Onyx Tour Day 3 and 4
Onyx Tour Day 3: Drove past the Mendocino Brew company pub in Hopland but is was not yet open for the day :( Got to Avenue of the Giants and drove thru a Redwood (what the hay) . Humboldt Redwoods Founders Grove was amazing. Nice hike surrounded by ancient trees, not too bad. Beer sampler at Eel River Brew was good. Picked up some Barley Wine to age at home. Ferndale was nice but got lost and ended up at Lost Coast Overlook (appropriately) . Walked down to the beach through a thistle field (ouch) and played a bit before noticing the lovely riptides (ouch again). Drove to Arcata and had dinner at Six Rivers Brew. They had an amazing kona coffee porter that the barmaid gave me by mistake. She was horrible but at least one of her mistakes was tasty. It was karaoke night (joy @#$%) Oddly saw a friend of my son's from Fremont where we lived 10 years ago, weird...
Day 4: Left Eureka with a new growler full of Lost Coast 8-ball stout (for consumption at a later date). Stopped at College Cove beach in Trinidad which was beautiful but picked the rough trail down not knowing there were stairs at the other end. Drove through awe inspiring redwoods with the Mermen blasting. Got to Orick, parked, and headed out on my mountain bike on the road to Fern Canyon in Redwood National Forest. The fork came dangerously loose half mile out which sucked but at least is was not 5 miles out. Plus it was more of a challenge than I expected so driving it was for the best. Fern Canyon was amazing. I understand why they filmed Jurassic Park here. Felt like going back in time. I continued up into the canyon after trail ended and was bombarded with foliage with leaves of 3 (let them be). Coming back to the parking lot the ocean was nearby so walked to a secluded beach in order to wash off potential poison oak exposure. Emerged from water (sans clothes) just as ranger lady drove by in her offroad vehicle. Yikes where were my shorts? Coming out of the woods stopped at a field called Elk’s Meadow to find a huge buck putting on a show for the tourist. Walked right passed my car so I could get some good pictures and video (thanks dude). Drove to Crescent City to check in and found that the local brew pub had closed. Drove up to Oregon briefly to Wild River Pizza to get my microbrew fix and then back to Crescent City for the night.
Day 4: Left Eureka with a new growler full of Lost Coast 8-ball stout (for consumption at a later date). Stopped at College Cove beach in Trinidad which was beautiful but picked the rough trail down not knowing there were stairs at the other end. Drove through awe inspiring redwoods with the Mermen blasting. Got to Orick, parked, and headed out on my mountain bike on the road to Fern Canyon in Redwood National Forest. The fork came dangerously loose half mile out which sucked but at least is was not 5 miles out. Plus it was more of a challenge than I expected so driving it was for the best. Fern Canyon was amazing. I understand why they filmed Jurassic Park here. Felt like going back in time. I continued up into the canyon after trail ended and was bombarded with foliage with leaves of 3 (let them be). Coming back to the parking lot the ocean was nearby so walked to a secluded beach in order to wash off potential poison oak exposure. Emerged from water (sans clothes) just as ranger lady drove by in her offroad vehicle. Yikes where were my shorts? Coming out of the woods stopped at a field called Elk’s Meadow to find a huge buck putting on a show for the tourist. Walked right passed my car so I could get some good pictures and video (thanks dude). Drove to Crescent City to check in and found that the local brew pub had closed. Drove up to Oregon briefly to Wild River Pizza to get my microbrew fix and then back to Crescent City for the night.