The Madaket is a ferry boat that retired when they built the bridge to Samoa... Now it has narrated cruises looking at Humboldt Bay... Mostly the North end and central part of the bay. We live at the South end. The captain tells us the history...
Scenes photographed from the boat...
My Brother and I at Woodley Island Marina in front of
The Maritime Memorial for Sailors Lost at Sea.
We discovered a "secret" beach in Fairhaven that no one ever goes to on a boatride. As we passed Fairhaven on the North Jetty, I saw the beach and a road... later I looked it up on Google Maps and figured out how to get there. We were all alone except for a man in a kayak cruising by.
The North Jetty itself. Bring sensible shoes so we can walk to the end where the dolos are... be aware that sometimes the waves are so large that it would be dangerous to walk on the jetty... but you can watch from the top of the sand dunes.
Giles by the Bay restaurant in King Salmon. It is at the end of the small peninsula that is right next to our house. The restaurant is not spectacular but I often park there to walk around and look at the house, bay, boats... There is a good swimming/wading beach there. In the afternoons in the summer the water is warm enough to swim in... It's a bay... The Ocean is simply too cold.
Trinidad: Pier, Beach and the fabulous restaurant. There is a marine life museum and classrooms from Humboldt State. A great trip as they have working example of the Hydrogen Fuel Cells invented at Schatz Laboratory HSU. They are participating in radioactivity monitoring from Fukushima. In co-operation with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. http://www.humboldt.edu/marinelab/
(Take the Trinidad exit off of Hwy 101, head west on Main St., turn left on Trinity St., right on Edwards St., and right on Ewing St. as the road veers left.)
I looked at both active tree-sit ecology actions. Too long of a hike to get to where they are... and in my humble opinion... How can I really get excited about protesting logging way off in the woods? It is delicate balance between providing boards for construction and saving the trees... This ecology action does not motivate me.
Mattole: There is a great drive to the end of the road... but... it's trespassing for a mile or so... and that's too far. The drive goes from the Avenue of the Giants towards the Mattole river and The Lost Coast... Ending in Victorian Ferndale. This is a road that is NOT visible on Google Streetview. Bull Creek Flats Road... in Humboldt Redwoods State Park... to Mattole road and the town of Honeydew... Out there is a Sobriety Retreat on top of a mountain with a giant cross made from two large trees... I took a picture there and captured the spirit of that moment... close to the clouds in a big wind...
The other Tree-Sit is at Strawberry Rock near Trinidad. Take the Trinidad exit and instead of turning left and going to Trinidad, go straight ahead at the end of the off ramp and follow the Frontage road that parallels Highway 101 all the way to the end... That's where the trail starts... Link to a map.
Mount Saint Mercy Retreat
click on the images to see them bigger
Here in Eureka, CA there is a zoo in the middle of a redwood forest. There are wild bears that live in the forest and there are bears in the cages at the zoo... If someone would just let the caged bears go they could live in the woods with the other bears... unless they have been so institutionalized by convict life that they can't survive outside of prison. Sequoia Park Zoo.
Where are the really great parties?
Free and Wonderful Events?
Please add your favorites to Comments section...
I would like to promote events that are free and wonderful. For Example: The Rainbow Gathering, Kinetic Sculpture Race, North Country Fair and Humboldt Folklife Festival. All we need to know is a date and a location. Please share info and I'll blog the fun things to do. If you know of an event, please comment or email me... gregvan@yahoo.com Thanks....
My College Painting Class on a Field Trip to
Woodley Island Marina.
We took our easels and paints and created ART.
Free Concerts On HSU Campus at Noon by the Clock Tower.
