Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Another lazy (ha!) day 6.25.08

It was cold & overcast again this morning - go figure! When it's overcast outside, it's hard to tell what time it is when you're laying inside the nice warm sleeping bag in the tent. Michael is the 6-7am guy where I can easily sleep in most every morning. But this morning, even Michael slept in. By the time we were up & around, it was about 11!


I'll share a funny story - I woke up & hurried out of the tent up to the public bathrooms. I was still in my PJ's (which were mismatched because of my Poison Oak issue), my hair was still bed-mussed, & I still had my teeth retainers in. I stumbled up to the bathroom, barely able to see as my eyes had not 'woken up' yet, and there were 3 teeny-boppers sitting on the rail outside the bathroom door and the stalls were busy. Wanting to make sure they weren't waiting in line, I turned to them and asked 'Are you waiting?'...the problem was that my voice also wasn't working yet...and what was intended as a considerate question....turned into a very raspy grunt/growl....the girls' eyes turned as big as saucers and they assured me they weren't waiting. I laughed all the way back to the campsite imagining their comments.


So we took off to do a hike one of the Rangers had told us about called the Kalamath Overlook, which was about 10 miles from here. We drove to the spot where we were supposed to park & start the hike, but the temp was still 52 degrees & overcast so we decided to drive the rest of the way. Once at the overlook, the fog was really rolling in & we could barely see the ocean! We met a roving ranger who told us we just missed a bald eagle! The other had his zipper down & we elected to quickly take a couple of pics and move along.


From there, we drove through the town of Kalamath looking for the ever friendly laundromat. Kalamath was not a very welcoming place & the laundromat we found was a bit scary so we headed North to our favorite Crescent City.


On the way, we stopped at the 'Trees of Mystery' which was an area with gondolas that take you up through the canopy of some redwood trees with a trail to the bottom. Because it was so foggy & cold we decided to skip the gondola ride & instead checked out the 'End of the Trail' museum. It's the largest private collections of native american artifacts. There were clothing, pottery, baskets, weapons, & tools that enabled those remarkable cultures to thrive. The tribes in the area are the Yurok & Tolowa groups. At the 'Trees of Mystery' stands Babe the Ox & Paul Bunyan towering above everything else.




Again in Crescent City, we hit the Thai place for lunch (yeah, we're a little bit creatures of habit) and had about an hour's time of internet & phone service while doing laundry. We headed back to camp & played a couple games of dominoes (Michael won both) and had dinner & a campfire with some redwood we purchased in town. We went to the evening 'fireside chat' given by Ranger Jen about 'The darkside of the forest' - about the animals that come out at night. Owls, skunks, foxes, porcupines, bats, opposum, racoons, flying squirrels, and how to safely do a night hike & identify the animals. Ranger Jen even did some fantastic owl sound impressions that were dead on! The presentation & info given was spectacular & she was a great speaker.


More to follow...
Rene

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