
today
8:30 a.m. Audubon Society Field Trip See Event Description
read >8:30 a.m. Alzheimer’s Resource Center Volunteer Training See Event Description
read >9 a.m. Arcata Farmers' Market Arcata Plaza
read >9 a.m. Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens Foundation Speakers’ Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens' Speakers' Symposium College of the Redwoods
read >9 a.m. Fall Rummage Sale Arcata United Methodist Church
read >9:30 a.m. AAUW Meeting See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Little River State Beach Restoration See Event Description
read >9:30 a.m. Sierra Club Headwaters Hike See Event Description
read >10 a.m. Lanphere Dunes Guided Walk See Event Description
read >10 a.m. 5th Annual Synergy Fair Arcata Community Center
read >10 a.m. Go Green and Boost Your Bottom Line Wharfinger Building
read >11 a.m. Sustaining Excellence and Enthusiasm in Health, Relationships and Work Carlo Theater (Dell'Arte)
read >noon KEET's Kids Club Morris Graves Museum of Art
read >1:30 p.m. Humboldt County Historical Society Humboldt County Library
read >2 p.m. Arcata Marsh Field Trip Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center
read >4 p.m. Woodside Preschool’s 36th Wine and Ale Tasting Gala Adorni Recreation Center
read >4:30 p.m. Harvest Dinner and Bazaar Humboldt Grange
read >5 p.m. A Toast to Music Christ Episcopal Church
read >5:30 p.m. Elvis and the Hound Dogs + Stolen Taxi Trinidad Town Hall
read >6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds Chapala Cafe
read >6 p.m. Arts Alive! Various Locations
read >6 p.m. Day of the Dead Exhibition Ink People Center for the Arts
read >6 p.m. Bar None 10th Anniversary Eureka Labor Temple
read >6 p.m. Randy Spicer Piante Gallery
read >6 p.m. Gallery Open for Arts Alive! Four Paths Gallery and Studio
read >6:30 p.m. ShinBone (Blues R&B) Eureka Theater
read >7 p.m. Mike Craighead and Sari Baker Old Town Coffee & Chocolates
read >7 p.m. Harvest Concert Arcata Presbyterian Church
read >7 p.m. 2 Left Feet Dance Project Redwood Raks World Dance Studio
read >7:30 p.m. Joe & Me Cafe Mokka
read >7:30 p.m. Cyrano de Begerac Eureka High School Auditorium
read >7:30 p.m. Torch Song Summit Eureka Women's Club
read >7:30 p.m. Jeff DeMark and the LaPatinas Westhaven Center for the Arts
read >8 p.m. Stones in His Pockets Arcata Playhouse
read >8 p.m. Humboldt Bay Brass Band Fulkerson Recital Hall at HSU
read >9 p.m. Synergy Six Rivers Brewery
read >9 p.m. Arts Alive! with Akaboom Sound Pearl Lounge
read >9 p.m. Tempest WAVE @ blue lake casino
read >9 p.m. Back In The Daze Dance Party Central Station Cocktail Lounge
read >9 p.m. Swingin' Country Band (country) Bear River Casino
read >9 p.m. The Zygoats + Alder Camp (rock) The Lil' Red Lion
read >9 p.m. DJ Knutz (funk) Muddy's Hot Cup
read >10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines
read >10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge
read >10 p.m. These United States (indie folk) Humboldt Brews
read >11 p.m. Hellbound Glory The Alibi Lounge and Restaurant
read >previous columns
June 11, 2009
Our Amazing Eyes
Human eyesight is a wondrous mechanism. On the one hand, ...
read >June 4, 2009
Dry-land Exiles
...we will not really be happy until we can escape ...
read >May 28, 2009
The Right Stuff
By automatically offering my right hand when I meet someone ...
read >Photos
Hundred-Foot Waves
By Barry Evans
Pilot Rock is the outermost of Trinidad Bay's scattering of sea stacks, located half a mile south of the tip of Trinidad Head. Half an hour of hearty paddling will get you there from Trinidad beach. Depending on the sources I found online, the top of the rock is either 93 feet or 103 feet above mean water line. It certainly looked enormous recently, as some of us kayakers enjoyed playing in the heaving sea next to the rock. "People pay to ride on roller-coasters when they can get this for free?" someone asked.
We had it easy. According to the late Axel Lindgren, a columnist for the Trinidad News & Views (as reported by Heidi Walters in the Journal four years ago), Pilot Rock "presented a daring challenge to male Indians of Tsurai [Trinidad's original Yurok name] on which to test their strength, courage and bravery against nature." After months of preparation, they would swim to Pilot Rock, spend the night there and swim home the next morning.
As I swayed in the gentle ocean swells, it was hard to imagine that a wave could overtop Pilot Rock. But that's what happened on Dec. 31, 1914, as reported by a particularly credible source: the local lighthouse keeper. The lighthouse you see now, at the end of Trinity Street, is a replica of the one built in 1871 on Trinity Head. You can still visit the remains of the original, sited nearly 200 feet above sea level, when the Coast Guard permits.
Fred Harrington was the keeper on duty during a ferocious end-of-the-year gale. In his words, "The storm commenced on Dec. 28, 1914 ... at 3 p.m. on the 31st [it] seemed to have reached its height, when it washed a number of times over Pilot Rock...
"...at 4:40 p.m., I was in the tower and had just set the lens in operation and turned to wipe the lantern room windows when I observed a sea of unusual height ... The sea itself fell over onto the top of the bluff and struck the tower on about a level with the balcony, making a terrible jar ... the tower was shivering from the impact for several seconds."
Sitting there last month in the shadow of Pilot Rock, happily rolling in 10 ft. swells, I shivered at the thought of a wave crashing over the top of the 100 ft. (more or less) rock, then slamming into the lighthouse another 100 ft. higher!
At which point, the idea of heading back to the beach looked really appealing.
It takes Barry Evans just seven minutes to be kayaking on Humboldt Bay from his home in Old Town Eureka.
CAPTION: Pilot Rock is the backdrop as Explore North Coast kayak club members David Moore, Larry Buwalda and Mark Lufkin practice rescue techniques near Trinidad. (Author photo)



















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