Hounds
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Mendocino County, California
July 6 -- July 9
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Sunset over the Pacific Ocean as seen from MacKerricher State Park.
Once we escaped from the traffic entering Tahoe City, we headed west and north over the mountains and hills towards the coast. Our campground destination was MacKerricher State Park, located a few miles north of the city of Fort Bragg. We arrived in the early evening and were told we could choose any campsite labeled with an RV symbol. We ended up with a site not far from the beach, next to a small lake stocked with fish. We set up camp and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
The next morning we took the hounds for a stroll to the walking trail just south of our campsite. The trail was actually a wooden walkway that went over and through the tall grasses on the hilltop overlooking the shore. The grasses were home to a species of squirrel that resembled a prairie dog. Not surprisingly, Tyler was fascinated with them and spent his time on the trail looking for them or staring at one he had found. The squirrels were pretty fearless and would stare right back at him from only a few feet away. Besides the different views of the rocky coastline, the trail`s other attraction was the set of rock outcroppings favored by the harbor seals. We saw several seals "hauled out" on those rocks, a hundred or so feet offshore, laying in the sun.
After taking pictures and answering the usual questions from other onlookers about the hounds, we headed back to camp. Deanna then took the van into town to shop for groceries and pet supplies while I hung out with the hounds, listening to the radio while I wrote down some of our experiences so far. We had turned on the radio the night before to find out what the weather would be like during the next few days, but we learned that the weather reports only spoke of the wind, surf, and cloud cover conditions. They rarely bothered to mention the temperature or anything else because those conditions never changed: every day the daytime temperature was in the upper 60s or low 70s, and night temperatures were in the low 50s or upper 40s. In other words, the weather was always beautiful.
When Deanna returned, I took the van into town to do laundry. I took Deanna's iBook with me so I could charge it while I sat in the laundromat: since the state parks we were staying at in California did not have RV electrical or water hookups, we had no way of recharging our electronic devices. I wrote down more about our trip while I waited, then drove back to camp. Deanna started a fire with some firewood purchased from the ranger station (you`re not allowed to collect your own firewood in California state parks) and we had hamburgers and bratwurst for dinner.
One of the nice things about MacKerricher State Park, and about many other places in northern California, is that they allow dogs on certain stretches of beach. So after dinner, we got the hounds down to the beach just as the sun was beginning to set behind some clouds. We sat for awhile after sunset, watching the waves crash onto the shore as the clouds turned a deep purple, before making the short trip back to camp. It was cold enough that we put the hounds in their pajama jackets to keep them warm (greyhounds don`t have the thick fur or the body fat of other breeds to fend off the cold) and ran the camper`s furnace for awhile to warm things up before going to sleep.
A view of the coastline from Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.
The next day we drove south of Fort Bragg to the Mendecino Coast Botanical Gardens. We walked along pathways through trees, flowers, and shrubs of all varieties. Some were native to California; others were not. The inner section of the gardens was enclosed by a fence in order to protect the more sensitive plants from the black-tailed deer that lived in the gardens, so we had to pass through a large wooden gate in order to go deeper. There were a number of different paths throughout the gardens; we took one called the Fern Canyon Trail that wound through thick clusters of temperate and tropical ferns. Eventually we reached the western edge of the gardens: the cliffs above the ocean. At first, parts of the shoreline were obscured by wisps of fog, and the sunlight was dimmed by a cloud hanging over the coast, a typical summertime phenomenon caused by the cold Pacific waters mixing with the warm inland air. As we ate lunch at one of the picnic tables, the cloud either moved on or dissipated as the day grew warmer, revealing clear skies above.
After taking some pictures of the coastline, we headed back into the gardens. We encountered a field full of yellow flowers similar to dandelions where folks were beginning to gather amongst rows of wooden folding chairs, no doubt in preparation for an impending wedding ceremony. We stopped for a few minutes on the edge of the field furthest from the crowd and took some pictures of the hounds amongst the flowers before continuing on. We took a different path back which lead to a vegetable garden area. There we encountered a California family relaxing on some chairs who talked with us and asked questions about the hounds. Now that we were further from the shore, it was beginning to get warm in the sun, so we made our way towards the entrance.
