Its been quite a while without a blog post. Well, I warned about this, but by now so much has happened that it's time to share a little. First of all an update on my location and van.
At the moment I'm in Fresno, after having spent a couple of days at Remco's place in San Francisco and visiting Yosemite yesterday. Also, the van has changed color:
I'll tell you why in a later post (it's not that exciting). This meant that I also had to swap mileage meters, but ofcourse I did note their settings: The old van (called playground) has done exactly 6190 miles. The new van a little less, putting the trip total so far at 6324 miles. On the map that looks like this:
Now it's time to look a while back, about a week and a half, filled mostly with driving. What that basically looks like is this:
Sorry, not all that interesting indeed. Highlights of the first leg of the journey:
Pulling over for a lunch break, but discovering probably a billion or more (angree) bees instead:
At the moment I'm in Fresno, after having spent a couple of days at Remco's place in San Francisco and visiting Yosemite yesterday. Also, the van has changed color:
I'll tell you why in a later post (it's not that exciting). This meant that I also had to swap mileage meters, but ofcourse I did note their settings: The old van (called playground) has done exactly 6190 miles. The new van a little less, putting the trip total so far at 6324 miles. On the map that looks like this:
Now it's time to look a while back, about a week and a half, filled mostly with driving. What that basically looks like is this:
Youtube: http://youtu.be/yIEUaf7egtI
Sorry, not all that interesting indeed. Highlights of the first leg of the journey:
Pulling over for a lunch break, but discovering probably a billion or more (angree) bees instead:
the plan: park behind a small hill...
this was what was behind the hill (all the specks are bees)
On the highway I was already getting hit by an exceptional amount of bugs, this was the reason:
there is a loose swarm of bees in this bush.
The backup lunch spot was quite nice: an old bridge between large cliffs: very peaceful place. There was a water bird diving for fish over there, but I couldn't get close enough to identify it.
Ofcourse after a day of driving I only pull over to a spot with a nice view to spend the night.
Ow yeah, if you are wondering how I operated the camera in that last video: here's what you can do on the empty roads of Idaho and Oregon:
Youtube: http://youtu.be/Jern0NnSDV4
The next day was more of the same: time on the road. This time with a more varied landscape: salt flats, drying up lakes, cliffs, large mountains. An impression in pictures:
Mt Hood (?)
The highlights of this day centered around wildlife. First off I pulled over to a field to get a good picture of the volcano I had seen in the distance. At the time I thought it was Mt St Helens, but judging from the map Mt Hood seems more likely. There was a small dirt ramp before you could get a view of the mountain, and when I reached the top of that I heard a high pitched alarm call, like that of a bird, but there were no birds nearby. On closer inspection it became clear that the animal sounding the alarm was a gopher. There were a lot of them on the lookout in a nearby field. How many can you count (better resolution on picasa)?
When I turned around to head back to the van I saw a large bird of prey, with a white head. This of course could only be one bird... the national emblem of the US: the bald eagle!
When driving off on the highway there was a strange thing on the side of the road, which I didn't recognize at all. From close by you could discern what it was: two guys sitting high up on a trailer? With camera's? Weird... I don't know what they were filming: they might've been filming the bald eagles, or the gophers for that matter.
A little while down the road I saw a lot of vultures circling around, and a few on the ground as well. Of course I had to pull over and check out what they were up to and get some good shots of 'em. It turns out vultures are a lot more shy than they appear. Already when I pulled the van over four of 'em took off, when I got out and crossed the street the last ones headed for the trees and by the time I got the camera out they were all high up in the air again :-(. Of course the thing they were eating did not move anymore: a dead deer.
I staked it out for about 15 minutes, hoping that the vultures would return, but they moved off, with only one or two circling around above the van, and checking if I was gone already occasionally... too bad, no shots :-(.
That day I did reach my goal: Redding. Finding a camp spot there was more difficult then expected: the road I had pinpointed on the map turned out to turn into a private road after 2 miles (it was on a dam, so owned by the ministery of the interior to prevent terrorist attacks). Nearby was a turn off to an OHV area... no idea what that was, but when I followed the route to the end it became apparent: Off-Highway Vehicle. It was an OHV staging area: where people can offload their dirt-bikes or quads to go driving in the forests. There was a large no-camping sign on the parking lot, but since their was a toilet building nearby, it was sunday night and the road was a dead-end I guessed I would probably be ok.
When I was cooking dinner a pick-up turned up with a quad on it. The guy unloaded it, revved it, kicked up a lot of dust while driving around the parking lot and jumping off the unloading ramp, and then headed up full throttle into the forest. After about half an hour I could hear the quad approaching again... full throttle still. The guy probably had some frustrations to get rid off. During the evening two more pick-ups visited, and lower down on the road there was a lot of gun fire (there were three or four gun ranges there). However, by the time it was sleeping time it was over and I actually had a great rest at this place.
I got up early in case a ranger might turn up, and by the time I had just fried an egg a ranger vehicle did turn up. However, I just did a 180 and never mentioned a thing... so probably it's ok if you don't make a mess, or if it doesn't look to conspicuous. After breakfast I did some maintenance on the van... the engine coolant needed to be topped up (I spent a lot of time looking for the right coolant). Luckily enough the engine did start after I topped the coolant up.
