Victorian house in Ferndale; Francis Crick Inn
9 October 2011
In the morning, I walked around Ferndale for a bit to admire the architecture, then had a delicious greasy breakfast at Poppa Joe's downtown.
Out of Ferndale, the route would head inland, staying away from the coast for most of the next two days. Heading east out of town, I passed by a cemetery built into the hillside in a forest clearing.
And cows, lots of cows!
I hurried over to Scotia, hoping to be able to see the 2x4
factory! lumber mill. On the way into town I saw an advertisement
for a water storage service. I was really baffled and tried to think about
who actually would use a water storage service. An advertisement in a
liberal rag I picked up the following day suggested to me that people
growing marijuana might need just such a thing.
Scotia is one of the last company towns in the US and is nearly totally owned by the Pacific Lumber Company. There is a lumber museum there, but it was closed today (Sunday), so I was out of luck. I satisfied myself by looking at the outdoor exhibits, but there was not much to see. One building there (the museum itself, if I recall correctly) was built in the Greek style, but was made out of wood. Rather incongruous-looking and very cool.
The road out of town takes you past the lumber yard.
At the junction with 101, I saw the first signs for San Francisco!
After a few (flat) miles on 101 I reached the turnoff for Avenue of the Giants. The road immediately goes into a Redwood forest. The forests felt so majestic, especially since the road was quiet (it being a Sunday). In some places the forest was so thick that I lost my GPS fix.
One roadside fruit stand had homemade blackberry popsicles! I bought one.
Avenue of the Giants passes into and out of the forest for many miles. The road is peppered with man-made tree-related attractions. Come See The Invincible Tree, or the tree of this or that… I didn't stop at any of them.
After Phillipville, the forest abruptly ends, yielding to the archetypal California scenery. The route returns to 101 briefly, and I headed towards Garberville.
Garberville was not a very interesting or fun-seeming town. I found a room at the Sherwood Forest Motel. My room smelled of smoke, but after reading a review of the place that claimed ants spewed out of the shower when it was turned on, I didn't think a smoky room was all that bad. (Astonishingly, despite that review, the place seemed like the best motel in town that was within my budget. Think on that for a bit.)
I had a low-key dinner at a nearby restaurant.
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