Pacificcoastbackpacking

This morning, I woke up at 7:15AM, ate a continental breakfast at the Best Western Hotel, and walked two miles north on the main street to the Amtrak bus station.  Late last night, I had researched and reserved the optimal (considering costs and travel time) method of traveling from Willits to Los Angeles.  The optimal route consisted of boarding a coach bus from Willits to Martinez, boarding an Amtrak train from Martinez to Bakersfield, and boarding a coach bus from Bakersfield to UCLA.  The entire trip consisted of 12 hours and 55 minutes of travel time, with just a total of 25 minutes between stops.  The cost was $94, which was a fraction of what it would have cost to book a last-minute flight. Overall, the experience was very convenient and I spent much of the time working and journaling.  At around 10PM, I arrived at UCLA and requested an Uber, which would bring me to my front door.

This morning, I woke up at 6AM at Wheeler Camp. During the entire southern portion of the Lost Coast Trail, Wheeler Camp was the only time I was within a few feet of sea level nearby the ocean. However, even if I wanted to I wouldn’t be able to reach the ocean due to the river which formed a barricade between Wheeler Camp and the ocean.

From Wheeler, I knew I had a tough day ahead. The previous day at Needle Rock Visitor Center, I noticed a line graph posed on a bulletin board depicting the mile-to-mile elevation change from Needle Rock to Usal Camp…and it looked BRUTAL! Especially for the portion of the trail from Wheeler Campground to Usal Camp. Basically, over the upcoming 12 miles of the trail, the elevation of the trail changes as follows: 0 ft => 800 ft => 0 feet => 600 feet => 100 feet => 600 feet => 300 feet  => 1,100 feet => to 0 ft.

To make matters more difficult, the trail often required walking through overgrown branches/trees, walking beneath four-foot openings under fallen trees across the trail, climbing up near-vertical portions of the trail, walking around washed out (or washing out) sections of the trail, walking through thick mud, and descending steep and low-friction downhill slopes.   On a few of the steep, low-friction down hill slopes I slipped and fell down on my backside. After a few days of mostly-level hiking and well-maintained trails, the last portion of the trail was overly intrusive and abrasive, demoralizing, and sadistic, requiring a strong mental mindset to make it through with a sane mind. Sort of like the worst girlfriend you can imagine. And to top it off, after it was all over she left me stranded on a dirt road six miles from Highway 1. But she was beautiful, so the memory of her will be associated with the awe-inspiring views and beautiful photos/memories. Also, it’s these types of experiences through which I become a more determined, patient, and strong-willed person.

 

 

After completing the Lost Coast Trail, I waited at the trailhead for about 30 minutes, hoping that someone would pass by and offer a ride to Highway 1 or a nearby city. After a few rejections, I began the six-mile walk toward Highway 1. About a half-mile into the walk, a yellow Nissan Xterra was passing by, and heeded my request for a ride. The couple, Darren and Tara (and their dog Chico), were enjoying a weekend on the coast away from Napa. Their son had just enrolled in a two-week-long summer adventure program, and they decided to drive north to enjoy the weekend in Fort Bragg.  This Sunday afternoon, they were about ready to head back to Napa and were kind enough to drop me off in Willits. During the one-hour drive between the trailhead and Willits, we discussed backpacking routes/ideas, my experiences hiking the Lost Coast Trail, houseboating on Shasta Lake, music festivals, and the stranded family on the side of Usal Road with a malfunctioning transmission.

The drive to Willits took much longer than I was expecting. We drove north on Highway 1 until reaching Highway 101, and then headed south on Highway 101 until Willits. On the way, we stopped off at a mini-mart and I offered to buy water and snacks for Darren and Tara.  Afterwards, they made an impulsive decision to visit the drive-thru-tree park. I’ve been to the drive-thru tree before so I knew it was a lame tourist attraction, but I didn’t have the heart to break their bubble and crush their excitement so we visited the park and drove through a Redwood Tree. Once they dropped me off in Willits, I decided to stay in the Best Western Inn, which was probably one of the nicest hotels in the area. It was well worth it to enjoy a nice shower, sleep in a better bed, and have a better Internet connection, especially after four days of intense hiking. For dinner, I had a breakfast burrito (AMAZING!) from a local Mexican restaurant and had an Omelet with Potatoes from Lumberjack restaurant. After four days, my turbo metabolism made it so that I was able and willing to eat two large meals after 4PM.

This morning, I woke up at about 5:15 AM in my tent on the beachfront sand near the mouth of Horse Mountain Creek.  By 6 AM, I was hiking on the trail toward Black Sands Beach.  The morning walk was beautiful, passing by numerous beachside creeks until reaching Black Sands Beach at 7AM.

At 7 AM on a Saturday Morning, the Black Sands Beach Trailhead was still not very active with any arriving and departing cars, so I began walking on Beach Road toward Hidden Valley Trailhead, the start of the Southern portion of the Lost Coast Trail.  After one mile of uphill walking, I reached the intersection of Beach Road and Shelter Cove Road.  I turned left onto Shelter Cove Road, which had much more passing cars than Beach Road.  After walking a half-mile on Shelter Cove Road, a passing pickup truck heeded my hand gesture and offered me a ride in the bed of his truck.  At about 7:30 AM, he was driving with a ceramic coffee mug in his hand, dog in his passenger seat, and a surfboard in the bed of his truck.  After driving for just a few minutes, he dropped me off at Shelter Cove General Store, just off of Shelter Cove Road.

After being on the trail for almost two days, I took full advantage of being dropped off at a grocery store.  I ate two Tillamook flavored greek yogurts and a breakfast burrito.  As always, Tillamook’s dairy products exceeded my expectations and were top quality and delicious.  When I walked out of the grocery store, I asked a couple in a parked car whether they were headed toward Highway 1.  After making sure I wasn’t a murderer, they were more than happy to give me a ride.  The 25 year old guy and 20 year old girl had been dating for 4 years, and were cruising around in their SUV with two pitbulls in the back seat.  Like most people in rural Humboldt County, they were employed in the cannabis farming industry.  The guy mentioned that it’s commonplace to grow cannabis, and that everyone (including his grandmother) grows cannabis.  On that Saturday morning, they were waiting for their son to wake up so that they could pick him up from the baby’s grandmother’s house. The couple were very kind and helpful, going as far as to offer me Marijuana for the trail (which I declined), driving me all the way to Hidden Valley Trailhead, and expressing genuine concern for my safety on the trail.

At about 9AM, I started hiking south on the Lost Coast trail from Hidden Valley Trailhead.  The trail began a few miles inland from the coast and at over 1,000 feet above sea level.  The scenery and landscape during the first few hours on the trail, was a world’s apart from what I had been accustomed to while hiking the northern portion of the Lost Coast Trail.  This section of the trail was characterized by continuous elevation changes, a forest environment, dark moist soil, and an (unexpected) absence of running streams for the first 5 miles of the trail.  Being accustomed to passing by creeks every mile, I arrived at Hidden Valley Trailhead with only half a bottle of water.  About a mile into the trail, I was already out of water and concerned when I realized that the next stream on the Lost Coast Trail would be a couple hours down the trail.  After reviewing the trail map, I noticed  that there was an upcoming side trail (Chinquapin Loop) which separated from the Lost Coast Trail, descended to Nick’s Camp (a primitive campsite), and then met back up with the Lost Coast Trail about a mile down the trail.  On the Chinquapin Loop Trail, the map showed a stream which looked to be the only water source which I would be able to access for the next few hours.  I decided to hike down the side trail, and was rewarded with a flowing stream to rehydrate.

After a few more miles of ascending and descending the forest trails, the trail came within a few hundred lateral feet of the Pacific Coast.  This portion of the trail offered bird’s eye, Big-Sur-like views of the coastline from hundreds of feet above sea level.  After this section of the trail, the trail descended through a rainforest-like landscape which steeply descended via switchbacks to Whale Gulch.  Whale Gulch is a beautiful, fast-flowing creek, and served as a nice resting spot before continuing on the trail toward  Needle Rock Visitor Center.

 

During the 2 miles before Needle Rock Visitor Center, there were numerous primitive campsites including Jones Beach Camp, Streamside Camp, and Barn Camp.  These camps provide families and casual hikers with the opportunity of experiencing the remoteness and beauty of the Lost Coast with only a couple miles of hiking.  Although the camps don’t have running water or trash cans, the beautiful surroundings, picnic tables, portable restrooms and fire rings are enough to provide groups with everything needed to make lifelong memories.

