Once again, it’s been a while. Since my last blog, I’ve gotten a bunch of immunizations, went to a New Year’s party, had good ramen, had a New Year’s dinner, helped install a carputer, and hiked in the redwoods. The immunizations were for my trip to Africa and included: yellow fever, influenza, hepatitis B and typhoid (pills). The New Year’s party was hosted by Jeff, but we were late due to the aforementioned carputer installation (to be covered on my Geek Valhalla blog). The New Year’s dinner was at Mary’s parent’s house.

My friend Greg arrived in Oakland (from Anchorage, AK) on Thursday (2/22) morning. I picked him up and we drove up to Humboldt Redwoods State Park. We arrived in the late afternoon and it was cold and wet. We even passed through a couple hail storms and saw snow along the side of the road. Even so, the park was still beautiful. On the day we arrived, we checked in to the Redcrest Resort and did a short, 1.7 mile hike around the Drury-Chaney Loop Trail (picture on the left). For dinner we drove up to Eureka to eat at my favorite place in Northern California, the Samoa Cookhouse.

On Friday we did a more ambitious hike. We drove up Mattole Road to the Grasshopper Multiuse Trail. From there we hiked the 10.7 mile Johnson Trail Loop. The trail follows Bull Creek Flats Trail to the Giant Tree area. From there it follows the relatively new Johnson Camp Trail to Johnson Camp, a nearly 1600′ climb. The Johnson Camp Trail was completed over 3 years and earned an award in 2005. This section of the loop winds through old growth redwood forest, and is absolutely beautiful. From Johnson Camp, we followed the Grasshopper Multiuse Trail back down to Mattole Road. We took around 5 hours, including time for lunch along the trail. It was raining, a bit chilly (there was snow beside the trail in a few places) and a little longer than we were shooting for (this was my first hike since re-injuring my knee), but it was a definitely worth it.

On Saturday we settled for a short walk through Founders Grove. This is a short loop jam-packed with redwoods. This is probably the most popular trail in the park, but with the cold, wet weather, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. After we finished the loop we drove along the Avenue of the Giants which parallels highway 101 through the park. We had to make a slight detour since the road was closed between Weott and the park visitor center due to a fallen redwood. We then got to drive for nearly 5 more hours in the rain to get back to San Jose. One saving grace was finding some awesome brownies at the Peg House near Leggett, CA! Mmmm… brownies.

More pictures from Humboldt Redwoods State Park in my gallery.

Today, Mary, Greg and I went to The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. We spent a couple hours there including a viewing of the IMAX movie called Hurricane on the Bayou. The movie followed a couple local musicians who were working on a project to save the Louisiana Bayou when Hurricane Katrina hit. It provides some information on the useful qualities of the wetlands and how they could have helped protect New Orleans from Katrina. After the Tech, we drove Greg up to San Francisco and had dinner at a Mesopotamian (read: Iraqi) restaurant called YaYa’s. It was very good. Now I’m back home blogging and getting ready for another week.