Garberville

Tuesday morning, in Garberville, lovely cold and misty morning, surrounded by old redwood trees and the wintery smell of .....  hmmm, what is that smell?  At this time of year one would expect to smell burning wood from fireplaces and woodstoves, but this smell isn't exactly wood smoke.  It smells a little woody, a little skunky and a little like, perhaps weed?  Could it be that the folks here in town burn marijuana in their ecologically correct wood stoves and the entire town stays high?  That is precisely what it smells like.  Garberville, where everyone looks either homeless or drug-addled and yet most of them drive huge brand-new American made trucks!  How could this be?

My goal yesterday was to get into the Trinity Alps using small back roads instead of Hwy. 5 to Redding or Hwy 101 to Arcata.  However, the small roads indicated on the map were actually unpaved roads and 40 miles of unpaved roads in my little Honda just didn't seem like a good idea.  Stopping at a ranger station in the booming hamlet of Covelo confirmed that there was no way into the Alps that was paved unless I went back to one of the above safe roads.  So three hours of beautiful driving through some gorgeous Mendocino forests later, we were back on Hwy. 101 and thus spent the night in Garberville.

Today, up to Arcata, taking a right on Hwy. 299 and into the mountains, ending somewhere near Redding a few hours later and on into Oregon.  At least that's the plan for now.  However, unlike the postal workers, Cooper and I are often thwarted by rain, sleet and snow.  Off we go......