At about 2:30PM, I arrived at Needle Rock Visitor Center.  At Needle Rock, I took a well-deserved 30-minute break during which time I ate lunch, refilled water, chatted with the volunteer host at the visitor center,and briefly scanned the inside of the visitor center for interesting information/items.  Posted on a bulletin board inside the visitor center, there was a visual elevation line graph displaying the elevation changes for the following 18 miles of the trail until Usal Creek.  This sight was mental torture that would remain in my mind and discourage/demoralize/burden me for the next 24 hours.  Seeing the near-straight upward lines depicting the upcoming hills was the last thing I wanted to see while resting at the Visitor Center.  If the horizontal axis of the graph had been spread out over 2-3 pages rather than 1 page, thereby displaying a visual with less steep lines, this undoubtedly would have helped me remain more optimistic when thinking about the upcoming portions of the hike.  I’m sure that if I looked at a similar line graph created based on the section of the trail between Hidden Valley and Needle Rock, it would be characterized by similar, steep ascents and descents.  However, this portion of the trail was enjoyable and I didn’t consider it very difficult at the time.  At the time, I didn’t know what to expect and was just taking what the trail gave me.  The difference in attitude/expectations that I experienced in these two sections, just goes to show how important mentality, mindset, and perspective is when hiking long distances.  If you allow your mind to focus on steep hills, pain, discomfort, and long miles, then you’ll be discouraged and miserable.  On the other hand, if you’re appreciating the opportunity to work out, enjoying the expansive views and enjoying the experience of solitude, it’s pretty difficult not to have a wonderful time.  It’s all in the mindset.

 

 

At Needle Rock Visitor Center, I was trying to decide whether I would hike until Wheeler Camp or Jackass Camp before setting up camp for the night.  It was clear that if I wanted to have a chance of catching the 12:55PM bus from Willits to Los Angeles on Sunday, I would need to hike all the way to Jackass Creek today.  As I  walked through Wheeler Camp, it was already 7:30 PM and the idea of rushing through the beautiful Lost Coast Trail and hiking after dusk, became very unappealing.  I realized that my goal-oriented, ambitious side was latching on to this unrealistic goal, which the pursuit of would make me miserable without a good enough reason to feel that way.  Then and there, I resolved to set up camp at Wheeler and to enjoy the last hour of sunlight at the oceanfront campsite, surrounded by the expansive, open meadow.  As beautiful as that plan sounded, by the time I set up my tent all I wanted to do was lay down inside the tent and fall asleep.

This morning, I woke up at 5:45 AM after a long, windy night inside the tent.  Throughout the night, the powerful wind was blowing into the walls and base of the tent.  If it weren’t for the multiple 10-15 pound rocks, I had placed at the four corners of the interior of the tent, the wind would have caused even more discomfort and instability.

One of the most dreaded parts of backpacking/camping is the 30 minute ordeal between waking up and starting to walk on the trail.  The process can be especially frustrating if it’s cold, windy, or if the tent is covered in dew.  Among other things, this process consists of rolling/packing up the tent into its carrying bag, rolling/packing up the sleeping bag into its carrying bag, and packing everything neatly to fit inside the backpack.  I’ve learned to take this one step at a time and only focus on solely the present-moment task in order to maintain a good attitude during this process.

As with yesterday, I continued passing across many streams throughout the entire day. Even though the navigation map only shows the major streams, there’s probably an average of 1 stream each mile which is flowing strongly enough to be scooped up into the Life Straw water bottle.  The plentiful water conditions greatly increased the usefulness and practicality of the Lifestraw water bottle.  The Lifestraw bottle is simply dunked into a water source to be filled with water, and as water is sucked through the bottle’s straw, it is simultaneously filtered.  This single Lifestraw bottle pretty much deemed my brand new Katadyn water filter and 4 extra 1-liter water bottles, to be dead, useless weight and during this entire backpacking trip. Additionally, I probably saved many hours of time, which would otherwise have to be spent manually pumping hundreds of liters of water through through the Katadyn filtration device.

Throughout today’s walking, I enjoyed focusing on some of the landscapes and thinking about the geological forces that have shaped and continue to shape the landscapes. Sometimes I think about how interesting it would be to be accompanied by a geologist who could explain the landscapes and answer questions about the surrounding landscapes and the landscape’s progression over time.  Due to my very limited high-school level education in geology, I usually can’t understand much. However, basic (oversimplified and likely flawed) story lines can be still be formulated by looking at landscapes like the one below:

“The meeting of the North American Plate and Pacific Plate interact at the San Andreas fault to cause uplift/mountain-building along the Lost Coast (where the plates meet.)  Over time, the rain and mountain springs erode the uplifted land, creating  stream channels that become increasingly prominent over time.  These streams transport trees, boulders, and soil to the shore at the bottom of the stream.”

While walking on the Lost Coast Trail, I noticed bear claw prints on the sand.  These prints continued for about a mile, and frequently disappeared and reappeared as the tide washed over them at some points.  This pattern offered me some peace of mind, by assuring me that the paw prints were formed at least a few hours ago (since enough time had passed for the tide to wash away some of the prints) and I wouldn’t need to constantly be paranoid about a nearby bear.

 

 

At the intersection of the coast and Rattlesnake Ridge Road, I passed by a fenced, two-story ranch home and guest house.  The home was located in a very remote location, and on that Friday seemed to be occupied by a family, which was taking full advantage of the beautiful weather.  It’s possible that the house is a Government-owned rental cabin, but numerous internet searches didn’t provide any additional information about this home.

At 2PM, I arrived at the 4-mile section of the trail that’s impassable at high tide.  The tide book I bought at the Petrolia General Store specified that high tide was at 4:19 PM.  Based on the current time of 2PM, I was planning on starting the impassable section, but a look down the shoreline caused me to reconsider.  The waves were already reaching the toe of the bluffs, rendering the trail impassable.  As I relaxed for a few moments, a group of four girls in their mid-20s hiking from the opposite direction were ending the impassable portion of the trail and climbing up to the top of the bluffs where I was resting.  They had completed the impassable portion as the high-tide deadline was approaching, and seemed to be exhausted after rushing through that portion of the trail.

The four girls were recent UC-Berkeley grads, currently living in Santa Monica, Orange County, Sacramento, and San Francisco.  The four friends had reunited for a weekend backpacking trip and seemed to be serious-minded, determined hikers.  When meeting people on a hiking trail (especially on the remote Lost Coast Trail), you already know so much about them before even having a conversation. These are people that could have chosen to meet for a weekend of shopping or drinking/partying, but instead opted to drive three hours north of San Francisco to spend a weekend bonding in perhaps one of the most remote wilderness areas in the state without any cell-phone reception.  These are people that have sought out an experience which consists of not showering for a few days, repeatedly covering themselves with deet/sunscreen, carrying 30-pound backpacks for days of painful/uncomfortable walking, and sleeping in tents for two night in a row.  What motivates people to endure the aforementioned circumstances? A deep appreciation of nature, appreciation of the value/bonding that comes from spending time in nature, and the desire to overcome difficult challenges and adversity. When considering all of the above, how can you not be excited to meet such people and converse with them?  At about 2:30PM, we walked back toward Big Flat River, where we relaxed near a river for a lunch break until 3:45PM.  At 3:45, I walked back toward the impassable portion of the trail and waited for the tide to recede so I could continue heading south on the Lost Coast Trail.

Here is some basic information on each of the friends:

• Lazeth
  • Lazeth is a paralegal working in Downtown LA and living in Santa Monica.  After taking a legal/social justice class at Berkeley, she became inspired to pursue a career in law.  She finds meaning in her work through helping underprivileged people to know and exercise their housing rights. She plans on attending Law school in Southern California
• Melanie Chu
  • About a month ago, Melanie arrived back in California after a 6.5 month backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. She visited numerous countries during this trip, and spent a total of just $8,000 during her trip.  She highly recommended SE Asia as a backpacking destination, offering suggestions such as flying into Vietnam or Thailand (the destination for the cheapest flights) and slowing making my way either “West to East” or “East to West.”  She mentioned that she never felt unsafe or in-danger during her trip
• Chelsea
  • Chelsea is the mastermind/planner of the trip.  She seemed to be a very strong hiker and confident in her abilities
• Girl working at the Irvine Company
  • The last girl was married, living in Orange County, and working as a financial planner at the Irvine Company.  She knew a lot about the history of the company and shared some interesting information, such as the 9,000 residential-home-lot inventory of the Irvine Company, and that the Irvine Company was working on many refinances.

From about 4PM to 6PM, I sat, stood, paced,  and waited at the toe of the bluffs for the tide to recede.  Unfortunately, it didn’t recede much (if at all) during that time. At 6PM, I decided that as the next large wave washed back into the ocean, I would run around the bend and hopefully make it to the next dry area before the next large wave arrived.  This strategy worked well and I was able to walk about 15 minutes until the next truly “impassable” section.  At this section, I once again ran during the seconds separating the large waves, eventually completely passing the two short, truly “impassable” portions.  I feel bad for the several groups of hikers who were still waiting for hours for the tide to recede, when they could have easily continued hiking just by crossing two minor, impassable portions at around 6PM.