The drive from Redding to Eureka that day turned out to be an unexpected joy: a beautiful drive alongside a whitewater river, wedged in between forested slopes.
The day ended with a view I had been waiting for some 5 weeks: the ocean!
Finding a camp spot in Eureka was not that easy: the spot I had picked had a commercial campsite, so even though it looked like crap I took it: I was longing for a shower, and also wanted to go into town: finally some civilization after all those days on the road!
There was a local bar which had an event with live DJ's posted for that night. I went up there at about 22:00, had a nice local beer (microbreweries are all over the area!), and enjoyed the movie. The place itself was kinda empty though... some 10 visitors about half of which were on the street half the time enjoying their marijuana and nicotine... By 23:00 the crowd had only decreased in size and I was also getting tired, so I called it a night.
The next day was another day of driving: to Fort Bragg this time. The scenery on this drive was stunning, as well as the driving itself being somewhat intense, especially getting off the 101 onto the 1, just off of Leggett. What was impressive about the scenery:
The redwoods
On one of the highway turn-offs I spotted a sign 'drive through tree'. This ofcourse would have to be explored. Sadly the van didn't fit:
What was interesting is that their were some guys admiring my van that were flying drones. A small quadcopter and a larger hexacopter, kicking up a lot of dust. I will see more of these at Maker Faire in San Francisco in a couple of weeks.
A drone
By the time the road finally reached the coast I was quite high on adrenaline due to the high speed cornering. Taking a few minutes to enjoy the breathtaking scenery was a great way to settle down again.
Winding down the hillsides on highway 1
(the downhill slope doesn't really come out in this picture, but engine braking wasn't enough to keep the speed in check)
Finding campspots near civilization is turning out to be more and more difficult. I thought I had found a really nice spot just outside of Fort Bragg in the middle of a dark forest on an electricity line service road. The next morning at about 08:30 an angry woman in a pick-up woke me up by shouting that this was a private road and her driveway, while speeding away at high throttle. I figured it would be a good idea to pack up and have breakfast at the seaside.
A very nice omelet sandwich and a walk in the ocean breeze woke me right up. The next target was Bodega Bay, a surfing beach, and the drive there was very rewarding. Each break automatically meant gorgeous ocean views as well. An impression of this day below:
Seal colony
The day ended with the usual challenge along this coast: finding a camping place. The challenges are similar again each day: the road I had marked on the map turned out to be private, the camping site on the beach was too expensive (I don't want to pay 35 dollar for a shower and a stinky toilet). I opted for a local landmark: some rocks popping out on top of a hill, I had seen those on the way in, and almost everyone that drove by stopped their to have a look around. Probably a little busy, but at dusk the traffic quieted down.
The view from the campsite
With the curtains still open I could see several people stop off a little while away from my campsite, some people honking, and one woman even stopping an ambulance to tell the driver that I was camped out here. Probably during the season this is a police priority to keep these rocks clear of people (probably lots of bad parties with glass, trash etc. here during summer), but luckily no authorities turned up while I was sleeping here.
On the way into Bodega Bay I had seen a surf shop, I inspected their wares and informed about the possibilities for rentals and second hands. The guy behind the desk said he was selling the second hands for someone else and couldn't do anything with the price. He advised me to rent a set for $40,- from him and buy stuff in Santa Cruz, where there's a whole road full of surf shops. I had noted the price of the second hand stuff, and decided to go back there and just buy a set (the mark-up would be a little higher than the $40,- rent, but if I got lucky selling it back it would even out nicely).
This day there was a girl behind the desk, we had a little chat and she helped me out wonderfully. I bought a wetsuit, softtop surfboard and some booties. She made a nice set price of it as well(marking down also the 2nd hand stuff, so the guy had been creative with the truth the day before).
With the new bunch of gear I drove off to the surf beach and had a nice day of surfing! It was wonderful to be out on the water and active again after all these days of driving and just sitting in the van. There were no surfers in the water at the beach I had selected, and it soon became clear why: a huge sideshore current: two rides and I was about a mile down from the spot where I started. For the second set of rides I inspected the waves a little better and found a spot where the waves were low due to the current and the water depth. Here I could wade out to behind the waves I wanted to ride. This was not as easy as it sounds however because the current was really crazy: as long as the water stayed below the nipple level and I had two feet on the floor I could hold up against it, but if one foot lost footing, or the water level increased I would be swept down a little. However, overall it worked perfectly: no getting tired from paddling out, but walking down behind the waves, getting a nice ride into the beach and repeating. Lots of fun! I didn't take any pictures though, that'll have to wait for the next surf session.
I decided to spend the evening in a larger city and get a motel to cut my hair and clean the suit up. This also allowed me to go to a hardware store and fix a decent way to get the surf board out of the way:
After this day of surfing San Francisco would be the next destination. Crossing over across the Golden Gate would be the thing for tomorrow... you'll have to wait for the next blog post though!
Picasa:
Day 40: On the road... west of Boise
Day 41: On the road... to Redding
Day 42: On the road... to Eureka
Day 43: On the road... to Fort Bragg
Day 44: On the road... to Bodega Bay
Day 45: Surfing day in Bodega Bay
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