We had only one day to see the sights of Northern California. I had my guidebooks, so we headed off in the early morning mists to see the trees. First stop, "The Trees of Mystery."

I am a sucker for tourist traps- we had to stop. Besides, when I saw the giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue Ox, memories of another set of statues in Dent, Minnesota sang through my heart.

(In case y'all don't know, Dent is where Naoto and I met for the first time, so Paul Bunyan always has a special place in my heart)

The Trees of Mystery actually turned out to be pretty cool. We got to see some B-I-I-G trees, and make fun of the cheesiness of the whole thing. I mean, they called a whole bunch of redwoods growing together the "Cathedral Tree" and said people get married there all the time. It was good fun.

At the end of the path was a very interesting Native American Museum. We both enjoyed that alot.

From Smith River to Orick, California is some of the most beautiful country I've seen (and remember I've been to four continents and lived in Monterey, California.) It has everything: gorgous cliffs leading to the ocean, huge groves of sequoyahs, and deserted, rotting trailer parks.

Oops, did I mention that before? The whole area is rather undeveloped accept for scads of trailer parks. I guess most Northern Californias scorn hotels for their own, movable vacation abodes. All I can say is that I saw more flannel that day than a Pearl Jam concert.

We did lots of little hikes that day, because there are just too many little parks to go to. Redwoods National Park is actually made up of several smaller, state parks. Jedediah State Park, Klamath River Recreation Area, Stout Grove, etcetra, etcetra. We didn't get to see any old growth groves per se, just one or two scattered big trees the lumber companies left for one reason or another.

Here is Naoto at the Klamath River Trailhead. Just downstream a little is one of the Indian Casinos that can be found all up and down the coast. It seems the main pasttimes of people in Northern California are fishing, RVing, and gambling. There wasn't much else to do- oh yeah and hike.

My favorite hike of that day was in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. Evidently that First Lady was the person who dedicated Redwoods National Park. It was a two mile walk through heavily mossed ground, ancient fern fronds smelling of green, and big-momma seqouyah sempervirens.

�

Here, it was, that Naoto longed for his old pal, the Banana Slug. Have we told you about his encounter with the Banana Slug back in Big Basin State Park? Banana Slugs are big, yellow, slimy dollops of slug. They love moist loam. They are also te only animal I have ever seen that make Naoto squeamish. Everytime we came across one back at Big Basin Naoto would say "ahhh!" and try not to look.

According to the nature walk pamphlet we had, Lady Bird was supposed to be full of Banana Slugs. The entire walk Naoto had an expectant gleam in his eye- wanting to see one, not wanting to be grossed out. All that emotion, in the end, had no outlet, for we did not even see one. So, we wrote haikus.

�

Kirsten's Haiku:

Sagashiteru
Naoppi ga comatte iru
Banana Slug

Naoto's Haiku: (I was complaining about the taste of the local coffee when I accidentally swallowed a bug)

Mazukete mo
Mushi yori mashi da
Local Coffee

Kirsten's Haiku:

Searching
Naoppi is perplexed
Banana Slug

Naoto's Haiku: (I was complaining about the taste of the local coffee when I accidentally swallowed a bug)

Even bad
Local Coffee tastes better than
Bugs

Our last adventure of the day was a trip to Fern Canyon. You get there by driving on a gravel/mud, narrow road through forest, around potholes (praying no one else is coming the opposite way) to the coast. I am sure it would be alot more fun in a SUV, but we only had our aging, Honda Civic. Cally's seen us through many a trip, but Naoto and I were holding our breath on this one.

We made it down to the beach, and then another mile on even gravellier road, and then came across the mother of all pot holes. It was the entire length of the road, about eight feet wide and filled to the brim with water. Now we faced a dilemna. We didn't really want to drive back in the dark, but we only had an hour or so of daylight left. Can Naoto and Kirsten make it to Fern Canyon and back in time?

We did. Here's Naoto in the canyon; he kept saying "Kyoryu ga desoo" which means, roughly, "it looks like a dinosaur is going to appear." Of course we waved to all the SUV's that merrily passed us on the road as we hiked through the dust.

The trip was all made worth it, however, when we came across two giant, male elk chewing their cud by the side of the road. Not so much a thrill for me, but if you grew up in the concrete jungle of Tokyo and only saw animals in zoos, it would be a thrill.