Tag: Hiking

Anniversary Trip 2025 – Humboldt Redwoods

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Boondocking, Campgrounds, HAM, Harvest Hosts, Lance, RV Life, TravelLeave a comment

Hard to believe that it’s been 38 years since my wife and I eloped; and took my family with us. This year we decided to take a trip up to Humboldt Redwoods Avenue of the Giants for the week. We packed up the trailer and went to church and afterwards headed off to our first stop.

Incidentally, if you look closely you see a white strip above the black bumper of the trailer. Just under the ladder you see a small black dash in the white strip. That black dash is my travel mug for my coffee. There’s no telling how long the mug rode along on the back bumper of the trailer. All I know is that it was never seen again.

Nelson Family Vineyards

Since it was a long drive we decided to break it up into two days. We drove up to Nelson Family Vineyards, a member of the Harvest Hosts program, to stay our first night. It was absolutely gorgeous and peaceful. It was cloudy when we arrived but the clouds cleared off that night and the stars were unbelievable. We enjoyed the walk along the vineyards and the old-school playground they had there for the kids. Probably installed back in the1960’s. Very quiet stay; the only noises we heard were coyotes.

Ancient Redwoods RV Resort

The next day we made the short 2 and 1/2 hour drive up to Ancient Redwoods RV Resort. Per our reservation it told us to drive directly to our site, no check in needed. We did and found our receipt and reservation information on the power pedestal. We were parked up near the front in a pull-thru space. There was no RVs next to us the entire time. There were some 5th wheels and Class A’s clustered together toward the back of the park but we had plenty of privacy and a great view. The pictures below were taken at the entrance to the RV park.

The Redwoods

We spent two days exploring the redwood groves. Not two consecutive days; we tried to break it up between beach days, shopping, and forrest. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Our first redwood day was spent walking on the Founder’s Grove trail. Just a short two-mile round trip walk in the woods.

On another day we visited the Garden Club of America Grove which was technically closed but only to automobile traffic. We walked in and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the end of the season.

We also drove down onto a gravel bar on the Eel River. We spent some time enjoying the peace and quiet of the river.

Victorian Architecture

We also spent some time exploring some of the wonderful Victorian-era architecture of the area. There were two great examples in Eureka and and then the entire town of Ferndale. They just don’t build them like that anymore.

Eureka

Ferndale

Coastal Drive

We also spent a couple of half-days at the local beaches. Just walking and breathing in the clean air. We pretty much had these beaches all to ourselves. The first was Samoa Beach, the second was Clam Beach. I don’t have pictures of the sandy beaches we walked on because they were pretty featureless very long strands of beach. I did get photos of the coastal cliffs and rocks we explored, and those are below. They were taken just south of Trinidad, Ca.

Shopping and Dining

Of course what trip would be complete without shopping and eating out, including coffee-getting. I’ll be honest, we were hoping to get some good seafood being that Eureka is a coastal town. However, the reality is that most fishing off the north coast has been shut down. Most of the seafood is deep-fried, sadly. However, one gem we did find is Vista Del Mar. It’s half-bar, half-cafe that served some killer grilled fish tacos. The other restaurants were so-so. Cristy did do some shopping in their downtown and picked up some oysters at another bar. While she was off doing this I was playing ham radio while parked on a waterfront street. I contacted the USS Iowa in Los Angeles and some guy doing Parks On The Air near Boise, ID. Not bad for a battery powered mobile high-frequency rig.

Coffee

Although it never used to be, coffee has become a passion of mine. I hated coffee growing up but within the last 5 years or so I’ve experienced a sort of coffee renaissance. A few mornings I made my own coffee using some some coffee I pre-ground before the trip. My favorite coffee is purchased from Revive Coffee in Sonora, Ca. Their Confluence Espresso blend is my absolute all-time favorite so far for just straight-up coffee. On one of our coastal excursions we decided to try a local place. The highest rated in Eureka was Witness Coffee Roasters. We ordered caramel lattes, with Cristy getting her customary decaf. We were a little disappointed in how weak the coffee was. Looking to console ourselves we drove to Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate and got THE best coffee of the entire trip. It was rated lower that Witness but was much more flavorful. I ordered ANOTHER caramel latte and it was really good, but the magic happened when we poured the drinking chocolate Cristy ordered into my latte. We mixed to two and Cristy’s brain just lit up! Second best coffee of the trip was at Mind’s Eye Manufactory & Coffee Lounge in Ferndale.

And since all good things must come to an end our trip came to an end on Saturday when we drove back down to Nelson Family Vineyards to stay one more night before driving back home. It was just as peaceful as the first time we stayed there. These trips always feel too short when we’re on them and have to come back. Our consolation this year was that I wouldn’t have to rush home so I could get back to work next year! Looking forward to it!

Hip Camp – A New Way to Camp

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Campgrounds, Hip Camp, RV Life, TravelLeave a comment

Well at least for us it’s new. Hip Camp has been around for several years. It’s a service that offers alternative places to camp rather than just RV parks or campgrounds. It combines both home- and landowners as well as some RV parks to offer alternative places to camp. We have tried it out twice now at a camping spot in Sonora, California. The name of the spot on Hip Camp is Green Acres.

