With reports of relentless rain for the next two days, with temperatures low enough to result in snow over the Siskiyous -- we are out the door the precip, first down to Tisha's, resolving to go up 101, at least initially,
with a beautiful
fair / false dawn on 37 before the howling wetness sets in again,
a break at the Redwood Boulevard Novato
Starbucks,
then Olompali oaks,
the Russian River Canyon,
Frog Woman (formerly Squaw) Rock (a.k.a. Lover's Leap),
towards Ukiah and
Willits,
stopping briefly to the north,
and proceeding into the Eel River watershed,
past the
Benbow Inn,
down near the Avenue of the Giants,
to the Eureka vicinity where the sun comes out in time for a
petrol stop.
Proceeding ever north, past Arcata,
Trinidad
Head,
Stone
and
Freshwater
Lagoons,
Prairie Creek
Redwoods,
the Klamath
River,
False
Cove,
and Crescent City...
the jog is inland on 199 (a first),
along the Smith River,
as the
world whitens
up via
the incline
culminating in
Collier Tunnel
and the
Oregon border.
Another
stop
in
Cave
Junction,
with snow continuing,
but mercifully mostly not falling,
through Grant's Pass (now finally on I-5),
Sunny Valley (again, hah!), over Stage Road (a worrisome flurry) and Canyon Creek Passes,
beyond which this strange whiteness, never before seen in these parts, ceases.
The darkness falls at Roseburg, but on and on we drive (16 1/2 hours total) through the Wilamette Valley,
past Portland,
into Washington, left at the West Seattle Bridge,
and finally forth to
Nathan,
Joyce, and Claire's where the screen on the MacBook goes dark, alas...
