Wet Drive Home

We had better weather than we expected all week, but the storm rolled in and it rained all day Friday, while we were loading up,

and while we made one quick stop in Humboldt State Park along the Avenue of the Giants. We usually like to do two or three short hikes on the way up and again on the way home, but with short days and then rain, we really didn't time it right for either direction.

We stopped at our typical sorrel spot, but it wasn't as green as it usually is (partially because of the rain which makes the sorrel close up, but I also think it's not a thick this time of year.)

But it was a really beautiful, if drippy, stop. The kids ran off immediately to find the albino tree but Daddy-o and I stuck closer to the car.

I took a couple last mushroom pictures,

and tried to capture the trees.

Hate to say goodbye to all of this.

But we had a long, wet drive ahead of us.

We found a really good cafe for lunch (Avenue Cafe) which Peanut ate happily, and then threw it all up--poor kid was really struggling with the car sickness this day. And then Daddy-o managed the wet, sometimes almost flooding roads the rest of the way home. It took longer than normal, but we were lucky things weren't any worse. If we'd left a day later, I think it would have been a nightmare.

And then, just because we were home, didn't mean we had to stop with the games. We finished the Quiddler game we'd started the other night.

And I have to put a plug in for this Calendar puzzle--it's been so much fun, and it's a new puzzle every day, for years! 

Saved the Best for Last

We've got enough favorite hikes that I can't actually say this is THE BEST hike up here, but Trillium Falls was the most magical one we did that first year and has remained completely enchanting. We always save it for the day most likely to be rainy because we love heading from this meadow. . .

into the drippy, dark forest.

This hike is just incredible.

Definitely our happy place.

Didn't find any wildlife in the creek (I'm guessing it's too early in the winter for newts and I don't think we know where the salamanders actually hang out--still on my list to find one.)

Still can't stop with the mushrooms.

And my favorite tree, with Trillium Falls just to the right.

Lots of water this year.

I stayed up on the safety of the bridge. No slippery rocks for me this time.

But I did feel good enough to keep going at this point, so instead of turning around, I decided to see how far I could go, knowing that at some point, I was going to be locked into doing the whole 2.8 mile loop (spoiler alert--I made it!)

And I'm glad I didn't miss out on all the fungi along the way!

Hand microscope came in handy for the small ones.

We now own two because Daddy-o was so impressed by Peanut's that I got him his own for his stocking this year.

I'm just going to dump a bunch of mushroom pictures here--we did a super slow hike (I think it took almost 3.5 hours to do a little less than 3 miles thanks to my pace), but it gave me lots of time to find all the fun fungi.

Looks like lichen,

but there's fungi on that too!

These people were so patient with my slow pace. I'm glad they got to do some hikes on their own so they could log more miles than I could do, but I'm also really glad I was able to do this hike.

Smallest ones yet!

There were a whole bunch of the tiny ones.

This log was like a mushroom nursery

I made it! The hiking poles were a life saver. I'm so glad my doctor was wrong. He didn't think there was any way I could do even a mile of hiking this soon after the injury, and I'll be honest, if I could have quit after two miles, I would have--my ankle wasn't hurting, but that last 1/2 mile, I was just so tired. I've done almost nothing for close to two months, and it does matter.

I wasn't the only one tired at the end. But both Peanut and I made it! (And don't let this picture fool you--this kid can go from "I'm so tired, I can't walk another step" to running the last 1/4 mile and beating everyone back to the car by several minutes. He just likes to be dramatic, haha.)

It was a good, good day. Daddy-o, Bean, and Bug went out after lunch for one last short hike while Peanut and I chilled at the house, but we had a great morning together.

Had to also document these kiddos who did a lot of dishes this week. There's no dishwasher at the house, and Daddy-o and I were making all the meals, so we put these three on clean-up and they did a good job.

Our last afternoon/evening we dedicated to Jolabokaflod, the Icelandic tradition of books and chocolate. We didn't celebrate on Christmas Eve (and I can't see us ever making that work out because of all the other traditions we have going on for that evening), but this week after Christmas seemed perfect, and we had a lot of new books to read, too.

So we filled up on chocolates and read for a couple hours.

And then everyone but Peanut, who couldn't tear himself away from his book, played a game of Nerts to finish off the night. This trip went way too fast and we could have used a couple more nights, but with the big storm coming in, it's probably good we left when we did. And we'll be back, for sure.

Revisiting the Boy Scout Tree Trail

With Wednesday's forecast for sun, we decided to drive up the coast to Jedidiah Smith State Park to visit a few of those trails again. Daddy-o wanted a redo for the Boy Scout Tree Trail and I found a couple other shorter hikes that I hoped to be able to do as well.

We all hiked to the bridge at the beginning of the Boy Scout Tree Trail together.

This forest has some excellent trees, 

and with the sunshine pouring in after the rain, it was at its best!

Lots of water in the creek.

And then I said goodbye to everyone so they could go climb the mountain and find the waterfall.

The kids did the hike with me last year, so they were happy to show their dad the parts he missed.

The waterfall had a lot more water than last time.

While they did another 5 miles or so of hiking, I meandered back from the creek crossing.

Found a banana slug,

and tons of mushrooms, of course.

Baby ferns, too!

And a snail.

It was so pretty--took me about 45 minutes to make it back to the car.

But I was just so happy hunting,

and now just need to learn how to identify them

This one was really cool! Another hiker identified it as a crown-tipped coral mushroom. Daddy-o and the kids found an even bigger one on their hike.

These were adorable--I love baby mushrooms. After I made it back to the car, I ate my lunch and read for a couple hours while waiting for everyone else. I had a little moment of worry when several emergency vehicles showed up and parked by the trailhead. I had taken my boots off, so I waited until the time that I expected the rest of the family to be back before I laced back up and went to talk to an EMT who was standing near the trail. A woman had slipped and broken her leg, and then another man had fallen and cut his hand, but it sounded like both were alone or with only one other person, so I wasn't too concerned that it was someone from our group, but the next 15 minutes while I waited for them to finally get down the mountain were a little tense. But everyone was fine (and I was sure that not trying to hike on the path with so many wet tree roots was a good idea for me!)

Then, we had a couple hours of daylight left so we made two more spots along Howland Hill Rd (which the road alone offers pretty amazing views of the redwoods--it's an old logging road and you get to drive right by the towering trees.)

First stop was the Grove of Titans.

The hike ended up being farther than I thought, and with more up and down, so I turned around before the grove, but it was still beautiful.

Everyone else made it to the big trees.

But I still got some pretty views.

And a few more mushrooms.

Love these reddish ones that match the redwood color scheme so nicely.

Then we made it to Stout Grove which is a short nature trail with just enough light left to do the .7 mile loop.

This is a pretty popular trail, but we only so two other small groups. A mostly rainy December week at sunset is not a busy time.

 

Views of the river that was raging along the far side of the loop were pretty.

And some really big trees.

Another beautiful hiking day with warm soup, games, and a movie waiting for us at home after a long day. Bean and I still trying not to get anyone else sick. . .

And I'll just end with this time lapse of a round of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, which if you're looking for a silly game, this is it. And it can be a fun one for kids because the adults can sometimes be a little too slow to win ;)