I recovered from my funk today. I had a good day of hiking in Redwood National and State Parks. I pluralize parks because the Redwood National Park area is actually comprised of national park land and 3 or 4 different California state parks. For instance, my campground is actually in Del Norte Coast State Park and I did some hiking yesterday in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Come to think of it I really didn't spend that much time in the National Park itself except as I was driving through on the highway.
My first hike of the day was the Damnation Creek Trail in Del Norte Coast State Park. The trail descended 1000 ft. over 2.1 miles through old growth redwoods down to the coast. The fog was still lingering in the trees as I passed through the forest and made for what I hope will be some pretty cool pictures. The beach was pretty rocky where the trail ended but I hiked up the beach a half mile or so and found a nice stretch of black sand. It was very cool to walk down the beach and then look back and see only my footprints in the sand.
I was thinking while I was on the beach how ironic it is that I've spent so much time hiking to coast when there have been numerous opportunities to just stop at the beach as I'm driving past. Why hike 2 miles to the beach when you can just hike 200 ft from a parking lot? It wasn't until I was walking through the black sand yesterday that I finally understood the answer. Solitude. It is just a totally different experience walking down the beach all alone then it is to be surrounded by other people with the noise of the highway ever present.
One of the reasons that I chose the damnation creek trail was because I had several people tell me how difficult it was. I guess if you are from coastal California then 1000 ft. of elevation change over 2.1 miles sounds like a lot. For a guy that is used to hiking in the mountains in Utah it really didn't sound that bad. The weekend before I left for this trip I hiked a trail in Maple Canyon that ascended 5000 ft. in 5.1 miles. There was quite a bit of elevation change on the damnation creek trail but the switchbacks were cut so tight that it really wasn't much of a problem. As I was hiking back up the trail from the coast I was moving at almost a jogging pace.
My next hike was a 3.7 mile loop made of 3 different trails in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. It was actually recommended to me by a ranger at the visitor's center who was all amazed that I would still want to do more hiking after doing the Damnation Creek Trail. I decided to take my time on this trail and just kind of meandered through the woods. It was really nice.
I just got the warning that my laptop battery is low so I'll have to see how much more I can type before the laptop totally quits.
After hiking I decided to head back into town to see a movie. It's been nearly a week and a half since I've seen a move which is rather unprecedented for me :) I ended up seeing the “40 Year Old Virgin”. It was actually pretty funny. Granted the humor was mostly targeted at 13 year old boys but I guess every once in a while that's not horrible. It was a little scary how I could relate to the main character. Of course I'm not a virgin, but being on a 5 year drought I might as well be.
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