We had a busy day today, ended up all sharing “office space”, I went on a bike ride, then we went back all together and hiked a nice trail, we got a new mattress and donated the old one at the end of the day.
We had a good morning with the girls waking up and getting going, and really not needing much support, or at least not more than usual or really necessary. This makes the day go much easier.
They got their work done kind of faster than usual, and were basically done around lunch.
I had a few work calls, did some work, tried to get caught up on posts and went for a bike ride. I had selected a route on a riding app I use sometimes called Komoot, which is pretty cool as it shows me the types of pavement the route has, the intensity, inclines, etc. I didn’t pay attention to all that this time, and just went for it. I turned left out of the campground and went less than two miles before turning right into a much smaller road, and was on my way towards Stout Grove in the Redwoods forest.
It didn’t take long for me to be in a packed dirty road inside the forest. I had Carol’s bike, which fortunately is a cyclocross bike and can handle a bit rougher terrain. I went all the way to Stout Grove, and rode the trail on the bike.
The whole way there is pretty cool, with the road winding and big Redwoods being everywhere, in every corner. Some really interesting trees were right by the road, so I stopped a few time to take some pics.
The Stout Grove trail is pretty cool, you get the feeling you’re in one of the Star Wars movies, with the huge trees, fallen trees, plants, etc. I loved that trail and that’s where we came back to later in the day.
From there, I rode back a bit and took the path the app had traced for me, which was into the Little Bald Hills trail. To get to the trail there’s a steep uphill, and it was steep enough with loose rocks that I had to push the bike. This trail is all uphill, which is not a big deal, but when I hit steep spots with terrain that is moving underneath me, there’s no traction and I pushed most of the time I went up. I hit a spot that was just that for too long and decided to go back. That path is not for bikes, at least for mine. I actually later found out bikes are not allowed in those trails , and that I had the app set for walking hikes. Ooooops. I tried to ride the bike most of the way down, and was able to, definitely used the brakes a lot. Then I got back to the road and just rode back. I was out for over 90 minutes, but because of the terrain I didn’t cover as much ground as usual. It was great to be there though, so all worth it.
Carol had been helping the girls as needed, and also was working on videos. She’s starting to post some smaller snippets of videos in her social media, while she works on the bigger videos with all the nice editing. She was also anxiously waiting for our new mattress. The old one was the original trailer foam mattress and was just not working for us anymore, both of us having back pain, so she had ordered it a few days ago and it was already arriving today. She would run to the window as each truck noise came, to see if it was the UPS guy hahahahah.
We had some lunch, and Bella was excited to have eggs. Both girls love eggs, sunny side up especially.
I was excited to try another cheese from Rumiano, this one was pretty awesome. Super soft cheese, with awesome flavors and a nice kick.
After lunch, we were wrapping things up before we left to do our hike and my phone showed the mattress had arrived at the campground front desk, so I went there to get it while Carol and the girls finished getting ready. Once I got there, there was a sign that they were open but had stepped out and to call if an emergency. Well, I could see the box in there, so I texted the number and didn’t hear anything back. I went to the trailer to get ready, and went back to the office about 30 minutes later, and still no-one there. I waited there and some new guests arrived and called the number, and the person said they were nearby and would be there in 10. Seriously, I wonder if the owner here or boss knows the front desk people just leave the place unattended. It’s not the first time no-one is there, even to make the reservation I remember calling in and the lady asking me to call back as she was away from the desk. What!? I had to call back 30 minutes later to make the reservations (which they don’t do online). Anyway… she came back eventually, and I got the box… and as I rode down towards the trailer using Carol’s cart (her bday gift), I could see Carol outside jumping around in joy! Hahahahaha like a kid waiting for their new toy. I was happy to get the mattress too, just maybe not that excited 🙂
The new mattress comes rolled up and air tight in vacuum, so it’s quite small in the box, but still somewhat heavy, but not too bad. We took the old one out, put the new one on the bed, and unrolled it, then I poked the wrap to let air in, and we could hear air going in and the mattress expanding… pretty cool. Then I ripped a bigger hole and proof… it was like instant mattress hahahaha… big 10 inch mattress just popped up. Yeeeeee…. We wrapped the old mattress on the plastic from the new one, put it in the bed of the truck, finished getting ready and left to our hike.
It didn’t take long to get to our hiking spot, it was about 4 miles from our campground or so, but within the second mile it was packed dirty road, so we had to go slow.
Once we got to Stout Grove, we parked and started our walk. Everyone was amazed from the get go.
The size of the trees, the plants and just the entire feel of being in that forest is amazing.
It’s an incredible vibe, that makes you feel like you’re part of something special, something bigger.
You can’t help but to look at the size of the trees, then look up and be amazed at how tall the trees are, and then try to take it all in.
It’s pretty cool how when you see a tree that fell and they cut so the path was opened up, you can distinctively feel the bark and the red wood inside. The bark is soft, like a corduroy type of material. It’s thick too and feels light. It is the layer that protects the tree from big fires. Then you hit the actual trees, and that’s regular hard redwoods. It’s quite amazing.
On the path, you also see many trees that had fallen, and the roots are sitting sideways with the tree down.
The roos are huge, like 9-10 feet tall, some are more. It’s just massive. It’s an awesome overall feeling of grandness, of peace, and belonging.
Everyone enjoyed the walk and all the amazing huge trees. We were all done in a about an hour, it’s a small trail. From there we returned to town via the park road, so we drove another 7 miles or so inside the forest, towards Crescent City. That’s quite an amazing drive, and continues making you feel like you’re in a Star Wars movie.
We went to an Uhaul location from there, to see if they had some type of donation place for the mattress. All other places I called pointed me to disposal location and times, but we didn’t want to just throw it away. The mattress was still good, and we preferred to help someone and donate it. I had heard they have a spot where they facilitate donations in some locations so we took a shot. When we got there, it did not look like they had such spot, so I went inside to ask. The person working there told me they don’t take it, and offered a place that would take disposals. But, I told her the mattress was in great condition and I didn’t want to throw it, I preferred to give it to a good cause. She then asked me a few questions about the condition of the mattress and said she wanted to keep it. She knew someone who was just starting out and could use something that was in good shape. That was great. We felt good about helping someone.
We then drove back home and I got the grill started as Carol and I were going to make pizzas. Carol also did a load of laundry for our bedding, so we had fresh bedding with the new mattress. We all had dinner, watched some TV, cleaned up, and went to bed. Nice day, and exciting to go to bed and try the new mattress.