Our Daily Red”, an organic red table wine with no sulfites. Keeps the migraines away for me. I love a good red wine, but will certainly settle for a daily red glass of this good stuff full of antioxidants and other good things. It was a fun way to spend a dark rainy evening in Eureka.

Today we are going to try out the Samoa Cookhouse, the last surviving lumber camp style cookhouse in the west, built in 1893. The meals are all served family style and breakfast today will be French toast, sausage, and who knows what else. There is a lumberjack museum with the cookhouse that should be entertaining. Another treat will be breakfast company, with some soil scientist friends of mine located at the Arcata Soil Survey Office who have agreed to meet us there this morning. Looking forward to it.

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Later:

Our breakfast was wonderful, and visiting with Sue Azman made it even more so. I’m not sure if Mo enjoyed all the soil survey talk as much as I did, but we all had a good time talking about kayaking the coast. Sue is an avid sea kayaker and we had fun talking kayaks and possible trips. Back to camp in plenty of time to button up and we actually left the park at 12:01. Gas in Eureka was a whopping 3.35 per gallon, and we knew that in Fort Bragg it was only 2.99, so we only put 50 bucks in the MoHo to get us on down the road. Again, our travel day was a short 130 miles or so. BUT! What a trip it was!!

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We traveled south on 101 for some distance before turning off on the alternate highway that travels 32 miles through the redwoods, called the Avenue of the Giants. It was a leisurely, meandering drive through huge trees and narrow roads, but with no traffic at all. Stopping at several of the auto tour sites for photos, and some short walks in the forest was refreshing. Once more, Abby wasn’t welcome on the trails, even on a leash, so Mo stayed in the MoHo so I could walk through the forest a bit and take pictures. I had been enjoying the subtle light on a pale yellow vine that seemed to be in many of the trees and wanted to photograph it. Closer inspection revealed the bane of my California soil survey life, poison oak! It was creeping at least 40 feet high into the trees, and covering the forest floor, mixed with the ferns and oxalis. Poison oak is ubiquitous in the Mother Lode where I worked, but I had no idea it was so prevalent in this high precipitation redwood forest. Ugh! I am extremely allergic and had to do a couple of hospital visits while working in California. It was one of the main reasons I was so glad to finally retire and get back home to Oregon.

At the terminus of the Avenue of the Giants, it wasn’t far to our turn west from 101 to Fort Bragg. Although Highway 1 is famous as one of the most beautiful scenic byways in the country, this part of “one” crossed the last of the coastal ranges via an incredibly curvy and steep road before arriving at the ocean cliffs a few miles north of Fort Bragg. I think this may have been the curviest road we have driven in the MoHo, and I’m glad Mo was the one doing the driving. Jeremy wasn’t too happy about the curves either, and he insisted on riding on the dash board, twisting and turning and trying to get comfortable. I tend to get car sick when it’s bad like this, but on this trip I remembered to bring my “sea bands”, wrist bands with knobs that create pressure on meridian points on the wrist. I was starting to get queasy when I put them on, and was afraid they wouldn’t work, but they did! Amazing little tool, these wrist bands. On the way down the hill we saw a flare and then a rolled over car with several people trying to turn it back upright. It all seemed a bit strange because there must have been eight people there and only 2 cars, the rollover and another car. Hmmm. Which car had that many people in it? They all looked a bit sheepish, and a bit strange. We didn’t stop.

At the bottom of the hill, a pickup in front of us pulled over and a poor girl jumped out and got sick right there. I realized then that I wasn’t sick at all! Not a bit. Thank you wrist bands! The last few miles of the route followed curving cliffs along the Pacific. The fog had lifted, and the clouds were heavy but not raining. On the horizon of the ocean, the light caught in a brilliant band among all the grays of sky and water.

We arrived at the Pomo RV Park and Campground around 4:30, and settled in to our very private, very quiet spot at the upper end of the campground. Here again we have good TV, good Wi-Fi, and power and water. All this excitement for a whopping 40. per night! No discounts here except Good Sam, which we don’t have. This park is also on the Camp Club USA list, but there are so many restrictions that we probably won’t manage a visit here when we could get a discount. Camping sites on this part of the coast are few and far between, and most consist of a parking lot surrounded by ugly stuff. Even the state parks are all 35 per night and don’t have the amenities. Tomorrow we will drive around a bit and see what is here. The prediction is for hard rain tonight and tomorrow but sun on Monday. Perfect! We can check everything out and plan for another kayak adventure Monday morning. Again, we are staying 3 nights. First night to settle in, then two days to explore before we move on to the next horizon.

Of course I took a gazillion photos, and even managed to delete a good number of them. You can see them linked here.

Kayaking Humboldt Bay

I think we would have traveled to the California coast for this trip even if we didn’t have new kayaks. It’s a beautiful place when the fog isn’t hanging around. Fall is usually the prettiest time of year with cooling temperatures inland creating conditions that keep the coastal fog at a minimum. Everyone here knows that when it’s hot inland it will be foggy at the coast. Right now there is a high pressure system inland. Guess what. It’s foggy.

We woke this morning hoping for a bit of a break, but it wasn’t to be. Today was even foggier than yesterday without even that small afternoon sun break coming through to light things up a bit. The tides were with us today, however, and we didn’t want to miss the noontime high tide. Hookton Slough is just a few miles south of Eureka where we are parked, and we checked out the launch site when we first got here on Wednesday. The dock is built to adjust to tide depth, with easy access even at low tide. It makes it a bit less likely that we would get stranded out on a mud flat somewhere when the tide receded.

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This morning we realized that in our five years of kayaking, we have never attempted a dock entry to our boats. Who knows why, I guess because we never really needed to try it. Today was it, there was no other way to get in the boats since the edge of the slough was rocky and descended abruptly to deep water. Either way it would be a deep water entry. We unloaded the boats…soooo dang light….. and dropped them into the water along the dock. With life jackets on we gingerly knelt on the dock and into the boats. Easy. Experienced kayakers will laugh at this, I am sure, but it still was something new for us. It felt great to be in the boat in the water though, once there everything felt just fine.

The bay was fogged in, the estuary was fogged in, but the tide was plus eight feet! One of the highest tides in a very long time according to some local folks at the launch. It made for a very easy kayak along the south part of South Bay, and we traveled about 3 miles west to the edge of the bay. We could hear the ocean again, but this time there was no breach and the bay was quiet. By the time we got back to the launch site, the tide was receding but still was plenty high. We were out a bit less than three hours and during that whole time the fog never really lifted.

We didn’t see any river otters, although there is a family of three living near where we boated. We did see lots of shore birds, blue herons, white herons, a great egret (black legs), huge flocks of cormorants and geese, brown pelicans, and of course, lots of seagulls. With the dark and the fog, my zoomed in bird photos didn’t turn out too well, but it was still great getting out on the water. Of course, the fog and cold day made for incredible silence and beauty. It was just us and the birds out there on the water. Beautiful.

There are more photos for our days in Eureka linked here, here, and here.

Foggy Days in Eureka

Early this morning we woke to see the park lights muted by fog. As the light came slowly, the fog didn’t lift at all. Kayaking anywhere around Humboldt Bay requires working with the tides, and high tide was coming in today around 11am. If we were to get out on the water and back without getting stranded on a mudflat, we needed to be out by 10 at the latest. At ten, the fog was a thick as ever. I know we could have gone anyway, but somehow boating unknown waters when you can’t see anything anyway isn’t very enticing. On to Plan B.

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We got a great free publication from the RV manager called “101 Things to Do Humboldt”. The best part for us was the centerfold map of Humboldt Bay with all the boat launching sites and descriptions of kayaking options. Still, in the fog, the description of nearby Ferndale sounded much more inviting. Visiting Ferndale is like visiting the past. The entire Main Street has been designated a national Register Historic District due to the finely preserved commercial and residential buildings. Rich bottom land and plentiful grass supports a still thriving dairy industry, which has sustained the community since the late 1800’s. The ornate “Painted Ladies” were once called “Butterfat Palaces”.

There is a fascinating mix of shops, including a real drugstore, the oldest continuously operating drugstore in California. We ambled through town, taking our time looking at “stuff”, some of it beautiful art, and some of it just a bunch of “stuff”. The only temptation for me came with the yarn shop. Knitters know that this hobby isn’t about knitting as much as it is about yarn! I managed to get out of there without buying a gorgeous hank of hand dyed mohair that really called to me. I have two bins of “stash” including some truly gorgeous wool, silk, mohair, and other amazing yarns, so I practiced self-control and didn’t buy any.

In another specialty shop, the owner spent some time laughing with us about how hard it is to decorate a very tall tree when you are very short, and then proceeded to give us the history of the store. Almost every single shopkeeper asked us from where we hailed. It was leisurely and fun and I only spent a small amount on a bottle of yummy orange blossom hand lotion.

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After wandering the downtown area, we ambled up the hill to the cemetery, one of the most amazing cemeteries I have seen since New Orleans. It’s on a hill overlooking the town and some of the plots date back to the 1890’s. The view toward the ocean overlooking the town was beautiful.

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By this time, Abby had been waiting in the car long enough so we decided to drive west to the Centerville beach area. With the fog lifting a bit, we thought a bit about trying to put the boats in the slough, but the tide was already going out and our timing would be off. The trip out to the beach meanders along a small road that passes dairies and farmhouses, even a very old abandoned Victorian is total disrepair, a perfect haunted house.

The beach was open and empty, no other cars or people in sight, and the wind wasn’t blowing hard either, just a nice ocean breeze. The sun lifted a bit and we got in a great beach walk, which Abby loved as well. Back to the car, the narrow road led up the hill into nowhere, so of course we had to go check it out. On the GPS I could see we were near the ocean, but the little car icon was cruising through no man’s land, no road supposedly there at all. Google Maps on the phone could see some semblance of road, but of course reception was spotty or non existent.

We traveled on anyway, up and down and around, until we came upon a BLM parking area and a sign for the Guthrie Creek Trailhead. Yay! Abby could go with us, and there wasn’t a soul in sight, and no cars parked at the trailhead. It seems now that with a couple of pricey kayaks on the top of the car we are a bit reluctant to leave it parked in the middle of nowhere. We figured we were safe enough here, and headed down the trail. Sure enough, as soon as we set out a man appeared coming up the trail. We couldn’t figure out where he came from, but he was nice and we visited a bit while he told us he was “camping” on some property he had nearby. Hmmm. At least he didn’t have a car to carry off the boats! We have a bolt cutter proof bike cable and plan to at least lock the two boats together on the racks so someone would have a heck of a time getting them down.

The trail was perfect, not too steep, wide and mowed with beautiful views of the ocean and Guthrie Creek below us. The fog was coming in again and the wind was pretty stiff once beyond the protection of the hills at the view overlook area, so we turned back. It would be good hike to go all the way down to the beach. Again, with the high surf and sneaker waves around we thought it might not be a day to actually go down to the closed in beach.

We topped off the afternoon with a side trip to the Loleta Cheese Factory. In Oregon, Tillamook cheese is quite famous, and they have tours of the factory and cheese tasting. Oregon also has Bandon cheese, in my opinion, even better than Tillamook. The Loleta Cheese Factory was a real treat, different in that much more of the cheese making process here is by hand. It is a small, family run business that produces medal winning cheeses and 34 varieties made in small batches using traditional recipes to maintain the old flavors. I didn’t know until today that the kind of cheese depends on the culture added when the cheese is first made.

Our side trip to taste cheese and watch it made seemed like a great thing to do in an area that owed it’s history and economy to the dairy industry. We arrived late in the afternoon and the cheese makers were just emptying the last vat of cheese, but the young woman at the counter explained the whole process to us while we snacked on tiny tidbits of the tastiest cheese I have tried yet. Especially wonderful was the organic all natural white cheddar, aged about a year and a half so far, with no hormones or antibiotics fed to the cows. It turned out to be a lovely day seeing new things and new places.