The CA Redwoods

[DonTom]

I am at Ramblin' Redwoods RV Park near Crescent City, CA. Nice and cool here after the very hot Medford, OR area.

There is a hiking trail into the Redwoods from here. Starts right here in the park. It goes into several other trails, so it's easy to get lost, unless just following the creek. I bring a couple of hiking GPS units, so I don't worry about getting lost much. It also goes to unused paved roads.

Below is a few pix of this RV park and the short hike I just came back from. IN some areas, I had to hike around large dead fallen redwood trees.

-Don- Crescent City, CA

 

[Isaac-1]

No, just that the most westward point we have traveled in our coach is Arizona, I have only ever set foot in California once (drove over to Lake Tahoe while spending 3-4 days in Reno on business, flew into Portland Oregon once, on the way to Washington saw a bit of the state, the most memorable part was spending over 3 hours in a traffic jam on the bridge crossing into Washington, and I traveled to Washington state at least 6-7 times in my life (I have an uncle who used to live up there before moving back to Louisiana after he retired for the second time (first he retired as a Colonel from the Air Force after 20 years in 1976, bought a Pace Arrow 36 ft class A motorhome he and his first wife traveled the US, then settled to central Washington state, he took a job as a high school Janitor and did that for another 20 years, then moved back to Louisiana after his first wife died in the mid 1990's.

p.s. My wife has been to California several times on work trips, she was even in San Francisco one year and saw the Pride Day Parade, on a funny note she was in San Diego for a conference a few years ago during their Crawfish festival.

 

[Oldgator73]

Love the Redwod Forest. Especially Fern Valley.

 

[Chef Duane]

Bigfoot on the left behind the tree.

 

[DonTom]

Bigfoot on the left behind the tree.

I believe that is near the area where the most sightings of Big Foot were claimed to be.

BTW, I found it interesting that all those claims of people seeing Bigfoot that were in the news, reduced to nothing just after the movie was made.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[DonTom]

. My wife has been to California several times on work trips, she was even in San Francisco one year and saw the Pride Day Parade,

Tom & I went to it in 1978. The only time. Neither one of us cared for such crowds much. But we decided to check it out that year. They say 200,000 people showed up for it in SF that year.

The only reason I can remember the year is because it was the same year Anita Brant was doing her thing.

Florida again . . . ., even back then.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[DonTom]

Bigfoot on the left behind the tree.

If you look carefully between the two trees on the left, in the photo with the 16:04 timestamp, you will see Bigfoot.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Isaac-1]

I have mixed feelings on the whole crypto-zoology big foot thing, we have our own stories of big cats living in woodland thickets along the Sabine river on the Texas / Louisiana state line, which officially do not exist. The "experts" say all the locals that have seen them for the last 150+ years are mistaken, and if they exist, they are Jaguarundis that migrated up from the Rio Grande valley. I personally saw one of these cats about 35 years ago, it casually walked across the road in front of my car at about 1:30 am one morning while I was on my way to work, and I can tell you 2 things about it, 1, it was black, and 2 it was no Jaguarundi which google says grows to a size of about 15 pounds (some sources say 20 pounds), what I saw was MUCH larger, and while it is hard to estimate the weight of big cats, i would guess what I saw weighed perhaps 100 pounds, think Leopard size range, but not as big as tiger range..

 

[Onyrlef]

I have mixed feelings on the whole crypto-zoology big foot thing, we have our own stories of big cats living in woodland thickets along the Sabine river on the Texas / Louisiana state line, which officially do not exist. The "experts" say all the locals that have seen them for the last 150+ years are mistaken, and if they exist, they are Jaguarundis that migrated up from the Rio Grande valley. I personally saw one of these cats about 35 years ago, it casually walked across the road in front of my car at about 1:30 am one morning while I was on my way to work, and I can tell you 2 things about it, 1, it was black, and 2 it was no Jaguarundi which google says grows to a size of about 15 pounds (some sources say 20 pounds), what I saw was MUCH larger, and while it is hard to estimate the weight of big cats, i would guess what I saw weighed perhaps 100 pounds, think Leopard size range, but not as big as tiger range..

True story of an alleged Jaguarundi sighting in S.Texas in the early 80's. A large fab. yard building jackup rigs in Ingleside which employed about 500 hundred welders, riggers, crane operators, and etc. wanted to expand and double the size of the operation. Meantime an environmental group objected on the claim that there had been a possible Jaguarundi sighting thereabouts and the expansion would disturb the habitat. After a year or so of searching however no Jaguarundi was sighted, but the project was delayed to argue that even though no Jaguarundi was sighted, no evidence found that one had ever been there, there existed the possibility that one could show up at anytime, unannounced. The company, in a matter of a few months, shut down the entire operation and moved to China.
The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is only a few miles North of there, hundreds of square miles of protected marshland, and nesting ground of the Whooping Crane.

 

[Viajeros]

Hi Don. Is that one of the locations in one can walk among the giant redwoods? We are thinking about doing that this fall.

Thanks Don. Have a great trip.

