September 10th, 2009: Redwood Weekend

I spent this past weekend travelling with friends. We drove north. North to Eureka. We made plans too close to the holiday, and so instead of camping in a pristine redwood forest we ended up really roughing it at a KOA. Ping-pong, tetherball, and $6 for a bundle of wood. The forest from which we could have obtained logs were kept out by a high fence. Made out of wood. It was strange.

Outside of the KOA fence and slightly north and south on the 101 there were some real trees. Real big ones. We spent a small amount of time putzing around Humboldt Redwoods State Park, home of the Avenue of the Giants.

One of the days we sallied up the 101 to Arcata Community Forest. I must say, it was a real hidden gem. I was thinking originally that we would truck it to Redwoods National Park, but I’m so happy that we ended up at the much less famous community forest. Winding loops of trails were enough to get us into areas where we hardly saw anyone else. It was a small forest in comparison to some other regional ones, but large enough for 6 fairly competent (?) people to get slightly lost in.

It was my first time in the presence of the mighty coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). It was impressive and stunning. It was hard to understand. Sometimes I feel like a stranger in the wilderness, and sometimes I feel as though I am a part of it. This experience was the former. The redwoods were beautiful, but also somewhat alienating. I felt like a small town girl in the big city, but I was really a prairie girl in a towering redwood forest. There was so much going on above my head it felt as though I was being looked down upon. And I don’t mean all of this in a bad way. It was humbling to be in the presence of such ancient giants.