December 14, 2011
The RV was finally packed and we headed south from Vancouver on a cold damp December afternoon (4 degrees, cloudy with some mist but no rain). The Blaine border was a fairly quick 1/2 hour wait then we motored on to Camping World in Burlington.
I got a folding bike to go along with the one Emma packed. Emma would be lost without her folding bike and I could use the exercise. Not only will I get my exercise riding but every time we want to go to sleep I'll have to haul the two folding bikes off the bed. Upper Body work-out I say! I picked up two big bike bags to make them easier to haul and to keep the gear grease off the new duvet.
We motored through Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia and spent the night at an I-5 rest stop near Maytown in southern Washington.
December 15
We had a leisurely breakfast in the RV and appreciated the warmth of the RV furnace before heading out to find the little known local Mina Mounds near Maytown. These are mysterious mounds that resemble sand dunes, but they are dirt and rock covered in grass. There are many theories as to the cause of the mounds, but no definitive answers. One theory is that the local Aboriginals buried their dead in each mound. There was a tangible spiritual presence among the mounds, so this is a real possibility.
It was an adventure to get to the Mina Mounds as we had to travel a short, winding, one-lane road through a conifer forest. The was no room to pass if two cars met head on and with an RV you would be hooped. Luckily, we were the only people at this out-of-the-way park.
Heading South we continued to the Mount St. Helen's exit. It was cold and foggy as we headed up the 504 to the mountain lookout. A colourful family debate ensued as to the merits of going to a lookout that was likely to be fogged in. Sensing that discretion was the better part of valour I agreed to backtrack to the Mount Saint Helen's Visitor's Centre.
The Visitor's Centre is located on 405 near I-5. You can see Mount Saint Helen's from there or you could if it wasn't fogged in. The film and displays at the centre are quite intersting as was the board walk around the adjacent marsh.
I always like to keep a trip log of the birds and animals we see along the way so here goes.
1) Song Sparrow - some 2) Mallards - some 3) Great Blue Herons - many
4) Common Merganser - one male 5) Spotter Towhee - one male 6) Belted Kingfisher - one
Back on the I-5 we hit Portland at the evening rush hour. The added bonus was a car accident that backed up the highway. Given the tail-gating endemic to I-5 drivers, we are surprised there aren't more accidents. Vancouver drivers seem tame by comparison.
We dove into Portland and went to a great Thai restaurant somewhere in the general vicinity of the university. We followed that up with a shopping spree at Fred Meyers. Emma was in westcoast heaven as the store was a bounty of animal and earth friendy and gluten-free items. Plus you gotta love the "no taxes" in Oregon. We asked a Portland native how the state can survive with no sales tax. The answer? Very high property taxes.
We drove till 10:30 p.m.and stopped for the night at a rest stop just north of Eugene. Trucks park there for the night and for some reason, they leave their engines on all night. It makes for an inexpensive but noisy night's accommodation.
December 16
We had a fitful night as the rest stop was too close to the highway and not well suited for an overnight rest. Washington rest stops are the best and then there are the rest.
Along the I-5 roadside we observed:
7) American Robins - very many 8) Red-tailed Hawks - very many 9) Starlings - some
10)Bald Eagle - one adult 11) American Crow - a few
12) Brewer's Blackbirds - a small flock in the mall parking lot
Red-taiked Hawk
The numbers of Robins and Red-tailed Hawks was impressive. There was usually one Red-tailed Hawk every couple of hundred yards. For miles, there was one perched on fence posts and trees every hundred feet.
We pulled into a major shopping complex in Eugene as Emma needed wifi for a grant she had to submit. Despite her usual dismissal of MacDonald's, we are regular visitors there now, as they offer free wifi, lots of plug-ins, and you can type away for several hours with only purchasing a coffee or orange juice. And mom's right: their coffee is pretty darn good now!
I took the RV to Oil Can Harry's for an oil change. Finding the place and fitting the 'RV into the shop was the challenge; the rest was easy.
