Three years ago, when I wrote about cycling from the Crannell Road exit of U.S. Highway 101 to the end of the Humboldt Bay Trail (“Cycling Along the Water,” March 10, 2022), I was not optimistic about being able to ride past the “End of Trail” sign in the foreseeable future. It wasn’t because I […]
Cycling
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Humboldt Ladies MTB Pedals Among the Pines
Sure, it’s “just” a weekly mountain bike ride. Like many groups formed around a common interest and shared challenges, this weekly gathering of women mountain bikers has morphed into a unique community. For years now, every Monday evening, a group of women abscond to the woods on bicycles. On inky dark winter nights, when you […]
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Sea to Summit: A Return to Salmon Mountain
While I was rushing to complete the Sea-to-Summit challenge in 2020, cycling and hiking from the ocean to mountain tops around Humboldt before weather and wildfires thwarted my plans, my friend Kelly was also pursuing all 10 peaks of the series (“Sea to Summit Part 1: Bald Mountain,” April 22, 2021). Unfortunately, she didn’t get […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Down the Hikshari’ Trail
Robbie and I lock our bikes a couple of minutes before the Herrick Avenue Park and Ride off U.S. Highway 101, where the Hikshari’ Trail veers left. Then we walk ¼ mile over a wooden bridge and along the railroad track, turn right and stroll through grass to the closest thing to a beach this […]
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Sea to Summit: King Peak
I left the house at 6 a.m. to pick up Natalie and drive south for the tenth and final Sea-to-Summit Challenge. She is a great adventure partner, always up for anything. If you’ve been following this series, you might remember she was my companion for the 90-mile Grasshopper Peak challenge (“Sea to Summit: Grasshopper Peak,” […]
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Sea to Summit: Horse Mountain
My alarm went off at 5 a.m., and I questioned again why I torture myself with these brutal awakenings. My sluggish thoughts were grumpily resistant to starting the day until I took my first sip of tea and remembered I’d get to do one of my favorite things: ride my bike. I was ready, in […]
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Sea to Summit: Fickle Hill
Corrina still wanted to ride with me, which was remarkable, considering our last ride was a slightly hellacious, two-day endeavor. This time, we picked a Thursday evening to complete the “Top of the World” Sea to Summit challenge, glad to be ticking one off on a weeknight (“Sea to Summit Part 1: Bald Mountain,” April […]
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Sea To Summit: Grasshopper Peak
The general consensus among most cyclists is that once you ride Grasshopper Peak in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, you can check it off your bucket list and not repeat it. But that’s not how it went for me. Earlier in the summer I had joined some friends to climb 10,000 feet in one day, which […]
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Sea to Summit: Signal Peak
My planning for Signal Peak began with, “Where is this?” I had never heard of Signal Peak before. It’s to the southwest of Black Lassic, sort of behind it as you approach from the northwest. There are several routes, all of them challenging. I didn’t want to go alone, but wasn’t sure who else might […]
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Sea to Summit: Trinidad
Sara and I are very different. The first time I met this gorgeous woman was at 2 a.m. in a wide pasture after a birthday party that was quite a celebration. She was almost silent and I didn’t think much about it. More time went by and Sara came to Costa Rica with three other […]
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NCJ Preview: Drought, Humboldt’s High COVID Numbers and Monster Advice
This week we’re looking at how historic drought conditions are hitting the state and our county, and what it means for fires, salmon and daily life for residents amid what may be our new climate normal. And how did Humboldt wind up with the state’s worst COVID-19 numbers? And how can we turn it around? […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Sea to Summit Part 1: Bald Mountain
We couldn’t all cycle together in April of 2020, obviously. Cycling with a peloton of racers breathing heavily and sprinting uphill was not going to happen. Snot would fly as thighs burned, a dynamic that suddenly carried a novel, dangerous threat that was constantly evolving. We all wondered what the future held in this new […]