 

 

At about 8PM, I was continuing walking along the remote, quiet beach between Buck Creek and Horse Mountain Creek.  Listening to an audiobook, I waved from afar when noticing a couple sitting on a log at the far edge of the sand.  Realizing I had my headphones on, the lady approached. As she approached within audible distance, she mentioned that her and her now-fiance had just become engaged, and asked me to take a photo of the newly-engaged couple. I was a bit taken aback/excited about the whole situation and agreed to take a photo of Mitch and Rachel.  It was exciting to be the first person to come across the blissful couple after the proposal/acceptance.  Mitch and Rachel had known each other for three years, and had been dating for one year.  I wasn’t paying too much attention, but noticed there was a bottle of wine/champagne and a backpack near the log. Given that they were about 2 miles from the nearest trailhead and the sun was setting, there’s a good chance that they were planning on spending the night camping near the beach. If not, they would have had to walk at least one hour at night to arrive at Black Sands beach that night.

The idea of proposing on the remote Lost Coast trail seems like a great idea for a few reasons.  First of all, there’s a good chance it was a complete surprise to Rachel, who likely wasn’t expecting to become engaged dressed in hiking clothes on a walk at the beach.  Also, within the past few years, proposals seem to have become much less intimate and personal.  Nowadays, within a few minutes of becoming engaged, newly-engaged couple have likely already notified their close friends/relatives with news of the engagement, and have shared a picture/post on Facebook which has already been liked and commented on by dozens or even hundreds of people.  This widespread and immediate publicizing of such an intimate, special experience may drain some of the excitement from the couple and distract them from fully extracting and experiencing every single emotion that comes during, after, and a few hours after the experience.  However, I imagine that being together on the Lost Coast with no cell phone reception, no family, and no distractions may have made this experience more special, long-lasting and intimate.  This additional few hours or night (if they camped) of time together with their shared excitement/bliss/dreams could not have been possible in any other location than the Lost Coast Trail.

Anyways, congratulations to Mitch and Rachel on your engagement.  I am grateful for the privilege of having witnessed such a special experience.  Because romantic situations always seem to remind me of a Vanessa Carlton song, I’ll share/dedicate “Home” to this experience: May you both experience the feeling of being home when you’re together, whether you’re on the Lost Coast, in the car, or wherever your path takes you.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-RHfaJgHBE]

 

I continued walking on the beach, until arriving at Horse Mountain Creek at about 9:15PM.  I ordinarily wouldn’t feel comfortable walking that late into the night, but walking on the beach made me feel more comfortable and safe from wildlife or losing track of my location.

This morning, I woke up at 7 AM, with the general plan of traveling from Eureka to the northern terminus of the Lost Coast Trail at the mouth of the Mattole River. The first step was to board a intra-city bus from Historic Downtown Eureka to Bayshore Mall.

Bayshore Mall is a 730,000 SF regional mall, that was built in 1988 along the edge of Humboldt Bay in Eureka. The property was originally developed by General Growth Properties and includes four large anchor spaces, which were originally occupied by J.C. Penney, Mervyn’s, Gottschalks, and Sears. Since then, the property has changed hands to Rouse Properties, an entity that was spun off from General Growth, likely in an attempt by General Growth to separate lower quality properties from higher quality properties. Since 1988, tenants have been continuously leasing spaces and vacating, partially due to the ongoing changes in the nature of the retail industry and partially due to the property’s economic and functional obsolescence.

The mall was especially hard hit during 2008-2009, when in the span of a short time many tenants vacated including Mervyn’s, The Movie, Borders, Gottschalks, and probably many more smaller tenants. Since then, the property has pivoted from a regional mall to more of a lifestyle center/community center/strip center. In the past couple of years, the mall has vastly improved its occupancy with new tenants including TJ Maxx, Ross, Ulta Beauty, Planet Fitness, and Wal-Mart. Along with these new tenants, the mall has created many new entrances from the exterior of the building directly into stores such as TJ Maxx, Ross, Wal-Mart, Sports Authority, Ulta, Planet Fitness, etc. Although these stores still have entrances from the interior of the mall, the exterior entrances greatly reduce the traffic to the interior common areas of the mall. It’s almost as if the owners of the mall consciously decided that in order for the entire mall to survive over the long term, they would need to amputate one of their limbs in order to survive and be healthy.   In the case of Bayshore mall, the owners basically amputated the interior/back portion of the mall, hoping that the front-facing spaces with exterior entrances would maintain high occupancy levels, thereby stopping the mall’s decline.

 

As of now, the interior of the mall is very bland and generic. Most of the tenants sell off-price new clothing, beauty supply items, cell phones, and other service-oriented businesses that would commonly be located in neighborhood shopping centers and strip centers. When I stopped by the management office and spoke to the operations manager, he explained that they recently invested $1,000,000 on changing the flooring throughout the mall. Although this was probably a good decision, the interior of the mall needs much more than new flooring. If the management doesn’t decide on a definite, clear direction and implement major changes, the interior portion of this mall will continue to its decline.  Eventually, the mall will become an low-to-average sales generating, low-rent, high-expense, high-maintenance property which will not contribute much incremental income (and thereby market value) to the overall mall financials.  One potential strategy or “major change” could be to create a more entertainment-oriented mall by investing a lot of money into the common areas and courting entertainment/hospitality-oriented tenants, which would likely increase mall traffic, increase the mall’s attainable rents, and increase the occupancy rate.

This mall has a very difficult road ahead. With tenants like Staples, Sports Authority, Party City, Sears and Petco,, there is a very high likelihood that the mall will continue to see downsizing, vacancies, and relocations over the next decade or two. Each of these potential future vacancies will provide challenges to the remaining tenants at the mall and to the property’s management/leasing team.  Additionally, Wal-Mart may also not be a long-term tenant.  In 2011, Wal-Mart discretely acquired their 73,000 SF building from Gottschalks through a bankruptcy sale. Many people speculate that this location is just being used as a temporary location, through which Wal-Mart can gain a foothold in Eureka, until it can win over public sentiment which would eventually enable Wal-Mart to build one of their prototype 200,000 SF supercenters.  If Wal-Mart vacates their anchor space, Bayshore Mall would suffer another setback and have another difficult vacancy to fill.

All in all, I’m not too optimistic about the future of this mall.  It’s debatable whether it should still even be considered a mall.  It’s definitely not as much of a “mall” as it was 10 or 15 years ago.  With no movie theater, bland common areas, its tenant mix, and about 10-15 stores having exterior entries directly from the parking lot, this is more of a soft-goods shopping center than a mall.  Some mall-type remnants can still be seen (food court and interior common areas), but the blood flow (traffic) has already been cut off from those limbs (portions of the mall) and it’s only a matter of time before the interior of the mall becomes uneconomical to maintain operational.  At that point, this property will be an indefinitely-underperforming property with tons of wasted potential

• Where do I see room for improvement in the mall? What changes would I make?
  • Property needs to have more traffic drivers. Some ideas are fast food/fast casual restaurant pads along the main road to bring traffic into the parking lot, more entertainment businesses (restaurants, Chuck E Cheese, arcades, hip bowling alley, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dave and Busters, etc.) This mall won’t be successful unless there’s some sort of excitement/life, which currently isn’t there. This entertainment aspect would be especially useful in the interior portion of the mall
  • Take advantage of the bay front location: Walking path along the bayfront (maybe from Historic Downtown all the way to Bayshore Mall), picnic tables along the bayfront, and movies on the bayfront, etc.
  • Density/Walkability: Over the long-term, coordinate with the city and pressure the city to locate libraries, city offices, hotels, universities, senior centers, high density residential, and other uses near or inside the mall. This mall needs to be forced into people’s lives and made to be extremely convenient. Otherwise, people will be able to go about their lives without visiting the mall
  • Develop a definite strategy for the interior of the mall:  Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment
  • Increased signage along Broadway: As of now, the property only has one small-paneled sign along Highway 101. That is definitely not enough for this type of a property. They should try to install multiple billboards and/or large pylon signs for all of the tenants
  • New Landscaping and minor cosmetic renovation (paint, decorative interior trees/flowers, furniture)
  • Potentially explore a joint venture/partnership/agreement with the City to receive tax breaks or subsidies in exchange for making a huge renovation which would not be economical otherwise. This property is very central and important for the City and it’s probably important for the City that this property performs well and remains presentable.

Lessons:

• It’s very difficult to predict how a property type, market, or specific property will perform over the long run. In this case, even the sophisticated General Growth Properties/Rouse was left holding a disaster property during the recession. They would have been much better off if they sold the property 10-15 years ago when it was stabilized.   Likewise, I shouldn’t try to predict market trends or market fluctuations. Just focus on “buying, fixing, and selling.”
• Properties requiring high levels of capital expenditures can be very unattractive. Rouse Properties has undoubtedly spent tens of millions of dollars on renovations, leasing commissions, and tenant improvement costs over the last few years, and it still has a long way to go. Due to the nature of the property and the changes occurring in the retail industry, these high capital expenditures will likely continue to be necessary well into the future. These high expenditures have high opportunity costs, considering the returns that could be achieved by investing in other real estate. Rouse Properties is a professional, sophisticated landlord and I’m sure they know the steps that could be taken if they had unlimited money to spend on Bayshore Mall. Maybe it just doesn’t make sense for them to invest a lot of money into this property. It’s easy for me to criticize them as a one-time visitor of the mall, but it’s not an easy situation for any property owner to be in.

