Hike Info : Description
Type: Hiking
Trail head: Herrick Avenue Park&Ride
Trail: Eureka Waterfront Trail
Destination: Spruce Point
Distance: 2.8 miles 1
Elevation Rise: 180 '
Descent: 180‘
Maximum Elevation: 20'
1The above information is from plotting our route on Google Earth. I did not attempt to plot the route in the forest behind David’s house. It is too dense to see the pathways.
I initially woke up about 5:40 and saw that there was no lightning, then went back to sleep. I must have been tired since I finally got up about a quarter to eight. I sat in the front room until David got back from his walk. Sherri got up and I fixed our oatmeal.
David had brought down one of his redwoods a month ago and is cutting some of the wood into 1” slabs. He has enough to side a whole house with I think. My “help” consists of stacking each slab after he cuts them. After half a dozen cuts, he is ready to take a break. Besides, he needs to take the whole apparatus-chainsaw and his Alaskan mill to Don’s house.
Don is someone whom I met in Hawaii and have enjoyed. Don and another friend are cutting a downed tree into usable pieces and will be needing the mill today. After talking for a while, David and I go and get a chain which was sharpened at a local place-Kris Kingle (That is the name of the person, really). We come back and drop off the chain, then head back to David’s house.
It is time for a walk. David takes us to the Herrick Ave Park&Ride. We picked up the Eureka Waterfront Trail. It is a paved walkway, following alongside an unused railway. David said the railway carried lumber to various mills around Eureka. We are about a mile and half from its southern end, which is where we head.
On one side are the sloughs and marsh lands. The other is Humboldt Bay. Since the path only roughly follows the railway, there are some ups and downs but never very much. I cannot say it is level, but it is easy walking. After the long drive yesterday I needed to unwind.
On the slough side of the trail, we see an assortment of birds. The main attraction is a great egret picking through the mud, looking for grubs to feed on. But there are ducks or are they geese? Also some mud living avifauna-I learned a new word today. On the other side of the breakwall, we see water splashing up high.
We stop at the local WinCo, both for David to gain a few items for tonight’s rib-eye and for us to stock up on things we forgot. By the time we return to David’s place, it is time to have lunch. Then a short afternoon nap.
In back of David’s place is a forest which David says has been recently sold by a logging concern to a developer. So David takes us on an afternoon jaunt down into the forest. A steep own is the phrase I would use on this pathway. The path takes us through a thick coating of forest overhead down to a tributary of a creek called Martin Slough. I ask David why we have not gone down here before? He says that it is because I did not want to. I cannot imagine that, or can I?
When we get back, David gets our dinner ready to be served. He has been smoking some rib-eye all afternoon and now they are ready, and so are we to eat them. This is in celebration of our 48th anniversary. He would have cooked them yesterday, but we would have gotten in too late. Tasty meal. That is my brother, a pretty good cook, treating us well.
We talk for a bit longer and then go to bed. It will be a long day tomorrow, so I need to get some rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment