Week 2: Hello Ocean, Hello Redwoods

Sometimes I forget when winter drags on another month that the snow will melt and that in other places there may be no snow at all. 

We're still traveling south, finally past Portland with its unexpected foot of snow dumped overnight, making our way down the Willamette Valley and to the coast, dodging the snow of the Siskiyou Pass. 

North of Orick, Oregon

We stopped in Coos Bay and Brookings, Oregon, for clam chowder and grilled salmon sandwiches, eaten dockside, no coats. Found a lovely quilt shop (Forget Me Knots) in Bandon, and today drove to Eureka, passing the border into California, along winding coastal roads, lots of repair work to fix slipouts, and into the redwoods.

As we walked along the well-marked trails in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, we passed ferns shoulder-high, crunched along trails heavy with pine needles, shadowed by redwoods, with the chip, chip, chip of winter wrens surrounding us. 

After a long winter, it felt remarkable to simply walk in these woods. 

The quiet was punctuated now and then by others hiking along these trails. We admired the tall redwoods, stretching to look up and up.

As we crossed small, sturdy bridges, below us, the clear water burbled over rocks, the banks thick with ferns, and all around us, the play of light.