Coastal Trail and Friendship Ridge Trail

 
Saturday: (10/10) Granola and bacon for breakfast. We all headed out Davison Road to Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon about 1000.

 
They have already removed the bridges in Fern Canyon so it was a wading trek for Lou and Dawn and some careful crossing and balancing acts by me to keep my feet dry. We went all the way up the canyon then I left them to find their way back and I hurried out and then up the Coastal Trail to the West Ridge Trail onto the Friendship Ridge Trail and back home on the James Irvin Trail.

 
I like the prairie like areas under the bluffs by the beach. The Coastal trail wanders through that prairie and along the bottom of the bluffs in the trees.

  
The West Ridge Trail departs the beach via the stairs on the left above. There is a good climb up the ridge through the forest and past interesting old giants.

 
A total of about 16.5 miles today.

On Lou and Dawn’s return from the beach they picked up a couple of hikers, Phil and Meia. They had been camping on the beach. Today it is rainy so they appreciated a ride back from the beach. They all had lunch at the Palm Cafe. When I returned about 1700, they were all chatting under the awning of the RV out of the rain. My hike was rather wet either from the rain or from the wet plants overgrowing the trail. Did you know a single fern plant seems to hold about a gallon of water, or so my wet clothes seem to indicate. We all had dinner under the canopy in the rain which turned into a real downpour later in the evening. Dawn and Phil both told some stories. Lou made a chicken artichoke and rice dish with a green salad for dinner. Lou is practicing being a trail angel.

Here is the GPS track.

Skunk Cabbage Trail

Friday: (10/09) Lou fixed black berry pancakes with sausage for breakfast.

 
She then dropped me off at the Skunk Cabbage Trailhead. I hiked out to the beach, about 4.5 miles.

 
Then up the beach about 5.2 miles on the Coastal Trail to the Miners Ridge Trailhead and back to camp, 6.8 miles with a little side trip on the nature trail.

 
Above along the Miners Ridge Trail.

 
I really liked the gargoyle burl on the right above.

Mushrooms in competition with my shoes.

It was a total of about 16.5 miles today. A nice shower and some food and all was good. Lou and Dawn returned from Orick about an hour later. They had stopped for a late lunch at the Palm Cafe. I enjoyed their leftovers, part of a steak sandwich and fries.

Here is the GPS track.

Arrived At Prairie Creek Redwoods SP

 
Thursday: (10/08) No breakfast and we departed quickly. We arrived at Prarrie Creek Redwood State park a little after 1100. After settling in to our campsite Lou prepared breakfast, leftover home fried potatoes with bacon and eggs. We relaxed the rest of the day. I fixed chili sizes for dinner.
GPS: 41.359056, -124.029883

Eureka, We Found Redwood Acres

Tuesday: (10/06) The RV Park at the fairgrounds has the cleanest bathroom / shower rooms we’ve had the pleasure to use. We were on the road after breakfast and stopped in Garberville for lunch. We arrived in Eureka at the Redwood Acres Fairgrounds RV Park and setup camp for a couple of nights. Pancakes for breakfast. Sandwiches for lunch. Hamburgers for dinner.

Wednesday: (10/07) We visited a couple of second hand stores and i walked around a little. Dawn visited a bookstore downtown. Pretty much a typical city visit. We did a little final shopping. The markets in Orick aren’t, while adequate, don’t have every thing we’d like. I fixed home fried potatoes with sausage and eggs for breakfast. Dawn substituted fried butternut squash which Lou prepared. Lunch at Marie Calendars, just pie and tea. Dinner at the Somoa Cookhouse, the last remaining lumber camp cookhouse in America. For some reason we always eat there at least once on every visit to Eureka.

On The Road Again

Monday: (10/05) Enjoyed the Sunday morning shows. Dawn made smoothies for breakfast. I had to pack to leave. Also needed to file the taxes I had finished. That turned out to be more difficult than it needs to be but finally both returns were successfully eFiled. I took the RV out to fill the LPG tank, completed packing and we finally pulled out about 1430, not an early start. Traffic wasn’t too bad even though we were into the home bound rush traffic. We stopped in Rohnert Park at Freidman Brothers Hardware to stretch our legs when the traffic got really bad at 1730. After dinner we were back on the road about 1930. We continued on to Ukiah and stopped for the night at the fairgrounds. Lou made a stir fried dinner.

Silicon Valley Code Camp

 
Saturday: (10/03) I was up early to head down to Evergreen Valley College in South San Jose to the Silicon Valley Code Camp. It’s their first time there. usually it’s been at Foothill College in Los Altos, a lot easier to get to. I stopped for breakfast at Jack In The Box on the way. Some interesting sessions for me today. ChromeCast, Office 365 API, oAuth, Rgular Expressions. They even provide lunch. More tomorrow. The last session ended after 1800. When I got back to the car, the fob wouldn’t open the doors, a sign of a problem. The battery was dead. The auto shutoff of the headlights didn’t turn them off. It’s the second time it’s happened to me. About 1930 I was on my way  after the battery was jumped. it’s the first time they’ve used the tiny battery no bigger than a laptop computers brick power supply. Amazing. I stopped at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner on the way home. Lou’s ankle is still bad.

 
Sunday: (10/04) Day two of the code camp. Breakfast from L&L Hawaiian. Some nice presentations on mobile application security flaws, bitcoin, setting up Linux servers, and more. Dawn was attending a comic book show in San Jose today. Lou was getting ready for us to depart in the RV. Dinners as different. Lou made a spinach casserole and it was served with bread pudding. I topped that with a hot dog sandwich.

Walkabout To Marin Headlands

Friday: (10/02) I was off on the train early after I enjoyed one of Dawn’s smoothie breakfasts. I arrived in San Francisco just after 1000. I caught the trolley to Market Street then walked through China Town.

 
I found a nice bakery along Stockton Street and picked up a couple of egg tarts. My favorite Dim Sum restaurant on Broadway was closed the last couple of times I’ve passed by. Looked permanent but today when I passed it was open again. I picked up some pork footballs there to complete lunch. I then caught a bus out into the Marina District and walked Chesnut Street out to the Palace Of Fine Arts.

 
I continued on through the Presidio’s Crissy Field to the Golden Gate Bridge and across the bridge.

 
On the North end of the bridge I browsed at some of the old gun emplacements above the bridge and along the headlands.

 
I then hiked West to Kirby Cove on the Marin Headlands.

I then walked back the same way I had come out. I caught a look at the zipper truck moving the barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge. I caught a bus at the SF side of the bridge back to Chesnut Street and walked the street then caught a but to North Beach for pizza and beer at the Golden Boy Pizza shop. Then I caught a but back to the train station where I walked right on to the train, the last passenger to board as it pulled out immediately. Perfect timing. I was home about 2000. Lou took a bad step today and turned her ankle.