From Bay Shore Mall, I boarded the 8:30 AM bus to College of the Redwoods. College of the Redwoods is 2-year community college located at the Southern edge of Eureka about five miles south of Bay Shore Mall. From there, I transferred to another bus which dropped me off at the remote, historical Fernbridge. Fernbridge was constructed in 1910, and is the largest, functional, concrete-poured bridge in the world.  The bridge spans about a quarter of a mile across the Eel River and the road on the other side continues on to Ferndale.

After taking a break at the cafe, I walked across Fernbridge and continued south on the road for about four miles across numerous bridges and past many farms until reaching Ferndale. Ferndale is a small, historic town, featuring well-preserved Victorian-architecture buildings built as early as the mid 1800s. Ferndale was originally founded and settled as a dairy/farm town, but has since become primarily a tourist-oriented town which draws visitors through its architectural charm and quaint, historical downtown area.

 

The first stopping point in Ferndale was the public library, a historical one-story building with an interior that looks pretty much like any small-town library in the country. On the wall behind the librarian’s desk there is a beautiful wooden carving named “Winter on the Eel,” by Gerard Krimmer. The librarian mentioned that the sculpture was carved out of a single piece of wood, and has been on the wall of the library from before she began working at the library fifteen years ago.

I continued walking through Downtown along Main Street, stopping to have a veggie burger, fries, and ice cream at a tourist-oriented restaurant. Also, along Main Street, there was a local real estate office where I stopped in to chat with one of the agents there. More specifically, I asked for information (average sale price PSF, average market rent, any properties available for sale) regarding the commercial buildings in the Downtown area. The lady mentioned that properties are usually owned by local families/owner-users are rarely come up for sale. The last building to be sold is being fully gutted and renovated as an antique mall. Also, she mentioned that Ferndale is a seasonal town that is mostly busy during the summer months. She suggested that I should research Fortuna as an area which may have a larger supply of high pedestrian-traffic, tourist-oriented properties.

Near the end of Main Street, there was a sign reading “Petrolia” pointing right toward a lightly trafficked street. A couple hundred feet down the lightly-trafficked street, an immediate left turn will take you up the lightly traveled, paved road toward Capetown and Petrolia. Simultaneously with me arriving at the beginning of a road, a lady in a pickup truck was turning left onto the road and en route to Capetown. She offered me to hop into the bed of her pickup truck where her blue-heeler dog, Girdy, was also sitting.  I hopped in and she drove quickly on the windy, steep road as the terrain alternated between green, hilly pastures and occasional spotted portions of densely forested areas.  During the drive, there were beautiful, panoramic views of the ocean and vast, hilly pastures. After about thirty minutes, the truck descended into Capetown through a series of switchbacks.  In Capetown, she pulled the truck over to let me out near the Bear River. Capetown is the westernmost point in California and is more of a geographic location than a town.  There are probably ten homes within a mile of Capetown. Before parting ways, she showed me Girdy’s daughter, a 2-month old Blue-Heeler puppy, in the back seat of the truck.  The puppy was adorable and playful.

 

Here are some brief notes/observations I jotted down while waiting in Capetown:

“The sound is filled with dozens of birds simultaneously chirping. The sounds are like the equivalent of a “Big Sur View” for my ears. One of the main problems with land on busy highways is the traffic, loud noise, and lack of privacy. The remoteness of Petrolia is similar to the privacy one would experience on a desolate ranch road in Iowa or Nebraska. It’s a special and unique experience, especially for the heavily trafficked and populated California Coast.

I waited on the bridge above the Bear River for about forty-five minutes, eagerly awaiting the occasional car that passed every 10-15 minutes. The third or fourth car that passed over the bridge stopped and offered me a ride to Petrolia.   The driver, Dana, had a very friendly and calm, yet enthusiastic personality. He mentioned that agricultural and residential property has skyrocketed in value over the past few years and rarely comes up for sale. Dana owns an 86-acre ranch near Petrolia, which he acquired in 2011 through a rare Government-seizure sale. At the time, his real estate broker/friend called him and told him that he had one hour to write an offer on the ranch if he was interested. Yes, it’s supposedly that competitive! Part of the reason for the skyrocketing prices, is that landowners in Humboldt County are allowed to have 99 cannabis plants on their land. Almost everyone takes advantage of this lucrative opportunity, something that I noticed with many of the people I met in rural Humboldt County. He mentioned that he had numerous farms where he grows cannabis, and on that day there were about 100 pounds of Marijuana in his truck bed. It all made sense considering the subtle scent of cannabis I smelled upon entering the car.  As he opened the sunroof, the smell of cannabis flooded the car for a few seconds. He mentioned that he tries to ensure that the cannabis he grows is only used for medicinal purposes, but obviously he knows that much of it isn’t. He says that there is high demand for good quality cannabis and that his cannabis is some of the best quality available. Considering that there are 28 grams in an ounce and 16 ounces in a pound, the wholesale value of 100 pounds at $3/gram would be $134,400.

Dana mentioned that he first started looking into Marijuana when his son was prescribed prescription painkillers for pain in his leg. Seeking alternative, long-term solutions, Dana’s doctor suggested he look into marijuana as an alternative method of relieving the pain. Marijuana has worked wonders for his son and allows his son to lead a better quality life than he otherwise would be able to. As we discussed in more detail, Dana shared that neither he nor any of his children smoke marijuana or use any drugs. We shared a lot of the same views on drugs, family, and other issues facing society. He was a very interesting person, and I was asking as many questions as I could to try and pinpoint the philosophy/mindset/keys to his seemingly effortless positive attitude and enthusiasm.  As we approached the Petrolia General Store, our conversation was still in full swing, and I was sort of disappointed that the conversation was ending, but he shared his email and I might decide to contact him in the future.

After picking up a tide map from the general store, I walked through Petrolia, crossed the Mattole River, and continued on the six miles of remaining dirt road until the mouth of the Mattole River. About a mile into the walk, as an occasional car approached, I stuck out my thumb and a couple in a beaten down car offered to give me a ride a mile down the road. They mentioned that they were (cannabis) “trimmers” on a nearby farm and were headed to work. Here is a link to a 2011 LA Times newspaper article about people employed as cannabis trimmers.

They ended up driving me the entire five miles to the trailhead, which I really appreciated. I noticed their gas tank was near empty and offered to chip in $10 for gas, which they accepted and really appreciated.

When I arrived at the Trailhead, I walked the opposite direction of the Lost Coast Trail, walking through the Mattole campground until reaching the mouth of the Mattole River. At least during the time of day that I was there, the Mattole River wasn’t meeting the ocean, but was separated by a porous, rocky barrier, through which water was probably somehow escaping through to the ocean.

I then backtracked, walking south on the beach toward the trailhead. The campground was quiet and remote with a unique, adventurous crowd. At one of the campsites, there was an interesting school bus, which had been painted blue and converted into an RV. It was not unexpected considering everything I’ve come across so far in that area of Humboldt County, and looks like it would be a pretty awesome adventure-mobile.

At around 5:30 PM, I filled out the permit and began hiking the Lost Coast Trail. The first few miles of the trail hugged the shoreline. The shoreline alternated between loosely packed sand, densely packed sand, hard packed small rocks, loose gravel, and about two-inch wide loose pebbles. As I walked across the beach, I scanned the shoreline for attractive rocks and shells.

 

 

A couple of miles into the trail, I came across a group of a few dozen sea lions lounging on the shoreline. As I approached them, all except two hurriedly flopped into the ocean where I noticed an even larger group of sea lions looking in my direction with only their heads outside the water.

By this point in the hike, I had already eaten several Lara Bars. Yesterday, in Eureka, I purchased 44 Lara Bars, in over ten different flavors including Apple Pie, Chocolate Chip Brownie, Banana Bread, Coconut Chocolate Chip, and Peanut Butter Cookie. What makes these bars so great is their simple ingredients. For example, here are ENTIRE set of ingredients for a few of their flavors:

• Peanut Butter Cookie:
  • Dates, Peanuts, Sea Salt
• Carrot Cake:
  • Dates, Almonds, Walnuts, Raisins, Dried Pineapple, Unsweetened coconut, carrots, cinnamon, extra virgin coconut oil
• Coconut Chocolate Chip:
  • Dates, Semi-sweet chocolate chips, unsweetened coconut, cashews, almonds

Not only do these bars taste great, they’re also made of simple ingredients so there’s really no need to worry about ingesting chemicals and unhealthy ingredients contained in other protein and energy bars.

 

About six miles into hiking the Lost Coast Trail, already having passed many streams and notable sites, I set up camp on a ridge overlooking Sea Lion Gulch. The site was a minute’s walk from a stream and overlooked the coast from about 100 feet above sea level. What a day and beginning of the Lost Coast Trail!

This morning, I woke up at 9AM and checked out of the hotel at 11AM.  On the way out of the hotel, I picked up a blueberry scone, dried fruit muffin, banana, and coffee, which were still in the lobby as part of the continental breakfast. Upon exiting the hotel, I walked across the street to Arcata Plaza and relaxed on a park bench while enjoying the coffee and muffin.