There was an information centre in the mall. It was a poor location and I was the only visitor so I got great service. They recommended a nice hike up a small mountain. We drove just south of Eugene and took the great 1.8 mile hike. We ascended into the fog and travelled through Garry Oak forests interspersed with grassy meadows. The oak trees all had a green moss like growth hanging from their bare branches.It reminded us of the Grouse Grind only more open and scenic.
At the top, the sun and blue sky was just peeking through the fog bank.
Happy and tired we continued up the I-5 to the Joe Creek Waterfall RV Resort near Merlin. Instead of a quiet evening, we had a pipe leak in the toilet. Luckily, I brought all my tools and after two hours of wrestling pipes in the bathroom the toilet leak was repaired.
December 17
We went for a short morning walk to the nearby Joe creek waterfall.It is a pleasant little scenic waterfall. Several Oregon Juncos (13) and one Stellar Jay (14) were darting about in the bushes and Arbutus trees. I didn't realize that Arbutus Trees grew so far inland but there were several in the bushes around the creek.
We drove into Grant's Pass so Emma could go to MacDonalds and use the wifi. While Emma was emailing for an hour or two, I went bird watching with my camera. I got some decent pictures of the nearby flock of Brewer's Blackbirds.
I also saw: 15) California Scrub Jay - one 16) Rock Doves - small flock
Starling - winter plumage
We continued up the I-5 to Siskiyou National Monument. The highway goes right through a section of this National Monument but you wouldn't know it as there are no signs or visitors centre. This monument was created by President Clinton in 2000 and is dedicated to the ecology and biodiversity of the region. I think that National Monuments are administered by the Department of Land Management while National Parks are administered by the National Parks Service. This area was better suited to ecological preservation and does not have a strong tourist theme; therefore no signage or facilities.
We crossed the border into California and after the obligatory checkpoint for citrus fruit we continued toward Mount Shasta. We camped for the night near the town of Weed. Yes, the town is really called Weed. There were no funny smells that we could ascertain. There were two old cats at the campground who had dread-like mats. One mat was like a second tail. Emma had to restrain herself from cutting them off herself. She didn't think very highly of the owners for their pet care!
December 18
The day broke clear and cold with the outside water pipes frozen. The pass by Mount Shasta is over 3,000 feet.Time to head south and drop altitude so we headed for Lake Shasta and Redding.
We went for a nice walk through a quiet oak forest near Lake Shasta. The bare Oak trees were interspersed with the occasional Ponderosa Pine. The ground was thick with a carpet of Pin oak leaves. A male Ruby-crowned Kinglet (17) had his crest raised as he flitted about with is female companion. Two Townsend's Warblers (18) where foraging among the bare oak branches.
From the view point, we could see that there was 10 to 20 feet of red clay between the lake and the tree line. I've seen Lake Shasta even with the tree line in very wet years and also down 50 feet after several years of drought. This year looks to be a dry period but not critically so.
Nearing Redding we saw a Bewick's Wren. (19) When we got to Redding we decided to go west along 299 to the coast. We are tired of the cold nights.At Weaverville we camped for the night.
December 19
By 8:00 a.m. we were rolling down the gorges of highway299. The road was slow going as it snaked through the wild Shasta Trinity National Forest. At the second official rest stop, we saw a Varied Thrush (20) in a forest of tall conifers. The 100 miles to Eureka took four hours as many of the turns had to be taken at 20 or 30 miles an hour in the RV. Beautiful wild coniferous and oak forests were all along the cliff sides.
We emerged at Blue Lake so Emma could camp out on the MacDonald's wifi. I had a great time perusing the adjacent hardware and Radio Shack stores.
21) Glacous-winged Gulls - a few 22) Western Gull - one adult and many juveniles
We headed up highway 101 to Redwood National Park. Naturally, we stopped at the first sandy beach we saw when we reached the coast. I guess I asked Emma to pose one too many times and got her classic "enough already" pose.
The Redwood National park visitor centre closes at 4:00 and we missed it by an hour. As the sun was setting we passed a small fresh water lagoon and saw:
23) American Coots - hundreds 24) Ring-necked Ducks - several 25) Shovelers - a few in fall plumage 26)Ruddy Ducks - a few 27) Buffleheads - a few
After driving through Redwood National Park we stopped for the night at a small RV Park on Indian Reserve Land just west of 101.
December 20
We headed back south through the Redwood National Park. T he Redwoods are immense and the forest trails tranquil. we did the Ah-Pah interpretive trail. At one time it was a logging road but it had been converted back to a forest path and the road deconstructed. It actually took heavy equipment to restore the original stream beds and landscape contours. With time, the forest has returned to its original balance.
We continued through the park stopping for the occasional walk in the forest. We took the short steep road up to Lady Bird Johnson Grove. This location has a 1 mile interpretive walk through some of the largest Redwoods. Some trees had circumferences of 40 plus feet.
I'm always surprised at how soft and relatively spongy the bark is on Redwood trees. The bark really soaks up water which helps insulate the trees against damage from forest fires. surrounding trees and vegetation will burn but most Redwoods survive the fire. If there is a crack in the bark the fire can burn out the hard wood centre of the tree but the tree continues to stand and grow. Some trees had huge central caverns at their base - big enough for several people to stand inside comfortably.
Along the trail, we met and had a nice conversation with a park ranger. He shared some of the history of the development of this national park. Initially congress approved a smaller park that only encompassed the Redwoods in the valley bottom. The Sierra Club and others successfully lobbied to have the park expanded to include the mountain ridges. This protected the lower Redwoods from the erosion effects of logging the upper forest.
We continued on to Eureka and enjoyed a great meal at Applebie's, it's helpful that they include the calories beside each of their menu choices - it makes passing up dessert much easier! . We ended the day at a campground near Fortuna.
December 21
After a leisurely breakfast, I went for a birding tour around the nice RV Park in Fortuna. There were about 50 full service RV pads in the complex and the cost to us was $25 for the night. Near the RV park was a dike and riverside walk. I saw:
21) Northern Flicker - one red-shafted American Robin's - several 22)Bushtits- a small flock flow through 23) Canvasback duck - one pair in the river 24) Lesser Scaups - several
25) western Grebe - one Ruddy /ducks - a few Shovelers- a few 26) Pied-billed Grebe - one
27) White-crowned Sparrow 28) Black Phoebe one on top of a small bush; very black above and white belly Varied Thrush - one.
We headed south along 101 and turned off to take the Avenue of the Giants. It's a side road that heads south beside the highway but goes through all the adjacent redwood groves. The Redwood Groves were magnificent and the side road wound around giant redwoods on both sides of the road. We had to pull in our RV side mirrors for fear of scraping them off on the giant tree trunks. There was just enough room under the branches for our RV to slide through. I guess earlier RV's cleared the way.
We bought a small redwood bear carving at a local shop. The economy is clearly depressed and local merchants and artists need the business.
29) Black-capped Chicadee - one
We stopped at the the Red Wood Visitors Centre located toward the south end of the Avenue of the Giants. We took the one mile nature walk through the Redwood forest. Most of the giant Redwoods showed the blackened damage from earlier fires but they had survived and flourished. A few had blacked hollowed-out interiors but rose hundreds of feet with healthy crowns. There were a few fallen trees that were decaying on the ground and providing homes and nutrients to the next generation of forest plants and animals.
We hopped back on the 101 and continued south. We were planning to take the coast road and started down it until the first turn. It was an extremely steep downhill hairpin turn that was posted as 15 mph. Right!!
We turned back to the 101 and continued late into the evening.
Well, not all that late but it gets dark at 5:00 p.m. and we couldn't find a campground. We ended up at the KOA in Willet for the night. We were aghast at the cost: $43 for the night.This was almost double the typical rate in Oregon. Oh, little did we know that soon we would consider $43 a bargain!
