Got up late due to staying up late workin on my blog. Whar a great camp (Redwood} this is. Every site is perfect, althoug some are more perfect than others. With the sun and blue sky sneaking through the redwoods, it looked like a great dat ahead.
Got my hands slapped by the volunteer host three time...i did not register when i arrived last night (there were no registration envelopes), Donner was off leash (he was sleeping in the tent until the ingrate came on my site), and i was running my Defender's engine and it was in violation of California No-Idling Code 54-34.567-33.245.67(a)-46730678(d,vi) he recited off the top of his head (i wanted to see if the engine started). I told him, Opps you learn something every day, and went back to packing up. This guy was getting two weeks free vacation in this wonderful park in a huge mobile mansion and he had no sympathy for a poor tenting ucitizen. What has the world come to?
Got on the road lare because Garmin told me i only had 170 miles to Russian Gulch camp, but it changed its min this morning and told me 235 miles.
The first part of the drive, along the coast would have been interesting but for the fog rolling in from the sea. We stopped a few times, but time was short, so we moved on.
The second part of the drive was not interesting at all, inland as it was. I passed up the few coastal scenic alternates i passed not because of the fog or the twisting roads, but tine. Until San Franciso, my only priority is Donner'd sitting on Friday.
At Legget, if you wish to stay on the coastal highway. You have to take a 35 mile road which, having taken in four times now, i think qualifies as the worst road in North America. It twists and turns every 150 feet or less, it climbs hills and goes down hills. one turn looks like 359 degrees. it is narrow with sharp dropoffs, but without guard rails. God forbid that you are navigating a sharp turn when a car is coming in the opposite direction, as happened frequently today, even though the road is lightly travelled. It complicates matters when a car is taligating and you can see the driver getting apolpletuc at you slow speed when there are no turnouts to let them pass. It's bad enough driving this road during the day when the forest makes it look like night except for when the low shoots lasers of sun beams into you eyes and blinds you just as you are going around a curve. Garmin didn't male matters any better when it told me i would continue for six mikes and then then right. Well, the right turn was a sharp curve, and the it would repeat the scam, "in six miles turn left on highway 1." You had nonchoice because there was no option except a ditch or cliff.
I rarely drive at night, and avoid it when i am on the road. Well, night set in at 530 while i was on this God-awful road. Fortunately, very few cars came in the opposite direction to blind me as i negotiated turns, and only a few behind me caused me to pull over at a turnout to let them pass.
Got on the road lare because Garmin told me i only had 170 miles to Russian Gulch camp, but it changed its min this morning and told me 235 miles.
The first part of the drive, along the coast would have been interesting but for the fog rolling in from the sea. We stopped a few times, but time was short, so we moved on.
The second part of the drive was not interesting at all, inland as it was. I passed up the few coastal scenic alternates i passed not because of the fog or the twisting roads, but tine. Until San Franciso, my only priority is Donner'd sitting on Friday.
At Legget, if you wish to stay on the coastal highway. You have to take a 35 mile road which, having taken in four times now, i think qualifies as the worst road in North America. It twists and turns every 150 feet or less, it climbs hills and goes down hills. one turn looks like 359 degrees. it is narrow with sharp dropoffs, but without guard rails. God forbid that you are navigating a sharp turn when a car is coming in the opposite direction, as happened frequently today, even though the road is lightly travelled. It complicates matters when a car is taligating and you can see the driver getting apolpletuc at you slow speed when there are no turnouts to let them pass. It's bad enough driving this road during the day when the forest makes it look like night except for when the low shoots lasers of sun beams into you eyes and blinds you just as you are going around a curve. Garmin didn't male matters any better when it told me i would continue for six mikes and then then right. Well, the right turn was a sharp curve, and the it would repeat the scam, "in six miles turn left on highway 1." You had nonchoice because there was no option except a ditch or cliff.
I rarely drive at night, and avoid it when i am on the road. Well, night set in at 530 while i was on this God-awful road. Fortunately, very few cars came in the opposite direction to blind me as i negotiated turns, and only a few behind me caused me to pull over at a turnout to let them pass.
The Defender spent more time in 2nd and 3rd gears on this road than 5th.
We stopped along the way for a Donner rest break, but also to enjoy the spectacular views on this road, ravines, cliffs, creeks, and lush green forest, and even some animal that looked like a coyote-dog.
After 35 miles, we came to the coastal road. It might have been pleasant in the daylight, without the fog, the multitudinous twists, turns an hills here, too, and the blinding glare of oncoming cars on this narrow road.
We came to Fort Bragg when it was fully night, with only 14 miles to go to Russian Gulch park, where i camped in November 2016, Then the fun really began. What preceded was only a preview.
As i drove along starting earlier at 4:00, i would change my rules for finding a camp for the night. At first it was, make it to Russian Gulch at whatever cost. By now it was, camp at the first open state park just in case Russian Gulch is full or, God forbid, closed.
Then the trouble started as soon as I hit the city limits of Fort Bragg. When I came to the traffic circle, the headlights from the oncoming traffic bounced off my windshield and the dirt streaks on the windshield diffused the light all over the window shield and nearly blinded me. I had to navigate the circle by way of the reflecting pads in the center of the roads. The same thing happened on the 14 mile drive to Russian Gulch. On top of that I had no idea at all what the narrow road was like, where the boundaries were on either side of the defender. Again, i navigated the road by way of those reflecting pads in the enter of the road just a few feet ahead of me.
About 10 miles before Russian Gulch, I flew by a state park. But the sign for it was too small to read on the fly, the entranceway was too narrow for a stop at my speed, and the tailgater in back of me made it impossible for me to stop. Had I been able to pull in there and had it been open I would've camped there for the night if they had a vacancy. (I Discovered later it was open.)
About 10 miles before Russian Gulch, I flew by a state park. But the sign for it was too small to read on the fly, the entranceway was too narrow for a stop at my speed, and the tailgater in back of me made it impossible for me to stop. Had I been able to pull in there and had it been open I would've camped there for the night if they had a vacancy. (I Discovered later it was open.)
Finally, after crawling down the remaining 10 miles to Russian girls, I pulled in getting all set for a good night's sleep. It was it was about 704 when I pulled in. As bad luck would have it, I was greeted not by a smiling attendant, but by a small "campground closed for the season.". There was no cell service so i could not use my iPad to search for nearby camps, so I turned to my Garmin and punched in "campgrounds near me"and the only ones that popped up were for RV camps, although it did show a KOA camp 26 miles down the road. So I decided to head there traveling at about 20 mph, but hoping that there would be an open state park along the way. Two miles up the road I took an exit ramp to a small town and decided to call the KOA, but there was no cell phone service available there either. As a sheriff was driving by, I stopped him and asked him if he knew of any open state parks in the area. He suggested I try Van Damme state park just a few miles down the road from where I was. So I set out for Van Damme.
As I approached the entrance for Van Damme, it was open, but Garmin told me to turn right which took me to a dark beach front parking lot and not the camp. Eventually, I made my way across the highway at a very dangerous intersection with cars coming from both directions around hairpin turns.
One characteristic all state Parks seem to have in common is that there are no lights in the camp at all. I checked the entrance kiosk for open campsites and arbitrarily selected site 28 thinking that would be far away from any RVs that be there and using their electric appliances. Let me just say this. Trying to find site 28 was the closest thing to a nightmare, driving down narrow dark roads in a place I had never been before. Eventually I gave up and decided to take whatever open campsite I could find, and I chose number 16 even though it had a reserved sign on it. I figured if the people who reserved it were not here now, they're not going to show up, and I was right.
From there, my challenge was over. Things returned to normalcy, even though it was 8 PM and dark. I fed Donner first as usual, and then very calmly set up the tent and camp in the dark, aided by my powerful Petzel headlamp and the light on my new equally powerful battery charger. For dinner, to save time, and because I really was not hungry, I had a half of a small bottle of V-8 juice myself.
On all my road trips, I only encountered camp closed or no vacancy signs two times, whereas I think this is the fourth time on this trip but I have encountered that. I guess I can prevent that by making specific plans the day before, but the truth is I never know where I am going to spend the night until I arrive at a place.
I have no idea what this camp is like in daylight, so i will explore thar tomorrow. Right now, it is time to retire for the night.
Ed and DonNer, from the road
Ed and DonNer, from the road
