Day 30 Brief Update

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Hey friends, I am currently in Santa Rosa, CA staying with a friend of my Mom’s (and now mine!) and am getting ready to push on to Yosemite manana!!! After that it’s more friends in Walnut Creek (SF Bay Area), then PCH through Steinbeck Country, SB, LA, SD, PHX… Here is a brief update. Will give thorough update from SD sometime after 9/14. I have taken two GB of photos, and though I know every picture = 1000 words, I am not sure how many words are in a GB.


8/25-8/27 ~ Crater Lake NP, OR
Here, I met some very cool people doing something amazing. There is a hiking trail called the Pacific Crest Trail, and it runs from Mexico to Canada through CA, OR, WA. On late summer evenings and mornings in Mazama village, where I camped, if you go to the camp store/showers/laundry, you will find real adventurers, organizing their supplies for the next day of hiking. One morning, I met Bams and Lucky and they filled this wide-eyed car camper with envy. The next night, I met Dave and Becky. I tried not to bug them at the end of such a long day, but they were really friendly. Did you know that once you send a priority mail package, you can “bounce” (forward) it endlessly? That’s how many of the PCT hikers manage supplies! I don’t know about you, but I am never buying a suitcase again. Dave and Becky have a blog at www.trailjournals.com (the first people listed under current hikers of the PCT). Also check out www.pcta.org.

Other highlights were watching the PCTers and the fire fighters digging each other. It went sort of like “hiking 3ooo miles is boring, tell us about fighting forest fires.” “Walking through forest fires is pretty tame, tell us about the PCT.” Needless to say, I kept pretty quiet in that conversation. Thankfully they both had digital cameras, and we all sat huddled around little LCD screens sharing some amazing sites. I resisted busting out Andrew’s 1000 pictures of 10 sunsets.

Hiking Mt. Scott to watch the sunset over the lake was wonderful, as was hiking down in the dark, seeing only as far as my headlight, and singing my new bear song.

8/28 - 8/29 ~ Jebediah Smith State Park (Redwoods), CA
What can I say about camping out in an old growth redwood forest? I could try to describe it to you, but would fail miserably. A little different than the desert. I tried to catch a banana slug, but as you can probably guess, they move wat too quickly for me. Had great neighbors from OH/OR, who fed me spaghetti and beer, and we stayed up all night philosophizing, singing, arm wrestling, and trading slang words across cultures with two male slappers/wankers from London 😉

8/30 ~ Crescent City, CA - Redland, CA Best Western
This was meant to be a quick stop for groceries and stickers for my car (no redwood stickers?) but turned out to be a reunion with the Pacific Ocean at Anchor Bay (I think I saw whales!) and talking to family and friends on the phone. Did not leave until way too late, which meant it was hard to drive after dark. I-5 has some crazy high-speed mountain passes, and I was beat by the time I got to Redland. Jebediah had no showers, so the sound of a hotel was extra appealing. I cheated and did not check out until 11 the next day (could not turn off HBO). Remind me to sell my TV when I get home.

8/31 ~ Whiskeytown/Shasta, CA
Camped at what I thought was Shasta Lake, but was Whiskeytown lake instead. Did a nice hike to whiskey falls and and I have video of a wild animal (weiner dog on leash) scarring my pants off. Did have a terrifying bear scare later that night - have never been so scared in my life. Will write more about that one later for sure.

9/1 - 9/3 ~ Santa Rosa, CA
Last minute change of plans to skip Tahoe area on labor day weekend and lucked into an awesome weekend with friends of my Mom. Highlights were hanging around brilliant, creative, all around good people happy to advise; and a party I just got back from that was on a random ridge between Sonoma, Napa, Sunset (with fog), Moonrise, and views of the SF Bay. Live band (CCR-Santana-Tom Petty-Sublime…). Walk through the vineyard chatting and eating grapes off the vine, culminating with a top 3 sunset and star/citylights gazing. Lowlight was realizing my Mom may have cooler friends than I (accept my friends reading this of course 😊

Next stop, Yosemite!

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Comments

[Eli]

none
Good luck on Half Dome!

[Sandra]

Excitement
Drew reading your adventures send me somewhere else. I remember the States being diverse but I guess I did not really take full advantage. You know that the offer stands if you come through Honduras some day, there are some pretty amazing things here that I know you would like. Keep us updated love reading every word! Keep safe and enjoy!!!

[Ken Cohen]

Baseball bat
Andrew, Looks like the bear didn't want to play ball. What are the details of the terrifying bear experience? It sounds pretty cool now that nothing bad happened. Yes, the redwoods are a surrealistic heaven on earth. I'd say the their environment is a bit better than a cubicle in a mortgage company. Good for you Andrew. You are really doing it. As we say in spanish, Mazel Tov! I finshed the book THE ETERNAL LIFE:Philosophy and Consciousness: Text and Poems. I'm about to make up 1000 copies. I hope you like it when you get a chance to read it. I'll keep following your trail, at least , electronically. Happy and healthy trails Ken