 

[Onyrlef]

I have mixed feelings on the whole crypto-zoology big foot thing, we have our own stories of big cats living in woodland thickets along the Sabine river on the Texas / Louisiana state line, which officially do not exist. The "experts" say all the locals that have seen them for the last 150+ years are mistaken, and if they exist, they are Jaguarundis that migrated up from the Rio Grande valley. I personally saw one of these cats about 35 years ago, it casually walked across the road in front of my car at about 1:30 am one morning while I was on my way to work, and I can tell you 2 things about it, 1, it was black, and 2 it was no Jaguarundi which google says grows to a size of about 15 pounds (some sources say 20 pounds), what I saw was MUCH larger, and while it is hard to estimate the weight of big cats, i would guess what I saw weighed perhaps 100 pounds, think Leopard size range, but not as big as tiger range..

You probably saw a painter cat ( panther to city folk)

 

[Tulecreeper]

I have mixed feelings on the whole crypto-zoology big foot thing, we have our own stories of big cats living in woodland thickets along the Sabine river on the Texas / Louisiana state line, which officially do not exist. The "experts" say all the locals that have seen them for the last 150+ years are mistaken, and if they exist, they are Jaguarundis that migrated up from the Rio Grande valley. I personally saw one of these cats about 35 years ago, it casually walked across the road in front of my car at about 1:30 am one morning while I was on my way to work, and I can tell you 2 things about it, 1, it was black, and 2 it was no Jaguarundi which google says grows to a size of about 15 pounds (some sources say 20 pounds), what I saw was MUCH larger, and while it is hard to estimate the weight of big cats, i would guess what I saw weighed perhaps 100 pounds, think Leopard size range, but not as big as tiger range..

It was a jaguar.

 

[Tulecreeper]

I believe that is near the area where the most sightings of Big Foot were claimed to be.

BTW, I found it interesting that all those claims of people seeing Bigfoot that were in the news, reduced to nothing just after the movie was made.

-Don- Auburn, CA

Not all of them.

 

[Contributor]

People will claim they see all kinds of apparitions. Remember the Elvis sightings? Chupacabra, Loch Ness, etc. etc.

 

[DonTom]

Hi Don. Is that one of the locations in one can walk among the giant redwoods? We are thinking about doing that this fall.

Thanks Don. Have a great trip.

I did that trip last summer. See first message here.

I think you want "The Avenue of the Giants". A slightly different location of northern CA. BTW, I want to go there in my RV also, so perhaps we can meet up there. Tom & I have only driven in that that area in a car, many years ago, perhaps in the late 1970's and have not ever stayed in that area but would like to. There are RV parks in the area, which you can find listed on the above website.

Also, check this out, for the largest Redwood trees.

You pick the place and date, and I will be happy to meet you up there. Others also welcome, of course.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[LarsMac]

I have seen a few Panthers over the years. Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana. Never a black one, but the one I saw near my brother's cabin on Caddo Lake in Texas was pretty dark. They tend to be around 45- 75 lbs.

 

[Viajeros]

I did that trip last summer. See first message here.

I think you want "The Avenue of the Giants". A slightly different location of northern CA. BTW, I want to go there in my RV also, so perhaps we can meet up there. Tom & I have only driven in that that area in a car, many years ago, perhaps in the late 1970's and have not ever stayed in that area but would like to. There are RV parks in the area, which you can find listed on the above website.

Also, check this out, for the largest Redwood trees.

You pick the place and date, and I will be happy to meet you up there. Others also welcome, of course.

-Don- Auburn, CA

Thank you Don.

 

[Isaac-1]

I have seen a few Panthers over the years. Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana. Never a black one, but the one I saw near my brother's cabin on Caddo Lake in Texas was pretty dark. They tend to be around 45- 75 lbs.

I have one other to this day I have no idea what it was story, this was about 11 pm one night in about 1988, a friend was leaving my house on his way home, and I was walking him out to his car, we were perhaps 25 feet away when we startled some animal that was digging through trash in the back of a half ton pickup truck, all I saw was a fast blur as it leaped out the side of the bed of the truck with enough force to leave the tuck rocking back and forth on its springs for a good 8-10 seconds or more. Long enough for us to dive into my friends car, go what was that and look up to see the truck still rocking. I suspect this might have been another big cat, as whatever the blur was it seemed to leap out of the truck in a graceful arc, and it was it was strong enough and heavy enough to set the truck instantly rocking on its springs. A black bear had been spotted in that area around this time, but I don't think what I saw was a bear, as in my limited experience they don't seem to gracefully leap like that or move that fast.

 

[Sprucegum]

I have one other to this day I have no idea what it was story, this was about 11 pm one night in about 1988, a friend was leaving my house on his way home, and I was walking him out to his car, we were perhaps 25 feet away when we startled some animal that was digging through trash in the back of a half ton pickup truck, all I saw was a fast blur as it leaped out the side of the bed of the truck with enough force to leave the tuck rocking back and forth on its springs for a good 8-10 seconds or more. Long enough for us to dive into my friends car, go what was that and look up to see the truck still rocking. I suspect this might have been another big cat, as whatever the blur was it seemed to leap out of the truck in a graceful arc, and it was it was strong enough and heavy enough to set the truck instantly rocking on its springs. A black bear had been spotted in that area around this time, but I don't think what I saw was a bear, as in my limited experience they don't seem to gracefully leap like that or move that fast.

A startled black bear can move incredibly fast, with almost feline grace for a short distance, as can I.

 

[Boat Bum]

I was startled by my toaster and threw my shoulder out.