December 22
Coyotes woke us up with their howling at 4:00 in the morning. We slept late. The owners ended up knocking on our door to inquire when we were planning to vacate the premises. We claimed lack of sleep due to the coyotes and hightailed it out of there. 30) Turkey Vulture - one
We got back on the 101 and took it to Santa Rosa where we took the small and windy highway 12 to No.1 Coast Highway. When we reached highway 1 we made the fortuitous decision to go north a few miles to Bodega Bay. We lucked into Doran Regional Park and its great little campground right on the beach.
There were ocean breakers on the west side of the campground and a nice salt water lagoon and marsh on the east side of this little peninsula. The entire park made up the south side of the Bodega Harbour entrance and provided a nice breakwater for the sheltered bay.
We went for a short walk along the marsh board walk and saw Black-tail Deer throughout the park. Their colouring matches the flora and they are so still, so we didn't realize there were deer all around until we had been walking for quite a while.. At night, the stars were vivid and the milky way easy to see.
December 23
We went to bed very early and woke at 7:15 a.m. It was just turning light and the sun had not risen over the low mountains to the south east. The sun rose at 7:38 and splashed across Bodega Bay.
Birds were everywhere so I grabbed my 300 mm with the 1.4 extender and went for a cold morning walk about. I saw five species of white gulls:
Glacous-winged Gull - a couple; Western gulls - many; 31) Ring-billed Gulls - some;
32) California Gulls - many; 33) Mew Gulls - a few;
Western Gull - large white gull with black wing tips, dark grey back, pinkish legs, red spot on bill
California Gull - fairly large white gull, black wing-tips, yellowish legs, red and black spot on bill
* Emma's note: Who knew there were so many type of sea gulls? Well, I am finding out whether I want to or not!
Also in the campground were:
Red-tailed Hawk - one; Brewer's Blackbirds - many; White-crowned Sparrows- many; 34) Yellow-rumped Warblers - very many and mostly female; 35) Willet - one; 36) Black-crowned Night Heron - one; 37) Snowy Egret - a few; Turkey Vultures - many; Ruby-crowned Kinglets; 38) Brant Geese - many; 39) Horned Grebe - a few; 40) Common Loon - a few; 41) Pacific Loon - one; Bufflehead - very many; American Coots - many; 42) Brown Pelican - one
Black-crowned Night Heron Western Grebe
We drove into the town of Bodega Bay. Like all coastal towns it is very tiny and linear along Highway 1. Parking is at an absolute premium and parking a RV on the narrow windy hilly single road is a challenge in dexterity, precision and patience. We went for a bike ride as well, and there is no shoulder or barriers on the roads, with steep drop offs. The drivers are not keen to slow down, so it made for an exciting ride!
The town public pier is narrow but interesting as it shelters a great many small ships. We saw:
Buffleheads - many; Willets - very many along the shore; Common Loons - some; Glacous-winged Gulls - a few; Western Grebes - two;
Willet Snowy Egret
The road to the whale watching viewpoint got narrow and steep at the end but the view was spectacular. Emma grabbed her binoculars and started looking for whales. She had a lot of whale watching practice at Point Roberts and quickly spotted some [3] dolphins. I didn't expect her to see any whales as they have usually passed by to the Gulf of California by this time. But .... Sure enough she spotted several [4] grey whales spouting along as they passed our lookout.
I was busy photographing the amazing seascape and using my 600 mm lens to photograph the (43) *Brant's Cormorants perched on a nearby rock pinnacle. I've been looking for Brant's Cormorants at Point Roberts without success so it was great to see this lifer here. They are only slightly smaller than Double-crested Cormorants with grey/black bills and a slight blue patch on the face. The cormorants would take turns hopping to the top of the outcrop to launch themselves into the air.
On the way back to the campground we saw: 44) Sanderlings - some; 45) Pelagic Cormorant - a few; 46) Surf Scoters - some 47) Great Egrets - a few; 48) Marbled Godwits - very many;
49) Canada Goose - one; 50) Golden-crowned Sparrow - a few in winter plumage;
A 51) Least Sandpiper was near our campground on the lagoon side. I was surprised to see him by himself. He was a cute little fellow with a perky stride.
