Day 25 and 26......Trinidad, Avenue of the Giants, Willow Creek and Reno....
6/12/2012
A great night at the Big Lagoon State Park. Shortly after my last “blog” was finished, and faint and quaint voiced uttered “excuse me......I was just wondering how your trailer handles”. I turned around from my table and discovered the voice belonged to a young lass named Cindy. She was traveling from Portland to San Fran on a motorcycle as well. No trailer, and very spartan in her accommodations, she had the hammock assembly. No tent....Just a hammock hung between two trees, and a tarp. She was quite impressed with my plethora of stuff! Even more excited when she realized I had a coffee maker!! We hung out for a while, drank some beers, talked about photography, as she is a retouch artist. Soon the sun was setting over the lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, so we ventured out to the beach....
Up early to see the sunrise.
Cindy was traveling South, as well as I, so we made plans to ride together for a while, and left camp about 9:00am. Met up with Dennis, or better known as 2dawind in Trinidad, and he graciously showed us around the area.....First stop was a Marina near Eureka....
Then made it across the bay into Eureka, and checked out the very historic town. Some very cool buildings!!
Cindy's ride "Marilyn"...
Another quick stop in Ferndale,
then we traveled South to ride the Avenue of the Giants. An incredible ride through part of the famed Redwood Forest.
Finished our ride and Cindy headed South towards Fort Bragg, and Dennis and I headed back north up 101 enroute to his home in Willow Creek. Had a great dinner and some brews, and then showed him a bit about how I create HDR images.
After 25 days, was finally heading East! The return trip had begun. (or so I thought). Departed Willow Creek about 8:30 with Dennis in the lead, and we traveled along California 299. This is/was Bigfoot area. No sightings to report of the creature, but did see a few business named after the legend. Stopped for coffee at the Straw House, along the Trinity River. Great place!
It was time for Dennis to head back West, and time for me to continue East towards Reno.
Hey, I had to make it into this shot in only two seconds!!
I could tell the temp was gradually increasing. And it did quickly. Near Whiskeytown, I pulled off into a recreation area, to check out a damn, and loose my jacket and chaps. Here I discovered the biggest Glory Hole ever!!
Perhaps Moby Dick was a former resident of these waters!!
A nice ride into Redding, Susanville, and soon was in Reno. After 5 days on the road and about 1500 miles, I decided on Reno, as one can find very cheap rooms. About 63 bucks for two nights at Harrah's. Not a big gambler, but won about 30.00 bucks on black jack in about 5 minutes so my net for the two days will be 30.00!! Yipee!
Strolled a bit around Reno, and made a few images.....
And the view from my room....
I am on a no smoking floor, but I didn't see any signs about no cooking.........
Nothing like fresh bacon in the room!!
Going to hang low tomorrow, perhaps take a early ride around Lake Tahoe, then plan the rest of my route. Going to take the “loneliest” through Nevada, and from there, who knows!!