Arcata plaza can serve as a successful model for creating community spaces and green spaces in small and midsized towns throughout the country.  The plaza is a very successful use of green space, adding significantly to the quality of life for all of the citizens of Arcata and enhancing values of nearby properties. The problem with the current green spaces in cities is that most cities have land-use plans which dictate the percentage of space which must be allocated for open spaces (parks, gardens, public walking paths, etc.). However, simply saying that a percentage of a city’s total land should be set aside as green spaces doesn’t achieve the overall best results for inhabitants of a city.  There is a huge difference between the value provided to residents when a city concentrates all of its green space in a couple of huge parks consisting of thousands of acres versus a city which intelligently locates small and mid-sized parks throughout the city.

The enormous city blocks in Los Angeles lead to the creation of parks like Rancho Park, Balboa Park, and other large parks which don’t offer the same “value-per-acre” to citizens of a town as smaller, more strategically designed/located parks would offer.  Los Angeles can greatly benefit by creating more small and mid-sized parks, especially as population density continues to increase.  After all, how valuable are Rancho Park and Balboa Park to people living in Downtown LA?  Not at all.  Every resident of LA should be able to access a green space by walking a maximum of fifteen minutes

What’s unique about the immediate area of Arcata Plaza which may contribute to its success?

• Traffic/Automobile accessibility: Because the plaza consists of an entire city block, there are six streets openings leading to the plaza
• Architecture: The plaza is surrounded by beautiful, historical aesthetically-pleasing buildings which all contribute to the entertainment aspect of the plaza
• High Density: Zero lot line buildings (buildings built attached to each other)
• Ample Parking:  2 rows of diagonal parking on all four sides of the plaza
• University:  The high foot traffic from the University definitely provides a boost to Arcata Plaza, but I think it would still be successful even without the University
• Pedestrian friendly: The plaza welcomes pedestrians to the center lawn through crosswalks from all surrounding street corners and eight paved pathways leading to the center of the plaza
• Entertainment/service types of businesses:  Types of businesses surrounding the plaza are bars, coffee shops, restaurants, boutiques, hotels, and other service-related businesses

If I were a local investor, I would definitely feel comfortable owning a long-term-investment-property at Arcata plaza (not just a buy, fix, sell).  Arcata plaza’s unique aspects/benefits as an area to invest in, are comparable to  Downtown Telluride, 3rd Street Promenade, and the under-construction Palisades Village.  Centrally located, pedestrian-oriented, entertainment/tourist real estate seems to be well positioned to dodge the effects of huge lifestyle shifts which are affecting suburban office buildings, large shopping malls, and other property types.  Also, pedestrian-oriented, street retail is a property type that I understand and believe in.  I don’t see Amazon as being too much of a threat to pedestrian-oriented, entertainment-oriented street retail properties.  I wholeheartedly believe that people will always want to go somewhere beautiful and walkable to eat, relax, and hang out.  This belief makes me passionate about this sector and much more likely to feel comfortable owning this type of property.

On the other hand, I am personally not enthusiastic about self-storage properties, office buildings, and high-end apartments.  Regarding self storage properties, the idea of someone paying $100/month to store furniture or belongings just seems absurd to me.  If you don’t have room for anything in your own home, just sell it, give it away, or donate it.  Is it really worth spending $6,000 over a period of five years to keep something that’s probably worth only a few hundred dollars? Given my perspective on the self-storage business, I don’t think I would be able to own and/or operate one as successfully as someone who personally believes in the widespread use of self-storage.  You won’t be successful in selling a product/space/concept if you don’t believe in it yourself.  For that reason, maybe I should look into street-retail, entertainment-oriented properties.

 

Sitting at the Arcata Plaza, I decided to walk the 9 miles to Eureka rather than taking the bus. From looking at the Google Map view of the walk, there seemed to be plenty of ocean views and bay views along the walk, and I thought it would be a fun, worthwhile experience.

Following up on yesterday’s journal entry, walking on the side of the road is also a good metaphor for living. For example, if you’re constantly comparing your speed to that of cars/bicyclists, you’ll feel discouraged and miserable.  The same applies to comparing yourself to other people in different areas of your life. The right mindset to have is to focus on yourself and confront the situation as a personal challenge.  If you’re walking at 4 miles per hour, that’s a great speed and a wonderful speed/situation for you to be in.  Better yet, the strongest people go a step further, and formulate their own mindset/perspective that can help them not only in achieving incredible feats, but also to maintain a positive, optimistic attitude in the process. For example, the late ultra cyclist Bob Breedlove, is remembered for encouraging himself and competitors by saying. “Just another day in paradise.” During a 10 day bicycle race across the United States, he created his own mindset/perspective which allowed him to remain positive for days and days of unimaginable physical and mental adversity.

While walking on Highway 255, there was a sign on the road for the upcoming Ma-Le’l Dunes.  I visited the recreation area and hiked the trails to the ocean, with the plan of walking a few miles south on the shore until meeting back up with the bridge to Eureka.  the dunes were beautiful but I merged inland after only about 1/2 mile of walking on the sand.  As I walked inland to meet back up with the Highway, I came across a Nature Center which also had a restroom and water fountain.  The building had recently been refurbished by a group named “Friends of the Dunes” and had beautiful characteristics including rooftop vegetation which seamlessly blended into the surrounding landscape, an arched ceiling with no support columns, and a concrete facade which was imprinted with wood design patterns for texture purposes. A man named Pete was doing some landscaping work and we spoke for a few minutes.  I asked him if I could walk on the roof of the building and he hesitated, but then agreed to walk me up there.  It was obvious that he was (rightfully) very proud of the work they had done on that building.

 

 

After visiting the Nature Center, I continued walking on highway 255 for 4.5 miles until reaching the intersection of Highway 101 and Highway 255 in the center of Eureka.  At Highway 101, I headed south for a few blocks and checked into the hotel where I would be staying the night.  It felt great to be able to leave my pack in the room and walk around the city for the remainder of the afternoon without any extra weight.

After checking into the hotel, I walked a few blocks to the Historic Downtown area of Eureka.  The Historic Downtown area consists of about five square blocks between Highway 101 and the waterfront. 2nd Street is the most active street in the Historic downtown area with many bookstores, restaurants, bars, and art galleries.

One of the storefronts on 2nd street is a window showcasing painted wooden sculptures. Over the span of many years, the artist, Romano Gabriel, decorated the exterior of his home in Eureka, CA with the wooden sculptures.  In 1977, when he passed away WITHOUT A WILL, a private investor bought his home and dismantled his artwork.  Eventually, the community relocated and displayed his artwork in a large window storefront on 2nd Street in Historic downtown.  This story reminds me a lot of Salvation Mountain in Niland, CA.  Both stories contain very independent men, creating imaginative and unique artwork on a massive scale.  However, with Salvation Mountain, Leonard Wright seemed to have much more recognition and seemed to be much better prepared for preserving his artwork after his death.

On 2nd Street, I decided to eat a late lunch/early dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Historic Old Town.  The meal was extremely filling and I was only able to eat about half of the food  even though I was starving and hadn’t eaten since breakfast.  I offered the leftovers to a homeless relaxing on the sidewalk, who seemed extremely grateful to receive the food.

After heading back to the hotel and relaxing for a few hours, I went for a sunset walk to Carson Mansion and Carson House.  The Carson Mansion was built in 1886 at a cost of $80,000, and is considered by many to be “the most grand Victorian home in America.”  William Carson, a successful self-made businessman in the lumber industry, built the extravagant home.  The home currently isn’t open to the public, but is used as a private club facility. The “Pink Lady house” also known as “Carson House” was also built by William Carson and is currently used as a vacation rental.

This morning, I woke up at about 5:15 AM at the Clifford Kamph Memorial Campground, about five miles north of the main part of Smith River, CA.  I descended the stairs from the campground to the beach and proceeded to walk southbound toward the Ray’s Market in Smith River.  The walk was picturesque with many rock formations/rock islands and quiet, beaches.