We left the gardens and drove back to camp. After eating dinner, as we washed dishes, we noticed a red indicator light next to the furnace was flickering every time we used the camper`s internal water pump to run the faucet. It turned out that the camper`s battery, which provided electricity to the camper`s built-in lights and electronics when no external electricity source was available, was beginning to give out. There was nothing we could do about it except go easy on the electricity. We finished cleaning up, then headed to the beach to catch the sunset again. This time there were no clouds on the horizon, so we were able to watch the sun disappear beneath the ocean. When it was over, we returned to the camper and went to bed.
The following day, we loaded the hounds into the van and drove into Fort Bragg. Our intention was to pick up a new battery for the camper and then go to the town of Mendocino and Mendocino Headlands State Park. We stopped first at the Sears store I had seen during my laundry outing, but it was still closed because it was Sunday morning. We drove further down Main Street and found a NAPA store that was open. They sold us a new battery and said they would give us a complimentary recharge of the old battery if we brought it in and left it there overnight. We decided to take them up on that offer, so we drove back to camp, switched the batteries, and brought the old battery to the NAPA store. Unfortunately the old battery was in reality more of a starter battery than a real battery, and it was so dead that it wasn`t rechargeable. We gave them the dead battery to dispose of and headed on our way.
The coastline of Mendocino Headlands State Park.
We drove south on California Route 1 for about 15 minutes before we saw the sign for the park. We made the turn, and a few minutes later we were driving down the main street of the town of Mendecino. Unsure of exactly where the park was (the signs for it had disappeared), we found a parking spot in town and started walking westward into the chilling ocean wind. We didn`t get too far before Deanna felt the absence of her sweatshirt (which was back at camp) so I held onto the hounds while she went into a store that sold tourist merchandise to get something to keep her warm. She ended up picking up a nice reversible hooded jacket (thick fleece on one side, water-resistent fabric on the other) at a very good price (I picked up one for myself when we left town).
We continued walking down the street until we found the start of a trail through the tall grasses to the cliffs of the headlands. The trail lead past a beach where pieces of driftwood had been stacked into several small square towers. The largest structure, which resembled the foundation of a small log cabin, was being used as a rest stop by three wetsuit-clad kayakers. We found the path with steps built into the side of the hill that lead down to the beach, so we went down. Carrie was quite interested in sniffing the driftwood. What captured our attention was an archway in the rock through which we could see the ocean. We climbed back up the narrow path and continued on the main trail. We soon encountered the fenced-off hole, about thirty feet wide, that looked down into the tunnel we`d just seen from the beach. The trail continued to follow along the edge of the ocean cliffs, and we took many pictures of the waves impacting on the rock formations, filling the tidal pools, inlets, and little bays created by the meandering coastline. Eventually the trail led us to the parking lots for the park. We were all a bit tired, and the hounds were getting warm from the sun, so we decided to head into town for lunch and drive back to the park afterwards.
So we walked the several blocks back to the main street of the town. On the way, we passed a family out in their yard who were testing their homemade potato gun.
Actually, it was more like a potato cannon: after assuring us that they weren`t aiming at us, the guy holding the gun pointed the 6-foot long barrel up at a 45-degree angle and fired the poor spud over the roadway into the grassy fields beyond. It traveled several hundred feet before hitting the ground with an audible thud.
Birds congregating along the coastline.
Once we reached Lansing Street (the main street through the town), Deanna consulted her notes on dog-friendly places to eat. We ended up at the outdoor tables of Mendo Burgers: we found a table under some shade and put down the travel mats, and a few minutes later the hounds were all down and relaxed while Deanna and I went about the business of ordering and eating lunch. As we were finishing up, the owner of Mendo Burgers, a retired school teacher, and her daughter's dog came out to meet the hounds and offered them some water for the road.
We left Mendo Burgers, found our way back to the van, and headed out to the park's parking lots. We took turns staying close to the van (the hounds were just fine with staying put) and taking more pictures of the coastline. When we were done, we drove out of Mendocino and back to our campsite, where we remained for the rest of the day. The next morning we were off to our next and final camping destination in California, just north of Monterey.