Rolling Out of Arcata

We are leaving Arcata this morning, back on the road heading south for Highway 1 and San Francisco. Ahead of us we have one of the busiest sections of 101 we will experience broken by long sections of the Avenue of the Giants, which I've been looking forward to since the beginning of our trip.

Our visit here has been fantastic, due largely to the incredible hospitality of Jen and Erik, who have put us up in style (Today, for those who know him or even those who don't), is Erik's 30th Birthday by the way - hit him with a happy bday at erikjwilson@gmail.com). Jen and Erik went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and we got our own bed (which is extremely hard to leave :)), we got fed, coffee brought to us in the morning, taken to special places in the area and many other things that have contributed to a very hard departure this morning. Arcata is a great town as well, with an interesting natural history and unique political landscape.

Yesterday Jen and Erik lent us their car and we took a day to drive and hike around the Lost Coast south of Humboldt Bay. It is an area that has intrigued me for some time, where 101 bends sharply off the coast, leaving a large swath of very sparsely populated and seemingly forgotten coastline and coastal hills. Not only was it fantastic to travel with such ease (as with our jet boat experience, I couldn't help but think how easy internal combustion makes travel) but we saw some amazing country. We travelled through Petrolia (the site of the first oil well dug on the western coast) and through Honeydew (the site of some serious contemporary pot production). We hiked on the southern coast - a 25 mile wilderness hiking section. It was an eye-opening experience that sated my desire to know at least a little about this unique section of the west coast.