An unexpected “staycation” benefit of this pandemic era has been getting to know local locations I hadn’t spent much time visiting. Next time you’re driving in northern Humboldt County, take one of the U.S. Highway 101 bypass exits onto Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway into Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Fifty miles north of Eureka, […]
hiking
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Short Ocean King Season Set to Open June 29
Limited by a low-abundance forecast of Klamath River fall Chinook, North Coast recreational salmon anglers will have a little more than a month on the water this season. Management measures were designed to provide fishing opportunity for the more abundant Sacramento fall Chinook while reducing Klamath River impacts. Due to our proximity to the Klamath, […]
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 […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Lagoon Challenge
It was a cotton cloak type of fog, reducing visibility to 30 or 40 feet. Donna and I swam this stretch in bathing suits, “skinning it,” without the protection of wetsuits. Ariana looked at us skeptically as she pulled her well-worn neoprene over her long limbs and we eyed each other warily from 10 feet […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Nightwalkers
I am a child of the night, daughter of a third-shifter dad who had a penchant for 2 a.m. sky watching. The feel of night is different in unexplainable ways, more so in big cities, like where I grew up — block after block of hushed porches and weak nightlights painted to the tune of […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
About that Mountain Lion Video …
Chances are most people have seen — or at least heard about — the now viral video of a Utah man who went for a run in a Provo canyon and ended up finding himself face to face with a very angry mama mountain lion. For six tense and profanity-laced minutes, Kyle Burgess kept filming […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Van Duzen Venture
My spouse and I follow winding State Route 36 on a lovely July day. We, like many, have not been out in a long time and it feels good to be wandering, even with masks. We follow the bends and gentle curves that weave through Hydesville and Carlotta, the landscape changing from river bottom to […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
NCJ Preview: Early Prison Releases, Socially Distant Hikes and Lao Dishes on the Menu
This week we’re taking a tour around the county with photographer Mark Larson, who’s turned socially distant hiking into a mission. We’re also looking at how Public Health and parole staff are handling the logistics and health concerns regarding early release for state prisoners. And if you’ve been waiting for Lao food to show up […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
A Walk Around the County
Sheltering in place since March 11 has been a challenge for my wife, Sydney, and me. We’re both in “at risk” categories due to age and we greatly miss our daily face-to-face yoga classes, the gym and many other “normal” activities as we hunker down at home with only a once-a-week trip to the North […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Building Trails and Resilience
Humboldt County has come a long way from the days when railroads dominated the conversation about economic development and few local politicians saw trails as a community priority. It took trail pioneers working for many agonizing years to complete the Hammond Trail. And the Bay Trail seemed forever mired in a mountain of feasibility studies […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Alone at the Top
Salmon Mountain is situated on the borders of Humboldt and Siskiyou counties, a stone’s throw away from the triple point with Trinity County. At 6,960 feet, its highest point lies within Humboldt’s borders. It is a force to be reckoned with and covered in snow most of the year. Its almost alpine environment throws a […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
King Peak
Heading south on U.S. Highway 101, I came around a bend of highway meandering along the Eel River where it slithers its way around one avenue of Redwoods after the next. After being engulfed in the tall canopy of the trees, a clearing suddenly showed fresh snow topping the mountain ridges above 3,000 feet. My […]