Oakland to Ashland
gliding on electrons for 1,300 miles
Salt Point
We started our road trip to Ashland, but horrific fires in California and Oregon forced us to change our route. We still encountered their effects, however. See our original route.
As we continue driving our cars and living our twenty-first-century lives, we are mostly oblivious to our environmental impact. The wildfires in the Western USA serve as a stark reminder that we must change our ways. Our current lifestyle is not sustainable.
Our first stop on this wonderful trip involved two nights camping at Salt Point campground and a day hiking the magnificent Sonoma Coast and its pine forests. I was previously unaware of just how beautiful the Sonoma Coast is, but our stay at Salt Point certainly educated me about this gorgeous place.
The campground is very pleasant, filled with grass-covered campsites that are well-spaced from each other. This spacing is important, as many Americans now camp in giant, fossil-fuel-guzzling campers packed with fossil-fuel-burning generators. Distance is often the best one can hope for, given our culture’s addiction to fossil fuels alongside our desire to enjoy the outdoors.
We eventually left the wonderful coast behind and drove to Ukiah, encountering 110-degree smoldering heat and smoky conditions from firestorms. We stayed only long enough to eat lunch and fill our car up with electrons. This enabled us to drive on to Eureka, where the air was clear again, and the temperature had fallen to a pleasing 64 degrees.
Prairie Creek Redwoods
It’s a shame we couldn’t follow our initial plan to travel to Lassen Volcanic National Park. But it would’ve been crazy to drive Highway 5 north while Northern California was burning. We’ll visit Lassen another time.
Our route now took us north via Highways 1 and 101. We encountered wildfires, but nothing like what’s going on in Redding.
What a day today was! We left Eureka and drove to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. What a magical place this is. We spent two hours walking among the ancient redwoods and fell into a hypnotic trance.
Before sinking into the wonderland of the redwoods, we hiked the rugged cliffs of Patrick’s Point State Park and were immersed in the beauty of the Northern California Coast.
We ended our day at the historic Requa Inn in Klamath, where Julia saw two bears on the bank of the mighty river.
What a day.
• Salt Point
• Ukiah
• Eureka
• Patrick’s Point State Park
• Prairie Creek Redwoods
• Requa
Oregon Caves
We stopped in Crescent City to fill Tess’s belly with electrons, then drove on through the stupendous forests engulfing the beautiful Highway 199, which has become my new favorite scenic road.
Alas, as we traveled east, the air became thick with smoke. A blue haze clung to the hills and distant tree lines, and we became aware once more of the wildfires burning throughout the Western USA. Yet, too many Americans still refuse to admit that our addiction to fossil fuels has caused climate change.
We eventually turned off the scenic but smoky Highway 199 and arrived at the incredible Oregon Caves National Monument. Deep within the bowels of the forest-covered marble mountain, we observed the slow processes of cave creation. Over eons, acidic water drips relentlessly, both building up and dissolving the sheer rock, creating innumerable and unimaginable works of art.
After spending a night in the infamous room 202 of the historic 1930s Cave Lodge, we left this incredible place to drive deeper into the belly of the fiery beast.
Ashland
Over four hundred years ago, in a land far, far away, a young poet decided to put quill to paper, and today we have Ashland, Oregon. Ashland may not owe its entire existence to the great Bard, but it surely would be a very different place if he had not written down his thoughts and observations so long ago.
The air was warm and thick with smoke from the numerous wildfires, but one cannot help but be impressed by Ashland’s serenity. A mail carrier walks her route, hand-delivering mail to the seemingly happy residents’ homes.
All the while, this Shakespeare town churns out play after play, as it has since its beginnings in the 1930s. The perpetual festival reportedly earns Ashland $34 million a year. Julia and I sat in the open, smoke-filled air and watched a performance of William’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.
What would the Bard think of all this?
Men perceive women in many ways, and 400 years ago, the Bard knew it. This mixed perception became the subject of William Shakespeare’s early comedic play. However, even masters are beginners at some point, and Love’s Labour’s Lost was such a work for the Bard. This play served as a training ground that helped him develop into a genius.