Green Acres has two spots to rent. One is a large destination trailer that has permanent hookups for sewer, water, and electrical and is rented out as part of Air B&B. The second spot is an RV site that also has full hookups. We’ve stayed there twice now and the first time there was no one else there but us. It was so peaceful. The second time there was a renter at the Air B&B next door but he was pretty quiet and we only saw him once.

Air B&B Destination Trailer

Our campsite was a little off-level, and somewhat challenging to back into but we got settled and plugged in.

It was still such a quiet and peaceful place to camp and we really enjoyed it there.

We camped here two times over the last 3 months and both times we would drive into Sonora for coffee at the BEST coffee shop in California; Revive Coffee. We order their coffee beans and grind them at home for my morning coffee. Afterwards both times we paid a visit to the Sonora Farmer’s Market which is about half a block away on Saturdays. Both times we also visited Nature’s Whole Food Depot which has a great array of groceries (many of which are guten-free specialty items we can’t find elsewhere), and homeopathic supplements and medications. It’s one of Cristy’s favorites.

This last time we were there we also took a morning hike on the West Side Trail, a railroad bed that has been converted into a hiking trail. Because it was graded for freight trains it has a very gentle grade both up and down. I was quite proud of Cristy this day for hiking BEFORE breakfast! It was going to be a hot day so we took our hike earlier in the day. Once we got back I made her breakfast.

We really enjoyed our stay at Green Acres via Hip Camp. Since this is a nationwide service we’ll start checking for Hip Camps in any area we travel to. And that travelling is coming up very soon!

Until next time…

Red Hills Fly-In 2025

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation1 Comment

This year’s Red Hills Fly-In saw a much lower turnout than in previous years. This was primarily due to 2 factors. The first is that last year Jack Moyle told me that it had to be the last year. It was just too tiring for he and his wife Myrna to host the fly-in. I sadly relayed the news to the other pilots. Less than a week later I got word from Tanner and Hannah, Jack’s grandchildren, that they wanted the fly-in to continue and would take over duties for hosting the fly-in. But I think the pilots all made other plans for the next year. The second factor was a lot of last-minute cancellations. We even had one that didn’t want to show up because Donald Trump won the Presidential election. True story. That being said we did have a bunch of drop-by’s and one other camper aside from Cristy and myself.

On Saturday, Charlie took his PPC flying in the early morning before it got too bumpy and windy.

Saturday evening we had a nice little pot-luck with Charlie’s paella as the center piece. Never knew Charlie was a retired chef! We know now!

Sunday morning Charlie took another flight and this time took Tanner flying with him. Then we had a home-cooked breakfast and home tour next door at Tanner and Hannah’s house. They built it next door to their grandparents. When I say they built it I mean THEY BUILT IT. All on their own. And now they are getting ready to add on an extra room… for the baby Hannah is expecting! They will be welcoming their little girl to the world in October.

Our new hosts and expectant parents; Hannah and Tanner Moyle!

All in all for me it was a very enjoyable weekend. It was nice seeing the few people who did stop in. It was really nice camping in a super peaceful setting. Looking forward to next year!

Here are a few of the drop-ins:

See you all next year!

Pahrump Trip 2025

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Campgrounds, Harvest Hosts, Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, Travel1 Comment

For a few months now I’ve been looking at home prices in Pahrump Nevada. Why Pahrump? Well, it has the cleanest year-round air, no risk of flooding, and no sever weather (unless you count heat). So for my first vacation this year we decided to head to Pahrump and look at the housing market there.

Rather than drive from our home all the way to Pahrump in one shot, a 9+ hour drive, we decided to break it up into 2 days. We stayed the first night at a Harvest Hosts location at the Tehachapi Winery. It’s free to stay but you are encouraged to patronize the host. It ended up costing us more that one night than any one night at both of the other RV resorts we stayed at. Still, it was a beautiful, peaceful place to stop over and break up the trip.

After a peaceful night off the beaten track in Tehachapi we began the drive down to Baker, CA and then on to Pahrump. Our route was Highway 99 to Bakersfield, then Hwy 58 to Tehachapi and on to Barstow. Highway 58 used to be single lane with stop lights through Boron and Kramer Junction. It’s now a 4 lane highway all the way to Barstow. We jumped on I-15 north towards Las Vegas until we got to Baker, CA where we got onto Hwy 127 which took us to Shoshone where we hung a right onto Hwy 178 and then all the way into Pahrump.

I should point out here that I got the best mileage ever while towing on this trip heading out to Pahrump. For most of the trip we either had a quartering tailwind or a full tailwind. I was seeing MPGs of anywhere from 18-22 MPG! I usually get about 12 when towing the trailer. It was all fun and games until I got to a rock formation called the Charlie Brown Outcrop where the 35mph tailwind I had been enjoying turned into a direct cross wind when I rounded a curve. That was mildly exciting but nothing the truck couldn’t handle. Woke me up for sure. After that it was an easy trip down into Pahrump.