December 24
We awoke early again and watched the sunrise over over the California coast. Today the sunrise was 7:34. Yah, the days are getting longer and birds were everywhere.
Brant Geese were flying into the lagoon. They only eat eel grass and this is one of their key wintering locations. 52) Red-breasted Mergansers were along side them and diving for fish.
Turkey vultures were hanging out in the trees waiting for the sun to warm things up and create the rising thermals they need to soar.
53) Six White Pelicans were fishing in the bay as we packed-up and headed south to Point Reyes. The Coast Highway is more like a village back road with tight narrow turns, low hanging trees, and a plethora of bumps, potholes and cracks. The California State Government is broke and it is really showing in the deterioration of the state infrastructure. The roads are in sad shape and getting worse as little repair work is being done. On the plus side, the narrow winding deteriorating roads act as a barrier to prevent the millions of San Fransiscans from flooding into Point Reyes and the northern California coastal area.
After a few hours, we arrived at the main visitors centre at Point Reyes National Seashore Park. The Great Bear Visitors Centres was a single structure with a nice display area. The entire park has been largely maintained as a wildlife refuge and has been deliberately left undeveloped so there are very few amenities for tourists
The ride to the Point Reyes Lighthouse was a 21 mile roller coaster ride. We felt like we were riding the back of a writhing snake. The walk around the lighthouse and cliffs was inspiring.
We rattled and banged our way back to a RV Park at Olema. The daily RV cost went up to $45 a night. They are the only location for miles so can pretty much set their fees accordingly. There is almost no room along the highway to even park a 28 foot RV for a few minutes.
Dec 25
We decided to stay another day and explore Point Reyes Park further. We drove back to the Great Bear Visitors centre and took the two short interpretive walks. The first one highlighted the seismic activity of the San Andreas Fault. The walk featured a broken fence from the 1906 earthquake. It has separated 16 feet in seconds when the earth moved.
This short 1 kilometre walk took us over an hour as we enjoyed the wildlife along the way. Emma saw a rabbit and three deer as we moved slowly through the open forest. The deer are so acclimatized to people that they would sleep thirty feet away from humans. One deer proceeded to turn around and lick his tail when he saw us. They were like the stereotypical Californian -- laid back!
We also saw:
54) Red-winged Blackbirds; I was hoping they were Tri-coloured Blackbirds but no luck
55) California Qualil - a covey was feeding on the lawn by the visitors' centre, then they scurried into the cypress shrubs as we approached. Visitor centres are usually the best place to find birds, as the birds learn that crumbs are often to be found nearby.
California Quail - male
California Quail - female
The other walk was to a replica of an Aboriginal village once inhabited by the Thule Loklo tribe. This walk traveled through a well wooded area of oak trees and birds were in abundance.
56) Acorn Woodpecker - many were in the trees or flying about; they are gregarious and vocal.
57) Band-tailed Pigeons - a few 58) Pacific Wren - one 59) California Towhee - a few
Townsend's Warblers - a few
Acorn Woodpecker California Towhee
After lunch in the RV, we headed to Linantour Beach to check out its famous bird walk along the beach. The road there got narrow, twisty and steep. We rounded a corner and hit a 17 degree downgrade. Emma red-lined and hit a note several octaves above high C.
Stopping the van was not easy but we managed to turn around. We stayed at the summit for a short walk to the viewpoint that looked down toward "the beach not traveled". This walk went through a small forest of Bishop Pines. This species of pine can withstand the salt from the sea breeze and only grows in a few areas near the ocean in California. We also saw a butterfly on Christmas Day.
On the walk back to the RV, Emma spotted a gnawed-off deer leg. She was happy to have spotted it on the walk back, rather than the walk there, as she would have been too scared to continue on the walk.
Back at our Campground Emma made a wonderful Christmas dinner of salmon fettuccini.
60) Hermit Thrush - one flitting about the campground.
