Southern Oregon to Northern California
October 2004
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After spending another night in Reedsport, we continued south camping at Harris State Park just north of Brookings Oregon. On our way, we stopped in Port Orford and bumped into a very nice local surfer who told us he had been surfing the Oregon coast for 45 years. He had a lot of good info on surfing in areas where White Sharks frequent and even shared his very own Great White close encounter. Needless to say, we decided to leave the boards on the roof and stick to driving. When we arrived at the campground we immediately noticed that it was one of the nicest we had seen on our journey. They actually had cable TV hookups at some of the sites for people traveling in their TV laden RVs. We realized pretty quickly that there were two types of campers – those who huddled around the cable TV in their RVs and those who huddled around the campfire. We are definitely in the ladder category!
The next morning, we drove into California and found a spot to camp at Big Lagoon County Park near Trinidad. We thought we might be able to stay a couple nights at Darryl and Tina’s (Sarah’s Dad and Step-mom) cabin that night, but it was booked through the end of the month. We were actually kind of excited to stay at the campground since we were denied the privilege (campground full) when we rolled through Trinidad on our way back from picking up the van two summers ago. We grabbed some grub in Trinidad and went to Moonstone beach. We opted to stay out of the water since the waves looked pretty bad.
From Trinidad, we headed south on Highway One to Fort Bragg where we camped near Cleone at MacKerricher S.P. where we met up with another couple traveling in a 4x4 Sportsmobile from San Clemente, CA. They told us all about their adventures bogging the Lost Coast and sea kayaking in the area. I woke up to the sound of rain in the middle of the night which was a change from the days of sun we had been enjoying. The days drive from Fort Bragg to Bodega Bay would be a winding, storming adventure down Highway One. Luckily, the rain stopped before we got to Sonoma Coast St. Beach where we camped for the night. We called our friends who live in San Francisco, Dave and Michele Williamson, from the campground and brainstormed about what we wanted to do the next day as we hiked the dunes toward the ocean. We decided that we wanted to head inland to see if we could take a tour of a winery depending on Dave and Michelle’s plans.
They called us back the next morning, while Sarah was off on a photo hike with Bruce. Luckily, I heard the phone ring as we were breaking camp the next morning and talked to Dave. He told us that they had no plans other than to go climbing at the local climbing gym after work. We agreed to meet up after our day’s adventure through the Sonoma wine country. With our plan set in motion, we headed up the 116 along the Russian River and pulled over at the Korbel Winery for a tour and, of course, free tastings. We learned so much about the history of the area, the Korbel brothers and the champagne making process. Our guide was wonderful and she pointed us in he direction of an award winning vintage. We ended up buying a couple of bottles to open at Thanksgiving dinner in Tempe. Afterwards, we had some lunch (Tri-tip, caramelized onions and Gorgonzola on a good San Fran Sourdough rolls) and hit the 101 toward San Francisco to meet our friends. We arrived at the Mission Cliffs climbing gym to a smiling Dave Williamson. Michelle joined us and I got a half hour worth of arm pumping going in the enormous gym. Sarah and I shared feelings of being overwhelmed at being in the city again after weeks of un-crowded camping and wandering. We settled down over some great Indian food a few minutes walk from David and Michelle’s place (Naan n’ Curry) and conversation with friends. We spent the next day lazing around their beautiful apartment and surrounding neighborhood with Bruce while doing laundry and updating our website. In the evening our friends treated us to take out Sushi and Saki during some photo sharing and a great video of one of David and Michelle’s honeymoon dives. We are incredibly grateful for the time we have had with them and their wonderful hospitality.
We plan to keep rolling toward Southern California by way of Santa Cruz, Monterrey and Big Sur, in time to cast our absentee ballots (thanks James, for sending them on). We hope you are all doing well and we look forward to running in to all of you at some point.
Until then, via con Dios! – Eric & Sarah