 

 

Near the mouth of the Smith River, there were dozens of sea lions lounging on the sand on the opposite banks of the Smith River.  Near the mouth of the Smith river, I ascended a staircase to the road and continued walking a half mile until reaching Highway 101.  Upon reaching Highway 101, I walked an additional 3.5 miles on the shoulder of the highway, slowly passing highway-front RV parks, homes, commercial businesses and farms.  Walking on the shoulder of a highway is mentally challenging for a few reasons:

• When you’re walking 4 miles per hour and are surrounded by the same landscape for 15-20 minutes at a time, it doesn’t feel like you’re making much progress.  Unlike cities, highway-fronting properties often have frontages spanning many hundreds or even thousands of feet, rather than the 50-60 feet frontage parcels that are common in cities.  Therefore, the slow change of the landscapes can lead to the feeling that minimal progress is being made, thereby discouraging walkers. Also, when you’re hiking, you can often only see a distance of 50-100 feet in front of you until the trail turns or visibility is blocked by trees, cliffs, etc.  However, when walking on an open highway, visibility is often wide open for several miles, which can lead to a very discouraging feeling that little progress is being made
• Part of what makes hiking go by quickly is being amused/entertained by the beautiful landscapes and nature.  Often, there isn’t much beautiful scenery or nature on highways which can lead to walking on highways being more mentally challenging and boring
• Everyone knows the discouraging feeling of being passed on the sidewalk by a cyclist moving at 12 MPH, when you’re walking and struggling to maintain a speed of 4 miles per hour.  Now imagine struggling to walk 4 miles per hour on a road and having cars speeding past you at 50, 60, 70, or even 80 miles per hour.  It’s natural for a walker to feel discouraged if they’re not mentally prepared and controlling their self-talk

 

After walking about five miles south from the campground, I noticed a drive-thru coffee trailer/hut on the side of the road and decided to stop for a break and to refill water.  I asked the person working at the coffee trailer how far the Ray’s Supermarket was, and he mentioned that the Ray’s Supermarket previously occupied the vacant building behind the coffee trailer.  It was 9 AM, and I had reached the bus stop with about 25 minutes to spare before the Crescent City-bound bus arrived.  I ordered a frozen blended coffee drink and chatted with the worker.  He mentioned that the building had recently been up for auction, but nobody was interested.  In a town of just 400 people, there isn’t any use for a vacant 25,000 square foot failed supermarket location.  It’s sad to see a building that was once the heart of a small town remain vacant for three years, but situations like these are becoming increasingly common in small-town America, with the rise of e-commerce and the necessary consolidation in brick-and-mortar retail stores.

When the bus arrived in Crescent City, I walked to the nearby visitor’s center and asked the volunteer for suggestions of activities and attractions in Crescent city that I could visit without having access to a vehicle.  The lady suggested that I walk along the oceanfront walking path to the Marine Mammal Center, then to the Battery Point Lighthouse, then to an art gallery in Downtown, and finally to Crescent City Harbor to eat lunch before boarding the bus to Arcata.

Here are some notes regarding Crescent City:

• Due to Crescent City’s geography and geology (location of rivers, fault lines, seafloor topography), Crescent City is especially susceptible to Tsunamis. Crescent city has experienced over 30 tsunamis during the last 80 years.  In 1964, a tsunami caused by an earthquake in Alaska caused extensive damage to the city and claimed 10 lives.  In 2011, a tsunami caused by an earthquake in Japan destroyed the Crescent City harbor and many boats that were docked there.  Residents of Crescent City lives with constant awareness and concern about tsunamis.  Tsunami sirens can often be heard blaring through the town, numerous offshore structures have been built to protect against tsunamis, and there is even a “tsunami walking tour” near the visitor center.
• Crescent City is home to Pelican Bay State Prison.  The population of the prison is approximately 3,000 inmates, including 1,500 inmates serving their terms in solitary confinement.  Here is an article that lists Pelican Bay as one of the top 10 worst prisons in the United States. Considering that the total population of Crescent City is 7,600 people, this means that only 4,600 people are actually living outside of the prison in Crescent City.
• The median household income is under $30,000.  This is less than half of the statewide median household income which is over $60,000.  The unemployment rate is exactly 10%, significantly higher than the 6.3% nationwide unemployment rate. Job growth over the next 10 years is projected at 26% (this would be great for the city).
• One of the beautiful streets in Crescent City is Pebble Beach Rd.  Here are some listing and recent sales on that street:
  • http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/82865822_zpid/41.757347,-124.20487,41.748543,-124.22459_rect/15_zm/1_rs/
  • http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/18564985_zpid/41.757347,-124.20487,41.748543,-124.22459_rect/15_zm/1_rs/
  • http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/18564941_zpid/41.764854,-124.21399,41.756051,-124.23371_rect/15_zm/1_rs/

 

As I walked along Howie Drive, the first stop was Marine Mammal Center, a non-profit organization which offers medical attention/rehabilitation, with the intention of releasing the sea otters back into their natural habitats. Visitors can peer through the chain-link fence and watch trainers/caretakers interact with the sea otters.

From there, I continued on to the pier and lighthouse.  The Battery Point lighthouse was built in 1856 and is located on a rock hill/island on the Crescent City beach.  The Battery Point Lighthouse in only accessible at low tide, when visitors can walk from the beach passed the tidepools, before eventually ascending the uphill sloping path on the rock hill/island to the lighthouse. While walking on the beach toward the lighthouse, there are many tide pools providing an opportunity to view wildlife including sea stars, crabs, and more.  Nowadays, there is a lady living inside the caretaker’s quarters of the lighthouse, which was one of the first lighthouses I’ve come across that still has an on-site caretaker.

 

 

Walking on Front Street toward the direction of the visitor center, I stopped by the art gallery on H Street.  As I was arriving, a elderly woman and middle-aged man were walking out of the business and explained that the gallery would be closed for the next hour and half.  I asked the middle-aged man whether he knew of someplace I could buy a replacement iPhone USB charger or of a nearby Wal-Mart.  The middle-aged man was dressed very neatly and professionally, which was definitely not the norm in Crescent City.  He mentioned that he was headed toward Wal-Mart and offered to drive me there. During the drive he explained that he lives in Los Angeles, graduated with a masters degree from USC, and has been living in Crescent City for the past couple of years to take care of his parents.  His father recently passed away from a genetic disease and he mentioned that he had also been experiencing some of the effects of the genetic disease.  Throughout the drive, I noticed his occasional involuntary twitches/movements which means it’s likely a degenerative disease.  I felt terrible for him and didn’t know what to say, so I just kept quiet.  I really admire him sacrificing so much to take care of his parents in Crescent City. Sometimes things happen in your life that you have no control over and couldn’t have done anything to protect yourself against.  The only choice you have is the perspective you choose to have on the situation and any actions you can take in response.  From what I was able to see, he was handling his situation with a great attitude, dignity, and prioritizing family above all else.  He seemed to have great clarity on his situation, values, and how he was comfortable spending time.  He selflessly showed me around town for 45 minutes, even going so far as to walk into the Wal-Mart and wait for me to buy the charger, and dropping me off near where I first met him.  I forgot his name, but I hope to internalize the lessons learned from the encounter. Also, this experience made me even more grateful more my health which I often take for granted.

From the visitors center, I walked toward the newly refurbished/renovated harbor.  It seems like the City has made a great effort to refurbish/renovate the harbor following the 2011 tsunami, through the installation of stainless steel bars and new, heavy-duty boat docks.  Continuing passed the harbor, I walked to the “Chart Room” restaurant which had been highly recommended by several people.  The grilled salmon was delicious and I really enjoyed the meal at oceanfront atmosphere.  After the meal, I walked back to the visitors center in time for the 3PM bus to Arcata.

 

 

At the bus stop in Crescent City, I once again met Victoria Browne, the bicyclist riding from Vancouver to Los Angeles, who I originally met on the bus from Gold Beach to Brookings.  She mentioned that she’s also documenting her journey on a blog (vbrowne.blog.tumblr.com), which I am looking forward to checking out in the next couple of days.  Another cyclist, Keelan, was on a cycling trip from Portland to Oakland and was also on the bus. Victoria, Keelan, and I had an interesting conversation, discussing many random topics including:

• The mental and physical difficulties Victoria and Keelan encountered while bicycling on the side of highway (something I can’t fully relate to as Victoria and Keelan can)
• Victoria mentioned that people in England were generally much more stingy which she doesn’t really like.  She doesn’t feel like she can really connect well with people in England and has been wanting to move out of England for as long as she can remember.  This “Lack of common interests/connection with other people” to be very common among adventurers, travelers, and endurance athletes.  As a group, we’re very independent, ambitious, motivated, stubborn and free-thinking, which makes it difficult to connect with people who aren’t on the same wavelength
• She studied art in University and is currently taking a gap year.  During the past six months, she’s spent time in Africa and Asia volunteering for animal-related causes.  I was surprised to hear that most Europeans don’t take gap years between high school and college. I always assumed that most Europeans backpack and travel Europe and other countries during a gap year after high school, but she mentioned that some people take 2 weeks off to travel Europe by rail.
• Keelan also introduced Victoria and I to train hopping, which is basically when people latch onto freight trains and travel long distances (something I would never ever consider doing but it’s still interesting to know that people actually do this.)  Here is a link of train hopping:

Once the bus arrived in Arcata, I walked a couple of blocks to Arcata Plaza, a  historical square plaza surrounded by street-retail, restaurants, boutiques, offices, and a hotel. After taking a couple of hours to do laundry, I checked into Hotel Arcata, a historical hotel facing Arcata Plaza.

 

This morning I woke up at about 7AM, walked over to eat breakfast in the breakfast room at Inn of the Beachcomber, and stayed a few extra hours to continue using the wifi connection in the breakfast room. At 11AM, I walked a few blocks to Gold Beach Books, a large bookstore and cafe to use my laptop for an hour and a half until the bus was scheduled to depart from the nearby Ray’s Supermarket southbound to Brookings, OR.

