A better night’s sleep under our belts, we set out
relatively early (well, late compared to those poor schlubs who are still
working this week!!!) for breakfast. Not
being in an experimental mood, we decided on The Chalet again. Again, a yummy meal of buckwheat pancakes and
lots of greasy protein.
Today, we waste no time in hitting the forests. On our way to our next hike in the Redwoods,
we stopped in the Thomas Kutchel Visitors Center for more info on the parks and
hikes, where got some advice on good hikes from a Park Ranger. We followed Heather’s instinct and selected
another “moderate” hike of a mere 3.7 miles.
Child’s play, right!?!?!
Once again, we were stunned by the beauty and majesty of
God’s creation. On this hike, we began
to notice a number of trees and areas that had clearly been through fires and
survived the burn. We wondered how many
years ago the fires occurred, and what had caused them. Burned deep, these massive creatures continue
to live on, unhindered. (As it turns
out, sequoias’ bark is naturally fire resistant. Indeed, fires are part of a cleansing
process that nature uses to simultaneously constraint and unleash growth). Even more miraculous is the fact that only 1%
of all sequoia seeds survives to become a tree.
And that new tree will not generate its first new seed for 20 more
years! Now that’s “long-term
planning”! I thought of how silly we
must be to worry about mother nature’s ability to adapt, given how long these
forests have survived and how many climate changes they had seen!
We also saw some very interesting characteristics of the
redwoods, notable “burls”. These are sort
of deformities in the trunk of the tree that yield a bulging, often rounded
outcropping. In redwoods, these can
become miniature ecosystems as decomposing needles and other plant matter make
a bedding for the growth of ferns, earthworms, and other plants and insects.
Our humility and awe was soon overtaking by the land upon
which these giants grow, which is this case was on a rather steep upward slope! The “moderate” trail was “moderate” only by
someone else’s definition. I think
Heather might have used some other classification for this particular hike,
perhaps something like “butt kicker”, “thigh grinder”, or “heart-attack ridge”. Fortunately, only the first half was uphill,
and we were both smiling on the way down.
Nonetheless, we took almost three hours to do the trail. And the end, though we debated it, we were
too worn out to add on a second hike to the day, opting instead for a trip into
Arcata to see what had been closed the day before.
As we toured Arcata’s town square offerings, we encountered
more hippies, fun shops, and two wine stores.
The first one was to have a live blues band that evening, so we vowed to
return and listen in. It was quickly
approaching dinnertime (can’t miss a meal after a long hike!) so we opted to go
back to Eureka to the hotel, clean up, and seek out pizza in Arcata near the
blues band. The pizza we found was
mediocre, unfortunately, but it was good enough to finish. We then ventured over the wine bar where the
little four piece blues band was already playing. We purchased a bottle of “local” wine and
enjoyed watching some of the local people (to us, eclectic if not downright
strange) dance or just mingle. The band
was enjoyable, and we staying till 930p.
Knowing we would be leaving the next morning, we decided to
call it an early evening. We spent the
next couple of hours re-packing, prepping for the next day, and blogging. Pierce managed to get in an hour’s worth of
work, too! Tomorrow, we drive!!!
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