A sign in front of a prison in the Redwood State Park. In the state of California they train prison inmates to become forest fire fighters.

Women’s Grove Fireplace in the Redwood State Park

On Scott’s 25 mile bike ride north on the Avenue of the Giants this morning he saw the fireplace pavilion in the Women’s Grove in the Redwood State Park.  Back in the 1930s about a hundred ladies each raised a dollar in order to purchase some of this redwood forest to save it from the lumber companies.

Founder’s Tree

We got in a quick hike at the Founder’s Grove Nature Loop for a half mile before we headed up the road to Eureka, CA.  The first picture is of the Founder’s Tree which is 346 feet tall and 12.7 feet in diameter. Each of the trees in the picture had sustained severe fire damage and continued to thrive on.  The tree Brooke and I are standing in still smelled incredibly strongly of smoke.  The tree Cody and Brooke are standing in is missing most of its foundation.

We have seen this sign in a lot of parks across our trip.

Notice on the half mile hike that Cody was eating the entire time and he ate most of his eggs from an hour before too.  In one half mile he ate a Pop Tart, rice cake, and a granola bar.  If this is a sign of things to come we are going to have to get second jobs just to feed him.

We headed to the town of Eureka in search of groceries, Internet, and the Blue  Ox.  The Blue Ox is a millworks, historic park and school of traditional arts.  Scott is a woodworker and was intrigued by the information he found in the Lonely Planet book.  We hung out at the library while Scott walked a few blocks to the Blue Ox.

Scott enjoyed viewing the old machinery and incredible Victorian woodwork.  He found out this is one of the only places in the country that has a machine that turns a log into a wooden gutter.  The Blue Ox also had a machine that cut pickets for picket fences.

We read at least a dozen Berenstain Bear and construction books, but didn’t have any luck with the Internet in the three hours we were at the library.  After Eureka we headed to more Redwoods, but this time at the National Park.  We hiked the Lady Bird Trail.  It was dedicated to former First Lady Johnson by Richard Nixon in 1969.

This picture has been strategically cropped because Scott was holding Cody upside down mid-wrestle when I took the picture. You can still see Cody’s head near Scott’s knee. However, when Scott flipped Cody upside down he revealed Cody’s bottom side. Scott saw no problem with leaving the image in. I’m pretty sure Cody will be thanking me in the future for being the one who edits the blog.

This incredibly tall tree above and on the left is missing most of its trunk.  Despite the intense fire damage the tree is still thriving.  In the third picture just above Cody is pulling up his pants leg.  There were live and not so alive caterpillars littering the trail.  Cody didn’t want to step on any caterpillars accidentally, so this was his method to not hurting any.  This picture also reminds me of Cody’s sticky hand.  Even though I am constantly going after the kids with wipes they still manage to be dirty.  When Cody first shoved his hand into mine I was thinking, “Yuck!  Sticky hand again!”  I almost shook it free in search of wipes  However, I thought about how Brooke hardly ever wants to hold hands anymore and she is not much older.  The amount of time I have left for Cody wanting to hold my hand is quickly disappearing. So, I held his hand and enjoyed the adorable but sticky devotion. I did however scrub away when we returned to the van.

Ferns everywhere!

Brooke pointing to a caterpillar. The entire walk we heard, “Live one. Dead one. Live one. Dead one.”

Brooke standing next to a redwood burl filled with baby sprouts.

The picture looks dark because it was taken inside a redwood. You can see Scott clear on the other side of the thriving redwood through a hole due to the damage left from a forest fire. Cody couldn’t stop to look at the camera because he was still on a caterpillar hunt.

Cody STILL surveying the caterpillars. He was very upset about “God’s creatures” being squished.

The above picture on the left is Scott pretending to sit on Brooke.  Cody is attempting to save Brooke.  The second picture is Brooke relieved to be free.  She feels she doesn’t get enough attention compared to all the wrestling Cody gets, so Scott was making sure she didn’t feel left out.

This was the second night in a row where campgrounds had posted that they were full but Scott asked the attendant if they had a spot and we got a spot.  We stayed at Elk Prairie Campground.  Last night they had two open spots even though they were posted as full.  Tonight we were able to get a handicapped spot.  After five pm if the handicapped spots are not full they can sell them to the general public.  It was after seven, and there was still another one open.

Brooke took over Cody’s bike because hers had a flat tire.

We all fell asleep rather quickly.  I woke up about 1 am to see the full moon streaming through the tall redwoods.