"...Fight Back Vigorously"

The signs posted at the backwoods trailheads and campsites in the redwood national forest advise: "If you are attacked by a mountain lion, fight back vigorously". Fortunately we didn't have occasion to fend off a mountain lion during our stay in the forest, but we did have to deal with mother nature, and fight we did:   while we did cut out long hikes from our itinerary we refused to concede complete defeat to the unceasing rain which began falling in Portland on Tuesday evening and continued for the next 60 hours.  We purchased rain jackets on the way out of Portland (best money spent so far) and resolved not to sleep in the car or use the countless drive in camp grounds that dot the 101. Instead, we'd stick to our original goal of (slightly) more primitive camping.

Camping in the state and national parks exists in 4 levels:

1. Drive in camping: closely packed paved sites with, hot showers and lots of kids nearby.
2. Environmental Camping: Drive in part of the way and pack a few hundred yards to the more secluded sites. Vault toilets and a bear locker are provided. Trash must be packed out.
3. Backwoods camping: Marked sites off of trails include a fire ring a bear locker and nothing else. Everything must be packed out.  
4. Dispersion camping: On your own.  Camps must be 200 yards from the road and 20 from the trail. No fires are allowed and food/trash must be hung from trees in the absence of bear lockers.

We camped for 2 days (i'll refer to day 1 as 01 Camp and day 2 as 02 Camp).  01 Camp  was more of a stopover on our way to our intended destination of Prairie Creek State Park just over the CA border.  We employed the dispersion method on day 1.  We simply drove until dusk pulled up to a trailhead (cummings creek), hiked in and set up camp.  With no fire, we pretty much just set up camp under the steady rain and went to bed.  The early bedtime allowed us to wake up bright and early and continue south on the 101.

We stopped for breakfast at a little house turned makeshift diner (a curtain fashioned out of PVC pipe pulled double duty as a backdrop to the pay counter and a separator between the restaurant and the house's old linoleum and Formica kitchen turned business office) called Kathleen and Nina's.  The menu consisted of eggs, pancakes, pig, potatoes and gravy combined in different ways. Simple but delicious.  After breakfast we headed south in the rain towards our destination.

We arrived at the park around 4 PM, and obtained an environmental campsite.  The road to 02 camp was treacherous - starting with a puddle turned lake blocking the access road.  After watching a few cars with slightly more clearance than our Camry wade through, we held our breath and went for it.  We made it across with no problem and continued up the 4 mile long windy pot hole riddled road to our campsite.  We reached our turnoff, opened the gate using the combination provided at the ranger station, moved a fallen tree out of the way and worked our way back to the camp.  We set up shop, made a fire and cooked dinner: steamed Squash, cucumber, potatoes, and onion with an appetizer of fire roasted yellow pepper.  After dinner we retreated to the tent, played a couple games of chess and were asleep by 9:30.  Somehow, despite the torrential rain and the ever loudening rush of the creek below our site we stayed relatively dry, and the next morning after some fresh brewed coffee , we packed up camp under a light rain and headed south towards wine country.

About half way through our drive, around the time the 101 gave way to the 1, the sun peeked out and we were treated to some spectacular views of Mendocino county wine country as we cut our way down the coast and over to Santa Rosa (for our Cincinnati readers, imagine 100 miles of Mineola Pike with sheer cliffs on one side) where beds and showers awaited.  We arrived in Santa Rosa around dinner time, showered, and headed into the very cool downtown for a delicious dinner and 5 dollar glasses of house wine (that I would have gladly paid double for) at Cafe Rendezvous on the square.

Today we're going to tool around Sonoma county for a bit and make our way to San Francisco in time for dinner.

We've accumulated quite a few pics over the past couple days.  Here's a selection in slide show form [don't click on the big play button - it redirects you.  To start the show click on the very bottom of the image and use the menu bar that appears.]