Prairie Creek State Park

At about five in the afternoon I entered the redwoods. It had been a fairly hot day, and the road had a lot of traffic for the last couple hours. I was climbing slowly up a hill. As I crested the hill I suddenly found myself surrounded by trees hundreds of feet tall. The air was cool under the canopy and felt fresh against my face as I pedaled down hill. Coincidentally, I passed the pair of Peace Corps Volunteers about eight miles from camp, and caught up to another of the traveling gang a few miles later. We pedaled to camp together, marveling at the giants around us.

The next morning I said good bye to a couple of my new friends, but the two peace corps volunteers and I went for a nine mile hike in the morning, walking down to the redwoods. They are truly impressive life forms...I like the way John Steinbeck described them in this quote:

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It's not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.”

To be fair, I think the Sitka Spruce forests in southeast compare pretty favorably, but I loved passing through these forests nonetheless. The three of us hiked to a place called Fern Canyon. The canyon is a narrow slot perhaps 100 feet deep and 30 feet wide. The walls are completely covered in several species of fern, and home to some striking yellow slugs. Right up to the edge of the canyon, redwoods tower into the sky. It's a place worth visiting, without a doubt.

All smiles in Fern Canyon.

After appreciating the canyon for half an hour or so, we hoofed it back to camp and the two Volunteers continued their trip South. I gorged myself on a loaf of bread, then took a two hour nap.

I woke feeling ready to go, and took off on a run into the forest. The trails in Prairie Creek are perfect for running: narrow, winding and interesting, but flat enough to allow for a good pace. I ran straight from my campsite, just carrying a water bottle, a headlamp, my passport and cash in my backpack. I ran 5 or six miles, then stopped at a bench and looked at the trees. Then I ran some more, flittering down the trail and stopping whenever the mood struck me. 

I had a nice 16 mile loop planned and had passed the halfway point and was starting to race the sun back to camp when I came around a corner and saw the white rear of an elk in the path less than 20 feet in front of me. I stopped quickly and backed around the corner, while the elk (fortunately) took off in the other direction. I waited a bit, and then slowly came around the corner to see if the elk had moved off the trail. Alas, he had only moved down the trail a little ways and was now stopped.

The elk had an incredible rack of antlers. Compared to a moose, the rack was slender and elegant, and seemed larger in comparison to the elk's body than I would have expected. It looked kind of ridiculous in fact, the antlers were so large.

I paused to watch for a bit, then backed around the corner again. We went on like this for about an hour: me waiting out of sight, then slowly moving forward until I could see the elk again, confirming that he was still in the trail, then backing out of sight. Eventually, it became clear that the elk was not going to get out of the trail, and I wasn't willing to leave the trail to go around him. So I headed back the way I came; the long way round the loop I'd started.

I jogged back slowly, in case I ran into more elk. And sure enough, I hadn't even been headed back for half an hour when I ran into more elk on the trail. Fortunately, these elk scampered off into the brush, so I didn't have my route cut off again. Inevitably, the sun set before I got back to camp. After stubbing my toe on a root, I reluctantly took out my headlight and used it to find my way. By the time I got back it was pitch dark, but I was happy. I cooked some dinner then crawled into my sleeping blag glad that I'd taken a day to explore the park.