We climbed down the scree and Lauren put her hand on a soft squishy rock. Just kidding, it was a dead mouse curled up on a rock on the side of the mountain! There were no cliffs around and there was no way she could fall, but her scream was so blood curdling that Chris assumed she was falling to her death! He turned around to find her frantically wiping her hands on her pants, she was hopping around, whimpering and whining like a little puppy who needed to be let out! Lets face it, the only one who really suffered any damage was the poor mouse! Lauren was fine, Chris was fine (after the ringing in his ears went away), but that little mouse would never breathe again and had probably suffered terribly as it starved or froze to death high up on that barren spire of rock. Chris scooted the mouse's body under a rock so Lauren would not have to look at it anymore. After that episode we climbed down and found a picnic table to make our dinner. Chris built a fire, our first one since Buffalo Wood National Park in Northwest Territories! He spent an ample amount of time cutting logs with the hatchet and stacking a neat pile of firewood beside the fire pit. Lauren prepared dinner and then began cutting up some of the pears we got from the orchard to make pear sauce, yummy! She decided to not tell Chris that we couldn't camp there for the night, and assumed that he had read the sign saying only horse camping was allowed on the premises. After Chris successfully lit a small fire he added his wet wood to the pit and covered the whole picnic area in a smoke choked cloud! He spent a lot of time trying to keep the fire alive and placing the wet wood around the fire to help dry it out, when Lauren decided that it was time to remind him that we were not camping there for the night...awesome. Chris put out the fire (it didn't take much time since it was too wet to have any good coals) and we drove to an empty parking lot to spend the night. The Government finally ended the shut down and the next morning Crater Lake would be open!!!! Hooray!!!!
We got up early and drove to Crater Lake, which was maybe an hour and a half from where we camped. Most of the rim road was closed, unfortunately, except for the visitor center and lodge parking lot at the south end of the lake. We hiked to the top of Garfield Peak to get the best views possible for that day, and then also did a small hike to Discovery Point where John Wesley Hillman was the first white man to see Crater Lake and called it the Deep Blue Lake.
We had our picture taken by an old couple we met visiting from Colorado. He was old fashioned as he liked to say, so even though his camera had a digital screen he still preferred to use the viewfinder. Our camera does not have a view finder but even so he screwed up his eyes real tight and pressed the camera against his cheek and asked if we were smiling (because as we found out he couldn't see us at all and had no idea what he was taking a picture of). He took a picture of us at Crater Lake, or rather a picture of the concrete we were standing on and us, but it made us laugh nonetheless! Crater Lake was phenomenal, it was small park but there was a beauty about it that was mesmerizing. It was so blue, so deep, and so majestically ringed by cliffs on every side that it was unlike any lake we had ever seen! After we left Crater Lake we headed to Redwoods National and State Park and to California...finally! Oregon was beautiful but it was good to feel like we were making progress again! We reached to state border and took many pictures. Unfortunately the camera we were using began to take blurry photos, so the california sign pictures did not come out very well.
We camped on the very edge of Jedediah Smith State Park (pretty cool name huh!) In the morning we visited the visitor center in Crescent City and made an itinerary for the day. We started by taking a drive through an old growth redwood forest on an old carriage road. We hiked a 5 mile loop on Boy Scout Trail. The trees were ENORMOUS! The tallest of the redwoods reach 370 feet high and can be about 26 feet in diameter. They can be over 2,000 years old and at one point before the loggers began clearing the land occupied 2,100,000 acres! Now old growth forests of redwoods only occupy around 100,000 acres! The forests are so beautiful, the trees stand so far above the undergrowth it starts to hurt your neck as you crane to look at the treetops. The understory is dark, cool, and moist. Rays of sunlight pierce the canopy and give the fern covered ground a prehistoric feel.
Once we finished that hike we drove to some overlooks but unfortunately the ocean was being fussy and decided to block out all the coastal views with thick fog! Boo to you fog! At least the sun was shining bright and warm in the hills! We saw a lot of elk on the coast which surprised us, but after the 4th herd the didn't phase us anymore. The next place we hiked was Fern Canyon. Scenes for Jurassic Park were shot in the canyon. When I said that the ferns and the gigantic trees combined with the misty air to give a prehistoric feel I was referring to the canyon! The walls were probably 30-40 feet deep and set at a 90 degree angle. No rock showed because vertical growing sheets of fern covered the wall from the top to the bottom. In the canyon ran a stream through a rocky bed that wound its way though the skeletons of fallen trees. Many had toppled over from the cliff rim and snapped in two, while others were lying like ladders connecting the stream bed to the forest above. It was absolutely gorgeous and all the light around us was tinted green because of the lush growth in and around the canyon. It was precisely the environment you might imagine a T-rex or a Stegosaurus in during the Cretaceous period!
From Redwood State and National Park we went East towards Redding to visit our high-school friend Jessie Foley! We arrived to her house on Friday evening around 9:00. We ate a little and spent a few hours catching up with her. We slept in a bed again which is always an awesome thing! On Saturday morning she made us breakfast. Toast, eggs, freshly squeezed juice (orange, pineapple, grapefruit, and apple!), bacon, and coffee! Superb start to the day! She told us she planned to take us to a nice dinner at a beautiful vineyard with her boyfriend, Andrew and her friend, Steven. This vineyard had a dress code, and Jessie asked if we had anything nice to wear. We both looked down at our clothes and asked if they were nice enough, being that they were the nicest clothes we had brought on the trip. It was obvious that they were not, and Jessie said that she would help us find something to wear. After that we helped move some of her friends into their new house. It was great to meet the people that she spent so much time with and valued so highly. Everyone was very friendly and fun to talk with. We were helping to move Steven and his roommates. Steven was very nice and let Chris borrow some of his clothes to wear since the vineyard had a dress code and his travel attire was not going to quite cut it! Chris borrowed a nice button down shirt from Steven, which apparently didn't fit him anymore so he gifted it to Chris! It was a very nice gesture! From there we picked up Andrew and grabbed a pair of khakis, shoes, and dress socks for Chris and went to Macy's to find Lauren an outfit. Jessie bought her a beautiful dress and shoes. The five of us drove to Anselmo Vineyard for dinner. We arrived just as the sun started to set. The vineyard and views were outstanding and the food and wine were even better!
It was a very fun evening and we talked a little more with Jessie once we got back to her house before heading to bed. Sunday morning we got up early to attend the 8:00 am service at Bethel. Once the service was over we grabbed some coffee and went for a stroll along the Sundial Bridge and across the Civic Center lawn. Jessie generously offered to buy us some groceries for our trip, so after the bridge we went to Trader Joe's and Safeway to buy groceries for us as well as the family dinner Jessie and her roommate were planning that evening for their friends. After shopping we got lunch at In 'n' Out and went back to her place. We hung out for the afternoon, and then began preparing dinner with her and her roommate, Holly. Holly roasted some vegetables, and a chicken in the oven while we made Pear/Apple sauce, and butternut squash with prosciutto! We had a dessert of strawberries dipped in chocolate sauce prepared by Jessie, and they were delicious! After dinner we chatted some more and then went to bed. Jessie went to work in the morning and we stayed at the house doing our laundry, and packing up the car. Once we were ready, we began our drive to San Francisco.
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