Here is a pro-tip for travellers to Pahrump: DRIVE THE POSTED SPEED LIMIT. We were told by the realtor that Pahrump and Nye County make a lot of money from traffic violations and if the other drivers in town are any indication, they have a zero tolerance policy for exceeding the speed limit. Not even the internationally accepted standard of driving 5mph over the posted speed limit!

Now, sadly we didn’t take any pictures of the RV park but you can find many online. The name of the park was Wine Ridge RV Resort and Cottages. It was clean, quiet, and had a hot tub; everything I require of an RV park. We rested the first day and spent the next two days looking at area homes that were for sale. The first day was with a realtor and her adult realtor son. She guided us around to about 5 houses. Some were nice, others were not quite as nice. One home was absolutely beautiful but it was in a trashy area and smelled heavily of cigar smoke. The second day we drove around Pahrump on our own so we could see the neighborhoods at our own pace.

Biggest takeaway from Pahrump is that the city is very spread out. Lots of space between homes and neighborhoods. There is no centralized shopping district unless you count Hwy 160 which runs between Las Vegas and I-95 to the north. Lots of casinos, fast food, and a few supermarkets including Walmart. The city is about 10 miles across as the crow flies which is pretty big for a relatively sleepy desert town. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Pahrump has two brothels on the extreme southern border of town. With a landing strip between them. We didn’t make it down to that part of town but Google Maps showed all we needed to see. Also, we were there in the Spring which is a windy time for Pahrump so windy and dry did not do well with our skin. That was the only major detractor we found.

On Wednesday we drove down to Las Vegas. The reason for the trip was to visit Red Rocks National Conservation Area and also to drop in on a vendor of mine from work to see his new home near Red Rocks. This is an absolutely stunning and underrated area on the southwest side of Las Vegas. We spent some time hiking in Calico Basin which is literally a desert oasis. Red Spring feeds a small meadow of grass and trees in the middle of the barren rocks.

Probably the best view of Red Rocks NCA is on the Hwy 160, also known as Pahrump Valley Highway as it comes into the Red Rocks area.

After our hike we drove to the visitors center and then drove the scenic loop around the canyon. Those puffy clouds you see in the above photos turned into a rain storm along the hills. But it stayed along the hills. All the rainfall in the mountains must be what feed the springs around Las Vegas.

After visiting Red Rocks we drove over to get some lunch at La Madre Canyon Grille. Lunch was delicious and since I hadn’t had my coffee yet that day their Cinnamon Roll Latte really hit the spot for a dessert. Then we headed over to my vendor’s house and was given the grand tour of his home and visited for a while. He and I really didn’t get along very well when I first started my job at San Joaquin General Hospital but we’ve since become good friends. Commiserating about the state of politics and Extreme Networks, the products he sells, helped us build a common bond over the years. Afterwards Cristy did some decompression shopping at Summerlin Downtown, a shopping plaza design to look like a downtown shopping area. Then we headed back to Pahrump.

The only item on the agenda for the next day was to hang around town and relax after all the driving I’d done lately. I did want to tick one more item off my list for Pahrump; to visit the Art Bell Memorial. If you’ve never heard of Art Bell, he was an AM radio personality who had the dubious distinction of having a radio show that played from midnight to 6am in many markets. I began listening to Art Bell on KGO as I commuted from our home in Modesto to my workplace at Lockheed in Sunnyvale at 3:30am. His show was always about UFOs, Sasquatch, chupacabra sightings, paranormal stuff. Think X-Files. It was “out there” but it helped keep me awake on my commute. We found his memorial at a park in Pahrump called the Calvada Eye (because it’s looks like an eye from above). The other pleasantly unexpected surprise at this park was the horse that came galloping into the park while we were there. I’m still not sure if they were wild horses or just abandoned horses. The western romantic in my wants to think they were wild horses descended from the ponies the conquistadors let loose many years ago.

After a few more restful days just hanging around the park and stocking up at Walmart it was time to head back home. The wind had picked back up in the night and it made me a little nervous about what the wind would do the next day but it actually died down a bit. It also had switched directions so we again had a tailwind on the way back to Tehachapi. However, long before we got to Tehachapi, we got caught in the middle of the 34th Annual Baker 2 Vegas relay race. Apparently it’s a big deal in the law enforcement community. A local friend of mine is a police lieutenant has even wanted to run in it. All I know is that it generated a ton of traffic and our only white-knuckle moments as we were driving back. Let’s just say cops generally don’t believe the rules of the road apply to them and leave it at that. Most were well-behaved though. Each runner was followed by a car and they had “stages” of the race they were assigned to run and then hand off the baton. Luckily they were all running the opposite direction. Much to the chagrin of non-participating traffic trying to get to Pahrump.

We finally made it through the races and back over the hill into Bakersfield were we decided to stop for the night at Orange Grove RV Park. The next day we headed home and called an end to our week-long Pahrump adventure. Will we be back to Pahrump, maybe. Will we move there, probably not. The biggest takeaway of the trip was how much we loved travelling. It’s funny, it’s hard to get ourselves to leave home but once we do, it’s even harder to go back. Don’t get me wrong, we love our home and family, but we just want to travel and see more things. Until next time…