As I approached the bus stop, there was a 75-80 year old man who was waiting at the bus stop.  We stared at each other for a second, I said hi, and the first words out of his mouth were, “how much does that backpack weigh?” Paul is a retired construction cost forecaster, who for many years employed his knowledge of economics/construction to forecast a project’s total construction cost based on labor costs, material costs, economic conditions, labor productivity, etc. He seemed to believe that his job/services was extremely important/valuable (and rightfully so), and seemed frustrated that his profession wasn’t seen as valuable and useful by many real estate investors and contractors. But then again we live in a short-sighted country/society where people would much rather avoid upfront preparation/costs, even if it means a greater likelihood of losing much more money due to a project running behind schedule or over budget.

Paul was originally born in England and has been relocating and traveling between and within countries for the past 50 years.  At the bus stop on that Monday afternoon, Paul had all his possessions with him, a rolling suitcase and two carry on bags.  As the bus arrived, Paul boarded the bus and the driver enthusiastically greeted him and updated Paul about his daughter’s travels.  It was evident that the driver had met Paul sometime in the past, and was meeting him again after a while.

During the drive, Paul suggested that I should have walked on the beach from Brookings to Smith river.  My initial reaction is that it would’ve been too inconvenient to repeatedly switch between the highway and beach, whenever the beach would become impassable  due to the high tides. However, now that I think about it, I could’ve followed the Oregon Coast Trail, which would have provided me with a reliable walking path down the coast. reduced the preparation time for a coastal walk significantly. All in all, it would probably be a good idea to rest for the next couple of days and hike the Oregon Coast Trail as part of a future adventure.

Other passengers on the bus included two young ladies from London, one of whom is Victoria Browne.  For the past couple of months, Victoria has been embarking on a Pacific Coast bicycling trip from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles, CA. She has been averaging about 40 miles per day, staying in motels every night after her rides.  Today, for the first time on the trip she loaded her bike on a bus and was taking a break from riding for a because the scenery had been the same for hundreds of miles and she became bored with the same old views and scenery.

As the bus arrived in Brooking, I said goodbye to Paul and Victoria and walked across the street to the visitor center to use the restroom and ask for some activity suggestions. The lady at the visitors center was trying to be helpful and marked up a city map to guide me to a beautiful beach in Brookings.  The roundabout walk ended up taking 30 minutes and resulted in me to walking through private yards, an unmaintained road lined with car salvage yards, and past a community of high-end oceanfront homes.  Eventually, I ended up at Mill Beach, a state park with numerous rock islands/outcrops along the shore.  The beach was very beautiful, exhibiting the glistening, dark blue/green colored ocean.

 

 

After exploring Brookings for a few hours, I boarded the 4:55pm bus to Smith River, a small town a few miles south of the California/Oregon border.  At a bus stop near Brookings, the driver allowed a former inmate and his girlfriend to board the shuttle for free when the former inmate explained that he hadn’t been able to use a prison ID to cash his paycheck, and still hadn’t received his driver’s license. The driver requested that they pay him for the fare next week but I don’t think the driver was optimistic about receiving the money.  I admire the bus driver’s generosity and kindness in trusting the couple and offering them the benefit of the doubt.  It was a kind thing to do, and obviously made the couple feel significant and cared about.  During the trip, the two passengers were very friendly and helpful, offering me tips on places to camp cheaply and free near Smith River.

A few miles before Smith River, the bus stopped at Lucky 7 Casino.  Lucky 7 Casino is a Native-American owned casino, which I soon I had visited during my last road trip down the Pacific Coast.  The blackjack dealer and I both recognized each other from our previous blackjack experience about a month ago.  For the next 4-5 hours, I played a couple hours of blackjack mixed in with a few hours of Bingo.

My first (and likely last) experience playing Bingo

I walked from the blackjack table to the far end of the casino where the multiple-purpose convention room/bingo room was located.  The folding tables throughout the room, were occupied by white, female senior citizens who showed up to Bingo night with their bingo daubers and a positive attitude.  It was quite adorable.  Typical bingo equipment includes a set of many Bingo Daubers, often in multiple colors.  Bingo Daubers are colored spongy ink markers which imprint paper with a circle blotch of ink about an inch in diameter.  Many of the bingo enthusiasts carried specially made bags with specialized compartments for each of their daubers.

I walked to the front of the room and bought a booklet of about 8 bingo pages for $22. Each of the bingo pages is for one game, and each of the bingo pages has about 9 different boards for each game.   An employee of the casino randomly pulls ping pong balls out of a container and reads the numbers aloud. The players/gamblers then review their game cards and use the dauber to fill in any occurrences of the winning numbers on their game card.  Each game has its own predetermined winning pattern.  When a player fills in a pattern on a bingo card exactly like the winning pattern, they yell out “bingo,” win $250 cash, and the game is over.

There a few lessons/thoughts to appreciate from Bingo:

• First off, Bingo is purely a game of luck.  There is no thinking/strategy involved in this game at all.  The players have no control, no role in making decisions, and are simply acting as robots filling in numbers.  The role of the players in the game, is similar to a game of blackjack in which both the dealer and the player are required to play by a pre-specified set of rules.  Except, there’s no social aspect to this game at all.  Each player is simply hard at work coloring in numbers.  Witnessing how excited/entranced people become while playing bingo shows a lot about people’s psychology.  By simply using  a dauber to color in boxes, people can entertain themselves and feel productive/busy even if they’re actually doing nothing.  People are simply buying lottery tickets and spending hours of time manually scratching their cards.  Yet this manual scanning and scratching, probably makes players/gamblers feel like they’re actually doing something, and are entertained for hours.  If people can be entertained and kept busy by scratching lottery tickets for hours at a time, how much more so can they feel “busy” and “productive” while doing unnecessary “busy” work for their employers.
• Old people are adorable.  The 70-90 year old ladies were enthusiastically scanning and marking their papers.  It was cute to see them busy and enjoying the game.  There were also a couple of mother/son pairs which seemed to be spending quality time together
• Superstition/fallacies are in full force.  I’m sure some people (whether consciously or subconsciously) are convinced that God/luck/karma/skill play a role in this game. Others undoubtedly have their lucky and unlucky daubers. Poor “God” probably has to listen to many prayers from Bingo players

Throughout the night, both the older lady on my right side and the middle-aged Native-American man on my left side won a $250 prize puzzle.  The Native-American was especially helpful throughout the night, offering me tips to efficiently fill in the boxes.

After eating at the salad bar of the restaurant, at about 12AM I walked to Clifford Kamph Memorial Campground, about a mile down highway 101 from Lucky 7 Casino.  The oceanfront campground was beautiful, especially with the full moon lighting up the meadow.

This morning, I woke up at around 6:15 AM, showered, packed up, and checked out of the motel room at 7:30 AM in order to catch the 7:45 AM bus to Grants Pass.  While walking out of the motel, I picked up a bowl of cereal and milk, which was offered as part of the continental breakfast in the hotel’s check-in office.  I then walked a couple of blocks to the main bus station in Medford and boarded the 7:45 AM bus to Grants Pass.  Once I arrived in Grants Pass, I had about 4 hours to spare before the 12:30 PM bus departed to Merlin, the nearest town to the start of the Rogue River Trail.

During the few hours in Grants Pass, I slowly began to realize the patience I would need as a public-transportation-reliant backpacker, especially one traveling through lightly populated, rural areas.  I spent the next four hours walking up 6th Street, the main one-way boulevard through the town.   Unlike Medford, Grants Pass had character, walkability, and small-town charm. One of the charming things about the town is the dozens of bear sculptures situated on the sidewalks throughout the Downtown area. Each of these bear sculptures are unique, extremely detailed, and often placed in front of businesses with themes that match the businesses. For example, in front of a wine store there was a bear stomping on raw grapes inside a wooden container, in front of the courthouse there is a bear sculpture named “integrity,” etc.

 

While walking on 6^th Street, there was an arch over the street with letters spelling out the phrase “Grants Pass: It’s the Climate.” This sign seems to answer the question going through the minds of all the visitors passing through this city: “Why do people choose to live in Grants Pass?”  The primary reason for many of the retirees living in Grants Pass is the mild temperatures, which rarely drop below freezing or over 100 degrees.  Besides that Grants Pass is a beautiful city, with great walkability, charming character, and easily accessible world-class recreational activities.

I also walked along “G” street, a street perpendicular to 6^th Street, which is lined on one side with historical buildings from the early 1900s. Most of these storefronts are currently used as hip restaurants, bars and boutiques. Interestingly, on “G” street directly across the street from these historical storefronts is an outdated, unattractive, single-story, 1950s-era strip center. The strip center is probably 50,000 SF, and is an attractive property because it encompasses a full city block, stretching the entire length of “G” Street between 6^th and 4^th Street. This location is the bull’s-eye of the city and seems like it would make an excellent long-term investment downtowns around the country are continuing to be revitalized, and transforming into increasingly pedestrian-friendly areas and likely even future locations for high-density residential development.

Before walking to the bus stop, I ordered lunch at Bluestone Cafe in Grants Pass.  The food was delicious, especially the homemade buns and quinoa black-bean patties.

