Blog 3 10th – 19th June Highway 101 to Yosemite

Blog 3  10^th – 19^th June. California

We’ve been doing so much, as well as meeting up with a sister, that we’re a bit behind with this - but here’s our latest review of our travels in California.

The Avenue of the Giants is a 31mile detour from Hwy 10, through Humboldt State Park, where we saw the largest remaining old-growth Coast Redwoods. And they are giants, up to 340ft high and 40ft girth, ancient and gnarly with twisted bark. As we walked through the forest, there was an eerie silence around them and a sense of timelessness….. as inspiring as some of Europe’s cathedrals.

The magnificent Route1 Hwy took us through some incredible scenery and lovely little clapperboard towns, round twisty-turny roads and along the Pacific Ocean. We kept going ‘wow!’ and ‘gosh!’ and ‘let’s go there’.

On 16^th June, we met up with Cath, in San Francisco, 3000 miles from home.

We had a great 6 days of fun sharing the space in the van and the tent and our maple syrup pancakes!

San Francisco is an absolute delight – attractive, inviting and vibrant, with so much to see and do. Rick’s face was a picture when we hopped on a cable car, holding on to the outside rail – yes, it was fun! His grin was even wider when we reached the Cable Car Museum, where we watched the 4 huge cable and sheave systems, which pull cars up the hills. They’ve been doing this since 1873 - incredible engineering that even I could appreciate.  We watched one being turned at the bottom of Mason St

Cath and Rosi

Playing Cable Cars

Nightmare when someone breaks down!

SF waterfront has a nice feel to it, lots of people jogging and wandering and coffeeing.  The famed Pier 39 is a cacophony of fast food outlets, souvenir shops and tourists, but it’s attractive in its own way. There’s a good mix of old and new buildings and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge (which disappointingly turned out to be red) and which we saw from the top of a hop on – hop off bus.

Alcatraz Times Square

 The Alcatraz tour was so booked up we only managed to get one ticket which Rick used while Rosi and Cath toured Golden Gate Park.  The ‘Rock’ tour included a visit to adjacent Angel Island, once a Military Base for guarding the entrance to the bay (never fired a shot in anger) it became the ‘Ellis Island’ Gateway to the Western USA for the millions of enthusiastic, imaginative, immigrant entrepreneurs that fired up the American Dream.  It is now a State Park where school kids are sent when their parents don’t want them around.   I felt rather sad on the Alcatraz tour as most of the inmates were basically insane, like Al Capone who was severely affected by syphilis which wrecked his brain.  Being incarcerated within the sight and sounds of a bustling City like San Francisco was a torture for some.

Rosi tried hippy-hunting, but saw nobody with flowers in their hair, only those with long grey ponytails…but we did find beer and live music at the 60^th North Bay Festival and observed  lots of Chinese gambling in a park.

Most of SF looks well-kept and fairly affluent, but there are quite a few rough sleepers with their shopping trolleys of wordly goods. Why, we wondered? Apparently SF has a strong support network and lots of soup kitchens.

One of our days went horribly wrong – our last ferry (8.30) across the Bay to Vallejo broke down in front of us. 100 people got cold, weary and short-tempered as we waited, and waited, and waited, but no information was forthcoming. By 10.45, the crew tried another ferry – that too broke down. By 11.00 we gave up and had a wonderful night’s sleep in a nearby hotel, at vast expense.

 

Robin's Next Bike...and Helmet?

We’ve been entertained by cruising cars at sundown – there must be a name for these cars …? Other intriguing methods of transport were spotted too. SF earns $98,000,000 from parking fines, mostly from the clever tourist-trap of a requirement to park with your wheels turned in on a hill. Equally staggering is the income of $65,000 for a dog-carer, and the $15,000 for a child minder – they have more dogs than under-17s (only 12%).  As SF is the 2^nd most expensive place in USA, this shouldn’t be surprising. 

 

Cath and I had a grand trip to Golden Gate Park, especially in the Japanese Garden (ideas for Ade?)  - serene, orderly and tranquil. We should all have some of that!

At last, Yosemite. WOW! We ran out of superlatives as we rounded bends and climbed steep mountain roads, each time to a more spectacular and wondrous view. Glacier Point (7100ft) is the pinnacle of stunning scenery, looking down on to the Valley Floor 3000ft below; just breath-taking. The sheer size and shape of the mountains, from Half Dome to El Capitan, is truly awesome. The dramatic geology in this landscape is a privilege to see – and you really do contemplate the smallness of yourself!

There was also the evidence of last year’s devastating fire, caused by a Hunter's illegal campfire. Lightning fires are a common and important element of regeneration and the Rangers set controlled fires, but not like this one - 400 sq miles was destroyed including several structures and 11 homes.

Our campground was 6000 ft up  at Crane Flat (yes it took a lot of puff to walk up the slightest incline!) It was pretty basic, but in a beautiful setting. Cath became fire-monitor with the pokey stick, Rick was chief cook, and me – the general dogsbody with the wine. For a change we were allowed to forage for firewood, normally forbidden...and much better value than buying it from the shop at £6.30 for enough to fill a carrier bag!

We had early morning starts (7.00), to beat the crowds and the heat. Even so, it hit 96deg as we walked/climbed the 5 mile trail round Hetch-Hetchy (what a name!). Few others were up there – it seems many visitors to the park don’t venture far from the ‘sights’. Peaceful for us and worth the walk through the beautiful wild flowers once we arrived at Wawona Falls

We continue to see puzzling signs. This one tempted us to try speeding to see what happened. And we really like the advert for SF University!

Rick's Tree 'Newt'

An interesting tree newt was exposed by Rick’s rotten bark-ripping (pic) and his patience paid off with this shot of a hummingbird in a hot poker bed next to the van.  We were later informed a bear had been cavorting while we were out wandering through yet more trees - darn! Haven’t seen one yet……

 

Hummingbird on our pitch

Much to our own surprise, we’ve walked a total of 67 miles so far, much of it along superb trails in stunning places. Maybe we’re trying to keep up with our friends currently doing the Dales Way!

We've uploaded dozens of pictures with the links below if you busy people can find the time to look at them!

https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/California10thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCMyw2NbBxvy4gQE

https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/California11thJune02?authkey=Gv1sRgCIn61Pyv8bm8-QE
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/California12thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCNu_yszck56JJA
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030096682527622401
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/SanFrancisco14thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCOq_5MnU4OHrygE
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/SanFrancisco15thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCMf_4-rz-92T2gE
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/SanFrancisco16thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXi2LzThNHpjgE
https://picasaweb.google.com/112477145672617228065/Yosemite18thJune?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiKrK705fWtOw
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6030225412060854353