Last weekend Justine and I went up to Crescent City, CA to watch the Noll Family Longboard Classic and camp in the redwoods. Crescent City is about 80 miles North of Eureka on HWY101. The drive north is absolutely spectacular. HWY 101 hugs the coastline and the drive takes you through some great scenery. The drive is a string of stunning views of the rocky coastline with crashing surf, large freshwater lagoons, and views of untouched forests. Glimpses of elk, eagles, and waterfowl are fairly common. Crescent City is a unique town, to put it nicely...It's a collection of old loggers, fishermen, and goldminers thrown together with the Natives and Southern California tourists.
The Noll Classic was great. It's a longboard only contest, so it just tends to be a friendlier atmosphere. The beach was full of tents with a family's worth of boards, wetsuits, coolers, and dogs strewn about. Campfires were everywhere and it was a dog's playground. Justine and I took a couple of lawn chairs and a couple of beers, picked a spot with a good view of the action, and just took it all in. The surf was OK, nothing spectacular...but fun. South Beach, the beach where the contest takes place every year, is known for it's consistent and friendly waves. I bumped into a couple people I've met through the swim team I coach and some teachers I've met through subbing. It's funny because at the Arts Alive nights in Eureka, Justine knows just about everybody...and the people I meet tend to be at surf contests...
After the contest, Justine and I drove up into the Siskiyou Mountains to find a nice campsite along the Smith River. We didn't have to drive very far, about 20 minutes outside of town we found a great place to camp in a grove of redwoods, overlooking the Smith River. I get pretty frustrated with California in general, but being able to check out a surf contest and camp in a grove of thousand year old trees tends to mitigate the sheer amount of bullcrap we put up with out here. There really isn't anything thing that beats a cold beer in one hand and a stick poking a blazing campfire in the other hand. I had hoped to reel in a tasty steelhead trout, but alas...they haven't started running up the river yet.
Anybody who has ever camped out knows about the annoyance of having to take a whiz at 4AM. It's always so warm in the sleeping bag and it's always cold, damp, and eerie in the early morning gray stillness. Coincedentally, Justine and I both had to wake up at 4AM and leave our nice warm bags. After I was outside the van and into the open air I had a little peak around. There is nothing quite like looking up through a canopy of redwoods and seeing the predawn stars and hearing a few sleepy sounding birds attempt to sing. It really makes a person feel rather small and realize the world is rather large...
The next morning ended up being pretty gray and dreary. After we broke camp, stretched, and prepped for the day's adventure. We went for a Sunday morning hike through a delightful redwood grove. It's always great to walk in the woods in the rain. A redwood forest always seems bigger and more prehistoric with a light drizzle and some fog.
After a hearty breakfast at a little diner, we drove to the beach for the surf contest finals. Saturday was definitely the contest's best day surf wise and weather wise, but a small hearty contingent of surfers and their supporting families were huddled on the beach. It really was miserable weather for a contest, very Pacific Northwest-ish weather. Buckets rain, lots of wind, fog, and building surf. Justine and I opted to view the contest from the comfort of the captain's seats in our van. We scored a perfect parking spot, with an excellent view of the contest action.
After the contest we headed back to our place in Eureka. On the way south we detoured through Redwood National Park for a little scenic drive. It's just a greatest hits list of scenery when it comes to Humboldt County. Nothing beats driving through ancient trees with the band Canned Heat blaring...
All in all in was a great weekend and a much needed break from our busy schedules. In one weekend we surfed some great waves, watched a longboard contest, camped out in redwoods, and took in great mountain scenery...you can't beat that. What's in tap for this weekend? Maybe a surf, maybe a street fair, probably another campfire, and non-stop fun with my lady...
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