Rob and Aña Update; heading south

Aña and I are now three weeks into a travelling venture that will most likely last years. Our current rough plan is to drive a newly acquired Toyota 4x4 pickup to Panama. This will happen over the course several months to a year. We hope to explore volunteering, organic farming, and community building opportunities along the way. In Panama we will be able to sell the truck, provided it hasn't been stolen, and decide which direction to go next.

Our travelling got of to a great start in Northern California. Aña and I met up with our precious Portland friends Justin and Amber to do some camping. Justin grew up in the Kalamath River area and knew of a great spot to camp up Clear Creek. We ended up hiking 7 miles into a spot called “The Bear Pin”. We were truly in gorgeous isolated wilderness. Justin an I spent a day boulder hopping, rock climbing, and rapid dodging to find the best fishing holes. Two nights in a row we feasted on immaculate rainbow trout. It was a beautifully luxurious camping venture complete with fresh espresso (courtesy of little Octavio), whiskey, and some interesting herb infused coconut oil. We refreshed after camping staying with Justin's generous parents and enjoyed his mom's fantastic cooking.

Now, our travels have kind of taken us in a circle, or a knot, back to the Kalamath Knot! We left Arcata after trying the trimming thing for a couple of days. We were kind of sketched out by that scene and didn't feel like doing that tedious work for so many hours a day for weeks. Instead, we went back to the Redwoods in Northern Cali. We spent a few nights camping in the Tall Trees Grove of the Redwoods National Park. We we're back country camping on the gravel bars of Redwoods Creek. There we slept next to some of the tallest trees in the world. With a nice fire the first night we roasted some chicken apple sausages over the fire, and again for breakfast. It is interesting to occasionally eat meat again. We didn't see much wildlife, but an elk knocked down our suspended food bag in the middle of the night and then stormed off in a fright. There were some fish, but all too tiny to eat.

Then we went to Crescent City and camped by the ocean at Nickleback Creek (a free National Park site on the coastal trail). It was so nice to sleep to the waves crashing on beach below. Exploring Tolowa Dunes State Park we turned up some delecious Angle Wing (Oyster) and Shrimp Cap mushrooms. From there we went into Jedediah Smith State Park and hiked to the massive “Boy Scout Tree”. While driving in Aña spotted a nice bunch of Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms. I had to climb about ten feet up in between a couple of trees to get them, but what a reward! After a night of clandestine camping and some more beautiful hiking, we decided to head to a couch surfing host in Orleans.

We are very glad that we decided to come back to the Kalamath. Our host Nathan has been an amazing guy to meet and stay with. It seems to be a good indicator when you're meeting someone to scope out their bookshelf. As in this case every book on his shelf is one I'm familiar with our would want to read. Naturalist, sustainable living, some down to earth spiritualist literature, and the Foxfire series have made for some interesting perusing. Our first night we made a meal together with some Yellow Chanterelles he had just found. Then we went to a community game night at a nearby subsistence organic farm, Sandy Bar. The day after we spent the afternoon chopping wood, gathering walnuts, and harvesting the chestnuts from the world's largest American Chestnut tree.

The next day we had the fortune of helping out with a salmon survey on the north fork of the Salmon River with Nathan. He has been working for the Salmon River Restoration Coalition. We donned some fancy lightweight waders and river shoes with felt on the soles and walked/waded three miles of the fork. We only saw one salmon and 7 redds (salmon nests). It's amazing any salmon had made it up this far after early gorge mining and the damming of the Kalamath river. The scars from hydraulicizing the mountain sides in searches for gold are still very visible in the from of rubble piles and abandoned equipment. From a bridge where the north and south forks of the Salmon River meet we spied down on about 30 large salmon. We were told that in the past the river would have been flooded with Salmon; so many that they would have been spawning on top of each other. We learned that the Salmon are functionally extinct and efforts are focused on just keeping any alive for future genetic material. The dams are supposed to come out of the Kalamath in 2020, but who knows. Maybe Edward Abbey can help us out.

We will spend a few more days on the Kalamath exploring the immense local beauty and enjoying the company our new friend. I will be contemplating the meaning of my find of a Bald Eagle's white tail feather. The white feathers are connected with Grandmother Medicine, tremendous wisdom, healing, and creation. We might also explore some of the other remnant mountain mining communities or the secluded commune of Bear Claw. Then we will camp through the national forest on our way to a Vipasana session in central Cali. Ten days of silent meditation at the session will be a very interesting and hopefully insightful experience.

Our planned itinerary for the U.S. ends in the Bay Area. There we hope to visit some great friends in Berkeley and Santa Cruz. We also hope to be meeting up with our Breitenbush friend, Ilsa, there to start the next lag of our travel; down to the Baja!

Well, if you survived reading all this you think you might want more maybe I'll get a blog going. I don't really like sending out mass email, because of its impersonal nature. However, I also don't like being behind a computer for long lengths of time to personally email everyone I care about. It's not you, it's the computer.

Hope everyone is well and happy! Much love,

Rob
P.S. Start thinking about meeting up with us in Central America and having your own personal interpreters and travel guides!