"Jammers League" every performance had different players
This is a historic train in Scotia, California. A beautiful town completely owned by MAXXAM. [until they went bankrupt] Sort of like a stage set, it is entirely built of redwood lumber with columns made from entire trees with the bark intact. Come visit sometime and be sure to go on the factory tour. It is the largest building in California. MAXXAM did a corporate raider takeover using Michael Milken junk bonds and is proceeding to cut down old growth redwood as fast as possible and take all the profit and move it to Texas. After all the profitable trees are gone then it's time for bankruptcy... Just like they did with Kaiser Aluminum. and that's exactly what they did... now it's all owned by the Fisher Family [most famous for The Gap clothing stores]
Kinetic Sculpture Race. June Moxon's Cat
more pictures of Eureka and Arcata at:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/search?q=Arcata
or
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/search?q=Eureka
My Truck and the Magic Bus
near Lolita, CA
These pictures were taken behind the Bayshore Shopping Mall. Where there is a huge abandoned building that has been decorated by grafitti artists... It made me think of the CyberPunk science fiction novels by William Gibson where all the action takes place in San Francisco after the collapse of western civilization due to lack of oil. These machines would fit perfectly because they are entirely bicycle powered...
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photo of graffiti in The Shipwreck an abandoned roadside attraction just South of Eureka in King Salmon
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Bear Tales: Our family loved to go camping in the woods... and so, we met bears. Walk away backwards slowly and let them eat your Lunch.
We lived in Eureka on the edge of a forest that was about 5 miles to the next house. Many animals lived in those woods including bears, a fox, deer, raccoons and skunks. The only time I saw a bear was when I was standing in my kitchen looking out the window at the parking lot. The bear just walked slowly past and I was really glad to be indoors. That bear killed the neighbor's dog. I assume that the dog was annoying and barking at the bear... that's a mistake you don't do twice.
We enjoyed the deer so much that we bought a salt lick at the feed store. The deer really loved it as not only did it have salt but it also had seeds to eat. We put it in the meadow next door to the house and that's how we got to see the fox... In general, animals are afraid of humans but if you buy them Lunch... that's a different story.
Once a skunk came into the house thru the cat door and hid behind the record player cabinet. I took a roll of Christmas Wrapping paper and poked the skunk and it left without spraying. LUCKY!
We had three cats and they were free to go outdoors at will. I became especially fond of Shasta the cat. He was a disobedient large male cat. I am a disobedient large male human so we got along great. When it came time to go to the VET he and I would wrestle and when I won I put him in the cat carrier. It was not obvious that I would win the fight.
When he got really old he became blind and during the last week of his life he would walk forward until he hit a wall then turn right or left and walk forward until he hit another wall. He repeated this blind walk for hours... I had to clean my room so that there were not any corners because in a corner he became stuck... turning right or left did no good in a corner. So I walked around the house throwing away trash and straightening us the clothes on the floor etc FOR HOURS! It was as if Shasta the Cat was doing his "Forever walk" and I too was on the same wavelength... Sometimes he would lie down and not move and so I sat down and looked at him and I did not move. I was retired from work at this time so I had all the time in the world to meditate with my friend.
Eventually he walked into a storage room and hid under a pile of clothes and did not move. I assumed that he was dead but I wasn't so rude as to POKE him to find out for sure. A couple of days later he walked out of that room and continued his blind "Forever walk"... I figured that he had regained his health and so I went on a driving vacation to Chico. He died a couple of days later.
BUT, we had a very meaningful week together.
Shasta had a sister named Meadow that we got at work in Chico. Miss Vicki was working at United Healthcare as a Data Entry Operator and another employee had a litter. I was assigned the task of Naming the cats and I wanted to name them after the Native American Sacred Spring on Mount Shasta at Panther Meadow... Miss Vicki overruled the name Panther because one simply does not name a housecat - lion, panther, lynx, tiger - so they became Shasta and Meadow... Meadow is still alive.
I made a Youtube film of Shasta... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQUHWAVDTv0
A family of raccoons lived under our house. Evidently the bathtub leaked and it was a good source of drinking water. They really freaked out Miss Vicki as they made a scary scratching sound whenever someone would go into the bathroom.
Read more of my autobiography at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html
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