At 12:30 PM, the bus departed from Grants Pass to Merlin. Merlin is about a 15-minute bus ride northwest of Grants Pass. In retrospect, I probably could have just taken a $15-$20 cab ride to Merlin but I wasn’t in much of a rush to start backpacking before Friday afternoon anyway. Once I exited the bus in Merlin, I needed to find a way to continue 15 miles on the road until Grave Creek Boat Ramp. For a few minutes, I continued walking on the road while simultaneously attempting to hitchhike from the occasional passing cars. About a quarter mile up the road from the bus stop, there was a business offering daylong rafting trips, equipment rentals, shuttle services, and other adventure services. I inquired and luckily was able to get an immediate ride to the boat ramp for $40. These companies usually charge a flat fee for each trip to a trailhead, regardless of whether there’s just one passenger or five passengers.  However, the company probably needed to go to the trailhead anyway, so I was lucky to be able to obtain a reasonably-priced ride.  Also, the lady offered a free hiking map, which was very useful while backpacking the trail. Sometime in the past couple of hours, my 15-page detailed map and print out had fallen out of my backpack so I ended up relying on this map for the entire trip. Also, because of this shuttle, I arrived at the boat ramp at about 2PM, thus being able to begin the backpacking trip a couple hours sooner than originally planned.

During the first few miles of the Rogue River Trail, I was still becoming accustomed to the constant sound of moving water, which I would be my background noise for the next 48 hours. The sounds of the rapids, creeks, and river were a constant reminder of the millions of years of erosion, tectonic activity, sediment transportation, and other geologic activity that has been occurring here for millions of years. Moreover, I’m witnessing plants and animals that have been evolving over millions of years in response to their surroundings and environment. It’s difficult to wrap my head around all the factors that have played a part in just one landscape, but trying to wrap my head around it and understand is one of the best ways to truly appreciate how awesome nature, biology, and geology really are.

During the first day, it was exciting and fascinating to realize that there are significantly-sized, flowing creeks about every mile, and there are lightly flowing/dry creeks seemingly around every corner.   These creeks and streams run straight into Rogue River, greatly contributing to its flow rate and likely playing a major role in increasing its water flow during times of rain and snowmelt. After seeing all these streams feeding the Rogue River, it’s not surprising that the water levels have risen by as much as 30-50 feet during numerous floods in the past century. These creeks made hiking much easier by limiting the amount of water I needed to carry. At each creek, I simply scooped water from the stream into the “Life Straw” water bottle, and it was simultaneously filtered/treated as I drank the water and it passed through the straw.

At mile 7.6, while passing through Bronco’s Creek, I lost my footing and my right boot was completely soaked in water. I still completed the last couple of miles in the wet boots, but hiked the remaining 1.5 days in running shoes. This ended up working out to my advantage, because the hiking boots were already causing blisters to form (even before they were wet), and the running shoes didn’t cause any new blisters or worsen any existing blisters.

At mile 9.1, there was an ideally situated campsite along Bunker Creek. I set up camp at around 7PM and retreated into the tent to spend the night. During the night, I woke up numerous times likely due to the strong, unrelenting sound of water rushing above, around, under and in between the rocks and boulders, quickly heading toward the relatively calm Rogue River.

 

 

 

Videos from Today:

 

This morning, I woke up at about 5:30 AM and left Bunker Creek at around 6:30 AM. The loud, constant sound of Bunker Creek awakened me multiple times during the night. I remember promising myself that I would do everything possible to sleep as far away from the sounds of rapids/running water for the remaining nights of the trip.

The first few miles of the trail were pleasant due to the cool weather and absence of the sun.  Between Bunker Creek and Horseshoe Bend, there were two side-trails which descended from the main trail to Black Bar and Horseshoe Bend.  These side-trails were steep and about .25 mile each way, adding a total of one additional mile of difficult hiking to the relatively flat and easy Rogue River Trail.

At Horseshoe Bend, I met an older couple and their dog who were on a rafting trip with their friends visiting from Vietnam.  They were very sweet and offered me breakfast/coffee, but I decided to just continue on because of the long day ahead to Blossom Bar.

Like yesterday, today’s hiking included many creeks and water sources along the trail.  Also, like yesterday, the weather was very pleasant with temperatures ranging from about 50 degrees in the morning to 80 degrees in the exposed mid-day sun.  During yesterday and today, there were also alternating periods of rain, sun, clouds, and everything in between.

 

 

 

 

While hiking between Kelsey Creek and Ditch Creek on the Rogue River Trail, I noticed a beautiful black/white colored bird which was perched on a branch and spreading its wings. It maintained this pose during the entire time I was walking past it.

 

Winkle Bar was one of the few areas with an interesting history along the Rogue River. Archaeologists and historians estimate that the entire Rogue River area (including Winkle Bar) has inhabited by Native Americans since about 8,500 years ago. More recently, during the early 1900s Winkle Bar was part of a mining claim just like so many areas along the river.  Here is an article explaining Zane Grey’s passionate interest in the Rogue River, his acquisition of the land, his building of a cabin for a personal wilderness retreat at Winkle Bar, until the eventual acquisition of Winkle Bar by the BLM in 2008.

 

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A few miles downstream from Zane Gray’s wilderness retreat, the history of Rogue River Ranch is a beautiful story of an independent, hard-working family who succeeded in building a family, community, and livelihood on the Rogue River.  Here is the Wikipedia which provides information about the history of the property from the late 1800s to its current designation and use as a National List of Historic Places.

The Rogue River Ranch reminded me a lot of Will Roger’s Ranch off of Sunset Blvd in the Pacific Palisades.  Both ranches include many acres of manicured green lawns surrounded by white ranch fences, with just a couple of modest, historical structures located on the ranches.  It seems to have been the beautiful surroundings and independent, self-sustaining lifestyle that attracted the Billets Family and Will Rogers to live on their ranches.

The caretaker of the ranch was a middle-aged man (likely living with his wife) who came out of the caretaker’s house as I descended the hill into the ranch.  The first question he asked was whether I was part of a group of a kayakers, rafters, and hikers.  I knew that he was trying to figure out if I was the middle-aged hiker (“with a grey shirt and blue backpack”) who was separated from his group of kayakers and rafters.  Earlier that day, a kayaker in the Rogue River had pulled up along the edge of the Rogue River and asked me if I had seen a middle-aged hiker wearing a grey shirt and blue backpack.  A few days later at Foster Bar, I would eventually meet the group of 6-7 people including “lost-hiker,” kayaker, and rafters.  The lost-hiker and rafter would end up giving me a ride from Foster Bar to McKay’s supermarket in Gold Beach, Oregon.

The caretaker of the ranch mentioned that I was the only visitor currently at the ranch.  He also pointed out that there was a picnic table across the lawn, water spigots with filtered water channeled directly from the nearby Mule Creek, and that the Tabernacle building and Blacksmith Shop were unlocked and available for self-guided public tours.

The museum, which I assume to be at least 75 years old was currently in process of being restored and renovated.  As one of the pictures taken from a side angle shows, one side of the outside of the building has been restored (bright red paint, refurbished windows, and refurbished woodwork) and the other side of the building hasn’t been restored yet (faded red point, clouded windows, and rotting/peeling window frames).  It was interesting to see the contrast between the two sides of the museum building.

 

 

At about 6PM, I arrived at Blossom Bar, the most popular rapids along the Rogue River.  Blossom Bar was previously considered impassable, but dynamite has since been used to clear some of the rocks to make passage much easier.  I walked a few hundred feet down to the Rogue River and enjoyed the sight and sounds of the whitewater portion of Blossom Rapids which stretched hundreds of feet on the Rogue River.

Afterwards, I set up camp but the sun was still shining and I wasn’t yet ready to retire into the tent for the night.  Luckily, a couple of hikers were passing by along the trail and I asked I could borrow a lighter for a few minutes. They offered me to keep the lighter, mentioning that they had an extra one.  I then reciprocated by offering each of the hikers a Cliff Bar as a means of expressing gratitude. The Native Americans would have been proud of the bartering and reciprocity.

While building the fire, I couldn’t help but start making some connections between building a fire and building a real estate portfolio.

• Warmth= income
• Logs = Properties that are leased out on long term land lease; will eventually revert to landowner/atmosphere
• Real estate supply: trees ( never ending supply…. Be patient)
• Real estate portfolio = Sum of all the logs (campfire)
• Asset management = moving the logs, adding logs, removing logs, firestarters in different areas
• Investor= person making asset management decisions
• Foreclosure = Log prematurely burning out (not fully burnt)

There needs to be a balance between cash flow (warmth) and property maintaining value over the long term (log efficiency).  If you try to light a big fire too fast (impatience), you’ll end up with charred, healthy logs,  that haven’t been fully burnt (wasted potential).
Good properties/portfolio/asset management  not only generate income, but each property/log increases the efficiency  of all the logs/properties in the portfolio (diversification, economies of scale, specialization, secrets of each property type leading to more efficiency).

 

Videos from today: