Mendocino to Klamath, CA

June 6
Miles Drive: 300

  
Dear Blogary,

Today was a spectacular day! It’s like I’ve seen tens days worth of sites in one! I don’t know even where to begin. I left the lovely ocean view of my room in Mendocino and headed north on Hwy 1. Eventually you need to move onto 101, which brings you to Redwood land. These trees are magnificent! They grow to over 300 ft and live more than 2000 years! These trees, combined with humor, creativity and the desire to make a buck, have made for some unforgettable roadside attractions. Like the Chandelier tree pictured above which you can obviously drive right through! Then there is this tree with a house in the trunk.
  

Along the way there was Confusion Hill which is one of those mysterious gravity spots where things go uphill and you can walk on the wall. All of which I experienced here.
 
Although I'm hanging from a bar, my legs are pulled forward, confusing!!

These trees were dedicated to the heroes of 9/11 and labeled the twin towers. (This was tastefully done, and no money was charged.)
 

Then there is the Shrine Drive Thru Tree which was just as exciting.


There is the Eternal House tree, and the Immortal Tree because it has survived being struck by lightning, being axed and forest fires.
I also stopped by this interesting town. Scotia – it’s the only town owned by a company – the Pacific Lumber Co. – it’s cute in a Stepford Wives kind of way.
 

Oh, there’s also the Log House. Crafted in 1946 from a 2100 yr old redwood, it weighed 42 tons and took 8 months of labor to hallow out a room 7’ high and 32’ feet long. (Although, that’s nothing compared to Albert and the Hole in the Rock home – see previous entry).
 

Much of the beautiful redwoods can be seen along the Avenue of the Giants, a 30 mile drive through the largest redwood forest in California. There are some 17,000 acres of coastal redwoods, the tallest trees on earth.
   You can only see 1/2 of the trunk in this photo. There was a couple making out behind the tree, so I couldn't keep taking photos to get it right.

A little farther north I noticed a sign that said something like “for Elk reports tune in to AM 1630.” Well, needless to say, I tuned right in. Sure enough it led me to this guy right here:
 

I ended my day at the Redwood Hostel. It was originally a ranch and dairy farm owned by Louis and Agnes DeMartin. For almost 60 years, the DeMartins welcomed weary travelers to there home in the late 1800’s. It has magnificent views overlooking the ocean from practically every room.
  
There was a group of 13 year old students staying there, as well as Grace from Portland and 2 interesting gentlemen friends. Jeff gave up his medical practice and has been living on the road since April 2005 on a “spiritual journey.” He has a beard about 8 inches long and a very calm, peaceful manner. He explained how he has been cleansing himself both mentally and physically. He explained in great detail the cleansing of his colon, gallbladder and liver and offered descriptions of what was cleaned out. He and his friend shared some of their detox tea while I talked about driving through trees and walking on walls. Hey, I’m taking my own spiritual path.