The story’s main premise feels somewhat lost among the many subplots pervading the tale. It aims for comedy but ends in tragedy. It seems to want our affection, but lacks a character truly worthy of it.
The director and actors in this performance did a valiant job making this subpar story fun and engaging. But in the end, love and all the labor were indeed lost.
The sun hangs low in the western sky, creating an orange hue unlike any I’ve ever seen before. Particulate matter as small as 2.5 microns (PM 2.5) fills the air, partially blocking the sun, making it look feeble, and creating a spectacular sunset. But this PM 2.5 is small enough to evade the lungs’ filtering systems, allowing some particles to pass directly into the bloodstream. There, it causes the immune system to react, which creates an inflammatory response. This inflammation can lead to heart failure, stroke, and even death. This is the risk everyone here in the burning West faces each day breathing this smoky air.
Yet Julia and I took this risk to visit some of the many wineries surrounding Ashland today.
What choice did we have?
Darlingtonia
With the choking wildfire smoke behind us, Julia and I glided on a flow of electrons westward back to California, Crescent City, and the beginning of our return home.
In a serpentine bog, sprouting up from the marsh, green and brown cylinders greeted us: the very rare Darlingtonia Pitcher Plant. Julia and I walked around the small Highway 199 roadside stop to commune with these unusual plants.
Crescent City
After a short overnight stopover in the gray town of Crescent City, we’ll continue our journey home tomorrow.
Oh, to sleep, to rest, forever to dream.
Summer often feels like an afternoon affair in Crescent City. If you’re lucky, the summer sun will peek out from behind the thick cloud and mist engulfing this small seaside village most of the time. When this happens, it’s time to walk the seven miles of fine-sand beach that forms the crescent of Crescent City.
We did just that today, turning our rather mundane stay into a much richer experience.
This lovely beach is framed by lush green forests, an impenetrable cliff at one end, and a seal-encrusted breakwater at the other. The fine-grained, gray sands are layered with bits of crab shells, remnants of feasts enjoyed by the many varied seabirds.
Redwood Creek
An amazing hike meanders beside Redwood Creek within the Redwood National and State Parks in Humboldt County. We met a very lovely woman on this hike and spent an hour talking with her about human-caused climate change. She knew the trail very well and gave us valuable information, which we’ll put to good use on our return to this stupendous place.
The Lost Coast
At the very end of a remote and winding road lies the isolated and tiny hamlet of Shelter Cove. Once there, you are truly at the end of the road; beyond lies only the raging gray whitecaps of the Pacific Ocean.
There are no dedicated electric vehicle chargers here, marking it as the last easily accessible electricity source on this rugged Western Coast. Thanks to the kindness of our innkeeper, we were able to plug ‘Tess of the Drivervilles’ into a 110-volt outlet, accessing the last electrons before the cold gray ocean. It took 24 hours at this slow rate, but we managed to fill her belly once more. This ensured our return from the Lost Coast, although even without this fortuitous charge, Tess had more than enough power to reach our next stop.
Black Sands Beach
The Lost Coast is indeed remote, and its Black Sand Beach feels truly lost to time. This gravelly, gray-black sand beach is pristine, almost entirely unspoiled by human pollution. After hiking six miles of it today, we found only one small piece of plastic marring this untouched expanse of beauty.
Sleeping by the ocean fills your ears with the constant roar of the waves. The only other sound that drifts through our dark window is the occasional bark from the many sea lions resting on the rocks outside.
Tomorrow we leave Shelter Cove, but we’ll never forget our time here.
Van Damme State Park
In my usual circles, I rarely meet people who support Trump and his administration. Alas, I met such a person at our campsite in the Van Damme Campground. What does one say to someone who truly believes the 45th President is worthy? I wanted to ask, ‘How can you seriously support this criminal and arguably traitorous POTUS? What do you think he will actually do for you?’
Instead, I said nothing. Fearing I would cause offense if I spoke my mind, I listened to his diatribe and tried my best to hide my shame – shame for him and his President.
The Fern Canyon Trail at Van Damme leads through second-growth redwood forests to a Pygmy Forest containing stunted fir trees, madrone, rhododendrons, and azaleas. It was a lovely hike and a great way to end our journey.