wo dasuan xiage xingqi hui beijing. kanwan bai de shan yihou, wo yao hui beijing. beibian de jalifornia zai wode jia. wo he laogong kanwan dahai, ranhou women hui dunsmuir. wo hui hua da hai de tu pian. beiban de jalifunia baitian hen re, wanshang hen leng?
August 3 we drove from Redding to the Coast and returned on August 4. The entire round-trip was 465m or 748km. Redding to the coast-- Kan da hai It was 70-degrees F (21-degrees C) in Willow Creek. Queen Anne's Lace was thickly blooming by the side of the road. Lots of mixed conifer and hardwood, Douglas fir, madrone, oak and maple. In the ditch beside the little two-lane hwy 299 was petasite's large palmate leaves, also equisetum, thimbleberry and purple thistle as we drove through the forest on the winding mountain road with the sunroof open. More bracken fern, wild red-purple foxglove, tiny little blue, pink and yellow flowers in with the tall dried grasses.
As we approach the coast, I see an offshore cloud bank slowly rolling in. 6% downhill grade to McKinleyville. We pass Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe casino, dairy farms, squash truck garden. Now it's a big 4-lane highway, we are traveling with pickups, RV's and logging trucks. Port Orford cedar and a kind of Monterrey Cypress, orange and yellow nasturtiums in with the blackberries climbing the fence next to the road. Giant coastal dark green pines, eucalyptus.
Dropping down to Clam Beach dunes, the fog bank keeps coming, but still sunny where we are heading north on 101. Shady patches on the highway as the cloud cover finally blows onshore.
Sign for Marine Laboratory Humboldt State University and Trinidad pop. 311. Red crocosmia, purple agapanthus, all color dahlias, spicy pink Cecile Brunner in full bloom. Clam chowder, coffee for Bruce, glass of white zin for C. $17 + tip (109Y). 59-degrees F (15-degrees C) at 5pm, Patrick's Point. Cow parsnip 1.5m (5-feet) in the Redwood forest, gray-green moss hanging from branches.
Stopped to paint at Big Lagoon. Elk napping in tall grass in Elk Prairie, only huge antlers showing. Cerus canadensis are native to North America, China and Korea. Full grown males weigh 320kg (710#), are 1.5m (5-feet) high at the shoulder and antlers 1.2m (3.9-feet). Here is a neat website on elk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk
August 4 French toast & coffee $15 (96Y), added $40 (258Y) @ $4/gal (about $1 per liter or 6.5Y per liter) gas in Explorer.
Cruised through Crescent City, hit by tsunami March 11, 2011, result of devastaing Japan earthquake. Caused damage to boats in harbor. Crescent city has had 31 tsunami events since 1933. In March 27, 1964 an earthquake off Anchorage, AK, set off a tsunami of 4 large waves which destroyed 289 buildings and businesses, 1,000 cars, 25 large fishing vessels, 12 dead, 100 injured and 60 city blocks inundated with 30 city blocks totally destroyed.
Stopped to paint Battery Point LIghthouse. The big tsunami waves of 1964 rolled over the top of this lighthouse. Sweet beachy morning, pale sunlight, patchy clouds, low tide, pale blue-qian lansede- sky reflecting in tidepools, sharp smell of low tide, handful tourists strolling the jetty and across tidelands to visit lighthouse.
Bruce cleaned my brushes while I packed up and we headed up Hwy 199, following Smith River through mighty Redwoods east, back to home in Siskiyou County. Near Patrick's Creek saw gorge cutting through the rock with little trees clinging to the steep rock cliffs.
Deli sandwiches $11.00 (71Y) + drinks. O'Brien just over the Oregon border at 1.400-feet (426m) elevation, sunny 84-degrees F (29-degrees C). Can see big puffy thunderclouds east behind ridge of Siskiyou Mountains. 4,800-feet (1463m) at the pass. Ox-eye daisies, fireweed and hypericum perforatum growing up in cracks in the side of the road. Passing logging trucks occasionally, orange aquilegia and turk's cap lily. Hwy 96, following Klamath River around China Peak elevation 4100-feet (1249m), 92-degrees F (33-degrees C) at 3pm.
A quick check online produced no results for the history of China Peak or explanation of the name. Anyone out there who knows about China Peak in Siskiyou County please let me know.
Hui tou jian
