Californian Coast

So the last couple of days have been amazing.  I left Bandon Thursday morning, and continued my journey south.  I stopped in Port Orford for breakfast.  The diner I stopped at was awesome.  I say awesome, not because it was quirky or the food was out of this world, but because the atmosphere seemed straight out of a movie.  It had all the elements, the sour waitress, the quirky cook, the regulars, and even a crazy old woman who was treating a doll like a baby.  I sat at the breakfast bar enjoying my heart attack special, enjoying the banter between all parties.  My destination today is Crescent City, which is pretty much the first city you come too in California from Oregon.  Here I intended on getting information about the nearby Redwood National Forrest, and depending on time go for a walks or run.  As it turned out I did have time.

I was recommeded the 'Damnation Creek' trail for the afternoon, so I got into my running kit and drove out there.  The trail was about 4miles long, basically 2miles down, then the same back up. I ran down, and ran/walked the way up.  I did unfortunately have some misfortune.  While setting up a photo of my self running, my camera fell off its perch about a meter to the ground, smashing the lens.  I was pissed, not only would I have to replace the lens, I would, be without a camera till then.  I had been saving all my photo ops for the trip back up the trail cause I knew I woud be walking. So many opportunities wasted.  The trail itself was pretty neat.  It started off going through some stands of massive red woods, the further down the mountain to a more coastal flora.  The trail ended where the creek met the ocean.  I had thought to go for a swim, hoever it was a rocky beach, so I thought otherwise.  Following that, I drove back to Crescent City and took a scenic drive through the Jebediah Smith Redwoods State Park to Stout Grove.   This drive was pretty special as it went through many stands of redwoods.  I stopped off for a quick walk, which turned out to be a bit long, thanks to a dad shortcut.

The next day was off to the Prairie Creek Redwoods State park.  I had decided to do a 4-5 hour hike.  I chose the 'Miners Ridge' trail, which took me to the beach, which I walked down a couple of miles before heading back song the 'James Irvine' trail.  This state park is old growth forest, and the size of the trees here were phenomenal,  Also of note was 'Fern Canyon' which was a canyon eroded by a creek, whose walls was completely covered in ferns.  I walked right up the middle.  I would have taken many photos, but my lens was smashed.  I think the walk ended up being around 12miles.

After the walk, I headed to Eureka to replace my broken lens.  I then had to bolt to San Francisco, as I thought I had to get to a hockey game on Saturday night.  Not much to note about the drive, except I crossed the Golden Gate bridge.  I stayed in Palo Alto overnight.

This morning, I started my drive to Los Angeles cruising past the Stanford Linear Accelerator, which was pretty cool, then on my way to highway 1, took a fantastic mountain drive.  Very fun.

I am currently sitting on a rock on a bit of coastline just south of Notleys Landing.  Highway 1 hugs this coastline, I am not entirely sure I will make LA tonight, I keep on needing to stop...