Posts from the ‘States’ Category

Jul 6

Portola Redwoods State Park

Portola Redwoods State Park is great park located about 30 minutes from our home in HMB. We had not yet visited, so Kelly and I took Lilly there to explore the area today.

Welcome to the park

Like other California state parks, most of the trails are off-limits to dogs, but fortunately dogs on-leash are permitted on paved roads. This is not one of California’s giant parks which if you’re a dog owner I think is an asset. Most of the roads are quite narrow and open mostly to park vehicles, effectively making them more like a path in the woods. Utilizing a retractable leash, Lilly was able to easily access plenty of interesting things to sniff.

Giant Redwoods

This particular park is mostly a tent campground, although there were some smaller RV’s and trailers present. The park literature suggests that no trailers longer than 20′ enter the grounds. I do think that a few sites could accommodate our 27′ trailer, but I would not even try as navigating through the park with a trailer of that length in tow would be a real challenge. It’s times like these when a pimped-out Class-B would be perfect.

Water tank

In our case that is not an option, so I think we will return with a tent and partake in some really nice car camping.

I’ll also note that there is absolute no voice or data coverage – the giant Redwood trees block all access. Consequently, don’t come here if you’re looking to work remotely and need connectivity.

A giant banana slug – very common on the park

All in all, this is a really nice park, especially given the close proximity to HMB. There are a number of really interesting trails and if dogs were allowed, this place might be perfect for us.

Lilly and I crawling atop a felled tree

Kelly being Kelly

Campground amphitheater

Abandoned ranger house

Abandoned fire fighting equipment

One of the park’s bridges

This guy has seen better days

Jul 5

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Never Again

Yesterday our plan was to drive south along the coast and nestle ourselves into a quiet dispersed site located in the foothills about 40 miles of Big Sur. We left HMB early in the morning with hopes of avoiding holiday traffic, but also in order to arrive to our campsite with ample time to celebrate America’s birthday.

What should have been a simple 3 hours or so of driving proved to be just the opposite. Who knew that on arguably the largest outdoor holiday of the year, hundreds of people flock the beautiful HW1 in rented convertible Mustangs and other ‘touring’ coupes appropriate to perfect sunny conditions. Add to mix, minivans filled to maximum capacity with camera-totting families and other tourists keen to stop at every scenic vista, and just for fun toss in lots of touring bicyclists* … our plans quickly went to hell.

But that was the good part of our day.

A few hours later than anticipated, we finally arrived to the Los Padres National Forest, and begin ascending towards the campsite. Unfortunately, the campsite was a bit too remote. In addition to a series of steep switchbacks, the road quickly narrowed, often single-land in size. More, I was increasingly concerned about our ability to actually clear the roads. Don’t forget, we were pulling our home – there is no room for error. Finally, I was increasingly concerned with the quickly rising transmission temperatures accompanying the very steep road.

At one point I actually pulled onto a turnout, unhitched the trailer and continued driving towards the campsite. While a major pain in the ass, this decision proved to be a good one as we would not have made it much further with the trailer as the roads were simply too windy to accommodate a truck/trailer combo of our length. Further, we would not have had any place to safely attempt a turn-around.

What a cluster-fuck.

After a bit of arguing about what to do next, Kelly and I devised a game-plan. We decided to visit s few of the state parks which litter the coastline in hopes that maybe – just maybe – one of them had a cancellation we could use. If so, perhaps we could salvage the weekend.

We are so naive – no way that was happening. This is the 4th of July – every yahoo and their dog is visiting a state park this weekend, no less the highly coveted parks literally a stones throw from the ocean. We would have had better odds finding an atheist attending church.

Inconveniently, about this same time we were running low on gas and fortunately for us we happened to be about 7 miles from the only gas station for nearly the next 60 miles. At $6.79 per gallon (for regular) they were happily selling to anyone buying. What’s not to love about capitalism and the laws of supply and demand?

Never again will we allow ourselves to be without a secured location on a major summer holiday. Recognizing failure, we accepted defeat with our heads low and decided to return home. Unfortunately, as captured within the pictures below, the traffic was horrific.

But at least the views were nice.

Northbound – slow going.

The long snaking of cars to the south.

So to recap the day – we didn’t find any super awesome serene campsite, paid exorbitant prices for gas, and drove 320 miles to nowhere, only to return to our RV park full which is packed with knuckleheads burning campfires spewing more smoke than fire.

* While I am absolutely a huge advocate of cycling and one day hope to complete a major bike tour of myself, I felt many of these cyclists simply didn’t mix well with the added traffic to the already overcrowded HW1.

Jun 9

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Morning Hike

Hiking the trails at McNee Ranch State Park

Itching to get outside, Kelly and I took Lilly out for 2-hour hike this morning, our destination being McNee Ranch State Park.

Located roughly fifteen minutes north of our base in HMB, about half of the park’s trails hug the famous Highway-1, offering breathtaking views of the coastline. High above the road, the sights from the ocean-view trails today were hit-and-miss, as was the weather … the result of a lazy Sunday morning marine layer which hadn’t yet burned itself away.

Despite the lack of consistent sun, the walk proved to be a great start to our day.

Jun 2

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Good Times Ending

Yesterday Kelly and I accompanied Brian and Leigh on a bit of reconnaissance as they scouted potential boondocking sites near Ashland. These guys are pros when it comes to sniffing-out free camp sites, that is those locations offering a blend of beauty, no costs, and quality WiFi. Kelly and I find ourselves increasingly attracted to these type locations, so we were keen to join them.

Initial site located.

We visited a few additional locations before moving onto the Grizzly Peak Trail for a nice tree-lined hike and more good conversation.

Baker Mountain

Clowning around on the Grizzly Trail

After the hike we had plans for dinner – sadly the week was ending, but not before one final meal and more swapping of stories.

Enjoying our last supper

Our week with Brian and Leigh has been really great. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and earlier today, Kelly and I parted ways with our traveling buddies – we are headed south to Half Moon Bay and they continue onward in their crawl towards Canada.

We cannot wait to meet-up again.