If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and have an interested in seeing huge, circular blades slicing through big redwood logs, head up to historic Sturgeon’s Mill this weekend, west of Sebastopol for their open house. They run the mill four times per summer. This is their first session of the year.
Here’s a post I wrote about it a couple of years ago, including some video of the mill in action.
We park next to a huge, mobile sling used for hauling boats out of the water.If you’re into into historic towns and boats, and you find yourself in the Pacific Northwest, do yourself a favor and check out Port Townsend, Washington. It sits on peninsula that forms the entrance to Puget Sound and is one of those rare, old towns which is situated to engage the sea. A drive to the local boat yard confirms this. Everywhere vessels from from small sailboats to huge trawlers are on the hard, awaiting refits and repairs. Cape George boats are built there. It’s a nice place.
The area along the waterfront, is known as “downtown.” When we asked about a good local pub, the folks at the natural food store pointed us up the hill (toward “uptown”) to the Uptown Pub. This is a classic bar with good vibes, good food, and local beers. We happened to be there for open mic night and also saw some talented musicians. One guy even came up with his cello… and rocked, playing it traditionally and like a guitar. It was pretty amazing. We’re considering it as a home base for our upcoming Pacific Northwest Trip.
To get there, take Highway 20 north from 101as it runs along the Olympic National Forest. More photos below. Read the rest of this entry »
A Pearson 32 for sale in Port Townsend, WAFirst off, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, my apologies for the lack of posts in the past month. We’ve been making some life-changing plans here at WCXC and they’ve been taking some time. What sorts of plans, you ask? Well, my girlfriend and I moved in together, and we’re heading up to the Pacific Northwest for a few months and buying a sailboat.
The first seeds of this plan were sown a few years ago while some friends of mine and I were in northwestern Washington, chartering a boat in the San Juan Islands. Our first night out of Friday Harbor we anchored a few miles north in a cove at Jones Island. Early the next morning, as a thin mist hung over the cove under an orange and purple sky, I saw that we had a new neighbor. A beautiful, old, wooden sloop, lying still at anchor with smoke drifting out horizontally from its chimney lay off our beam. The owner and his black lab, appeared in the cockpit, got into their dinghy and headed for the shore. Wow, what a life, I thought.
That’s the life we’re aiming for, at least on an experimental basis. We’re going find out if it’s possible to cruise the amazingly beautiful waters of the Salish Sea, east of Vancouver Island, while working remotely from the boat and earning a living. In my day job, I’m an illustrator. With a laptop and a cell antenna on the mast, it seems feasible.
Of course, I’ll still post about off-road and overland topics, and we’ll still take trips with the truck. We’ll just be adding a seafaring component to the blog.
I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo: Gregory McDonaldOur last morning out on the CBDT found us patting ourselves on the back for finding such a great campsite. I made us a special breakfast of fresh crepes and hot Masala chai, and we soaked up the sun and the view.
While we were eating we heard some yelling from the road but thought it was hunters. Then, a few moments later, we saw a man walking through the woods towards our camp. He was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and, when he got closer, we could see he was Latino. We called out, “Hello? Hello?” and got no response. We were a little on edge when he walked out of the woods, into our small clearing and stopped. Read the rest of this entry »
Back on the CBDT on Forest Road 23. Photo: Nik SchulzAfter a little target shooting and a bit of breakfast we got back on Forest Road 23 and continued up the California Backcountry Discovery Trail. We weren’t sure where we would stop for the night but since we were passing by Ruth Lake again, only this time at much higher elevation on the ridge above the lake, we thought we’d find something there.
I don’t know if it had anything to do with my totem pants — a pair of white jeans I painted in the style of Pacific Northwest native art and which seem to convey good fortune on many a situation :) — but we were blown away by the beautiful spot we found.
